Crash premiered at the2004 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2004, before it was released in theaters on May 6, 2005, byLions Gate Films. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the direction and performances (particularly Dillon's) but criticized the portrayal ofrace relations as simplistic and unsubtle. The film was a success at the box office, earning $98.4 million worldwide against its $6.5 million budget.
In Los Angeles, Detective Graham Waters and his partner Ria are involved in a minor collision with a car being driven by Kim Lee. Ria and Kim Lee exchange racially charged insults. Waters later arrives at a crime scene, where the dead body of an unnamed person has been discovered. The film then backtracks 48 hours to trace the preceding chain of events.
Anthony and Peter, two young black men,carjackdistrict attorney Rick Cabot and his wife Jean. As the men drive away in theSUV, Peter puts a figurine ofSt. Christopher, the patron saint of travelers, on the dashboard. They pass by Waters and Ria, who are investigating a homicide in aSan Fernando Valley parking lot. The pair learn that a white undercover cop, Detective Conklin, shot a black undercover cop, Detective Lewis, with neither knowing the other was a policeman.
At home, Cabot rails that the carjacking incident could cost him re-election, because no matter whom he sides with, he will lose either the black vote or thelaw and order vote. Hispaniclocksmith Daniel Ruiz overhears Jean, who suspects that Daniel is a gangster, demanding that the locks be changed again.
While searching for the Cabots' stolen vehicle, Sergeant John Ryan pulls over an SUV driven by a wealthy Black couple, TV director Cameron Thayer and his wife, Christine. Though Ryan knows the vehicle is not the one he is searching for, he accosts the couple on his claim he saw Christine performingfellatio on Cameron while he was driving. During the traffic stop, Ryan performs abody search on Christine and molests her in front of Cameron. Ryan's younger partner, Officer Tom Hansen, looks on in horror but does not intervene.
Hansen goes to his superior Lieutenant Dixon to report Ryan's conduct and requests a transfer. Dixon, a black man, tells Hansen that a racism complaint would hurt his own career and allows the transfer on the condition that Ryan's conduct not be mentioned. Ryan is shown living with his ill father, who cannot get health insurance. On the phone, Ryan takes out his frustrations on the blackHMO administrator he speaks with. When the insurance adjuster does not respond quickly enough, Ryan insults her competency by saying that more qualified White men did not get her job because ofaffirmative action.
In the carjacked SUV, Anthony and Peter hit a man of Asian descent while passing a parked van. They take the injured man and leave him in front of a hospital. Meanwhile, Waters, who is in a relationship with Ria, gets into an argument with her when he makes a casual remark aboutMexico being her country of origin. Ria angrily reminds him that her father is actually fromPuerto Rico and her mother is fromEl Salvador. Waters later visits his mother, who asks him to find his missing younger brother.
Ryan later comes across a car crash and an overturned vehicle. In his attempt to rescue the passenger, Ryan sees it is Christine, who recognizes the officer from their earlier incident and frantically resists his assistance. Ryan manages to pull her out of the car just before it is engulfed by a fireball. As Christine is being helped by paramedics, she stares at Ryan.
Waters is summoned to a meeting with DA worker Flanagan, who tells Waters that Internal Affairs wants Conklin imprisoned. Waters has evidence that Lewis was possibly involved in a drug deal, but Flanagan promises Waters a job as Cabot's chief investigator, as well as the clearing of his brother's criminal record, in exchange for his cooperation. At a press conference, Waters reluctantly confirms the homicide was racially motivated. Farhad arrives at Daniel's house after his own house is robbed, suspecting Daniel was responsible. Attempting to kill Daniel with a pistol, Daniel's daughter Elizabeth jumps in the way and is nearly shot as a consequence; Farhad subsequently runs away as the Ruiz family comforts each other.
Anthony and Peter carjack anotherNavigator, which happens to belong to Cameron. Cameron fights back and Peter flees the scene before a police car approaches. Cameron and Anthony drive away and a police chase ensues, with Hansen as one of the pursuing officers. When police catch the SUV, Hansen recognizes Cameron, and out of remorse for the earlier traffic stop, he vouches for Cameron to be let off with a warning. Anthony, who was hiding during the exchange, is dropped off at a bus stop by Cameron.
