Everyone’s given up on Cole. He’s being expelled from another school. His principal leaves a voicemail for his overworked mom, Amahle, that Cole has been disruptive again and had to be restrained. So even before we meet Cole, we learn that he’s “wild.” At school, Amahle tries to reason with the principal and officers while he’s handcuffed to a chair outside the principal’s office.
Later, while in the car, Cole notices his clothes packed in 2 garbage bags in the back seat. Amahle admits that she’s taking him to stay with his dad, Harp, for the summer in Philly.
“This life isn’t working for you Cole. You are drowning out here. You are going to drown.” That’s the theme. We’ll piece together later that she’s comparing him to his father who did 5 years in prison when Cole was a baby. She left Philly with Cole for Detroit and this will be Cole’s first time back since.
By night, they arrive in Philly at Harp’s house. She bangs on the door and then calls Harp on the phone. She tells Cole to wait on the stoop for his dad. He bangs on the car window, begging her not to leave. But she pulls off, abandoning him on the stoop with his 2 garbage bags of clothes.
Harp’s neighbor, Nessie, recognizes Cole. She remembers him when he was a baby. Of course, he doesn’t remember her. She tells Cole where his father is — at the Fletcher Street stables.
Cole drags himself and his bags to the stables where he finds his dad, Harp, boozing with some Fletcher Street Riders.
Horses neigh, which we’ll hear throughout the film, to get Cole’s attention.
Cole and Harp have an old fashion Western standoff. Then Harp offers to tote one of Cole’s garbage bags, but Cole pulls away. Stubborn. They are estranged.
They arrive at Harp’s house. Cole is shocked to find a malnourished stallion (named Chuck) in the living room. Cole realizes his father has been taking care of a horse, instead of him. He doesn’t believe anyone loves him. He feels abandoned. To Cole, everything will feel like cold, hard concrete — including his dad’s couch. This is the tone of the film.
Cole threatens to leave. But if he does, Harp will leave him outside until morning.
Cole rifles through the fridge and cabinets hunting for food — there is only “stale beer and cheese slices.” He cries himself to sleep.
The next morning, Cole hits the concrete — on the corner — begging strangers to use their phone to call his mom. No one helps.
Then, his childhood friend, and street hustler Smush, pulls up. It takes Cole a few seconds to recognize Smush.
Smush calls him “young boul,” which is Philly slang for dude, guy or buddy. It is pronounced BULL. I point this out because Cole is a young bull on the loose, running buck wild and needs to be tamed before it’s too late. Later we’ll find out that Chuck, the stallion in Harp’s living room, was Smush’s horse and that he won trophies riding Chuck. And we’ll also see that Smush doesn’t have anyone who loves him. He was abandoned, just like Cole. And, we’ll see that Smush abandoned Chuck for street life. But now that Cole’s back in town, Smush has someone to love. So Smush treats Cole like his stallion Chuck.
They ride off and reminisce about when they were younger. And for a brief time, Cole realizes Smush is the only one who takes the time to care. Smush tells Cole, “Home ain’t a place, dummy. It’s fam, aight? You got fam here.” This is the reiteration of the theme. With Smush, Cole can let down his guard. Smush tells him he’s seen plenty of kids get dropped off at the stoop, never to go back to their moms so he might as well adjust to life in Philly.
Cole asks Smush for $20 for bus fare. But Smush needs Cole. He needs something/someone to love like he loved his horse, Chuck.
Smush drops Cole off at Harp’s as day breaks. Harp tosses Cole’s garbage bags onto the street. Harp threatens Smush and makes him drive off. Harp tells Cole if he wants to live the street life with Smush, he can’t stay with him.
Cole roams the streets with his garbage bags. He drops by Smush’s house. Smush’s mother, Trena, tells Cole that she doesn’t run an orphanage and that he’s not welcome. She slams the door in his face. Again, Cole feels abandoned on the cold, hard concrete.
Shots ring out in the distance. This frightens Cole. He flees to Nessie’s house. But Nessie tells him she has house rules, just like Harp. She says she’ll pray for him, but that’s it. Every door has been slammed in Cole’s face.
