One Eight Seven
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| One Eight Seven | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster for 187 |
|
| Directed by | Kevin Reynolds |
| Produced by | Bruce Davey Stephen McEveety |
| Written by | Scott Yagemann |
| Starring | Samuel L. Jackson John Heard Kelly Rowan |
| Cinematography | Ericson Core |
| Editing by | Stephen Semel |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | August 3, 1997 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $23,000,000 |
| IMDb profile | |
One Eight Seven (also known as 187) is a 1997 drama/thriller starring Samuel L. Jackson, who plays a Los Angeles teacher, and John Heard. The film was directed by Kevin Reynolds and is named for California Penal Code section 187 (murder).
[edit] Plot
Trevor Garfield (Jackson) is a teacher in a New York City high school. A gangbanger whom he gave a failing grade to threatens to murder him, writing the number 187 on every page of one of Garfield's textbooks. The administration ignores the threat, and the thug ambushes Garfield in the hallway, stabbing him in the back multiple times with a shiv.
Sometime later, Garfield, now a substitute teacher, relocates to Los Angeles, but the trouble starts again when he becomes a substitute to a rowdy, unruly class of rejects, including a tag crew by the name of Kappin' Off Suckers (K.O.S.). Their leader, Benito "Benny" Chacón (Lobo Sebastian), tells Garfield that there will be no mutual respect between them.
The tension mounts when a fellow teacher, Ellen Henry (Kelly Rowan), confides that Benny has threatened her life, an action against which the administration of the school refuses to take action, fearing legal threats.
After Benny murders a rival tagger in cold blood and disappears (he is later found dead), Benny's severely unstable tag partner, Cesar (Clifton Collins Jr.), takes over as class antagonist. Garfield, slowly losing his sanity, is forced to take justice into his own hands, playing by the rules of the street in an intense pyrrhic contest with Cesar and K.O.S.
