Genre: Drama/Gangster
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Writer: James Morgan
Prequel to The Raven in the Night
Cast: Robert De Niro, Alden Ehrenreich, Stanley Tucci, Sam Rockwell, Marisa Tomei, Viola Davis, Benjamin Walker, Pedro Pascal, Julianne Moore, Sophia Lillis
Plot: Carmine Tomino (Robert De Niro) likes to belive he's the most influent mob boss of the city and he certainly acts like one. Extravangant cars, expensive lifestyle, nice restaurants, basically everything you can think associated with an over-the-top lifestyle, Tomino does it. But in reality, Carmine is probably the poorest and less influent mob boss in town. He slowly lost the influence his father brought to the family. Younger, dynamic and more modern bosses took over the illegal activities in town. Tomino is sitting near a window in his luxurious penthouse, looking over the city. At some point, if he doesn't expand his activities, he won't be able to pay for that luxurious residence anymore and he will have to move and that's out of the equation. Thinking out loud, Tomino swears he will take back this city, street by street, avenue by avenue. He gets up, puts on his best looking suit and goes out, enters his car and signals to his chauffeur to go the meeting, he's late, He thinks they're going to wait for him to start, but he's wrong.
Stan Hollyfield (Sam Rockwell) is paying a visit to one of his clients who failed to pay him for the last weeks. Hollyfield's been controlling the illegal weapon market for a while now, but he's starting to expand into the illegal alcohol business, slowly taking over Tomino. It's rare to see the boss himself going to see a client, but Hollyfield is known to be quite the heavy hitter. It's in your best interest to pay him, believe me. He takes a bar stool and breaks it on the head of the client. He goes on about why his client should pay in time next month and why he doesn't accept a late payment. He asks one of his men to give him his hammer and starts beating the crap out of the man. With blood all over his face and clothes, he excuses himself in the bathroom, cleans himself up, ties the man to his bar and sets the place on fire. With the fire slowly consuming the building, Hollyfield and his men drive away, heading towards the meeting.
Antonio Landor (Pedro Pascal), the local drug lord has another woman in his bed, again. It seems like he has a new one every night, with wild stories to tell to his bodyguards everyday, just like he's doing right now. The drug market has been great to Landor, he's the richest man in the city, but what the other mob bosses don't know, is that he didn't make all his money in the drug trades. He's the head of the illegal prostitution market. He's evaluating three potential "workers" and declines to take them with him, stating that they're too ugly. He gives them to his men instead. As his bodyguards are pleasing themselves with the women, he leaves, alone, for the meeting.
The Gentlemen's Club is particularly agitated tonight and mob boss Monique Davis (Viola Davis) is particularly happy about that. With her considerable number of gentlemen's club, both legal and illegal, she's gained far more influence than he ever hoped. Not so long ago, she gained a chair at the mob's monthly reunions, a meeting she hates attending to, but still goes anyway. It's rare for a woman of color to reach such a high position in the criminal world, but Monique Davis isn't as sweet as she prentends to be. She has the reputation to be a sweet lady amongst her legal workers, but what many don't know about her is the absolute monster she becomes with her hidden ladies. Everybody knows about them, but they don't know how much pain and trouble they go through everyday. After she deals with a difficult client by stabbing him in the eye with one of her high heels, she goes out of the club to attend the meeting.
Hollyfield, Landor and Davis are all present at the meeting and they're waiting for Tomino to start. He's fifteen minutes late and Hollyfield decides to start anyway, after saying that the old man can go to hell, as he's always late, never agrees with any of them and he lives in the past too much. The topic of the day is the current leader in the race to become mayor, Henry Jacobs and his ideas regarding the organized crimes. They all decide that he must go. While they're plotting on how to kill the man, Carmine Tomino arrives and rapidly shuts down their hopes. He says that they must befriend the man, to let him live and to guarantee him to that he will if he lets them do whatever they want to do. The three others decline the proposition and move on to the next point after agreeing to get rid of Jacobs. Tomino says that they will regret that decision sooner or later and he leaves. The three others continue their discussion about their current affairs.
