Judas and the Black Messiah

Judas and the Black Messiah is a 2021 film about a man who, after being offered a plea deal by the FBI, infiltrates the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on Chairman Fred Hampton.
 * Directed by Shaka King. Written by Will Berson and Shaka King.

You can kill a revolutionary but you can't kill the revolution.

Fred Hampton

 * Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed


 * America's on fire right now and until the fire is extinguished don't nothin' else mean a goddamn thing.


 * There's strength in numbers. Power anywhere there's people.


 * Malcolm X College, I can dig it. Dr. Charles Hurst, direct from Howard. Right on. So, what? You think the students over there gonna be free now? Oh, they'll let you change the name of your college, or your own name, throw on a dashiki. 'Cause guess what? They still gonna drag your Black ass to Vietnam to shoot a poor rice farmer or get shot your damn self. That's the difference between revolution and the candy-coated facade of gradual reform. Reform is just the masters teaching the slaves how to be better slaves. Under reform, you could take the motherfucking masters out, and the slaves still be doin' all the work for 'em. There's a man called a capitalist. Don't matter what color he is, black, white, brown, red, don't matter. Because the capitalist has one goal. And that is to exploit the people. He can have on a three-piece suit or a dashiki, 'cause political power doesn't flow from the sleeve of a dashiki. Political power flows from the barrel of a gun. We in the Black Panther Party don't believe in no culture except revolutionary culture. What we mean by that is a culture that will free you! Don't give me no five-and-dime costume of a medicine man or a witch doctor, or whatever you think the motherland look like. Give me the righteous threads of a Mozambican FRELIMO fighter.


 * Housing, justice, peace... Life, liberty, happiness. I mean, it's all right there in the Declaration of Independence. But when poor people demand it, it's a contradiction -- it's not Democracy, it's Socialism.


 * It's not a question of violence or non-violence. It's a question of resistance to fascism or non-existence within fascism! You can murder a liberator, but you can't murder liberation. You can murder a revolutionary, but you can't murder a revolution. And you can murder a freedom fighter but you can't murder freedom! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! I am a revolutionary! [pause] I don't believe I'm gonna die in no car wreck! I don't believe I'm gonna die slippin' on no ice! I don't believe I'm gonna die 'cause I got a bad heart! I believe I'm gonna die doing what I was born for! I believe I'm gonna die high off the people! I'm gonna die for the people, 'cause I live for the people! I live for the people, 'cause I love the people!


 * Drummer, lemme hear the people beat! This is what we call the people beat. Started in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. It's the beat that manifests in you, the people. They can't never stop the party, unless they stop the people!


 * You don't fight racism with racism. We gonna fight with solidarity.


 * We ain't gonna fight capitalism with Black capitalism, we gonna fight capitalism with socialism.


 * So, if you were asked to make a commitment at age 20, and you said, 'I'm too young to die,' then you're dead already! If you dare to struggle, you dare to win! If you dare not struggle, then, God damn it, you don't deserve to win!


 * The pigs do everything in their power to keep us isolated. Because they know, the day we get organized, it's over for their asses.


 * What if the overseer had banded with the slaves and cut the master's throat? What then, comrade? We might not be in this funky-ass ghetto right now.


 * Our job as the Black Panther Party is to heighten the contradictions.


 * Put a fist in the air for Comrade Jimmy Palmer. Jimmy Palmer died a revolutionary death. He stood face-to-face and toe-to-toe with pig Daley's henchmen, and made the greatest sacrifice one could ever make.

Bill O'Neal

 * These motherfuckers ain't no terrorists. Shit, they're terrorizing me.


 * That motherfucker Fred, he could sell salt to a slug.

Roy Mitchell

 * I'm all for civil rights but you can't cheat your way to equality. And you certainly can't shoot your way to it.

Dialogue

 * Deborah Johnson: Thought your speech was... was really interesting.
 * Fred Hampton: Well, thank you, sister.
 * Deborah Johnson: Do you like poetry?
 * Fred Hampton: I mean, it's cool, but as Che Guevara said... 'Words are beautiful, but action is supreme,' you dig?
 * Deborah Johnson: I dig. Right on. But you were up on that stage using words, so... Maybe next time, choose 'em a bit more carefully, instead of tearin' down the folk who you call yourself recruitin', just because they demonstrate a little Black pride. But just so you know, you are a poet.


