Plot
In 2019, after her client is executed by the state, "Queen", a Black criminal defense attorney, has an awkward dinner with her Tinder date "Slim" in an Ohio diner. As he drives her home, they are pulled over by a white police officer who searches Slim and his trunk without probable cause. When Slim, on his knees, asks the officer to hurry as it is cold outside, the officer draws his gun. Queen gets out to confront the officer, reaching for her phone, but (the cop) shoots her. Slim tackles the officer and a scuffle ensues, resulting in Slim shooting him dead. Taking the gun and throwing away their phones, Queen tells Slim they must flee for now.
While driving to Louisiana, to hide and plan at her uncle's home there, they run out of gas. They flag down a passing Latino driver, Edgar, who turns out to be a Kentucky sheriff. He receives an APB about the officer's death and realizes Queen and Slim are the suspects. They take his truck at gunpoint, leaving him in the trunk of Slim's car, despite his offering to help them. Down the road, they pay a young Black boy to bring them fast food, and he shows them dashcam footage of their traffic stop and officer shooting, which has now gone viral. They accidentally run into the boy's father with the truck, but he is supportive of their actions — the dead police officer having killed an unarmed Black man two years earlier — and they drive him to a hospital. Slim has an awkward encounter with a young (white) gas station clerk, letting him hold the cop's Glock in exchange for free gasoline.
They arrive in New Orleans at the house of Queen's estranged Uncle Earl, an Iraq War vet. Slim proposes they escape to Cuba. After a police officer notices their truck, Earl gives them $2500 and his ostentatious, turquoise Cadillac to reach Johnny Shepherd, a fellow Iraq vateran, whose life (Earl) saved. Queen and Slim bond while dancing at a Black Blues bar, where they are recognized by sympathetic locals. After they stop to admire a horse on a rural, country road. Their car breaks down, forcing them to give all their money to a Black mechanic, whose teenage son Junior expresses his admiration for them; before leaving, Slim has Junior take their picture on the hood of the turquoise Cadillac.
Slim calls his father, on the gas station landline, who cuts the call short; it is revealed that law enforcement was listening in, but his father refuses to cooperate. Queen takes Slim to visit the grave of her mother, who was accidentally killed by her Uncle Earl during a property disagreement; Queen successfully defended him in her first trial. Slim comforts Queen, and they have sex in the car. At a protest in support of the fugitives, Junior is urged to leave by a compassionate black officer, whom he impulsively shoots in the face, and is himself killed (offscreen).
Queen and Slim reach the home of Shepherd and his wife, who reveal that a $500,000 bounty has been placed on them, Shepherd gives them directions to a man in Florida. A neighbor sees them arrive, and a SWAT team raids the house but fails to find them, hidden in a crawlspace under the Shepherds' bed. The next day, they sneak out of the house through a window and Queen dislocates her shoulder, which Slim resets, but her cry alerts a Black officer stationed outside. He discovers them about to flee in the Shepherds' car but lets them escape.
They reach the Florida address and sleep in the car, awakened in the morning by a black man with a shotgun. They follow the man to his trailer where he makes a call, telling them a friend can help them escape by plane. He drives them to the tarmac where Queen and Slim walk toward a waiting plane, until a squad of police cars arrives. Joining hands, they declare their love for each other, but Queen is shot dead by an overeager officer. Ignoring police commands, an unarmed Slim carries Queen's body toward the officers and is gunned down as well.
The people Queen and Slim encountered react to news reports of their deaths; the Florida man has collected the bounty, while the police have falsely claimed that both Queen and Slim were armed when they were shot, despite footage showing the opposite. Their real names are revealed to be Angela Johnson and Ernest Hines, and hundreds attend their funeral, viewing them as martyrs as Junior's photo of them becomes a symbol across the country.
