The Carey Williams directorial Emergency is a comedy-drama thriller film that perfectly captures the trauma a black person living in America goes through when he finds himself in a difficult position. Taking inspiration from Williams and Dávila’s 2018 short film of the same name. Carey Williams tells this story through two best friends who had different opinions when it was about helping a white individual. The ending of Emergency sees the situation having a lasting impact on one of the individuals.
So, taking a look at the same, here we are breaking down all the events of the film. Right from the upbringing of both the main characters. How does this upbringing shape their different experiences and the way they treat a situation. Lastly, a look at how one night changed everything for both of them.
Emergency Plot Summary
Emergency follows the story of Kunle and Sean. Two best friends, poles apart from each other. We can say Kunle is someone who would like to be alone and spend the night studying. Whereas Sean is someone who is the life of the party, making sure everyone has fun.
It was the last day of college before spring break began. Sean had planned an all-nighter to be part of every party out there in his sight. Meanwhile, Kunle, who was on his way to Princeton College for his Ph.D., wanted to spend the night studying a bacteria for his thesis.
Sean tried to force Kunle out for the night. So he did tag along. It was a matter of time before he realized that he didn’t really want to be there. Sean agreed to walk him back to the house. Once they were back, they saw their door open and initially believed there was a robbery.
Searching the house resulted in the duo finding out that there was a white girl lying unconscious in their house. Their mate Carlos was into playing video games and didn’t realize that a girl had walked into the house. Watching the girl lying there saw the boys panicking as they tried to figure out their next move.
While Kunle on his side wanted to go with what anyone would do by calling the authorities, Sean on his side felt this was a bad idea. He knew how the cops would react watching an unconscious white girl lying in the house of two black men and brown men. On top of that, troubles were just getting started for them as the girl’s sister Maddie had started looking for her sister.
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Emergency Ending Explained: The Upbringing Of The Boys Affected The Decision Making
Kunle and Sean found themselves at a crossroads when it came to helping the girl lying on their house’s floor. Kunle, on his side, came from a family of doctors who were highly respected. He never had to go through what a normal black man would go through in his day-to-day life. Meanwhile, Sean knew what it felt like for a black man walking on the street.
We clearly saw the difference in their opinions in the earlier part of the film, where a professor used the n-word. Sean was against it, while Kunle was okay with it as long as the professor was using it in an academic environment.
Similarly, later in the film, when Sean’s brother finds out about this mess, he asks Sean to stay away. He believed that Kunle belonging to a doctor’s family, could find his way out but not Sean. These differences in upbringing affected their decisions when it came to helping the girl.
How Things Got Worse?
Coming back to where we left off. After arguing, the boys came to decide that they would at least take her to the hospital. But at the same time, they had to make sure that no one saw them doing so. Anyone who sees them will automatically come to the conclusion that there is something suspicious going on.
We saw this form of racial profiling when the boys were driving near a party, and some white dudes almost attacked them. Apart from that, they also had to face a white couple who spotted them and accused them of selling drugs while filming them.
If all of this was not enough, Carlos accidentally got the girl drunk. The girl was just coming to her senses and had come to reveal that her name was Emma. She later got scared and hopped off the vehicle. Although the boys found her, Emma’s sister Maddie and her friends had caught up to them.
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Sean Decides To Go His Own Way While Kunle Stays
Emma was quite offensive and was not ready to hear a word the boys had to say. It took her friend Rafael to come forward and tell her that Carlos was his cousin. To further calm Maddie down, Kunle also disclosed that he has medical training.
With Emma in the hands of her sister, Sean wanted to leave, but Kunle opted to morally stay and help them out. This saw Sean parting ways with the group. Before leaving, he warned Kunle of the consequences he may have to face for being black and helping the whites. Under the suspicion, the white people may find their way out, but not Kunle.
The Ending Moments Of Emergency
As Emma’s body temperature began to fall, Kunle tried his best to save her while Carlos drove to the hospital. The cops had caught up to them. They managed to reach the hospital but were surrounded by the cops. All of them had to raise their hands while Kunle continued his attempt to save Emma until a cop came pointing a gun at him, asking him to step out of the vehicle.
Maddie and Alice helped the cops understand, and that’s when they allowed the hospital staff to take Emma in and let Kunle go. During the time the gun was pointed at Kunle’s head, he became familiar with the same trauma his best friend Sean warned him about.
Kunle and Carlos returned to their lab to find Sean. Kunle reconciled with his best friend. Days later, when Princeton accepted Kunle, it was a day of celebration. Maddie and Emma showed up at Kunle’s door to apologize. But when it came to Maddie’s confession, Kunle closed the door on her believing that she was a racist, and she wanted to kill him right away that night if it wasn’t for Carlos’s cousin.
The ending of Emergency sees Kunle being afraid of the police siren, thus suggesting that much like every other black man, even Kunle is haunted by the trauma he went through the other night.
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