They think they’re breaking Cole like they break horses. But Cole’s already broken because he’s unloved.
Cole breaks into the stables and meets his match in a wild and dangerous stallion named Boo. Boo warms up to Cole. They understand each other. They’re unloved, wild stallions. Harp bought Boo at an auction. His former handlers couldn’t break Boo, because he’s wild. Harp was supposed to break Boo, but couldn’t. Boo is feared so everyone left him alone — abandoned, like Cole.
The next morning, Nessie finds Cole bunked with Boo. She lays out the rules of the stables and threatens that if he doesn’t follow them, he won’t be allowed to stay there.
Cole finally drags back to Harp’s house and promises not to ride with Smush. Harp gives him a job to keep him busy — cleaning the stables. Cole reluctantly accepts.
Later, he rides with Smush again. Cole tells Smush that Harp can’t know they’re hanging out or he’ll get thrown out again. Smush gives Cole a pair of Js. Cole’s confusing “love” with “attention.” So far, his mom overworks so he wasn’t getting enough attention from her. Harp wasn’t around — and even now while Cole is staying with him, he’s paying more attention to the horses and little attention to Cole.
The next morning, Nessie gives Coles chores in the stables — shoveling horse manure. It takes him all day to shovel very little. This beat proves that a young bull, like Cole, doesn’t know everything. And being bull-headed makes your journey longer. He even drops poo on his new Js.
While cleaning his sneakers, he vents to Fletcher Park rider, Esha. She reiterates the theme: “Horses aint the only thing that need breaking around here.” This doesn’t register with Cole. He’s still resisting the journey.
Later, Fletcher Street rider, Paris, comes to Cole’s aid to show him that one shovel at a time will take too long.
A rooster crows and horses neigh in the background. This is a figurative alarm clock for Cole, but he doesn’t realize it.
Paris “breaks in” Cole. Tells him he’s going to be a mucker — someone who cleans up muck or mess. That’s what his father, Harp, does for a living. He’s a sanitation worker. Cole’s on the same path as Harp. But Paris claims he’ll fix Cole today as he directs him to shovel all the stalls.
Paris directs Cole to walk the plank of the “shitpit” which is also a metaphor for Cole’s bullish path. Cole struggles, but makes it.
Then he has to clean Boo’s stall — a metaphor for cleaning up this mess he’s making of his own life. Boo begins nickering — showing he’s comfortable around Cole and that it’s okay to enter the stall.
As Cole cleans Boo’s stall, Paris tells him the story of his little brother’s tragic demise and why he named his own horse Little.
Even though it’s later in the morning, the rooster crows again — for Cole to wake up. Even though Paris (at this moment) can’t physically ride his horse, Little, he still cares for him, because he’s unable to care for his little brother. Just like Harp was unable to care for Cole, but cares for the horses.
That night, the Fletcher Street cowboys sit fireside telling stories about the forgotten Black cowhands.
Nessie feeds us the moral of the story. She explains, “People used to believe breaking a horse meant crushing the will of the animal, dominating ’em, making ’em believe that the only way it was gonna survive was to submit, right? Well, Black folks, we knew that a horse wasn’t meant to be dominated. A horse was meant to be free. Only way you can realize its true spirit, its nature, is through love.” This is the moral essense of the movie.
Cole can’t be dominated, but he also can’t be free, because you’ll never truly be free without love.
Harp skips the subject, defers to Uncle Charlie — one of the original Fletcher Street Cowboys — to tell the rich history all around West Philly. Harp can’t give love he never received himself. He even refers to himself as an orphan, but doesn’t realize Cole feels that way — feeling abandoned by him and his own mother.
Cop Leroy rolls up and warns that developers are coming. That the city will find a way to shut them down just like they did all the other stables in Philly.
Another message comes from Cowboy Georgie who plays his harmonica and sings a blues song about being abandoned. Again, Harp distracts with a freestyle about Cop Leroy. Harp is not accepting his role in Cole’s brokenness.
