Graham Waters
Though the film features no one particular main character, the nearest thing to a protagonist we have is Graham Waters. His story intertwines with many of the plot’s events, and his commentary at the beginning establishes the film’s tone and one of the film’s main themes. Waters is a seemingly well-respected detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. We soon discover that he is sleeping with his partner, Ria, and that his brother is a missing criminal-at-large. In one of the film’s emotional scenes, Ria comments on Waters’s distant behavior. As the story unfolds, we find that Ria’s observation is true—Graham covers up his insecurities by denying his family situation and making numerous racially insensitive comments.
Graham’s mother repeatedly asks him to use his position in law enforcement to find his younger brother, Peter. However, Graham continually brushes this mission aside in order to advance his career within a racist establishment. Graham eventually discovers and identifies his dead brother next to where he and Ria experience a car accident in the film’s opening scene. Graham’s opening commentary about why people in LA “crash” into one another indicates that he is much more perceptive and impressionable than he initially appears.
Ria
Ria is Detective Waters’s professional partner. Along with Waters, Ria experiences the car accident that rocks the film’s opening scene. At the scene of the accident, Ria mocks the other driver involved, Kim Lee, for her Asian heritage. Although she is depicted as racially insensitive herself, Ria is also repeatedly mocked for her ethnicity. Both Kim Lee and Detective Waters wrongly assume that she is Mexican, when she is, in fact, half Puerto Rican and half Salvadorian.
Jean Cabot
Jean Cabot, the wife of District Attorney Rick Cabot, is a wealthy, WASPy housewife. Though her life is undoubtedly privileged, Jean remains deeply unsatisfied. After she is carjacked in the beginning of the film, a general sense of fear begins to dominate Jean’s daily life. This suppressed fear eventually manifests as her mistrust of minorities. She primarily takes out her frustrations on Maria, her loyal housekeeper. Towards the end of the film, Jean realizes that her issues stem from within—she is frustrated that her life lacks direction and that she incessantly feels isolated. After this realization, Jean apologizes to Maria and recognizes that her housekeeper is her only “true friend.”
Rick Cabot
Rick is the District Attorney of Los Angeles. After he and his wife, Jean, are carjacked, he aims to find a way to manipulate the press so that he does not look like the victim of a black-on-white crime. Rick is preoccupied with his political image and career. Despite his own racist attitudes, he aims to depict himself as a progressive politician that demands racial equality. But over the course of the film, it becomes clear that Rick only desires to secure the “black vote” for his upcoming re-election. His wife Jean’s unhappiness seems to be caused by Rick’s neglectful treatment of his wife and family.
Officer John Ryan
Officer Ryan is a racist, power-hungry Los Angeles police officer. At home, he lives and cares for his sick father. He repeatedly gets into arguments with Shaniqua Johnson, the representative for his father’s health insurance company, because he feels she is preventing his father from getting medical care. He uses his position as a white police officer to take out his anger on minorities. He repeatedly insults Shaniqua for being black, and he calls her an affirmative-action hire. Additionally, he molests Christine Thayer during a “pat-down” in front of her husband. Though he attempts to redeem his past actions by saving Christine from a burning car, his hatred is indicative of a greater problem—the racist practices of American law enforcement.
Officer Tom Hansen
In the beginning of the film, young Officer Hansen is a foil character to his partner, Officer Ryan. While Ryan is confrontational, Hansen is incredibly passive—he stands by as he watches Ryan molest Christine, and he is unable to admit the true reasons he seeks reassignment. However, unlike many of the other characters in the film, Hansen appears to have a moral conscience—he recognizes Ryan’s wrongdoing and later successfully defends Cameron. Yet, as Officer Ryan once predicted, Hansen’s idleness eventually transforms to aggression. This anger culminates in the scene in which he shoots Peter in his car.
Cameron Thayer
Cameron Thayer is a successful television director. He drives the same model of car as the Cabots, and he and his wife, Christine, are pulled over during the night of the carjacking. It is significant that both he and Christine are light-skinned—their appearance further complicates their relationship with their racist society. After he fails to intervene as Christine is sexually assaulted by Officer Ryan, Cameron’s marriage begins to deteriorate. We learn that Cameron faces discrimination in his professional life, and he attempts to hide his frustrations in an effort to conform to his white-dominated workplace. After Christine’s assault, we begin to see Cameron’s anger. When Anthony and Peter attempt to carjack his vehicle, his fury explodes—he is willing to risk losing his life in order to fight back against his aggressors. While Christine tries to confront Cameron about her racial identity, Cameron remains unable to voice his true feelings. In this regard, Cameron is characterized as possessing feelings of both rage and shame.
