ER

Talk about your ‘it’s not what it looks like.’ (Spoilers)

Set at a college campus, it’s right before spring break and two best friends named Sean (RJ Cyler) and Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) are planning on doing this “Legendendary Tour” of visiting all the parties that are happening on campus, leaving their third friend and roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon) behind to play videogames. Before they can do so, they come home and find an unconscious white girl in their living room.

Kunle is the “whitest” member of his friend group, actually caring about his schooling and defending a white professor holding a class discussing the n-word. As such, he’s the most vocal about simply calling the police. Sean, however, is the one who points out that the police finding three brown guys standing over “Goldilocks” (Maddie Nichols) is very liable to end badly (NSFW) for them.

Eventually, they resolve to dump Goldilocks off at the emergency room. A situation made more complicated by, among other things, the girl’s sister Maddy (Sabrina Carpenter) noticing her sibling’s missing and starts trying to find her. Maddy’s kinda, sorta, not really the villain of the movie. A more accurate description is that white supremacy itself is the villain.

On the one hand, Maddy’s concern over her sister first being missing, then in the company of three strangers, is justified. On the other, she’s the one who invited her underage sister to a frat party and then ditched her, setting off the whole plot of the movie. During the search, she treats her loyal friend Alice (Madison Thompson) with total ingratitude. And her assumption that the trio are the bad guys is partly race-related, even if she denies it.

Emergency starts off funny in a cringy way but then gets really depressing towards the climax. Goldilocks, whose real name is Emma, briefly regains comes too enough to start freaking out over being driven around by three unknown dudes. She ends up causing the van to crash and them to have to go searching the dark forest for her.

During that time, the issues that have plagued the trio’s friendship come bubbling to the surface. Such as the cultural divide between Kunle and Sean, who comes from a lower-class background and is much more “black” in behavior and appearance. To the point where Sean eventually says he’s leaving to do the one thing he’s wanted to do all night. Party.

At that point, the roommates meet Maddy, Alice, and this guy named Rafael (Diego Abraham), who’s been helping them out looking for Emma. After Kunle and Carlos convince them that they’re just trying to help, they all drive to the emergency room, but not without a police cruiser asking them to pull over. Except they can’t pull over because that’s when Emma starts to OD.

To make a long story short, they get Emma to the hospital, but not without a brief moment when it seems like the police might shoot Kunle. After that, Kunle has a tearful scene where he tells Sean that he finally gets his concern and Sean explains why the night was so important to him. It wasn’t about the Legendary Tour. It was about doing one last thing together as friends since their lives were going in two different directions.

The film ends with an epilogue where Emma and Maddy stop by to give thanks. However, when Maddy starts reading a handwritten apology. It starts, “Kunle, Carlos, I want to extend my deepest apologies for what transpired the other night. I’m working on myself and what I put out into the world, and…” andKunle ends up shutting the door in her face without another word.

An early draft of the script, which you can read online, originally had the scene as much longer, with Maddy realizing she’s being ridiculous with the written statement and putting it away. Before offering an apology straight from the heart and letting them know if they ever need anything, she can get that for them. I’m glad they changed it. While you shouldn’t demand realism from a movie all the time, that would have been a little too Hollywood.

Then, right before the credits roll, Kunle hears a police siren and starts staring off into the distance, showing us that despite everything appearing to work out on the surface, he’s still been irreversibly traumatized by what he went through. Damn. However, there is a humorous and heartwarming mid-credit scene, so Emergency doesn’t end on a complete downer.

If you need a movie to watch during Black History Month, Emergency might be it. It examines race through so many different perspectives and does it in a way that doesn’t feel preachy. With actual characters, not just mouthpieces spouting the film’s message. With good performances and funny comedy. If you have Prime Video, then I recommend watching it.