The movie “Set It Off” tells the story of four close friends who go through hardships that lead to them robbing banks. This movie takes place in downtown Los Angeles, California, specifically the more impoverished part. The first friend we are introduced to is a girl named Frankie. She was a bank teller for one of the city banks. One day while she was working, she noticed a familiar face. This was the face of Darnel, which was someone from her projects. Darnell then proceeds to go towards Frankie. As Frankie tries to make conversation, Darnel pulls a gun out on her; he tells her to, “Shhh, shut the f*ck up, empty the f*cking drawer” (Set It Off 1996). Frankie then tells him, “Darnel, don’t do this” (Set It Off 1996). They then exchanged a couple more words, and Darnel and two of his friends proceeded to rob the bank. While robbing the bank, Darnel kills a woman in front of Frankie, which leads her to freeze up and hide. Before Darnell could escape, he was shot and killed. Only one of the thieves escaped the scene alive. His name was Lorenz. When the police report was filed, the detective questioned her relation to Darnel and why she didn’t follow the robbery procedure. Assuming that she could have played a part in the robbery and her also knowing Darnel, the bank takes her job away.

After this, we are introduced to the other three friends. Their names are Stoney, Cleo, and T.T., Stoney threw her little brother Stevie a 70’s graduation party. All the friends are there except Frankie. At the party, Stevie gets referred to as “college boy.” He then looks at Stoney as if something is wrong. Stevie eventually tells Stony that he lied about getting a scholarship to UCLA. She tells him that she would help him come up with the money for school.

In the next scene, we see Cleo, Stoney, and TT working at Luther’s Janitorial Services. Luther, the owner of the company, is frustrated about the fact that the girls didn’t recycle. He then proceeds to ask, “Who had 104” (Set It Off 1996)? TT then says that she did. Luther tells her that she didn’t empty the cans in room 104 and that he is taking taxes out of her pay. Cleo intercedes and says, “That ain’t right!” (Set It Off 1996). TT then brings up that she thought she was supposed to be getting paid under the table. She also expressed how they were taking taxes out of her check and that she couldn’t afford a babysitter. Luther response is, “There are three people I do not play with, the I.R. and S.” (Set It Off 1996). He also told her that she didn’t want to work for him; she could go home. After this, the three friends find out what happened to Frankie. Cleo also knew Lorenz, which was the person who successfully escaped the bank robbery. As the detectives are reviewing the footage from the robbery, they notice something special on Lorenz’s head. He had an AP design in his head, which stands for Acorn Projects.

All the friends reunite in the neighborhood, and Cleo makes a proposal about robbing the bank. This was the first time one of them mentioned it. She said if Darnell could’ve robbed one, they could too. Stoney expresses how the need for money would be useful now. Frankie said that she wanted to blow the bank up. Stoney then tells Frankie that she could get a job with Luther. With Stoney still needing money for her brother to go to college, she ends up asking a man named Nate Andrews for some. Nate Andrews told her that she could sell cars for him to make money. She told him, “Before I come work for you, I need to advance.” He said he could do that if he got something in return. He then starts his car and leaves. She meets back up with her friends, and they end smoking on a rooftop. Frankie then mentions robbing the bank. She says that’s the only way they’re going to see cash. Stoney says that Cleo and Frankie lost their minds, and they might as well not even talk about it anymore.

Stony had later gone back to Nate and slept with him to get the money for her brother. After she got the money, her brother tells her that he lied to her about going to UCLA. He didn’t even get accepted. She was mad at him, and they got into an argument.This would be the last time Stoney spoke to Stevie. Stevie then goes to Lorez’s house. Lorenz had given him champagne for “getting into UCLA.” Stevie also notices Lorenz’s haircut. Stevie then gets the same haircut as Lorenz. During this time, cops were scoping out the area. When Stevie had walked outside, cops mistook him for Lorenz because of the haircut. Still having the champagne bottle in his hand, he mistaken it for a weapon and ends up shooting him multiple times. Stoney’s brother was killed. After the death of Stoney’s brother, Frankie brings up robbing the bank again. Frankie then starts to propose a plan. She talks about getting wigs and sunglasses. Frankie also talks about her insight on what she knows about banks due to her work history. Everyone is on board but TT. She asked the question, “What if something goes wrong or someone gets hurt?” (Set It Off 1996). Frankie reassures her. Frankie says, (referring to money), “We just take it away from the system that’s f*cking us all anyway.” The next day, TT and Stoney visit the bank to get information on how it’s run and camera placements. In the bank, Stoney met someone who works at the bank, and he ends up asking her out. He gives her his number. They now have an asset inside the bank.

