Fences 🎥 2016 Movie Info

Plot Summary

In 1957, Pittsburgh, Troy Maxson lives in a modest house with his wife, Rose, and their teenage son, Cory. He works as a garbage collector alongside his best friend, Jim Bono, whom he has known for decades. Troy left home at 14 after standing up to his abusive father, becoming a robber to survive on his own. While serving time for killing a man during a robbery, he met Bono and showed himself to be a talented baseball player. He played well in the Negro leagues, but never made it to the major leagues because the color barrier was not broken until he was past his prime.

A gifted storyteller, Troy claims to have survived near-fatal pneumonia as a young man by defeating Death in a wrestling match. Troy’s younger brother, Gabriel, sustained a head injury in World War II that left him mentally impaired, and Troy used the $3,000 government payout that Gabe received as the down payment for his house. As Gabriel recently moved out to rent a room elsewhere, Troy no longer gets rent money from Gabriel and is under increased financial strain. Gabriel sometimes gets in trouble with the law for his erratic behavior, so Rose suggests to Troy that Gabriel might be better off residing in a psychiatric hospital.

Lyons, Troy’s son from a previous relationship, visits Troy on payday to borrow money, which upsets Troy, as he believes a man has a responsibility to work hard to find his own way and provide for his family. Rose tells Troy that Cory is being scouted by a college football team, but Troy refuses to sign the paperwork, saying he does not want Cory to pursue a career in athletics, only to be held back due to discrimination, like he did. The father and son have a distant relationship.

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