WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Charm City Kings, now available on HBO Max.
HBO Max's newest original movie, Charm City Kings, is a coming-of-age story set in modern-day Baltimore focusing on the dirt bike culture and how it drastically impacts urban youth. It deals with young Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston) as he joins the drug-dealing gang, the Midnight Clique, to try to gain street cred and make fast cash. However, after he gets booted from his mom's home, life takes an even darker turn.
His mentor, Blax (Meek Mill), reveals he's been letting Mouse work at his garage out of guilt as he was the one who involved Mouse's older brother, Stro, in the drug trade, which led to Stro's death in a police raid. Angry at the world, Mouse decides to embark on a robbery with his childhood friends that leads to a heartbreaking ending.
The Job Backfires
Mouse, Lamont and Sweartagawd take their bikes and a gun that Jamal, the Clique's leader, gave them and attempt to rob a convenience store nearby, although Mouse initially specified no shooting. Unfortunately, Lamont accidentally fires the gun towards the roof, causing the cashier's wife to fire back.
Sweartagawd is killed, while Mouse and Lamont flee, splitting up with Lamont heading to Jamal and Mouse to Blax's garage where he fixed bikes with the former con. Rivers (the cop that's been trying to get Mouse to stay straight for years) and the police force come down to the garage as Blax tells Mouse to change his bloody shirt and wash the blood off after hearing what happened. He makes Mouse promise to do something with his life and make the second chance count, leaving the kid dazed, confused and scared.
Blax Goes Back In
When Rivers and the force enter the building, Blax confesses he's the one who pulled the job. Blax is taken in even though Rivers knows he's clean as Blax was trying to stay in line for his parole officer for years now. It leaves Mouse stunned as he watched Blax pay for his mistakes, but as Blax said, he couldn't see another young Black man go to jail.
He still feels bad about Stro, and had he not brought Mouse to work at the garage to learn about making an honest life, the kids wouldn't have gotten caught up with Jamal. Rivers comforts Mouse and takes him home where he breaks down in his mom's arms and seemingly tells her what happened with his boys. It's a painstaking, tragic scene as they reunite, mostly because it's about the man who took Stro from them.
It's All About The Future
A year later, Mouse is in vet school, finally on the right path. He's making plans with Nicki for the summer and they seem to be on the right track again, only for him to bump into Lamont, now a full-time member of the Clique. Lamont's clearly a full-fledged member of the Clique now, but they hug it out, admitting it's not the same without Sweartagawd.
As Lamont leaves, Mouse sees what he would have become had he stayed down that path, but that doesn't stop them from wishing each other a safe life. Mouse goes home, dropping off groceries for his mom as she makes dinner for him and his sister, indicating he is becoming the responsible young man Blax wanted him to be. He's also taking care of Blax's dog, proving that he's grateful for what the biker did for him. It's bittersweet that Blax had to suffer for Mouse's poor judgment, but the kid isn't going to waste it because he knows it's what Stro would have wanted.
Charm City Kings, starring Jahi Di'Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Teyonah Parris, Will Catlett, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, Kezii Curtis, Charles D. Clark and Marvin Raheem, is now showing on HBO Max.