Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” has garnered major awards buzz this year, receiving the most Oscar nominations of all time. While Coogler’s imaginative screenplay is brilliant in its own right, it is only enhanced by the film’s great performances, led by recent Actor winner and Oscar nominee Michael B. Jordan in not one but two roles: identical twin protagonists Smoke and Stack. Aside from being a technical feat, it’s also a testament to Jordan’s talent and versatility. Here are five scenes where Jordan helped take Coogler’s script to the next level. Spoilers ahead!
Smoke and Stack are first introduced
(Movie timestamp: 05:22 / Screenplay pages: 7–9)
Though the screenplay tells us a lot about what the twins are doing when they first appear onscreen, it has very little to say about the difference between the two brothers (beyond the fact that Smoke is older).
“We reveal two men, identical twins (Black, Mid 30s) waiting beside a PARKED CAR. SMOKE the older of the two watches the road ahead, while STACK rolls a cigarette, lights it, and takes a pull before passing it to his brother.”
Despite this, Jordan is able to establish their different demeanors immediately, with the laid-back Stack lounging against the car door while the more stoic Smoke stands nervously at attention. As the scene continues, the differences become even more apparent: Stack has a slightly higher speaking register and a more playful air, while Smoke is business-like and soft-spoken. While a film where two characters look identical runs the risk of becoming confusing, Jordan (aided in part by Ruth E. Carter’s smart costume design, which gives each brother a designated color palette) subtly but effectively embodies each twin as a wholly unique person.
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Sammie and Stack take a drive
(Movie timestamp: 19:47 / Screenplay pages: 19–20)
If you watch “Sinners” with the screenplay in your hand, you’ll notice that the cast tends to stick pretty closely to Coogler’s dialogue. So it’s the small choices that really make you realize what an actor can contribute. In this moment, Stack tells Sammie (Miles Caton) that his guitar once belonged to legendary blues musician Charlie Patton. Jordan gives the line just a hint of hesitation that isn’t indicated in the screenplay—not enough to totally telegraph that it’s a lie (later, it’s revealed the guitar actually belonged to the twins’ father) but visible enough to catch on a re-watch.
Meeting Annie
(Movie timestamp: 34:30 / Screenplay pages: 37–41).
When we’re first introduced to Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a Hoodoo practitioner and Smoke’s estranged wife, the screenplay says:
“Annie steps closer to Smoke, there is tension between them, old habits, familiar sadness, lust? Love?”
That’s a tall order, but the chemistry between Mosaku and Jordan is palpable, though there’s nothing particularly charged or steamy about their dialogue until much later in the scene. They stand at lengths from each other, regard each other carefully, and give the pedestrian conversation the kind of weight that can only come from a shared history of love and loss.
RELATED: Wunmi Mosaku on ‘Sinners’: ‘You Know What I Find Really Hard? Dying’
Later in the scene, Smoke and Annie disagree about the legitimacy of her Hoodoo practices, with Smoke insisting that he doesn’t believe in any of it and Annie refuting that it’s the only reason he’s still alive. Smoke then asks why it wasn’t enough to keep their child alive. The script indicates how hurtful this is: “It’s a low blow, but Smoke’s confusion is genuine.” But what could have been played as an angry lashing out by a lesser actor is almost whispered by Jordan. The soft, vulnerable nature of the delivery doesn’t do anything to lessen the impact, but it works in stark contrast to Annie’s tough love in the lines leading up to it. This choice only emphasizes the depths of the loss the two have shared.
Vampire Stack
(Movie timestamp: 1:28:06 / Screenplay pages: 94–97)
If you thought playing two roles was a lot to ask of one actor, things get even crazier when a third role is added to the mix: Vampire Stack. After being bit by Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), Stack bleeds out and dies… or so everyone thinks, until they hear him knocking on the closet door. Jordan strikes a masterful balance when approaching the re-animated character: He’s still Stack, but something’s just off. Though little of his dialogue is anything regular old Stack wouldn’t say, he speaks in a deliberate, almost-too-casual manner that is enough to render the scene incredibly creepy.
The tension is only enhanced by the way that Jordan plays Smoke in this scene. He performs the subtext perfectly: Smoke knows there’s no way his brother survived his massive neck wound, but the temptation of being reunited with his beloved twin is difficult to resist.
Final battle against Remmick
(Movie timestamp 1:53:50 / Screenplay pages: 116–117)
At the film’s climax, Sammie and Smoke strike head vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell) with a guitar and a stake, respectively, incapacitating him and the rest of the creatures long enough to be incinerated by the sun. Coogler does a wonderful, evocative job describing the imagery.
The sun breaks further and crests the horizon and the other vampires begin to howl in agony and crawl their way towards the juke. Their bodies sizzling. They fall to the ground and burst into flames.
Remmick’s body begins to sizzle and smoke. As he burns he transforms into an older more decayed version of himself. He then turns to the sun, smiles and EXPLODES into a PILLAR OF FIRE.
The pillar swirls into a vortex, and then dissipates...silence.
While the screenplay has lots to say about what happens to Remmick, it doesn’t indicate at all what to expect from Sammie and Smoke—which is astonishing, because the two-shot of them embracing in the water has become one of the more recognizable images from the movie. The pair look thoroughly petrified, which is especially impressive when you consider that they certainly weren’t looking at an exploding vampire and, SFX being what it is these days, may not have even been looking at anything at all. Jordan (and Caton) are great here, and you can watch Smoke grappling with the horror of what’s in front of him while also processing the relief in being able to save Sammie in a way that he could not save Stack.
