Plot
Elwood Curtis’ college dream is shattered on a two-lane highway in Florida. Bearing the brunt of an innocent oversight, he is sentenced to incarceration at the hellish Nickel Academy, a brutal penitentiary lost deep in the Jim Crow South. He meets the second pupil, who saw it all in Turner. Two black teenagers form an alliance: Turner gives basic survival advice, Elwood warms to his optimistic outlook. Against the backdrop of the nascent civil rights movement, Ellwood and Turner’s existence seems far removed from the brilliant eloquence of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Despite Nickel’s cruelty, Elwood strives to retain his humanity, sparking a new vision for Turner.