Highest 2 Lowest is a 2025 crime thriller film directed by Spike Lee, and is an English language remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film High and Low, in turn based on the 1960 Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel King's Ransom.
The film stars Denzel Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, A$AP Rocky, and Ice Spice in her film debut.
The film was released theatrically in the United States by A24 on August 15, before it was made available on Apple TV+ on September 5.
Highest 2 Lowest provides examples of:
- Actionized Adaptation: In the original High and Low, the police simply arrest the kidnapper after they locate his hideout following a brief chase. In this movie, King and Paul decide to go after the kidnapper personally, with King interrupting the kidnapper's recording session, getting into a rap battle with him, then the kidnapper engaging in a shootout with King and Paul, King chasing him onto a subway train, and finally subduing the kidnapper in a fistfight between moving cars.
- Adaptational Jerkass:
- Strangely mixed with Adaptational Nice Guy: King's business partner betrays him like in the original film, but it's shown it's partially out of righteous anger at the fact King was seriously contemplating not paying the ransom money instead of pure greed like in the original film, and his business partner gives King a massive asschewing while doing so.
- The kidnapper in the original was more motivated out of revenge as who he saw as a rich asshole flaunting his wealth; in this movie, it's partially an excuse as the kidnapper is a greedy Attention Whore.
- King is made out even worse here for (initially) refusing to pay the money — not only is it set in 2025, where class divisions and economic inequality have worsened and will make King refusing to pay the money look even worse, King's business partner and son point out that, with social media and the internet, he has no shot at burying whatever bad PR him refusing to pay the ransom causes.
- Adaptational Job Change: The protagonist of High and Low worked as an executive for a shoe company, while David King in this film works in the music industry.
- Adaptational Name Change: The protagonist of King's Ransom was named Douglas King; here, his first name is David.
- Adaptation Title Change: Based off of High and Low.
- Art Shift: Spike Lee remains true to form, inserting a stylized, fourth-wall breaking surrealist intrusion into the narrative near the end of the film for pure didactic impact.
- Battle Rapping: When King finally confronts the kidnapper — who is in a recording booth mid-rap — the subsequent interrogation and Motive Rant is patterned after a battle rap, with both King and Yung Felon even throwing in actual battle rapping.
- Big Applesauce: Glittering high-rises, gritty alleys, the subway full of obnoxious Yankees fans running through money-making Manhattan - New York is almost a character in its own right here. The climax heavily features a Puerto Rican parade and local NYC musicians while factoring in the famous subway.
- Big Fancy House: David and Pam’s palatial DUMBO duplex. It’s flawlessly curated, stuffed with art by luminaries like Basquiat and Kehinde Wiley, and sports/music memorabilia galore.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: For all his talk about feeding his lady and his kid, Yung Felon is quick to call his baby mama a "bitch" for "snitching", even though it's his fault that he kept blasting his music over and over enough for Kyle to ID him and it's no fault of her own that she had no idea David was on to Yung Felon. His final scene makes it clear he's an Attention Whore who can't even comprehend the fact David might not like the fact he threatened to murder an innocent civilian — his godson, no less, and thinks David is an idiot for not thinking about money, all the while mugging it for the fans who think he was an altruist at heart.
- Black Comedy: Paul, pulling out an enormous handgun.
David: Insurance. That’s Jake from State Farm.
- When David takes Paul's gun for himself, Paul pulls out an even bigger gun that he calls Mayhem
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: During the ransom dropoff, once the brakes are pulled, the NY baseball fans begin chanting "BOSTON PULLED THE EMERGENCY BRAKES", with the leader chanting right into the camera.
- Broken Pedestal: Yung Felon idolized David King, to the point of him naming his son after him.
- The Cameo: Rosie Perez and Anthony Ramos make a brief appearance as themselves at the Puerto Rican Day parade midway through the film.
- Celebrity Paradox:
- Paul's second 'insurance' handgun is dubbed 'Mayhem.' Dean Winters, who plays Mayhem, is an NYPD officer here; ironically, he has an adversarial relationship with Paul.
- King has paintings created by Jean-Michel Basquiat in his penthouse. Jeffrey Wright played Basquiat in a 1996 biopic called Basquiat.
- Character Tic: King frequently chews on his bottom lip when thinking hard.
- Cool Car: King’s two-tone Rolls-Royce Ghost.
- Creator Provincialism: Spike Lee + New York City. Notably, it's his first feature to be set in NYC since Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, released in 2014.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Averted. There is some reason to believe that King is taking matters into his own hands, not because he doesn’t trust cops, but because he wants to handle Young Felon by the streets. However, when King gets the upper hand on the train fight, he doesn’t cross the line past neutralizing him.
