"Do the Right Thing" is an urban movie starring Spike Lee. Lee plays a young man by the name of Mookie.

Mookie live in the midst of the multicultural haven of Brooklyn, in New York City. But there's trouble brewing.

Mookie is a pizza delivery man who works for a long-established Brooklyn pizza joint. We are getting hungry just thinking about it.

Sal is the man who owns the pizza joint. He's an Italian-American who's watched the neighborhood morph from a white-dominated area into a location with many minorities like Puerto Ricans and blacks.

Sal's son Pino is a through-and-through racist. He despises blacks and wants to move the family restaurant to a whiter neighborhood.

Mookie is pretty unmotivated and isn't very concerned with trying to get ahead in life. This fact is a source of consternation to Tina, the mother of his young son.

It's one of the hottest days of the year. All of the characters are outside on the street just trying to get by without suffering heat exhaustion.

Radio Raheem clearly loves his big boom box, because he carries it everywhere. He's always playing Public Enemy's "Fight the Power."

Smiley is a mentally-disabled man who roams the streets. He's often seen holding up pictures of famous civil rights leaders.

Buggin' Out is very interested in the concept of civil rights. He's continually engaging other residents in conversations about minority rights.

Buggin' Out is angry that Sal's "Wall of Fame" has only pictures of white people. He thinks that the wall should have some pictures of black people, especially since most of Sal's profits come from local blacks.

Sal simply refuses Buggin' Out's demands. It's his restaurant, he's an Italian-American, and those are the kinds of people that he wants on his wall.

Buggin' Out is even angrier now that Sal has refused to budge on the picture issue. He tries (and fails) to start a boycott. None of the locals want to participate. They love the pizza too much.

Mookie doesn't see any reason to escalate the confrontation. He pulls Buggin' Out aside and tells him to come back some other time.

Pino and Mookie have a loud verbal confrontation regarding race. Both men then utter hateful racist phrases directly into the camera.

The two young men march into the shop, with Raheem's radio at full volume. Sal can't take any more of the conflict and the noise. He whips out a baseball bat and destroy's Raheem's boom box.

The police arrive promptly and try to break up the confrontation. But things get out of control in a hurry.

The cops try to subdue the young black men, but there's a scuffle. One cop puts Raheem in a chokehold and kills him.

The locals are furious about Raheem's unnecessary death. They begin murmuring amongst themselves maybe they should attack the pizza shop's owners.

In a desperate bid to distract the angry mob, Mookie shatters the restaurant's front window with a trash can. The mob then turns its fury on property instead of people.

The two police officers see that they've just killed a black man in front of a black crowd. They hurriedly load Raheem's body in the squad car and then flee the area.

The owner of the Korean market exclaims that he's not white and that he's actually black, just like the mob. They decide to move on, sparing his store.

Smiley, the kind but mentally-disabled man, is swept up in the mob mentality. He sets Sal's pizza store on fire.

The firefighters are just trying to do their jobs, but the mob is in the way. The situation continues to escalate in a bad way.

The police warned the crowd, but they didn't listen. They instruct the firefighters to turn their hoses on the mob, which only makes things worse.

Mookie is in disbelief at the violent scene. All he can do is sit on the curb and try to make sense of it all.

In a moment of extreme symbolism, Smiley enters the ruins and hangs a picture of Malcolm X on the wall. Meanwhile, Sal looks at his ruined shop in despair.

Sal is looking for a scapegoat, and he blames Mookie for triggering the riot because he tossed the garbage can through the window. He fires Mookie. Mookie demands the money that Sal owes him.

Sal and Mookie realize that their friendship is worth saving. Their reconcile near the ashes of Sal's store.

The movie concludes with two quotes, one from Martin Luther King, Jr. and one from Malcolm X. The former preaches non-violence; the latter concedes that sometimes violence is an intelligent response to threats.