Henry Jacobs (Stanley Tucci) is speaking at a rally organized by his team to stop the organized crime from taking over the city after he alleges that the current administration is payed by the mob to stay quiet regarding their activities. He says that if he's elected, he will track down every single members of the mob and put them in prison, right where they belong. He says that he will clean the city from illegal drugs imported by Landor, weapons and alcohol imported by Hollyfield, the prostitution by Davis and the illegal gambling organized by Tomino's men. The crowd is fired up and he brings his family on stage with him, his wife Jackie (Julianne Moore) and his daughter Susan (Sophia Lillis). Johnny Bolton (Benjamin Walker) is watching Jacob's speech from his apartment with great anger. He's one of Hollyfield most trusted man and he received the task to take down Henry Jacobs, his big mouth and his great plans. He cleans up his shotgun, while he watches Jacobs' family on the podium.
After he stormed out of the meeting, Tomino returned to his penthouse to his wife, Natalia (Marisa Tomei). She notices his bad mood and asks him what happened. He tells her what the others want to do to Jacobs and they both agree that it musn't happen. Carmine tells his wife that he wants to start a war against the other gangs to take the city back, thinking he's still a big shot, but his wife quickly reminds him that no longer has that kind of influence and power. He sadly realises that everything his wife is telling is true and he tells her that he still has one last weapon that the others cannot stop : the Raven. The thought of the Raven scared Natalia, as she heard numerous gruesome stories about the man. People say he has killed more men than one can imagine and no one ever caught him. He strikes in the dark and nobody ever saw him in action, except Carmine. When Natalia asks Carmine why he knows the Raven, he tells her that he saw him kill a man once and in exchange for not killing him or ratting him out to the police, he told him that Tomino could request his services anytime he wants. Even if his wife doesn't agree, Carmine picks up the phone and calls the Raven.
Dan Roberts (Alden Ehrenreich) picks up his phone and answers to Carmine. He accepts his request to help him take back the city and he hangs up. He dresses up, in black from head to toe, in a suit, of course and leaves with his handguns and knives.
Henry Jacobs comes back home from a long day to his wife and daughter. Jackie prepared a nice dinner for the three of them to enjoy, away from all the cameras and the constant pressure on their shoulders. He discusses his plan to wipe out the mob and tells his wife everything he knows about the organized crime in the city. After they're done eating, Susan goes to her room and Henry washes the dishes. Johnny Bolton, who's been watching them for quite some time, takes pictures of Susan. Henry notices the flashes and goes out in his backyard. He looks for the photographer, but he doesn't see anything. He goes back to his wife and they call the police, seeking protection.
Antonio Landor loves to party, and tonight is no exception. His mansion is filled with girls and members of his gang. The music is loud and everyone either drank too much or did too much drugs. Earlier in the evening, Landor landed a major deal with a distributor to expand his activities to other cities. He also picked three or four girls his special packages he receives from time to time and brang them in his bedroom, where he promised them they would spend the best night of their life. As he's pleasing one of his girls, a little noise could be heard, but it was entirely impossible to hear with the loud music. A shadowy figures makes his way into Landor's bedroom. He shoots and kill the other three girls when finally Antonio notices him. He starts screaming at him and they fight. The unknown man quickly gains the advantage and he right before he slits Landor's throat open, says that Tomino sends his regards. The man is revealed to be the Raven. Everyone is still dancing and having fun and when a drunk man decides to enter in Landor's room, sees the wall covered in blood, spelling "I Warned You" and the corpse of now former mob boss, Antonio Landor.
