First look at the story of Black Panther Fred Hampton's assassination.
Get Out stars Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield reteam for director Shaka King's feature debut Judas and the Black Messiah. The film tells the story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton (Kaluuya) and his murder at the hands of William O'Neal (Stanfield), a petty criminal coerced by the FBI. Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders and Martin Sheen also star.
A release date has yet to be announced but you can check out the first trailer and official synopsis below.
The official synopsis reads:
Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. But they could not kill Fred Hampton’s legacy and, 50 years later, his words still echo…louder than ever. I am a revolutionary!
In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became Chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party, who were fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.
Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside…and the inside. Facing prison, William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: if he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.
Now a comrade in arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.
Though his life was cut short, Fred Hampton’s impact has continued to reverberate. The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago, who, recognizing the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition—joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.
First Trailer and Poster for Charlie Kaufman’s I’M THINKING OF ENDING THINGShttps://t.co/lQRnaa9t2b pic.twitter.com/8femrd9GeU— The Movie Waffler (@themoviewaffler) August 6, 2020