Warning: Spoilers ahead for Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s period supernatural horror movie Sinners is excellent from start to finish, but one scene in particular will be referenced and rewatched for years to come. Starring Michael B. Jordan in dual roles at the head of an outstanding ensemble cast, Sinners has generated record-breaking Rotten Tomatoes’ scores since the first critic reviews were released. Coogler’s fifth collaboration with Michael B. Jordan may be a vampire movie on the surface, but at its core it’s an examination of history and a celebration of music, both of which come together in a single breathtaking one-sH๏τ.
The scene occurs halfway through the well-reviewed Sinners, and is set in Club Juke, the former sawmill-turned-juke joint by Smoke and Stack Moore (Jordan). As Miles Caton’s Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore begins to play earnestly with the night in full swing, Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie, familiar with the occult, notes that some people have the gift of “…making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death, conjuring spirits from the past…and the future.” The soulful blues music that Sammie plays has that magical quality, and Coogler delivers an incredible one-sH๏τ to demonstrate its power.
Sinners’ Oner Scene In Club Juke Explained
The Camera Explores Both The Club And The History of Music
The one-sH๏τ begins with Sammie playing his resonator guitar and singing the song “I Lied to You”, an original song written by his character to his preacher father, whose guidance he disobeyed to play at Club Juke. As Annie’s ethereal description of the magical power of music mentions “the future”, a costumed guitarist playing an anachronistic electric guitar comes into the frame alongside Sammie. The camera circles the two guitarists before revealing a 1990s-era DJ spinning hip-hop turntables, and continues to move around the various parts of the club.
Miles Caton, who plays Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore in Sinners, was a child musical prodigy; Sinners is his first acting role, but he has been performing around the world for years.
As the camera wanders around the club, it pans over many different types of musicians from all across time. Some, like the electric guitarist and the DJ, are from the future relative to the 1930s setting, while others are clearly from the past, originating even as far back in history as Africa before the transatlantic slave trade. The dreamlike sequence displays the progression of music that evolved into the Mississippi Blues at the center of Sinners, and how those roots laid the foundation for modern hip-hop, rock and roll, and pop music.
All Musical References In Sinners’ Club Juke One-SH๏τ Scene
The Montage Covers The Past, Present, And Future Of Music
The 1930s Mississippi setting of Sinners places it at a pivotal point in the development of American music in general, but specifically the genres that have their roots in African-American music. The one-sH๏τ scene manages to fit in several key genres and subgenres of music that fall into the timeline, with everything from fully-costumed West African tribal dancers and drummers to 1980s sweatsuit-clad breakdancers to West Coast reality rappers dancing to the lead synth “G-Funk Whistle”. It’s an engrossing sequence that detaches the club from reality for a powerful two and a half minutes.
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All Music Types Featured In Sinners‘ Club Juke One-SH๏τ |
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Mississippi Blues |
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Rock and Roll |
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Turntablism |
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Hip-hop |
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Ragtime |
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Traditional West African music |
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Trap |
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G-Funk |
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Rap |
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Beijing Opera |
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Traditional East African music |
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Rhythm & Blues |
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Jazz |
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Funk |
Per IndieWire, director of pH๏τography Autumn Durald Arkapaw had only a single shooting day to capture the montage, but she managed to accomplish it. By attaching an IMAX camera to a steadicam device, they were able to manuever it around the club while the various artists performed at their marks, with sound manipulated to focus on the group of artists that the camera focused on at each moment. It required precision timing and plenty of rehearsal, but the finished product is undoubtedly worth the effort, as it’s the movie’s most electrifying sequence by far.
The Club Juke Sequence Isn’t Just One Of Sinners’ Best Scenes, It’s One Of The Best Movie Moments Of 2025
The Craftsmanship And Detail In The Scene Is Unmatched (So Far)
The Club Juke one-sH๏τ of course stands out in the context of Sinners, but I think it goes well beyond that. The sheer planning and timing that goes into making any extended one-sH๏τ work is an odyssey in itself, but the fact that Coogler and Arkapaw were able to manage it with so many performers involved is beyond impressive. The direction is fantastic as well, as Coogler manages to bounce back and forth between the past, present, and future so fluidly that there is no delineation between time or space; the different genres blend together into one cohesive sound.
Coogler uses the one-sH๏τ to play with time and space like putty, making music and dance his tools in painting the history of black music.
The extended one-sH๏τ has become more commonplace as filmmaking techniques have evolved, but I can’t recall a better use of it than what Coogler managed. At times it feels gimmicky, executed only as a way to distinguish a project and not for an original, impactful reason. Coogler uses the one-sH๏τ to play with time and space like putty, making music and dance his tools in painting the history of black music. The ingenuity on display makes the Sinners Club Juke one-sH๏τ the best movie moment of 2025, and I’ll be shocked if any scene finds a way to beat it.
Source: IndieWire