The following morning, Landor's death is all over the news and everyone from Stan Hollyfield to Henry Jacobs is watching the news. Jacobs isn't sure when his wife tells him it's a great news, because he thinks that the mobs are at war. The only ones who are smiling in the morning are Carmine and Natalia Tomino. He receives a phone call from Monique Davis urging him to come tonight to an urgent meeting and to bring his guards, he might need them. He hangs up and laughs alongside his wife and they head towards the bed.
Before she goes to the meeting she called, Monique Davis needs to visit one of her illegal gentlemen's club, where girls are starting to cause trouble. She usually deals with her girls without arming them, but it's the third time in as many months that she needs to calm them down. She sends a message to one her girls by having one of her bodyguards beating her badly and she leaves for the meeting. Everyone, except Landor, is present, with their bodyguards, as Davis recommended.
Johnny Bolton received clear orders from Stan Hollyfield. While everyone was at the meeting, he was tasked to kidnap the Jacobs family, to allow Hollyfield to come and kill them later. However, Bolton never knew that police were called the day he took pictures of them, as he ran away the second after he saw that Jacobs had spotted him. He quickly kills the policemen who were guarding the door and he makes his way inside, threatening the Jacobs to follow him. He puts them in the trunk of his SUV and drives away.
The Raven also received instructions from Tomino, who wants to make his enemies vulnerable. Dan Roberts had to make his way into one of Davis' illegal club and blow it up. He makes his way into the club rather easily, carrying the bomb in his backpack. When he's in the club, he heads to the bathroom and plants the bomb. He's spotted by one of Davis' man and kills him rather easily. He gets out and the building explodes, as the Raven is walking away.
Davis is standing in the front of the window, looking the fire destroy one of her clubs, about two blocks from here. She immediatly thinks it's her girls who intentionally put the building on fire and storms off. Hollyfield and Tomino decide it's the right time to leave and they go out without exchanging a single word. Instead of going her destroyed club, Davis decided to go home and to get a much needed good night of sleep, if she was able to sleep at all, with everything that's going on at the moment. She enters her house, alone, goes straight to her bedroom and she changes. When she goes down to the kitchen, she's surprised to see that the light in the living room is on. When she enters the living room, she's surprised by the Raven, who strangles her with piano wire. He looks at her directly in the eyes, as she's slowly dying and says to her that Tomino sends his regards.
After he left Tomino, Hollyfield went to straight to the warehouse where Bolton is holding the Jacobs as hostages. He decides to have some fun with Henry after he explains to him why he kidnapped him. He decides to peel off the skins of his fingers and he's finally interrupted when he receives a phone call from Tomino. Hollyfield tells him where he's at and Tomino decides to come and see him. Stan prepares his men for a final assault on Tomino and Carmine does the same thing with his men. He personally called the Raven to instruct him to go the warehouse.
Carmine and Natalia Tomino get out of their car in front of the warehouse and decide to let one of their men go knock on the door. When the door opens, Johnny Bolton fires his shotgun directly at the guy, killing him. The shootout starts when Hollyfield decides to open the huge door. Holding the better position, Hollyfield's men gain a clear advantage in the long shootout, where everyone of Tomino's men is killed. Stan decides to head out of the warehouse to go and kill Tomino himself, only to find on the ground, dealing with the loss of Natalia, gunned down earlier. Stan tells him he won and takes him with him inside. He orders his men to leave, wanting to kill Tomino all by himself and they do so. He was starting to beat Carmine up, when Stan Hollyfield got killed by a sniper, revealed to be the Raven.
The Raven runs straight to the warehouse and frees Tomino. He thanks him for saving his life and the Raven runs away. Tomino frees the Jacobs who remained hidden during the shootout and he starts talking to Jacobs. He says it's not because he saved his life and that approves what he's doing. He mentions that he's the only mob boss remaining in the city and that he will have more power than he ever had. He says that he will let Jacobs run for mayor and he will let him to whatever he wants, but only if he lets Tomino do his business. With a heavy heart, Jacobs accepts. Tomino leaves the warehouse and calls the police, as the Jacobs are reunited and Carmine deals with Natalia's death.
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