Super Fly (1972) Synopsis

Junkie Chase. New York City, early 1970s. Two junkies are desperate for cash. They pound the pavements then duck into the doorway of a dilapidated building and wait for the first unlucky dude to come through. Priest (Ron O'Neal) is a thin, light skinned Black man with shoulder length relaxed hair and a handle-bar mustache. After making love and snorting some coke, he tells one of his girlfriends, a White woman (Polly Niles), he's got to leave. He's got to make a 'pickup.' He gets dressed-designer fedora and a classy long coat--gets into his Cadillac Eldorado, and rolls through the streets of New York City. The Caddy is a black, tricked out, two-door convertible, customized with a Rolls Royce-inspired grill and oversized headlamps. Unbeknown to Priest, the junkies are waiting as he arrives for his pickup. They jump him as he walks through the door. In the fight that follows one of the junkies gets away. With Curtis Mayfield's frenetic 'Junkie Chase' on the soundtrack, Priest takes off after him on foot, down the street, through grimy back alleys and vacant lots. He chases the junkie up a fire escape and crashes through an apartment window. Priest puts the boots to him in front of a family who had been sleeping--a woman and two kids.Priest's pad. Fat Freddie (Charles MacGregor) and his drug dealer partner arrive. Freddie is one of Priest's fifty dealers. He doesn't have the money he owes Priest. Priest wants his money. If he doesn't get his money 'tonight' he's going to put Freddie's young wife out on 'whore's row.' Priest gives Freddie a gun. Freddie pleads; he doesn't want to have anything to do with violence. Priest insists he get the money, then meet him that night at 'Scatter's' - a nightclub owned by an old-school drug dealer, and Priest's mentor.Eddie (Carl Lee), Priest's partner, is shooting craps with a bunch of guys. Priest wants to talk to him. Eddie knows it's serious since Priest never comes around when he's hanging with his gambling buddies. Priest and Eddie go to Eddie's apartment. He tells Eddie he's getting out. Out of the cocaine business. Eddie laughs. 'You gonna give all this up. Eight track stereo, color TV in every room, and can snort a half a piece of dope every day.' Priest asks how much money they have. Three hundred thousand, one fifty each, enough to keep your nose open for about a year. Eddie knows it's a rotten game, but it's the only one 'the man' left them to play, 'and that's the stone cold truth.' Priest lays out his plan. They're going to take that 300,000. They're going to buy thirty 'keys' of coke, and in four months they can turn it into a million dollars. Half a million each. Enough for them to live on for the rest of their lives. Eddie doesn't believe they can get thirty keys for that price. Priest says they'll get the coke from his mentor, Scatter. Eddie doesn't believe him. Priest says he has to get out, before he kills somebody, or somebody 'ices' him. 'Are you with me?' Eddie nods. 'Solid.'Little Child Running Wild. Freddie and his partner are in a car waiting for a 'fat cat.' A middle aged White man appears and gets into a Cadillac. They follow him until its dark. The man stops and gets out. Freddie, in a stocking mask, runs up behind him and pulls the gun Priest gave him. You know what this is. Give me your money.Pusher Man. Later that night Priest and Eddie meet at Scatter's nightclub. The Curtis Mayfield Experience is on stage performing the tune 'Pusher Man'. Scatter (Julius Harris), the owner and chef, invites Priest and Eddie to the kitchen. Priest offers Scatter some coke. Scatter takes it: 'Now that's what I need...What you come to see Scatter about?' Priest tells him he's got $300,000 and wants to buy 'thirty keys' which he'll deal in four months. He'll make a million in cash and he's off the street forever. Scatter says he isn't dealing anymore. He's out of the business. He's retired. Priest presses Scatter. He wants to get out while he's still young. He can get into something else. 'Do it for me; you can depend on me for the rest of your life.' No reply. 'Then turn me on to your man.' If he did that, Scatter says, he'd be killed. Priest: If Scatter doesn't help him out, he'll get the coke anyway. It'll take longer, but he's going to get it. One way or another. Scatter thinks for a moment, and smiles. He's got one key left in his personal stash. They can come around tomorrow night and pick it up. As for the thirty keys, maybe he'll do it for them. 'But this is the last time.'At an after-hours club, Priest orders a 'nice cold beer' and manages a faint smile. Things are finally looking up. Freddie shows up with his wife and his dealer partner. 'How did we do tonight, Freddie?' Freddie dumps a wad of cash on the table. Priest returns some of the cash. A gift. Freddie's wife takes it. She leaves to play a song on the jukebox. Freddie's partner says he has a contact with some 'weight.' What's Priest doing the following night? Priest says he's got a pickup. Scatter's.Give Me Your Love. Priest and his Black girlfriend, Georgia (Sheila Frazier), share a bubble bath. Georgia knows the pressure he's under. She just wants to help him share the weight. 