Compelling drama of three young black men and the hard-knock lives they lead in South Central Los Angeles. Tre (Cuba Gooding Jr.) is a bright underachiever. When he seems headed for trouble, his mother sends him to live with his father, "Furious" Styles, an uncompromising disciplinarian played by Fishburne. Ricky (Morris Chestnut) is a gifted athlete headed for a college football scholarship while his half-brother Doughboy (Ice Cube), a gangbanger-in-the-making, is drifting toward a life of drugs, alcohol and violence. The neighborhood is accustomed to all kinds of indignity and crime but escalating gang mayhem threatens a tragic ending for all.