On the hottest day of the year, temperatures rise and everything can change in a day. As the inhabitants of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood try to beat the heat, growing tensions and resentment explode in a senseless act of violence. Confronting racial and political issues head-on, Spike Lee's bold directing style and balance of humor and drama caused the kind of controversy upon its 1989 release that cemented the film as an instant classic and won the film a nomination for an Academy Award. Starring Spike Lee himself, Rosie Perez, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Samuel L. Jackson, John Turturro, and many more.