187 (1997)

 

Directed by: Kevin Reynolds
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Collins Jr, Tony Plana, Karina Arroyave, Demetrius Navarro, Lobo Sebastian, Jack Kehler, Jonah Rooney, Method Man, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Dominic Hoffman

120 minutes
(R - strong language, adult themes, adult situations, violence, brief nudity, drug use)

PLOT:
Trevor Garfield is a teacher in a New York City high school. After a student almost kills him in the hallway Garfield relocates to Los Angeles, but the trouble starts again when he becomes a substitute to a class containing a tag crew by the name of K.O.S. Their murderous leader, Benny, tells Garfield that there will be no mutual respect between them. The tension mounts when a fellow teacher, Ellen Henry, confides that Benny has threatened her life. After Benny murders a rival tagger in cold blood and goes AWOL, Benny's tag partner, Cesar, takes over as class antagonist. Garfield is forced to play by the rules of the street in a pyrrhic contest between victim and victimizer.