Later that night as Hansen is off the clock, he picks up a hitchhiking Peter. During the drive, Peter reaches into his pocket and Hansen, thinking he is reaching for a gun, shoots him. Peter collapses dead, revealing he was only reaching for his Saint Christopher statuette. Hansen hides the body in some bushes and burns his car. Waters and Ria later arrive at the scene, and it is revealed that the dead body is Waters's brother Peter. Waters's motherdisowns him over Peter's death.
Anthony comes across the white van from earlier with its keys still in the ignition. He steals the van and takes it to achop shop, where it is discovered there are Cambodian immigrants chained in the back. The van had belonged to Kim Lee and her husband (the man Anthony and Peter accidentally hit), meaning they were involved inhuman trafficking. The chop shop owner offers Anthony $500 per immigrant, but Anthony refuses. After driving the Cambodians toChinatown and freeing them, he passes by a fender-bender. One driver turns out to be the insurance adjuster Ryan had previously argued with, and the other is an Asian man. An exchange of racially charged insults erupts between the drivers.
Haggis initially tried to sell the script to television producers before it gained the attention of producersCathy Schulman andBob Yari.[9] Yari offered Haggis $7.5 million to produce the script as a film, on the condition he could assemble an ensemble cast of major stars.[9]Don Cheadle was the first actor to be cast and also came on board as a producer, which helped attract other big names to the production.[10][4]Forest Whitaker was originally attached to playTerrence Howard's role but dropped out.[9] The casting ofBrendan Fraser as the district attorney, which came last, was pivotal in getting the filmgreen-lit.[9]
Heath Ledger andJohn Cusack were also attached to the roles of Tom Hanson and John Ryan, respectively, but dropped out after production delays.[9] At one point, Don Cheadle also considered leaving the production to perform inHotel Rwanda.[7] According to Yari, the departure of Ledger from the cast reduced the film's international value and the budget was brought down by $1 million.[9]
Filming began in Los Angeles for a 32-day shoot in December 2003.[9] Haggis made up for the reduced budget by taking out three mortgages on his house, cutting back on exterior shots, and reusing locations.[9] Principal cast members also agreed to pay cuts and deferred their salaries.[11] Production was delayed for a week when Haggis had a heart attack while filming a scene, although he defied medical advice to hire a new director.[7][9][4]
In a 2020 interview withVulture,Thandiwe Newton stated that Haggis ensured she was wearing special protective underwear for the police sexual assault scene, because he wanted it to look "real" from the camera's perspective forMatt Dillon "to go there".[12]
The original score was released by Superb Records through Lionsgate Films in 2005.[13][14] All songs were written and composed byMark Isham, except where noted.[13] TheiTunes release is the complete score released through Yari Music Group, and has the cues isolated and in film order (unlike the commercial score CD which is edited, incomplete, in a different order, and in suite form).[15] A second volume of tracks, titledCrash: Music from and Inspired by the Film, was released featuring songs that appear in the film.[16][17]
The film grossed $53.4 million domestically, making back more than seven times its estimated $6.5 million-budget.[1] Despite its success in relation to its cost,Crash was the lowest-grossing film at the domestic box office to winBest Picture sinceThe Last Emperor in 1987.[19]
Crash was released on DVD on September 6, 2005, in widescreen and fullscreen one-disc versions.[20] Bonus features included a music video byKansasCali (now known asthe Rocturnals) for the song "If I..." from the soundtrack. Thedirector's cut of the film was released in a two-disc special edition DVD on April 4, 2006, with more bonus content than the one-disc set. The director's cut is three minutes longer than the theatrical cut. The scene where Daniel is talking with his daughter under her bed is extended and a new scene is added with officer Hansen in the police station locker room.[21]
Crash was the first Best Picture winner to be released onBlu-ray Disc in the US, on June 27, 2006.[22]
On review aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 73% based on 240 reviews, with an average score of 7.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A raw and unsettling morality piece on modern angst and urban disconnect,Crash examines the dangers of bigotry andxenophobia in the lives of interconnected Angelenos."[23] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 66 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[24] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film a grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[25]
Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and described it as "a movie of intense fascination",[26] listing it as the best film of 2005.[27] Ebert concluded his review with the sentiment "not many films have the possibility of making their audiences better people. I don't expectCrash to work any miracles, but I believe anyone seeing it is likely to be moved to have a little more sympathy for people not like themselves."[26] Steve Davis of theAustin Chronicle called it the "most compelling American movie to come around in a long time" and said it succeeds in inviting audiences to make preconceived notions about the characters and then complicates those notions.[28]Ella Taylor ofLA Weekly described it as "not just one of the best Hollywood movies about race, but along withCollateral, one of the finest portrayals of contemporary LA life period."[29]
The performances of Dillon, Cheadle, Bridges, Peña, and Howard were singled out.[30][31][32][33]Todd McCarthy ofVariety wrote, "Specific scenes, especially those involving Dillon as the racially resentful cop who, like everyone else, has his reasons, bristle with tension as the character continuously pushes past conventional limits in abusing his authority and, redeemingly, in his display of uncommon valor."[34][28]Peter Bradshaw of theGuardian gave the film three out of five stars, writing, "Crash is a very watchable and well-constructed piece of work...but its daringly supercharged fantasies of racial paranoia and humanist redemption are not to be taken too seriously."[35] Joanne Kaufman of theWall Street Journal opined, "Ultimately,Crash succeeds in spite of itself," noting that at a certain point, it "starts to feel obvious and schematic" but remains "a complex blend of compassion and sorrow".[36]
The film's plot elements, such as the means through which all the characters are connected, were derided by critics as contrived and unconvincing.[37][38][31][39]Ty Burr of theBoston Globe wrote that the film "is one of those multi-character, something-is-rotten-in-Los Angeles barnburners that grab you by the lapels and try desperately to shake you up. It's more artful thanGrand Canyon, less artsy thanMagnolia (LA gets dusted with snow instead of frogs), and much less of a mess thanFalling Down."[32] Burr lamented how "its characters come straight from the assembly line ofscreenwriting archetypes, and too often they act in ways that archetypes, rather than human beings, do. You can feel its creator shuttling them here and there on the grid of greater LA, pausing portentously between each move."[32]
Another criticism centered on the storytelling as didactic and heavy-handed. Writing forSlate,David Edelstein commentedCrash "might even have been a landmark film about race relations had its aura of blunt realism not been dispelled by a toxic cloud of dramaturgical pixie dust."[40] Others noted how the film had nothing new or insightful to say on racism, withStephanie Zacharek ofSalon writing thatCrash "only confirms what we already know about racism: It's inside every one of us. That should be a starting point, not a startling revelation."[41][42]A.O. Scott of theNew York Times described it as "a frustrating movie: full of heart and devoid of life; crudely manipulative when it tries hardest to be subtle; and profoundly complacent in spite of its intention to unsettle and disturb."[43]
Much criticism focused on how the film presents racism and its origins, with many noting its depiction of race relations as too simplistic and tidy. The redemption arcs of the white characters, particularly Sergeant Ryan, drew controversy for their execution.[34] Many opined that Ryan's redemption by way of his heroic rescue of Christine felt unearned.[44][40][33]
In the years since the film's release, criticism and debate about the film have grown alongside ongoing cultural dialogues about race andsocial movements in the United States.[45][46] In 2009, cultural criticTa-Nehisi Coates criticized the film as shallow and "unthinking", namingCrash "the worst film of the decade".[47] The film has been described as using multicultural and sentimentalist imagery to cover over material and "historically sedimented inequalities" that continue to affect various racial groups in Los Angeles.[48]
In a retrospective review, Tim Grierson ofThe New Republic opined, "Haggis has characters hurl nasty epithets at one another, as if that's the most corrosive aspect of discrimination, failing to acknowledge that what's most destructive aren't the shouts but, rather, the whispers—the private jokes and long-held prejudices shared by likeminded people behind closed doors and far from public view."[49] The film was also criticized for depicting the Persian shopkeeper as a "deranged, paranoid individual who is only redeemed by what he believes is a mystical act of God".[50]
The film ranks at #460 inEmpire's 2008 poll of the "500 Greatest Films of All Time".[51]
