Imagine what we can accomplish together

In 1968, a young, charismatic activist named Fred Hampton became chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. He was 21 years old. The party was fighting for freedom, the power to determine the destiny of the Black community, and an end to police brutality and the slaughter of Black people.

The government saw the Black Panthers as a militant threat to the status quo and sold that lie to a frightened public in a time of growing civil unrest. But the perception of the Panthers was not reality. In inner cities across America, they were providing free breakfasts for children, legal services, medical clinics and research into sickle cell anaemia, and political education. And it was Chairman Fred in Chicago who, recognising the power of multicultural unity for a common cause, created the Rainbow Coalition – joining forces with other oppressed peoples in the city to fight for equality and political empowerment.

Chairman Fred was inspiring a generation to rise up and not back down to oppression, which put him directly in the line of fire of the government, the FBI and the Chicago Police. But to destroy the revolution, they had to do it from both the outside … and the inside. Facing prison, a petty criminal named William O’Neal is offered a deal by the FBI: If he will infiltrate the Black Panthers and provide intel on Hampton, he will walk free. O’Neal takes the deal.

Now a comrade-in-arms in the Black Panther Party, O’Neal lives in fear that his treachery will be discovered even as he rises in the ranks. But as Hampton’s fiery message draws him in, O’Neal cannot escape the deadly trajectory of his ultimate betrayal.

Judas and the Black Messiah stars Oscar nominee Daniel Kaluuya ( Get Out, Widows, Black Panther) as Fred Hampton and LaKeith Stanfield ( Atlanta, The Girl in the Spider’s Web) as William O’Neal. Also starring are Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders and Martin Sheen.