 * Fred Hampton: The poet. What a pleasant surprise.
 * Deborah Johnson: I saw your ad in the paper, lookin' for a new speechwriter. I figured I'd better come lend a hand.
 * Fred Hampton: Well, that must have been a misprint. See, I don't write speeches, sister. I just get up on stage and speak truth to the people.
 * Deborah Johnson: Oh, it shows. The lack of preparation, that is.
 * Fred Hampton: It got you here.


 * Bill O'Neal: A badge is scarier than a gun.
 * Roy Mitchell: Would you mind explaining that for me?
 * Bill O'Neal: Any nigger on the streets can get a gun, sir. A badge is like you got the whole damn army behind you.


 * Deborah Johnson: [In bed] Uh, your feet's cold. Why your feet so cold? No, get 'em off of me!
 * Fred Hampton: My feet cold, your feet cold.
 * Deborah Johnson: No, unless you... They're like...
 * Fred Hampton: But that's Socialism, man. Well, you gotta warm 'em up, though. How you think Mao did the Long March, huh? The Chinese would warm these feet left and right.
 * Deborah Johnson: You saying I'm a Foot Capitalist? You really gonna' call me a Foot Capitalist, Chairman?


 * Bill O'Neal: Hey, listen, I'm out, Roy. I'm out!
 * Roy Mitchell: Calm down. Calm down, Bill.
 * Bill O'Neal: Don't you tell me to fuckin' calm down, all right? I was almost killed, man! Now, Fred's in jail, I did the damn job, and I'm out!
 * Roy Mitchell: No, that's not how it works.
 * Bill O'Neal: What the fuck do you mean, 'That's not how it works'? Why don't you give me one good reason why I don't just book it outta here right now?
 * Roy Mitchell: Because... Because, as I've mentioned, it's a year and a half for the stolen car, and five years for impersonating a federal officer. And if you run, I will hunt you down, you understand...


 * Roy Mitchell: Forgive me, I'm confused. So, this kid, Alex Rackley, was labelled an informant, and then killed... by an actual FBI informant. And we're just letting him walk for murder?
 * Leslie Carlyle: It's beautiful. He's on the lam, right? So, any time he goes into a Panther office, we get a warrant for harboring a fugitive. He's in the interview room right now with our liaison guys, planning the next stop on his little tour.
 * Roy Mitchell: Wow. That's, uh...
 * Leslie Carlyle: Takes a thief to catch a thief, Roy.


 * Fred Hampton: Would you say we at war with the pigs, Comrade Palmer?
 * Jimmy Palmer: Chairman, I'd take it a step further and say that every ghetto across the nation should be considered occupied territory.


 * Fred Hampton: That flag is some motherfuckin' bullshit.
 * Bobby Rush: Comrade. Take it easy, comrade.
 * Fesperman: It's just up there to remind us of our Southern heritage.
 * Fred Hampton: When I look at that, I don't see no flag hanging. I see my uncle hanging from a tree. And a bunch of white devils like y'all, smiling around his body.

Cast

 * Daniel Kaluuya - Fred Hampton
 * LaKeith Stanfield - Bill O'Neal,
 * Jesse Plemons - Roy Mitchell
 * Dominique Fishback - Deborah Johnson
 * Ashton Sanders - Jimmy Palmer
 * Algee Smith - Jake Winters
 * Darrell Britt-Gibson - Bobby Rush
 * Lil Rel Howery - Wayne
 * Dominique Thorne - Judy Harmon
 * Martin Sheen - J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI
 * Mark Francis - FBI Agent David Black
 * Amari Cheatom - Rod Collins
 * Khris Davis - Steel
 * Ian Duff - Doc Satchel
 * Caleb Eberhardt - Bob Lee
 * Robert Longstreet - Leslie Carlyle
 * Amber Chardae Robinson - Betty Coachman
 * Jermaine Fowler - Mark Clark