In a retrospective piece forThe Guardian in 2025, commemorating the film's twentieth anniversary, critic Scott Tobias compared the film toPanic in the Streets, a 1950 film noir. Tobias said of the film: "it has one big, fat theme and orchestrates every moment to serve it, like a grade-school essay that jams a few paragraphs of supporting evidence to support the thesis that is offered in the first graf [sic] and repeated in the last. There’s no room in there for how actual humans might behave."[53]
At the78th Academy Awards,Crash won the Oscar forBest Picture, triumphing over the heavily favoredBrokeback Mountain in what is considered as one of the most notable Oscars upsets.[57][58] After announcing the award, presenterJack Nicholson was caught on camera mouthing the word "whoa" out of apparent surprise at the result.[59] The film's use of moral quandary as a storytelling medium was widely reported as ironic since many saw it as the "safe" alternative toBrokeback Mountain, which is about agay relationship (the other nominees,Good Night and Good Luck,Capote, andMunich also tackle heavy subjects ofMcCarthyism, homosexuality, andterrorism).[60] CriticKenneth Turan suggested thatCrash benefited fromhomophobia among Academy members,[61][62] some of whom openly voiced their discomfort withBrokeback Mountain due to its subject matter.[63][64][65] After the Oscars telecast, criticRoger Ebert insisted in his column that the better film won the award.[66][67]
Film Comment magazine placedCrash first on its list of "Worst Winners of Best Picture Oscars", followed bySlumdog Millionaire at #2 andChicago at #3.[68] Similarly, a 2014 survey of film critics byThe Atlantic identified the film's victory as among the most glaring mistakes made by the Academy Awards.[69] In 2017, David Ehrlich and Eric Kohn ofIndieWire rankedCrash as the worst on its list of "Best Picture Winners of the 21st Century, Ranked from Worst to Best".[70]
In 2015,The Hollywood Reporter polled hundreds of Academy members, asking them to re-vote on past controversial decisions. For the 2005 Best Picture winner,Brokeback Mountain beatCrash and the other nominees.[71][72]
In a 2015 interview, Haggis commented, "Was [Crash] the best film of the year? I don't think so. There were great films that year.Good Night, and Good Luck – amazing film.Capote – terrific film. Ang Lee'sBrokeback Mountain, great film. And Spielberg'sMunich. I mean please, what a year.Crash, for some reason, affected people, it touched people. And you can't judge these films like that. I'm very glad to have those Oscars. They're lovely things. But you shouldn't ask me what the best film of the year was because I wouldn't be voting forCrash, only because I saw the artistry that was in the other films. Now however, for some reason that's the film that touched people the most that year. So I guess that's what they voted for, something that really touched them. And I'm very proud of the fact thatCrash does touch you. People still come up to me more than any of my films and say: 'That film just changed my life.' I've heard that dozens and dozens and dozens of times. So it did its job there. I mean, I knew it was the social experiment that I wanted, so I think it's a really good social experiment. Is it a great film? I don't know."[73][74]
In a 2020 retrospective about the film and its Oscars win, K. Austin Collins ofVanity Fair wrote the film "is a throwback to a familiar strain of Oscar-friendly, liberalmessage movie—in which the 'message,' often, is that people are complicated, goodness is relative, and evil is not a terminal condition. It dramatizes racism the same way that classical Hollywood storytelling has long dramatized things: through a sense of character and intention and a guise of psychological realism, through arcs and archetypes, through a slow climb toward third-act revelations about who people really are as evinced by the things they've achieved, the changes they've undergone by film's end."[45]
In February 2024, David Fear ofRolling Stone rankedCrash as the worst Best Picture Oscar winner of the 21st century, criticizing what he described as the movie’s heavy-handed symbolism and its various caricatures. Fear concluded his commentary by stating, “We have a feeling that were we to revisit this list in the year 2050,Crash would still occupy this same slot.”[75]
A 13-episode series premiered on theStarz network on October 17, 2008. The series featuresDennis Hopper as arecord producer inLos Angeles,California, and examines how his life is connected to other characters in the city, including a police officer (Ross McCall) and his partner, an actress-turned-police officer (Arlene Tur). The cast consists of a Brentwood mother (Clare Carey), her real-estate developer husband (D. B. Sweeney), a formergang member-turned-EMT (Brian Tee), a street-smart driver (Jocko Sims), an undocumentedGuatemalanimmigrant (Luis Chavez), and a detective (Nick Tarabay).[84]
^Peters, Jenny (February 2, 2006)."Paul Haggis and Robert Moresco, 'Crash'".Variety.Archived from the original on March 30, 2022. RetrievedMarch 30, 2022.When Haggis and his then-wife were accosted at gunpoint 10 years ago, the experience never left him.
