Chapter 37 Summary: “Alternate endings for the black movies that I can’t stop watching”

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Rudy Francisco’s poem imagines revised final moments for four well-known African American films that end in violence or death. Instead of the original tragic outcomes, the poet writes characters into scenes of survival, reconciliation, and mundane life.

In Menace II Society, the drive‑by shooting arrives late; the bullets miss their mark. Cane moves to Atlanta with Ronnie, works nights, and watches her son while she attends class. Boyz n the Hood gives Ricky back to his family: he goes home, chooses USC, plays three years of college football, and is drafted by the Raiders. In Training Day, Denzel Washington’s character pays off the Russians, retires from the police force five years later, takes up golf and gardening, and writes to his rookie partner Hoit, “You did the right thing.” New Jack City has Neno Brown choosing not to kill Gee Money; instead he hugs him, sheds a tear, and the two never speak again.

The poem closes with a direct question to the audience: if films declared that black life is more important than black death, would people still pay to watch black people simply living?

Key Events

The speaker imagines the drive‑by in Menace II Society missing its target and Cane beginning a domestic life with Ronnie.
Ricky in Boyz n the Hood survives the shooting, enrolls at USC, and succeeds as a professional football player.
Denzel’s character in Training Day resolves his debt to the Russian gangsters without violence, leaves police work, and sends an apologetic letter to his partner.
Neno Brown in New Jack City forgives his lieutenant Gee Money with a long hug and allows him to walk away.
The poem ends with a rhetorical question about audience willingness to pay for depictions of black people living ordinary lives.

Character Development

Because this is a poem that re‑imagines characters from existing films rather than advancing a single narrative, “development” occurs through the poet’s choices:

Cane (from Menace II Society): Transformed from a vengeful young man into a caretaker and partner who supports his girlfriend’s education.
Ricky (from Boyz n the Hood): Given a full life that includes college, sports, and a professional career — a future the original film denies him.
Alonzo Harris / Denzel’s character (from Training Day): Shifts from corrupt, violent cop to a retired civilian who gardens, plays golf, and admits past wrongdoing.
Neno Brown and Gee Money (from New Jack City): Their bond of ten years becomes more important than betrayal; Neno chooses grief and separation over murder.

These alternate endings give the characters agency they lack in the originals, turning them into people who choose connection and survival.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs Actually Evidenced Here

Narrative agency. Francisco rewrites endings, asserting that storytellers can choose outcomes other than tragedy. The act of rewriting becomes a form of protest against the limited narratives often available for black characters.
Marketability of black suffering. The closing question — “Will we pay money just to see black people living?” — critiques an industry that profits from depicting black death while rarely funding stories about black joy or everyday life.
Repetition and revision. The poem’s structure (four block‑stanzas, each an alternate ending) models a practice of mentally revising painful stories. The repeated phrase “The day gives Ricky back to his family” echoes a ritual of hope.
Domesticity and peace. The revised endings emphasize ordinary activities: watching a child, attending class, gardening, playing golf, writing a letter. These details contrast sharply with the spectacle of the original films’ shootouts and funerals.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter stands as a manifesto for imaginative resistance. Francisco does not critique the films themselves so much as the cultural expectation that black stories must end in violence to be considered authentic or profitable. By writing happy endings, he reclaims the right to imagine black futures in which characters survive, reconcile, and persist in mundane but valuable lives.

The poem also directly engages the reader: the question “Will we pay money?” turns the lens outward, asking audiences to examine their own consumption habits. In the context of the entire collection I’ll Fly Away, this chapter aligns with Francisco’s broader interest in creating space for black joy, vulnerability, and rest.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Francisco choose these four specific films?
All four films — Menace II Society, Boyz n the Hood, Training Day, and New Jack City — were mainstream successes that ended with the death or moral collapse of their main black characters. By picking iconic movies with similar tragic arcs, Francisco highlights a pattern in Hollywood storytelling: black protagonists are often killed or punished, even in films made by black directors.

2. What is the effect of the poem’s final question?
The question shifts responsibility from the filmmaker to the audience. It implies that the industry supplies what consumers demand. If viewers were willing to pay for films about black people simply living — without high body counts — studios might produce more such stories. The question is rhetorical but also confrontational, inviting self‑reflection.

3. How does the poet use everyday details to contrast with the original endings?
In each alternate ending, Francisco replaces violence with routine acts: Cane “works nights and watches her son while she’s in class”; Denzel “plays golf, takes up gardening”; Neno Brown “lets him go, sheds a tear.” These details are deliberately unglamorous. They argue that survival and normal life are themselves radical in a culture that treats black death as compelling cinema.