WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Sinners.Ryan Coogler’s hit horror movie Sinners has raised plenty of discussion regarding Black history and historical figures with its epic tale of gangsters, blues singers, and vampires in 1930s Mississippi. Specifically, Sinners contains multiple references to real-life figures including Al Capone and Charlie Patton. However, one of the Sinners‘s main characters, Sammie Moore, is based on legendary blues musician Robert Johnson.
Given the musical influence of Robert Johnson and the myths surrounding him, it’s no surprise that this real-life figure inspired Coogler when developing Sammie’s character and story in 2025’s Sinners. The fact that Johnson was the inspiration for Sammie has also led to theories about the film similar to the ones about Johnson. Whether or not the theories about Sammie are true, it’s clear that both he and Johnson walked similar paths in life, making for powerful stories for modern audiences.
Sinners Is Inspired By Robert Johnson, A Blue Music Legend
Sinners Draws From The Life And Legacy Of One Of History’s Greatest Musicians
According to the Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, Johnson is a Black blues singer and guitarist from Mississippi who has become known as the “King of the Delta Blues Singers.” Throughout his 27 years of life, Johnson performed for people as a traveling musician, singing the blues in juke joints and recording classic songs like “Me and the Devil Blues,” “Love in Vain,” “Hellhound on My Trail,” “Cross Road Blues,” “Ramblin’ on My Mind,” and “Preachin’ Blues (Up Jumped the Devil).”
Johnson’s music has since echoed throughout history, influencing many popular artists like Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Robert Plant, and Johnny Winter. However, there is also a myth that Johnson had sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads to gain mastery over his guitar and achieve great success as a blues musician, which only added to his mystique as a musical legend.
Sammie Is Sinners’ Stand-In For Robert Johnson
Sammie’s Life And Legacy Is Very Similar To Robert Johnson’s
Since Sammie’s character was inspired by Robert Johnson, Miles Caton’s character in the film is very similar to that of a real-life musician. Like Johnson, Sammie is a young blues prodigy from Mississippi who started out playing at Smoke and Stack’s juke joint, longing to play the music he likes for people outside of Clarksdale. However, Sammie is forbidden from doing so by his preacher father, Jedidiah, who claims that the blues is the Devil’s music.
However, this traditional vampire film takes Jedidiah’s claim one step further by giving Sammie’s blues music the power to conjure spirits and attract evil, like Remmick. His music indirectly results in the deaths of his friends, cousins, and several other people, including his love interest, Pearline. Similar to Sammie, Johnson’s surviving family claims in the documentary, The Search for Robert Johnson, that Johnson’s playing of secular music resulted in the death of his wife during childbirth as an act of “divine punishment.”
How Sammie’s Story Directly Connects To Robert Johnson
There Are Theories About Sammie Similar To Those About Johnson In Sinners
Due to Robert Johnson’s influence on Sammie’s character, there’s a popular theory about Sinners saying that the latter also sold his soul to the Devil for the success he found later in life as a musician. It is believed that Sammie was actually performing for the Devil in the film’s post-credits, leading to their Faustian bargain. Sammie’s home of Clarksdale is even believed to be where Johnson met the Devil at the crossroads.
Sammie’s story even seems to be echoed in Johnson’s song, “Me and the Devil Blues.” Like the singer described in the song, Sammie seems to have left his home at the end of Sinners with the Devil at his side after turning his back on his preacher father. Though this wasn’t a complete denial of Jedidiah’s religion, Sammie did refuse to live without the freedom of expression he enjoyed by playing the blues, going against what his father believed to be pure.
Sammie also seems to have achieved a level of fame and fortune comparable to Johnson in roughly 80 years of life.
While Johnson had a short life, having been poisoned at age 27, Sammie lived much longer in Sinners. In fact, the film ends by cutting to the latter performing in Chicago in the 1990s, six decades after leaving Clarksdale. Sammie also seems to have achieved a level of fame and fortune comparable to Johnson in roughly 80 years of life, owning a nightclub and having made multiple records. Had Johnson lived to be the same age as Sammie, this could’ve been where the former ended up in life.
What Ryan Coogler Has Said About Robert Johnson’s Influence On Sinners
The Creator Of Sinners Highlighted How Robert Johnson Impacted The Story’s Character And Themes
Sinners writer-director Ryan Coogler has touched upon the deliberate parallels between Sammie and Robert Johnson in the movie. In an interview with Mashable, Coogler described the choice Sammie and his family face in Sinners as a “Faustian deal” that connects to the film’s core themes:
“A Delta blue legend of a man selling his soul to be good at guitar for the remainder of his life. You know, that kind of exchange, when you’ve been dealt a bad hand by society or by faith, what are you willing to give up to escape that?”
Coogler added that vampirism was a way out of this situation, but it also had a “very high cost.” Indeed, Sammie had to sacrifice a lot to pursue his dream of playing the blues, as he was forced to leave his father and move to Chicago to pursue his pᴀssion. However, he never succumbed to temptation when Stack offered to make him immortal by turning him into a vampire. Likewise, Sammie’s friends and loved ones, who have experienced several hardships, including systemic racial oppression, never willingly accepted Remmick’s offer of eternal companionship when he and his clan tried to turn them into vampires.
In the end, Sinners shined a spotlight on one of music’s most legendary figures through Sammie. This musical master achieved success and experienced tragedies similar to Johnson, albeit to an extreme degree. They also have a comparable amount of dark mystery surrounding their characters, which makes them seem like mythical figures. While Johnson’s legacy has impacted generations since his death, it seems like Sammie’s dark but epic story will continue to be discussed by audiences for quite a while.
Source: Robert Johnson Blues Foundation, Mashable