Later, Cole and Smush attend a house party.
Smush has an intense conversation with Jalen — an o.g. or old boul. Jalen suspects that Smush might be plotting to rob his young bouls on “his” corners. He questions how Cole got his Js. Cole lies, claiming his dad bought them. Jalen knows Cole is lying. Cole’s afraid. So is Smush. Jalen dismisses them and they go enjoy the party.
Next morning, Cole is at the stables cleaning Little for Paris. Paris explains why he’s wheelchair bound — fighting over territory he doesn’t own. A corner that was always owned by the city, now graced with a Starbucks. That altercation got him and his little brother shot. His brother died and he remains paralyzed.
That night, he’s hanging with Smush. Smush is a lost boul, like Cole, so when he attempts to drop knowledge on Cole with an analogy about lions and rabbits, it doesn’t make sense. But he tells Cole that as long as he sticks with him, he’ll be okay. The dilemma for Cole is, he can’t use the advice he gets from Nessie and survive Smush’s world.
The next day, Cole hangs at the stables with the riders, bonding. Then Harp crashes it with an accessible saddle for Paris that he’d been working on for a while. Paris is loaded onto Harp’s pickup truck and taken to a field to ride a horse. Cole offers to help, but Harp rejects him. This hurts Cole deeply. Harp is caring more for Paris than Cole. There’s no love for Cole here. Cole heads back to Harp’s house and packs his garbage bags.
Harps busts in for another showdown with Cole. He throws his bags and tells Cole he’s not ‘riding with Smush.’ Cole says he’s riding with himself, like he’s been doing his whole life.
Harp tells him he’ll die in the streets with Smush. As Cole cries, he asks Harp why he hates him. Harp is stunned. It just hit him. It’s been subconscious.
Harp plays a Coltrane record and tells Cole the backstory of naming him and how he had to do 5 years in jail running buck wild in the streets. But he fled from the cops long enough to meet Cole and name him. It’s not love and it’s no substitute for love. It’s the only way Harp thinks he can connect and get through to Cole.
Later, Cole is back with Smush. The stakes are higher. Smush is robbing Jalen and gives Cole a cut of the money. Cole knows they could get killed for this. Cole now has enough money to get back to Detroit, but it’s too late to turn back now.
Smush takes Cole to his house to show him the game plan. Smush is saving up to escape Philly and flip ranches.
Cole learns that Smush once was a Fletcher street rider and a good one. Smush still has his trophies, saddle and boots. His stallion was the very one in Harp’s house — Chuck. Smush promises to teach Cole how to vault his own horse.
Smush wants a way out of the muck.
Later that night when Cole arrives back to Fletcher St and finds out that Boo broke out of his stable. All the riders search for him and find him at a ballpark a few blocks away in the gentrified section of Philly. Boo is running wild, not letting anyone near him.
Harp and the riders form a fence around Boo — which is exactly what Cole doesn’t have — a fence around him. When Harp tries to lure Boo, Nessie reminds him that it’s Cole’s horse. She contends, “You know what that horse needs.” This is a metaphor for what Cole needs. A fence of love and support — that’s what will tame him.Cole has to be the one to tame Boo. Cole resists initially and eventually builds up the courage to approach Boo. Boo resists. As Cole tries to mount Boo, Boo bucks. Cole hates the lesson, but it’s one he needs to learn. He finally mounts Boo. The young boul soothes Boo and calls him a good boy.
It starts to rain — a metaphor for the seeds or nuggets of truth that have been planted in Cole to begin to grow.
The next day, he spends some time with Esha. She gives him a ranch hat — not as glamorous as Js, but a metaphoric crown. He’s officially a Fletcher Street Cowboy.
The Fletcher Street cookout rolls around.
Rome and Harp race horses like new-age lone rangers. Cole tries to mask that he’s impressed when Harp wins.
Later, Cole’s back riding with Smush. They arrive at an undisclosed field. Cole is setup. Jalen runs up on Smush for robbing him and stuffs him in the trunk, Cop Leroy crashes the scene as Jalen pulls off with the trunk still open and Smush inside. Smush manages to jump out. Then he and Cole flee on foot.
