Fruitvale Station is a 2013 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ryan Coogler.
It is Coogler’s feature directorial debut and is based on the events leading to the death of Oscar Grant, a young man killed in 2009 by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officer Johannes Mehserle at the Fruitvale district station in Oakland.
The film stars Michael B. Jordan as Grant, with Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray playing the two BART police officers involved in Grant’s death, although their names were changed for the film. Melonie Diaz, Ahna O’Reilly, and Octavia Spencer also star.
The film depicts the last day of the life of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old from Hayward, California, before he was fatally shot by BART Police in the early morning hours of January 1, 2009.
The movie begins with the actual footage of Grant and his friends being detained by BART Police at the Fruitvale station in Oakland on January 1, 2009, at 2:15 a.m., right before the shooting.
Ryan Coogler was a graduate student at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts when Grant was shot on January 1, 2009.
Coogler expressed his desire to make a film about Grant’s last day: “I wanted the audience to get to know this guy, to get attached so that when the situation that happens to him happens, it’s not just like you read it in the paper, you know what I mean? When you know somebody as a human being, you know that life means something.”