After Sinners’ New Backstory Reveal, It’s Obvious Smoke & Stack Were Doomed Even Without Vampires

by

From the start, the film portrays a venture destined to fail. The first part focuses on brothers Smoke and Stack, nicknamed the Smokestack twins, returning to their Mississippi hometown to open a bar. We quickly learn about the challenges they face: the danger posed by the Ku Klux Klan, the struggle to make the business profitable in their community, and the risk that Chicago gangsters will discover they were robbed and seek retribution. These were all problems the brothers anticipated, and likely braced themselves for.

Ultimately, Club Juke’s hopes were destroyed by Remmick, a vampire who happened to be in town and was attracted to the unique music of Smoke and Stack’s cousin, Sammie. The film suggests a massacre was almost unavoidable. While Annie’s understanding of the supernatural gave them some fighting chance, Remmick’s arrival immediately doomed their plan, even if Smoke and Stack had escaped unharmed.

If the vampires hadn’t existed in Sinners, how would the characters have done? After learning more about their history from director Ryan Coogler, I believe their troubles were unavoidable the second they got back home.

Smoke & Stack Would’ve Ended Up Divided No Matter What

During a recent conversation on the In Proximity podcast, hosted by Ryan Coogler’s production company Proximity Media, Coogler and Michael B. Jordan discussed the history they developed for the twin brothers featured in Sinners. They revealed the brothers had been estranged for around three years after returning from World War I. This separation began when Stack started a relationship with Mary, who had been close to them like a younger sister. Smoke didn’t approve, leading them to go their separate ways. During this time, Smoke started a family with Annie. The brothers only reconnected after their child passed away, and then they both joined Al Capone’s gang in Chicago.

The history between the brothers explains the immediate tension between Mary and Smoke. While it initially seems Smoke is concerned about the danger Mary poses to their business – being a white woman with a white husband – the real issue is the complicated relationship between the brothers themselves. Stack’s past connection with Mary originally created a rift between them, and bringing that up again threatens to do so once more.

This background is crucial to understanding how the twins interact with their former partners. These conversations aren’t just about dealing with returning home; they’re being pulled back into their individual pasts. As they reconnect with Mary and Annie, the risk of them drifting apart again increases – particularly if Stack and Mary are forced to flee because their mixed-race relationship is exposed.

Before Remmick arrives in Sinners, the story shows the beginnings of Club Juke, but also hints at Smoke and Stack heading towards another split. Even if they managed to overcome the Klan’s threats and their financial problems, they couldn’t help but be drawn back to their past lives. Their relationship was doomed the instant they arrived in Clarksdale, regardless of whether they realized it at the time.

The ending of Sinners reinforces this idea of inevitable destiny. In a crucial moment, Smoke, still holding onto his humanity, can’t bring himself to kill his vampire brother, Stack, and lets him escape. Smoke later dies, finding peace in the afterlife with his wife, Annie, and their child. Sixty years later, Stack and Mary are the only vampires who appear to have survived the sunrise, and they visit Sammie as he’s nearing the end of his life. Looking at it this way, Remmick’s arrival didn’t change their ultimate fate, but rather sped up the process.

Read More

2026-01-29 20:08