Shortly after, TT took her son to work one night. While at work, her son gets exposed to chemicals and is hospitalized. This led to CPS taking her son away. The only way she could get her son back was if she could show that she had money to afford her child. This was the defining moment when they all planned to rob the bank. They began to finalize a plan. One important thing that was said was when Frankie told Cleo about the robbery procedure the bank teller’s used. She tells her to not let them pull the right clip because that causes an alarm. Now that they had a plan, they needed weapons. Cleo had known someone by the name of Black Sam. She used to steal cars for him. He was their gun supplier for the bank robberies.

They robbed the first bank successfully, even though TT walked out on them. When it was time for them to split the money, they had just stolen. Frankie said that TT didn’t deserve any money because she didn’t do anything. Stoney says, “All right, TT needed it more than any of us” (Set It Off 1996). Frankie then apologizes to her. As the detectives are reviewing the footage, they question if those are the girls they saw when Stevie had died. They planned to rob a second bank to get more money. Stoney said that she didn’t want to steal a second one. Cleo then points a gun to her face and says, “Don’t back down on us when we need you.” (Set It Off 1996). Stoney then smacks her in the face. And they stopped talking to each other.

When they robbed the second bank, they were also successful; they then hid the money in the back of Luther’s warehouse in an air vent. They plan to go back to work and act like everything is normal. One day they find that the money is not in the air vent. They realized Luther had taken the money. They found him at a hotel. Cleo then pulls the gun out on him and threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t give her their money back. When Cleo is not looking, Luther pulls a gun out on her, and before he can shoot, TT kills him. After this, they plan on robbing the third bank, which was the Federal Bank. Stoney had known a named Keith who worked there; he ended up helping them rob the bank without him knowing. While robbing the third bank, TT gets shot and killed. The rest of them went on a police chase, and it’s all over the news. Cleo ends up sacrificing her life and tells Frankie and Stoney to get out of the car. When Cleo is surrounded by police, she gets out and starts shooting at him. She dies instantly. Frankie then gets caught by the police; she tries to run, and she also dies. Stony reaches the bus but watches Frankie die. The detective sees her but lets her go. She then goes to Mexico to live out her life. The next paragraph is an explanation of why each female chose to rob the bank.

Stony wanted to rob the bank because she wanted to escape, and she had nothing to lose. Her parents died in a car crash, and her brother was killed by police a few hours after she yelled at him for lying about getting into UCLA. When she met Keith, the banker, she saw a life different from hers, which also led to her wanting to rob the bank and have enough money to go somewhere else and start a new life. TT wanted to rob the bank because she needed to show the court she had enough money in order to keep her child. TT’s pay had gotten cut when working for Luther’s janitorial company, so one day she had to bring her child to work. Her child got exposed to chemicals, which led them to the ER. CPS then took the child after that, which made everyone angry. Cleo’s main reason for robbed the bank was because of the anger she had built up. CPS took TT’s child. Cleo was the “leader” of the group. She got all the guns and getaway cars. The rest depended on her to make the big-time decisions. She was money hungry and liked flashy cars and things of that nature. She even sacrificed herself at the end of the movie when she told Frankie and Stony to get out of the car to escape. Frankie wanted to rob the bank to get revenge. In the beginning of the movie, she worked at a bank that was robbed, and she lost her job because of it. Her job was taken away because she knew one of the suspects who robbed the bank she worked at. The detective yelled what’s the procedure to her, and that was significant because at the end of the movie, before she died, she had a gun pointing to him, asking what the procedure was. She ultimately wanted to get revenge on the system that failed her.