'Priest, let me in.' She can't be just another 'someone he's got to deal with.' She loves him. They share a passionate kiss and make love in the tub.Freddie's Dead. Freddie uses a set of brass knuckles to viciously beat a man behind a building. He's arrested and interrogated by four detectives. He's bloodied and crying. 'You mean you beat a man half to death because he touched your wife's hand,' asks the lead detective. They slap Freddie around. They lay his gun and packages of dope on the table. They don't want him--they want his man, the guy he's working for. Freddie finally gives Priest up and tells them about the pickup Priest has arranged with Scatter. The police prepare to take Freddie 'downtown' where he'll be booked. As he's taken out of the police station Freddie breaks away and runs into the street. He's struck and killed by an oncoming car.In a park, Priest tells Georgia of his plan to get them both out of the business. Georgia asks him what he's going to do when he gets out. He doesn't know. But he'll have a choice. He could buy some time, time to be free. She asks him if that'll make him happy. He doesn't know, but he can't be happy the way things are now.That night four plainclothes officers apprehend Priest on the street. They push him and Eddie into a doorway. Priest has the one 'key' from Scatter. The police know that Scatter has been trying to get out of the business; that he hasn't dealt 'direct' for over a year. They also know that Priest just picked up one key from his mentor, and that Scatter just ordered 'thirty more.' Are they working for Scatter? Eddie says they are. The cops want a piece of Priest's action. In return they'll provide protection .The police shake Eddie's hand. 'You'll see that I'm good, stand-up people.' The police leave, and Eddie is elated. They've got it made. 'If we can make a million in four months, imagine what we can make in four years...Just think about it.' Priest says he's thinking about thirty keys.A photo montage of the cocaine dealing process. The initial agreement. Procurement. Cutting. Packaging. Distributing. Selling. Coke lines. Coke spoons. Snorting. Users of different races. Black. White. Construction workers. Business executives. Male. Female. Stacks and stacks of cash.Priest and Eddie are in a restaurant. Waiting for some people. Three 'militants' sit at their table, uninvited. They're trying to build a new nation for Black people. Dope peddlers owe Black people something, and it's time the dope dealers to pay up. Priest says he isn't giving them anything as long as they're just talking. Go get a gun and put your words into action and he'll be right there with them. Otherwise go sing your marching songs somewhere else. The militants leave and Priest's dealers show up. They snort his stuff. They ask how much. 'Let's get it on.'Priest is with his White girlfriend, Cynthia, at her apartment. Her friends want to buy a pound of coke. The telephone rings. Scatter is downstairs. 'Send him up.' When Scatter arrives Priest tells his girl to go into the bedroom, even though it's her apartment. Scatter is now running for his life. His protector, his boss, is now trying to kill him. He needs money. Priest has $20,000, which he'll get from Georgia's place and give him later that night. Before Scatter leaves, he gives Priest a manila envelope with incriminating information about his long-time contact, his 'boss,' the mastermind behind the whole business. Scatter leaves the apartment. Three men in trench coats surround him on the sidewalk. They snap handcuffs on him. The skipper wants to see him. The hustle him into a waiting Rolls Royce. They roll up his sleeve and stick a needle in his arm.Super Fly. Priest hears of Scatter's death. He picks up a gun in his pad and drives to a restaurant where he meets two White men. Through the window we see them shake hands and start talking. He gives them the manila envelope. He also gives them a bulging white envelope with the dimensions of a large wad of cash. They shake hands again, and he leaves.Priest is back at Eddie's pad. He's carrying a black satchel. He wants to get out now. Things are worse than they were before. The guy who put the hit on Scatter will use them and then kill them. 'People been using me all my life,' Eddie says. 'I'm glad he's using me...because I'm gonna make a piss pot full of money...Yeah, this is the life. I could be nothin' nowhere else...' Priest asks, suppose he can figure a way out for both of them. Eddie says he's not going with Priest. Priest pushes the satchel into Eddie's chest. 'Fill it.' 'Why don't you fill it?' ''Cause I want to keep my eyes on you every minute, Eddie.' Eddie goes to a clothes closet, opens a safe, and fills the satchel with cash. Priest takes the satchel and leaves. Eddie picks up the phone. 