01x06 - Jailbird

[bunniefuu]

I'm back.

Back to what my mother
and everyone else

said was my destiny
no matter how many fights

I won or millions I earned.

Right back where I started, man.

Maybe this is who I am.

Racing pigeons
can fly 1,000 miles.

But they always come
right back to that

dirty box they call home.

Six years might as well be life.

I'm 25, in my prime.

Snatching the title back from
Buster would've been cake.

But when I get out,
I'll be 30 f*ck' 1.

Not a lot of 31-year-old
champions

of the world out there.

Especially after six years
of no training, bad food.

Bend and spread.

Prison steals
everything it can from you.

Every hope I had
is all f*cked up now.

Who will I be when
I get out of here?

Welcome home, Champ.

And by then,
will anyone even care?

Hey, Mike.

I'm Ray Ray.

I feel a little bad about

how Ray Ray and I got started.

But it was f*cking prison, man.

I needed to claim that sh*t.

I wasn't about to be
anyone's b*tch.

Can you imagine livin'
with me in a 8x9 foot cell?

Ray Ray turned out to be
more patient than Job, man.

Ray Ray tried to keep me
out of trouble.

As if anyone had ever
succeeded at that.

Now's the time for you
to figure out

what you're gonna do when you
get out of this place.

But you got time
to figure that sh*t out.

Keep f*ck' around, though,

the System'll steal
your future from you.

Take it from one who knows.

I ain't got no future.

You wanna
make this worth something?

Read books.

Real ones.

Starting with The Constitution.

f*ck you.

Those first months,
I had to prove I wasn't a punk.

Because everyone was
looking to make their name

by taking a shot at me.

Or so I thought.

You eat that sh*t.

Probably pissed in it,
creepy f*ck.

Damn!

Tyson, you tree jumper f*ck!

Tree jumper?

Never heard that one before.

Sir, tree jumper.

What do you think it mean?

Uh, probably
some kind of racial, uh...

"You're a monkey,
climbing trees."

You know, I should kick
your a*s for saying that.

You're wrong.

Turns out it's a nickname
for a r*pist

hiding behind a tree,

waiting for women to walk by
so he can pounce on them.

I ain't f*ck'
do nothin' like that.

So I let him know
he'd been misinformed.

They put me
in solitary for that one.

Alone in a small dark pit
23 hours a day

with nothing but my thoughts.

And my thoughts weren't
that healthy to begin with.

It's designed to m*rder hope.

It works.

Psst, Mike!

Big fan.

I brought you your mail, homie.

Keep the faith.

We are showin' up strong.
I put the article in here.

The people love you, Mike.

People were talking.

We will not let Desiree

get away with using us

to destroy one of the greatest
men we've ever known!

I had my supporters,

including this guy.

We're gonna argue
that Desiree perjured herself.

She denied retaining an attorney

to go after you
in that civil court

before the criminal case
even started.

Meaning she is all
about the money, honey!

Alan Dershowitz,

Harvard professor.

Best lawyer in the world.

More like all talk, big bill.

An albino Don King.

I lost my appeal,

and the Indiana Supreme Court
refused to review it.

That's the day I lost faith
in The System.

Time got real.

Ah, f*ck.

You gotta stop
f*cking with the guards.

From my sister.

They can't break Iron Mike.

Can I borrow that?

- The Constitution?
- Yeah.

Better yet.

Keep it.

It was hard
for me to believe people

telling me
I had a bright future...

Barkim, Cus, now Ray Ray.

I came from sh*t.

As far as I knew, I was sh*t.

Now, I know some of y'all think
I deserved to be locked up.

Agree to disagree.

Point is, I became just
another n*gga with a number.

And in the '90s, n*gg*s
with numbers was big business.

You gotta understand.

In the '90s,
there was a w*r on "drugs."

This...

this is crack cocaine,

seized a few days ago
by drug enforcement agents

in a park just across the
street from the White House.

Ray Ray's bag
was half that size,

and they took half his life.

It was 100 to 1 disparity
between the amount of cocaine

that triggered a mandatory
minimum sentence versus crack.

And you wanna know why there's
so many broth as in here?

In an Indiana cornfield?

'Cause white boys selling
coke got suspended sentences,

while broth as selling crack
got 20 years.

We need more prisons,

more jails, more courts,
more prosecutors.

Even with all those new prisons,

we were packed tight
and wound tighter.

