Marcus (Anthony Mackie) returns to Philadelphia in 1976 after four years away. The occasion is the funeral of his father. His Muslim brother Bostic (Tariq Trotter) sees him as an irresponsible person who abandoned his family when they needed him. The rumor in the community is that Marcus, an ex-Black Panther, ratted on one of his comrades to the FBI. Dwayne "DoRight" Miller (Jamie Hector), the new Panther leader, is very hostile toward Marcus and has vowed revenge. The only one who still has feelings for Marcus is Patty (Kerry Washington), an old flame and friend, now a lawyer and community leader who feeds hungry children at her house and tries to watch over her angry cousin Jimmy (Amari Cheatom), who barely survives collecting and selling cans. Patty has not told her daughter Iris (Jamara Griffin) much about her Panther past and the violent death of her father.

When Marcus moves into Patty and Iris's house, all the ghosts of the past return, setting everyone on edge. Patty's new boyfriend, a businessman, exits from her life, realizing that she has no intention of moving out in new directions with him.

In her debut feature film, writer and director Tanya Hamilton has taken on a complicated and emotionally charged subject: how some African-Americans come to terms with the past and deal with their precarious present situation.

On the radio, President Jimmy Carter talks confidently about a new sense of hope arising in America, but it is certainly nowhere to be found in the raw antagonism and hatred between the white police who patrol the movie's Philadelphia neighborhood and the African-Americans who live there. Jimmy is harassed one time too many and gets a gun. He intends to recreate the violent protest of the Panthers against the "Pigs" who were constantly persecuting them. Meanwhile, Patty and Marcus are drawn back into a sexual relationship, and she comes to see that it is time to tell Iris about the facts of her father's demise. The only other person besides Marcus who knows the whole truth about the past is David Gordon (Wendell Pierce), detective. The bittersweet finale of Night Catches Us leaves us roiling in sadness over the fate of the lead characters as they start afresh, after battling the ghosts of the past.


Special features on the DVD include deleted and alternate scenes (including an alternate opening and ending); behind the scenes footage: "Confronting the Police"; interviews (including Black Panthers Bobby Seale, Jamal Joseph, Emory Douglas, and singer William "Darondo" Pulliam); a photo gallery; and HDNet: "A Look at Night Catches Us."