“Sinners” is a lot of movie.
It’s a period crime movie, of sorts, following the exploits of twins (played by Michael B. Jordan), who return from bootlegging with Al Capone to their small Mississippi town, determined to create something of their own. It’s also, chiefly, a horror movie, about a group of vampires who are looking for trouble. And, thanks to the thoughtfulness of writer/director Ryan Coogler, it’s a movie about community and how the safe spaces we create are still vulnerable to outside forces – supernatural and otherwise.
In fact, “Sinners” is so much of a movie that it spills past the credits, with a pair of scenes after the movie is over.
These sequences are fascinating expansions of the main narrative and are very much worth discussing. But before we do, we have to issue a very stern spoiler warning. If you haven’t seen the movie, turn back, the article will still be here when you return.
What’s the mid-credits scene all about?
As the movie proper ends, we flash forward to 1992, and see an elderly Sammie (now played by legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy), playing in a blues club. It’s just for a moment, before the credits start to roll – and we see Guy perform over said credits. We fade to black and then back up. Sammie is at the bar of the club (which, if you didn’t catch it, is named Pearline’s, after his long-lost love) when a bouncer comes in – he says that a fan has offered him a couple hundred dollars for a sit-down with the guitarist. Sammie waves them in. And a couple of familiar faces waltz in.
Who is it?
Stack (Jordan), the surviving twin, and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), his girlfriend, both the same age that they were in 1932, when the bulk of the story takes place. He’s wearing an era-appropriate Cosby sweater and she has her high-rise denim on. They look amazing. Sammie is, appropriately, shocked and scared.
What happens then?
Stack tells Sammie that his brother just didn’t have the heart to kill him. He made Stack promise that he’d stay away from Sammie. And he kept that promise. Until now. Stack tells Sammie that he and Mary have all of Sammie’s records and that he knows he’ll be dead soon. He offers to turn him into a vampire, which Sammie declines. Sammie tells him that he often wakes up in a cold sweat, transported back to that blood-splattered night. And as Stack and Mary are leaving, he tells him that until the vampires showed up, it was the happiest day of his life.
Stack said it was for him too. “It was the last time I saw my brother,” Stack says, wistfully. “It was the last time I saw the sun. It was the only time I ever felt free.”
As he’s saying this, we get glimpses of the people and the place that made it so special. If you hadn’t already been choking back tears, well, now is as good a time as any. As they are about to leave, Mary looks back and says, “Goodbye little Sammie.”
Back to credits.
But it’s not over yet!
No, it’s not.
What about the post-credits scene? The post-credits scene has young Sammie, back in the church, playing on the guitar that the twins gave him. He’s singing “This Little Light of Mine.” When he gets done with the song he looks up. This look could actually be interpreted a number of ways; we’ve seen that Sammie is such a gifted singer and guitar player that his music can open up a space between time and space. Is he looking at someone he’s conjured?
The post ‘Sinners’ Post-Credits Scenes Explained: There’s Much More appeared first on TheWrap.