These people don't need prisons.

They need psychiatrists,
myself included.

But it's not about correction,
it's about punishment.

Treat people like animals...

Who the f*ck
do you think you are?

They're gonna f*ck' roar.

Ah, what can I say?
I'm a stubborn f*ck.

Let's go.

But so was Ray Ray.

And eventually, he got me
reading all kinds of sh*t.

Better than comic books,
Young Blood?

Not better, but interesting.

He never let the pigs
get him down.

Even in prison.

He saw The System
for how it really works.

Don King used to say

he didn't serve his prison time,

his prison time served him.

I never knew what he
was talking about.

Now, you do.

Inmate number 856951,
time to go.

What's this about?

Oh, you're being
transferred to Supermax,

effective immediately.

What?

This don't make no sense!

- Hey, let him go!
- Ah, ah, ah, ah!

Gimme an excuse.

My people ain't
gonna know where I am!

Mike, call my sister!

317-555-0153!

Mike, call my sister!

317-555-0153!

I never saw Ray Ray again,

and I was looking for revenge.

Mike Tyson.

And thanks to the
stupid f*cking guards,

- I found it.
- Lloyd Franklin.

Shut the f*ck up
and don't touch my sh*t.

I know Ray Ray
taught you better.

When I got
transferred here in '88,

Ray Ray showed me the terrain.

Like your fan mail, for example.

Solid gold, broth a.

"As per your request,
I have deposited $50"

"in your commissary account.

God Bless you, Champion."

That's like $1,000 already.

Uh-uh, move that
decimal point, playboy.

More like 10,000, and rising.

This young lady sent photos.

"Vicky"?

Even the uglies get 40 in trade.

But like any solid franchise,

it expanded quickly.

This joint
was ripe for a takeover.

It was like Let's Make a Deal,
prison edition,

and I was Monty f*cking Hall.

'Kay, sweetie,
I'm gonna put you on the phone

with my good buddy...

- Cephus.
- Cephus.

I want you
to show him a good time, okay?

Hi.

Man, f*ck the outside world.

In here, I don't need to
train every morning at 5:00.

I don't need to be
beating up m*therf*ckers

for your entertainment.

In here, I'm an entrepreneur.

Safe, pressure's off.

I had everyone
on the inside working for me.

sh*t, I even had this dumb
m*therf*cker bring me donuts.

So I was the King of the Prison,

and I liked it that way.

What I wanted was to just
stay in prison and hide.

Outside felt like prison.

And I'm... you know,
I'm just being real

with you guys right now.

I just kept pushing the envelope

with the kind of sh*t
I was getting into.

But instead of tacking
more time on my sentence,

they just kept shaving it off

for my "good behavior."

You sure about this?

They'll throw the book at you
for sure if you get caught.

Don't worry about it.

A'ight.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

It was the perfect cover.

I stayed
out of their Islam sh*t,

they stayed out of my sh*t.

We started spending
a lot of time there.

These guys were always busy

praying to their higher power.

I had my own higher power.

They never said
a f*cking word to me.

- Until one day.
- Hey, Champ.

Champ, check this out.

$900 value, all right?
You can get faxes on this sh*t.

One hour battery life.

You even got a stylus
and you can write

in your calendar,
you know what I'm saying?

I'm in jail, n*gga.

What kinda appointments
I'm makin'?

- You right, Champ, you right.
- Yeah.

So, I mean,
if you don't want it...

Just take this sh*t out of here.

Okay, all right.

The new toy of yours won't work.

Bullshit, it's a phone.

Ain't nothing but a brick.

Unless it talk to the upstairs.

Satellite.

We don't get
that kind of signal out here.

You use this space
to transact your business.

But you always stay
for the prayers.

You could join us in prayer,
if you like.

The only thing I ask

is that you remove your shoes.

At first,
the appeal of Islam was

they're just
the baddest of the bad.

First time I saw it was
Don's chauffeur, Captain Joe.

Ali is a multimillionaire!

Larry Holmes a multimillionaire.

Mike Tyson sleeps
on a bed of money!

I make you HBO m*therf*ckers
a fortune.

You love my Black a*s!

So don't waste my
m*therf*cking time!

I need something to eat.

This bean pie's
pretty delicious.

- Mm.
- Man,

Captain Joe was no joke.

This dude taught Malcolm X,

and he was
Elijah Muhammad's ace.

Now I'm sitting here trying
to make m*therf*ckers money.