'He just left the apartment.' The police send a car to pick Priest up. Priest boards the elevator. On the way down, a woman enters. She's wearing a large headscarf, and holds her head down so we can't see her face. She opens a large shopping bag. There's a satchel identical to the one Priest is carrying. They switch satchels, and she balls up pieces of fabric and covers the satchel. Priest gently lifts her chin and kisses her on the lips. Georgia smiles. The elevator door opens and they go in separate directions. Priest approaches his Caddy. Two uniformed police officers stop him. Priest places his hands on the roof of the car. One of the patrolmen calls in the arrest. Yeah, they've got the briefcase too. The lieutenant replies that three detectives are on their way to take custody. As the police are on the radio, Priest watches Georgia walking in the distance, clutching bundles of cloth over the satchel. The detectives arrive. They stuff Priest into the back of an unmarked police car. One detective drives Priest's Caddy.They take Priest to a deserted area, maybe a riverfront shipyard. Priest finally meets the big boss. Scatter's former boss. 'So you're Priest,' the boss man says. 'I thought you were going to be the best dealer I ever had. What do you want to quit for? What else can you do...You're making more money than you ever did in your life.' Priest snorts some coke from a small spoon hanging from his neck. The boss sticks his finger in Priest's chest. 'You're going to work for me until I tell you to quit.' 'You don't own me, pig,' says Priest. And no one tells him when he can split. 'Who do you think you're talking to,' the boss says. Priest insults him to his face. A detective punches Priest in the jaw. A fist fight follows, finishing with Priest throwing one of the detectives headfirst into a garbage can. Priest turns around. The boss is pointing a gun at his head. 'You move a muscle and I'll kill you.' Priest says, 'Kill me, Reardon. Kill me like you killed Scatter, and you're one dead pig.' Deputy Commissioner Reardon is shocked that Priest knows his identity. 'What did you call me?' Priest says, yes, he knows who he is, and who every member of his family is. If Reardon kills him, the whole Reardon family dies. He took out a $100,000 contract out on Reardon's life, his family's life. 'If I choke on chicken bone all the Reardons is dead.' 'You ain't got a hundred thousand dollars. Not anymore,' Reardon says. One of the detectives opens the satchel. Pieces of cloth. 'I think you ought to know something, cap'n. I hired the very best killers there are. White killers. So you better take good care of me, baby. Nothing...NOTHING better happen to one hair on my gorgeous head. Can you dig it?'Priest backs away, turns past the detectives, gets into his Caddy and drives away. The camera pans up, way up, to the top of the Empire State Building in the distance.

Junkie Chase. New York City, early 1970s. Two junkies are desperate for cash. They pound the pavements then duck into the doorway of a dilapidated building and wait for the first unlucky dude to come through. Priest (Ron O'Neal) is a thin, light skinned Black man with shoulder length relaxed hair and a handle-bar mustache. After making love and snorting some coke, he tells one of his girlfriends, a White woman (Polly Niles), he's got to leave. He's got to make a 'pickup.' He gets dressed-designer fedora and a classy long coat--gets into his Cadillac Eldorado, and rolls through the streets of New York City. The Caddy is a black, tricked out, two-door convertible, customized with a Rolls Royce-inspired grill and oversized headlamps. Unbeknown to Priest, the junkies are waiting as he arrives for his pickup. They jump him as he walks through the door. In the fight that follows one of the junkies gets away. With Curtis Mayfield's frenetic 'Junkie Chase' on the soundtrack, Priest takes off after him on foot, down the street, through grimy back alleys and vacant lots. He chases the junkie up a fire escape and crashes through an apartment window. Priest puts the boots to him in front of a family who had been sleeping--a woman and two kids.Priest's pad. Fat Freddie (Charles MacGregor) and his drug dealer partner arrive. Freddie is one of Priest's fifty dealers. He doesn't have the money he owes Priest. Priest wants his money. If he doesn't get his money 'tonight' he's going to put Freddie's young wife out on 'whore's row.' Priest gives Freddie a gun. Freddie pleads; he doesn't want to have anything to do with violence. Priest insists he get the money, then meet him that night at 'Scatter's' - a nightclub owned by an old-school drug dealer, and Priest's mentor.Eddie (Carl Lee), Priest's partner, is shooting craps with a bunch of guys. Priest wants to talk to him. Eddie knows it's serious since Priest never comes around when he's hanging with his gambling buddies. Priest and Eddie go to Eddie's apartment. He tells Eddie he's getting out. Out of the cocaine business. Eddie laughs. 'You gonna give all this up. Eight track stereo, color TV in every room, and can snort a half a piece of dope every day.' Priest asks how much money they have. Three hundred thousand, one fifty each, enough to keep your nose open for about a year. Eddie knows it's a rotten game, but it's the only one 'the man' left them to play, 'and that's the stone cold truth.' Priest lays out his plan. They're going to take that 300,000. They're going to buy thirty 'keys' of coke, and in four months they can turn it into a million dollars. Half a million each. Enough for them to live on for the rest of their lives. Eddie doesn't believe they can get thirty keys for that price. Priest says they'll get the coke from his mentor, Scatter. Eddie doesn't believe him. Priest says he has to get out, before he kills somebody, or somebody 'ices' him. 