Cop Leroy chases them down, like untamed stallions who need to be broken. They manage to get away. They hide out in a tunnel surrounded by concrete.
This series of events wasn’t scary enough for Smush. He threatens to keep going — to “take what’s his, despite Jalen who was about to kill him.”
The seeds of truth Cole has been getting is beginning to resonate. Smush tells Cole that everyone who was supposed to take care of him abandoned him. Smush tells Cole that they’re alone in the world.
Cole abandons Smush in the concrete tunnel. Cole ends up in the stables with Boo.
The next day, Cole plays basketball with Esha who’s mounted on her horse. He later asks if she’ll teach him how to stand on a horse. He doesn’t believe Smush will live long enough to teach him.
Cop Leroy pulls up and takes Cole for a ride in the squad car. He takes Cole to a racetrack. Shows him that he can live an honest life. He tells Cole, “You don’t have to get out to grow up.”
Later, he’s back with Esha asking her again to teach him how to stand on a horse. They share a kiss. This isn’t going anywhere, but at least Cole gets to learn that he’s lovable or worthy of love.
That night when he’s alone, he tries to stand on a horse, but he’s afraid. He thought he was ready, but isn’t.
The next day, animal control confiscates the Fletcher Street horses citing poor treatment, violating city ordinances and malnourishment. Cole fights them as they try to take Boo. Harp tells him to calm down before they arrest him. He calls Harp a coward and storms off, realizing that Harp never fought for him either.
Cole ends up back in the tunnel where Smush has been hiding out. Smush tells Cole he’s been chasing stillness his whole life — trying his best to run away from the street life. He tells Cole wherever they go, it’ll be quiet. What he means is — wherever they go, they’ll be free like stallions were intended to be.
Later, Smush and Cole are back at the drop spot. He tells Cole to be his lookout and drops him off a block away.
Cole’s head is on a swivel — on the lookout.
He hears shots ring out and finds that Smush has been shot in the driver’s seat of his car. Cole runs to his rescue, but it’s too late. Smush is dead. Abandoned on the cold, hard concrete.
Cole flees the scene. Leroy tells Harp that Cole was there when Smush was shot and that he’s gotta find his son.
Harp, Nessie and others search for Cole for days. Harp finally finds him hiding out in the abandoned stables. He makes sure he’s alive and not hurt. Then he cleans all the blood off Cole — washing him down like a horse. This is the most attention Harp has ever paid Cole. He drops a nugget of truth.
Harp says he feels like he’s always had a boot on his neck. That his mother would tell him to watch his back out there in the streets. But what kind of life is that if you have to keep looking over your shoulder. That the only home Harp has ever known was on the back of a horse.
Harp tells Cole that they have to bust Chuck out of the Police stables to give Smush a proper home-going — give him his last ride.
Cole takes a minute with Boo. Tells him he missed him.
Then they get caught by Cop Leroy who said he’s been waiting days for them to do something like this. He gives Harp, Cole and the horses a head start.
They hide out in the tunnel — just like Smush did.
Days later, they take the horses to memorialize Smush. Cole puts Smush’s riding boots on his grave. Then, he drums up the courage to mount Chuck. So Smush taught Cole how to stand on a horse after all.
The stables are eventually condemned. Cole urges Harp to do something. Harp contends that the stables didn’t make them — it’s just a temporary place — it’s not home. That home isn’t a place, it’s a family. And like free stallions, they’re gunna ride.
There’s a young boul and his mom on a bus. It’s unclear if he’s going to be dropped off at a stoop or being picked up, but he’s mesmerized by the Fletcher Street Riders as they ride their horses.
At the end of summer, Amahle arrives — maybe to pick up Cole, maybe to check in on him. She’s so grateful to Harp. She embraces Cole — she really missed him. But more than anything, thankful that he’s alive.
As credits roll, the Real Fletcher Street Riders tells their stories and their rich history.