I tell you
I need something to eat,

and the best thing
you can come up with

is a m*therf*cking bean pie?

God damn it!

I need some real food!

Pick it up, fry it up.

Come on.

You know I don't touch pork.

Then m*therf*cker, you fired.

What'd you do that for, Don?

Mike, sometimes

you got to show these
m*therf*ckers who's in charge.

I said I'll call you tomorrow.

And don't worry about HBO.
They'll come around.

They always do.

Who the f*ck are these n*gg*s?

Brother King.

I'm here to respectfully convey

Captain Joe is never terminated.

If anyone is to be terminated,

it will be you.

Yeah, Don didn't f*ck
with Captain Joe after that.

These guys
were bad m*therf*ckers,

but they also had some really
interesting stuff to say.

You...

It's chicken, it's not pork.

I should probably jog more.

There's no boxing in here.

Indiana prison rules.

That's all external.

How exactly do you intend
to address your flabby spirit?

You got
less than a year in here,

if you manage
to stay out of trouble.

But the true freedom?

The true freedom...

comes from elevating
above base pursuits.

Are you ready to do that?

The f*cking guy knew his sh*t.

I gotta say, I liked him.

Nobody had talked to me
like that since Cus.

I had to get in shape
spiritually, then physically.

You know, Don only cared
about the second part.

I had maybe six months left
and he was hyping the world

for my triumphant return.

Every million dollars
added to my purse

was another million pounds
of pressure,

scaring me sh*t less about
whether I could still bring it.

For all of you.

I mean, if you even
still wanted to see me.

Ah, man,
I was freaking the f*ck out.

So I asked for help.

Dr. Angelou, I didn't...
I didn't think you'd show.

You asked.

And if I'm being honest,

I'm not exactly sure
what I can say to you.

But if a word from me can help,

then certainly
I can find that word.

Still, even with all
they're saying about me...

I approach people
as they are now,

without judgment
for what they have been.

Even Mike Tyson.

That we all have
the possibility of becoming.

"You may write me
down in history"

"with your bitter, twisted lies.

"You may trod me in the dirt,

but still, like dust,
I'll rise."

I love when someone

quotes me to me.

I wish I was as knowledgeable
about prizefighting.

Well, the thing is,
I've been really trying.

Been training again,
and even better, reading.

I'm just trying to be
a better man, you know?

For you or for them?

Where does that leave you when
you're not their Champ anymore?

Don't touch him.

You can be more than that.

Excuse me, officer.

Would you be so kind as to

take a picture of me
and Mr. Tyson?

It's beautiful, broth a.

Maya be reppin' the culture
for real.

50.

Say what?

- For the photo.
- 50 bucks.

Yeah, I sold the picture...

And donuts.
Do you know how hard it is

to get f*cking donuts in prison?

But those words,
they stayed with me.

The thing is,
no fighter in history

ever got back on top
after three years away.

No one ever came out
of prison in one piece.

Mentally, spiritually,
anything else.

What made everyone think
I would be the one?

The world is waiting
for your return tomorrow.

Not mine, Mike Tyson's.

Don says
he's worth $100 million.

What's Mike Tyson worth?

Mike Tyson ain't worth sh*t.

Mike Tyson feels safer in here.

And why do you think that is?

I know what you're trying to do.

You're trying to say
this is Allah's way

of telling me
to leave The Game behind.

Devote my life to what?

Look, I walk out
these doors tomorrow.

I don't need no more
riddles or stories,

none of that bullshit.

Just tell me what
the f*ck I need to do.

Mike Tyson.

You serve no one but Allah.

And with that knowledge,

you can choose
whatever path you want.

Man, I was terrified
to walk out those doors.

My life was so
out of control out there.

In prison, I made
the rules and I ran things.

In prayer,
I was finally able to make

all those outside voices
shut the f*ck up.

Peace and mercy
in Allah be on you.

Peace and mercy in Allah
be on you.

What if I
couldn't fight no more?

I was just so scared
you guys were gonna hate me.

But I was
just as scared of going back

to the old, f*cked up Mike.

The guy who had everyone,
including me,

convinced I was gonna
end up in an early grave.

Those were my choices.

I could go back
to being Cus's monster.

Don's meal ticket.

Or I could be
the elevated man Ray Ray,

Imam Siddiq,
and Maya saw inside of me...

That I wanted to be.

And I had to decide now.