'Are you with me?' Eddie nods. 'Solid.'Little Child Running Wild. Freddie and his partner are in a car waiting for a 'fat cat.' A middle aged White man appears and gets into a Cadillac. They follow him until its dark. The man stops and gets out. Freddie, in a stocking mask, runs up behind him and pulls the gun Priest gave him. You know what this is. Give me your money.Pusher Man. Later that night Priest and Eddie meet at Scatter's nightclub. The Curtis Mayfield Experience is on stage performing the tune 'Pusher Man'. Scatter (Julius Harris), the owner and chef, invites Priest and Eddie to the kitchen. Priest offers Scatter some coke. Scatter takes it: 'Now that's what I need...What you come to see Scatter about?' Priest tells him he's got $300,000 and wants to buy 'thirty keys' which he'll deal in four months. He'll make a million in cash and he's off the street forever. Scatter says he isn't dealing anymore. He's out of the business. He's retired. Priest presses Scatter. He wants to get out while he's still young. He can get into something else. 'Do it for me; you can depend on me for the rest of your life.' No reply. 'Then turn me on to your man.' If he did that, Scatter says, he'd be killed. Priest: If Scatter doesn't help him out, he'll get the coke anyway. It'll take longer, but he's going to get it. One way or another. Scatter thinks for a moment, and smiles. He's got one key left in his personal stash. They can come around tomorrow night and pick it up. As for the thirty keys, maybe he'll do it for them. 'But this is the last time.'At an after-hours club, Priest orders a 'nice cold beer' and manages a faint smile. Things are finally looking up. Freddie shows up with his wife and his dealer partner. 'How did we do tonight, Freddie?' Freddie dumps a wad of cash on the table. Priest returns some of the cash. A gift. Freddie's wife takes it. She leaves to play a song on the jukebox. Freddie's partner says he has a contact with some 'weight.' What's Priest doing the following night? Priest says he's got a pickup. Scatter's.Give Me Your Love. Priest and his Black girlfriend, Georgia (Sheila Frazier), share a bubble bath. Georgia knows the pressure he's under. She just wants to help him share the weight. 'Priest, let me in.' She can't be just another 'someone he's got to deal with.' She loves him. They share a passionate kiss and make love in the tub.Freddie's Dead. Freddie uses a set of brass knuckles to viciously beat a man behind a building. He's arrested and interrogated by four detectives. He's bloodied and crying. 'You mean you beat a man half to death because he touched your wife's hand,' asks the lead detective. They slap Freddie around. They lay his gun and packages of dope on the table. They don't want him--they want his man, the guy he's working for. Freddie finally gives Priest up and tells them about the pickup Priest has arranged with Scatter. The police prepare to take Freddie 'downtown' where he'll be booked. As he's taken out of the police station Freddie breaks away and runs into the street. He's struck and killed by an oncoming car.In a park, Priest tells Georgia of his plan to get them both out of the business. Georgia asks him what he's going to do when he gets out. He doesn't know. But he'll have a choice. He could buy some time, time to be free. She asks him if that'll make him happy. He doesn't know, but he can't be happy the way things are now.That night four plainclothes officers apprehend Priest on the street. They push him and Eddie into a doorway. Priest has the one 'key' from Scatter. The police know that Scatter has been trying to get out of the business; that he hasn't dealt 'direct' for over a year. They also know that Priest just picked up one key from his mentor, and that Scatter just ordered 'thirty more.' Are they working for Scatter? Eddie says they are. The cops want a piece of Priest's action. In return they'll provide protection .The police shake Eddie's hand. 'You'll see that I'm good, stand-up people.' The police leave, and Eddie is elated. They've got it made. 'If we can make a million in four months, imagine what we can make in four years...Just think about it.' Priest says he's thinking about thirty keys.A photo montage of the cocaine dealing process. The initial agreement. Procurement. Cutting. Packaging. Distributing. Selling. Coke lines. Coke spoons. Snorting. Users of different races. Black. White. Construction workers. Business executives. Male. Female. Stacks and stacks of cash.Priest and Eddie are in a restaurant. Waiting for some people. Three 'militants' sit at their table, uninvited. They're trying to build a new nation for Black people. Dope peddlers owe Black people something, and it's time the dope dealers to pay up. Priest says he isn't giving them anything as long as they're just talking. Go get a gun and put your words into action and he'll be right there with them. Otherwise go sing your marching songs somewhere else. The militants leave and Priest's dealers show up. They snort his stuff. They ask how much. 