Christine Thayer
Christine Thayer is Cameron’s wife. After the couple is pulled over, Christine confronts Officer Ryan for his unjust practices. Christine’s combat is met with further violence, as Officer Ryan molests her during a “pat down.” Following this incident, Christine becomes infuriated at her husband’s passivity. At their home later that evening, Christine tells Cameron that he is ashamed of his blackness. Later in the film, she must come face to face with her aggressor as Officer Ryan rescues her from a dangerous car accident. During this confrontation with the police, Christine, like her husband, acknowledges her overwhelming feelings of shame.
Anthony
Anthony is Peter’s friend and accomplice. While Peter is generally amiable and forgiving, Anthony is angry about the injustices that he faces as a black man in Los Angeles. This frustration fuels his criminal activities. In one of the film’s opening scenes, he retaliates against Jean Cabot’s microaggression and carjacks the couple’s vehicle. Soon, it is revealed that the two regularly steal cars at gunpoint in an effort to earn money. Anthony’s behavior changes after he fails to successfully carjack Cameron’s SUV. When Cameron offers to take the fall for Anthony and then explains how Anthony’s behavior is “shameful,” Anthony changes for the better. In the film’s final scene, he is shown releasing the human trafficking prisoners.
Peter
Peter is Anthony’s friend and accomplice. Though he participates in numerous criminal activities, he seems to believe that people are inherently good. Unlike Anthony, Peter is not fueled by anger or frustration. Peter is spiritual, and he carries around a small statue of Saint Christopher for good luck. Ironically, this statue brings him to his unlucky and unjust death. As he reaches in his pocket to show Officer Hansen his statuette, Hansen suspects that Peter is going to pull out a gun. The officer hastily shoots Peter, killing him instantly. Later, we discover that Peter is Graham Waters’s missing brother.
Daniel Ruiz
Daniel is a locksmith who consistently faces discrimination in the workplace. Along with his wife and five-year-old daughter Lara, he has recently moved from a dangerous neighborhood with rampant gun violence. Both Jean Cabot and Farhad racially profile Daniel and unfairly suspect him of criminal activity. However, Daniel remains calm, and he continually takes the shorter end of the stick in order to avoid confrontation. Farhad wrongly suspects Daniel of breaking into his store, and he seeks to avenge this innocent family man.
Lara Ruiz
Lara is Daniel’s five-year-old daughter. After work one night, Daniel arrives home to find Lara hiding from the sound of gunshots under her bed. In order to ease her anxieties, Daniel gives her an “invisible impenetrable cloak.” Later, when Lara witnesses the argument between Farhad and her father, she jumps into Daniel’s arms in order to save him from Farhad’s gun. In just a matter of seconds, Farhad shoots Lara. However, it is revealed that Farhad’s gun was loaded with blanks instead of normal bullets. Lara and Daniel both emerge from the altercation unscathed.
Farhad
Farhad is a Persian man who owns a convenience store in Los Angeles. We are first introduced to his character at a gun store, where he is purchasing a weapon to protect his family from the vandals who deface his business. In post-9/11 Los Angeles, Farhad is targeted with Islamophobic remarks. After Farhad’s store is robbed and destroyed, he blames Daniel for not changing the locks properly. He aims to avenge Daniel, and stalks the locksmith at his house. During their argument, Farhad shoots Lara, who has jumped into Daniel’s arms mid-fight. However, thanks to Farhad’s daughter, Dorri, his gun is loaded with blanks. Farhad is incredibly grateful that Daniel and his family are unharmed, and he considers Lara his “guardian angel.”
Dorri
Dorri is Farhad’s adult daughter. Throughout the film, Dorri takes on the role of mediator—she translates for her father and attempts to make peace with the people he comes in contact with. After Farhad is kicked out of the gun store, Dorri completes his gun purchase. However, instead of buying standard bullets, Dorri asks for blanks. This act saves the life of Lara when Farhad aims to shoot Daniel after Farhad’s store is destroyed.
Shaniqua Johnson
Shaniqua Johnson is a representative at a health insurance company. Officer Ryan calls her in order to negotiate a different health plan for his sick father, but Johnson is unable to help. Frustrated, Ryan lashes out and attacks Johnson with a series of racial slurs. The next day, Officer Ryan comes to Shaniqua’s office in order to ask for assistance once again. After recognizing Ryan and his behavior from their previous phone call, Johnson refuses to help Ryan. After Ryan calls her an affirmative action hire, he is escorted out of her office. In the film’s closing scene, Shaniqua exchanges a series of racially-charged slurs after she is rear-ended by an Asian driver.
Kim Lee
Kim Lee is the wife of Choi Chin Gui. She gets into an accident with Detective Waters and Ria as she is on her way to visit her husband in a hospital. She insults Ria for being Latina, while she herself faces discrimination for being Asian.
Choi Chin Gui
Choi Chin Gui is Kim Lee’s husband. He is run over by Anthony and Peter in the middle of their carjacking operation and later brought to a hospital. At the end of the film, it is revealed that Gui is involved in a human-trafficking scheme.