- Ear Worm: After being rescued, one of the only things Kyle can remember about where he was kept hostage is the song playing in an adjacent room. This turns out to be one of the biggest clues to finding the kidnapper; the song is on one of the demo playlists Trey gave to David, and he recognizes the song while listening to it.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: This is part of the kidnapper's motivation — “I gotta feed the streets, my lady and a newborn kid.” When he had no music deals, he turned to crime.
- Evil Plan: The kidnapper has a pretty basic one: Abduct an executive's son and demand ransom. He accidentally kidnaps one of the kid's friends instead.
- Eye Scream: When Paul tries to stop Yung Felon from escaping his confrontation with David, Felon shoots at the car, causing glass from the windshield to go into his eye. We later see him at the hospital with a bandage over it, with it unclear on its status, though it’s implied he will make a recovery, possibly including his eye.
- Hand Cannon: Before the final confrontation, David's got a modest gun... and Paul's got a massive Desert Eagle. “I got the four-pounder sittin’ right here, don’t try nothin’ funny.” He doesn't get to use it.
- Holdingthefloor: King does this magnificently when confronting Young Felon in the studio.
- Honest Corporate Executive: For King, it’s all about the music. He eventually starts his own smaller label to keep the focus there.
- Letters 2 Numbers: The title of the movie.
- Lighter and Softer: A more comedic version of the story than the Japanese film. Does not have any character deaths, whereas the kidnapper poisons his heroin addict henchmen in the original.
- Meaningful Name: Yung Felon. A whole critique of how society names, brands, and codifies people, all in one rap moniker.
- Mistaken Kidnapper: King’s godson Kyle gets kidnapped after being mistaken for Trey.
- Neutral Female: Whereas the original movie had Kondo's wife actively plead with Kondo to pay the money, here, King's wife just says she'll support what might happen next. Instead, it is King's son and even King's business partner who convince him.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Yomg Felon tries to portray his relationship this way with David. For his part, David entertains the notion though he’s really just Holding the Floor. This also ties into Spike Lee and source material Akira Kurosawa’s fascination with doppelgänger themes.
- Phone-Trace Race: David is encouraged to talk slowly and stay calm to keep the kidnapper on the phone for as long as possible.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: The kidnapper refers to his girlfriend and mother of his child as "a bitch", which offends David King enough to call him out on.
- Ransom Drop: Literally, in this case. King loses his balance and drops the backpack full of Swiss francs off the side of the subway.
- Recording Studio Scene: The big confrontation between David and the kidnapper takes place in a basement studio.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: David King, aka King David. A flawed and powerful man facing a moral trial. The name itself enacts the tension between wealth and humanity.
- Screw the Money, This Is Personal!: Yung Felon offers King the opportunity to sign him and to capitalize on the virality of the moment. King turns him down, even remarking (prior to meeting Yung Felon again in prison) that 25 years isn't enough for what he did to Kyle.
- Self-Made Man: King’s hustle, vision and raw talent helped create his empire. The film interrogates whether “self-made” really ever means independent of the system.
- Shout-Out:
- Multiple references to Toni Morrison are tucked into the film, including a large portrait of her hanging in the King family home, the singer at the end named Sula, and Paul’s habit of calling David “beloved”. Pam even says her favorite book is The Bluest Eye.
- The company that offers to buy David King's shares of his record label is called Stray Dog, named after another Kurosawa film.
- The apartment where Rosa Fuentes lives has the number A24, which is also the name of the company that distributed the movie theatrically.
- Special Thanks: At the end of the credits there's a credit saying "Inspired by the master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa", giving his name both in English and in Japanese, then showing the 1963 poster and the credit to Toho and High and Low.
- Stealth Pun: A man named King has someone close to him kidnapped for ransom: “king’s” ransom.
- Take That!: Being the unapologetically proud New Yorker that he is, Spike Lee takes some blatant potshots at Boston and the Red Sox, with Yankees fans flooding the subway in the film's second act, chanting "Boston sucks!"
- Technology Marches On: Invoked, befitting the Setting Update: plot points from the original movie and the novel it's based on no longer work, such as King hoping that the bad PR will pass
- Title Drop: The name of the song performed at the end of the movie is "Highest to Lowest."
- Tranquil Fury: When Trey loses control and yells at his father over the fact King is basically going to let his best friend die, King's voice suddenly drops low as he gets in his son's face, telling him that he will beat his "no-rent-paying ass" if he disrespects him again.
- Two-Act Structure: The film is divided into two very distinct acts, befitting its theme of going from high to low.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Given its Setting Update into a highly economically broken 2025 and in the wake of Occupy Wall Street, Yung Felon is shown to have lots of supporters after he's caught.
- Wham Line: “Somebody’s got Trey.”