Deep Cover follows Russell Stevens Jr. (Laurence Fishburne), a cop assigned to infiltrate a drug trafficking ring in Los Angeles. As his success on the streets grows and he gains the trust of the cartel, the opportunity arises to enter into an illicit side business with lawyer David Jason (Jeff Goldblum), which leads him into increasingly dangerous games and conflicts of power and loyalty. With a stylised aesthetic and a neon expressionist palette, this black noir by Bill Duke presents a multitude of ambiguous shades. An example of the explosion of black cinema in the 1990s, Deep Cover directly addresses issues of race and identity at the height of the American war on drugs.