'Let's get it on.'Priest is with his White girlfriend, Cynthia, at her apartment. Her friends want to buy a pound of coke. The telephone rings. Scatter is downstairs. 'Send him up.' When Scatter arrives Priest tells his girl to go into the bedroom, even though it's her apartment. Scatter is now running for his life. His protector, his boss, is now trying to kill him. He needs money. Priest has $20,000, which he'll get from Georgia's place and give him later that night. Before Scatter leaves, he gives Priest a manila envelope with incriminating information about his long-time contact, his 'boss,' the mastermind behind the whole business. Scatter leaves the apartment. Three men in trench coats surround him on the sidewalk. They snap handcuffs on him. The skipper wants to see him. The hustle him into a waiting Rolls Royce. They roll up his sleeve and stick a needle in his arm.Super Fly. Priest hears of Scatter's death. He picks up a gun in his pad and drives to a restaurant where he meets two White men. Through the window we see them shake hands and start talking. He gives them the manila envelope. He also gives them a bulging white envelope with the dimensions of a large wad of cash. They shake hands again, and he leaves.Priest is back at Eddie's pad. He's carrying a black satchel. He wants to get out now. Things are worse than they were before. The guy who put the hit on Scatter will use them and then kill them. 'People been using me all my life,' Eddie says. 'I'm glad he's using me...because I'm gonna make a piss pot full of money...Yeah, this is the life. I could be nothin' nowhere else...' Priest asks, suppose he can figure a way out for both of them. Eddie says he's not going with Priest. Priest pushes the satchel into Eddie's chest. 'Fill it.' 'Why don't you fill it?' ''Cause I want to keep my eyes on you every minute, Eddie.' Eddie goes to a clothes closet, opens a safe, and fills the satchel with cash. Priest takes the satchel and leaves. Eddie picks up the phone. 'He just left the apartment.' The police send a car to pick Priest up. Priest boards the elevator. On the way down, a woman enters. She's wearing a large headscarf, and holds her head down so we can't see her face. She opens a large shopping bag. There's a satchel identical to the one Priest is carrying. They switch satchels, and she balls up pieces of fabric and covers the satchel. Priest gently lifts her chin and kisses her on the lips. Georgia smiles. The elevator door opens and they go in separate directions. Priest approaches his Caddy. Two uniformed police officers stop him. Priest places his hands on the roof of the car. One of the patrolmen calls in the arrest. Yeah, they've got the briefcase too. The lieutenant replies that three detectives are on their way to take custody. As the police are on the radio, Priest watches Georgia walking in the distance, clutching bundles of cloth over the satchel. The detectives arrive. They stuff Priest into the back of an unmarked police car. One detective drives Priest's Caddy.They take Priest to a deserted area, maybe a riverfront shipyard. Priest finally meets the big boss. Scatter's former boss. 'So you're Priest,' the boss man says. 'I thought you were going to be the best dealer I ever had. What do you want to quit for? What else can you do...You're making more money than you ever did in your life.' Priest snorts some coke from a small spoon hanging from his neck. The boss sticks his finger in Priest's chest. 'You're going to work for me until I tell you to quit.' 'You don't own me, pig,' says Priest. And no one tells him when he can split. 'Who do you think you're talking to,' the boss says. Priest insults him to his face. A detective punches Priest in the jaw. A fist fight follows, finishing with Priest throwing one of the detectives headfirst into a garbage can. Priest turns around. The boss is pointing a gun at his head. 'You move a muscle and I'll kill you.' Priest says, 'Kill me, Reardon. Kill me like you killed Scatter, and you're one dead pig.' Deputy Commissioner Reardon is shocked that Priest knows his identity. 'What did you call me?' Priest says, yes, he knows who he is, and who every member of his family is. If Reardon kills him, the whole Reardon family dies. He took out a $100,000 contract out on Reardon's life, his family's life. 'If I choke on chicken bone all the Reardons is dead.' 'You ain't got a hundred thousand dollars. Not anymore,' Reardon says. One of the detectives opens the satchel. Pieces of cloth. 'I think you ought to know something, cap'n. I hired the very best killers there are. White killers. So you better take good care of me, baby. Nothing...NOTHING better happen to one hair on my gorgeous head. Can you dig it?'Priest backs away, turns past the detectives, gets into his Caddy and drives away. The camera pans up, way up, to the top of the Empire State Building in the distance.

Published Time: 2018-07-18 09:39:41