iNumber Number: Jozi Gold follows Chili, a disillusioned police officer who must choose between what he considers to be morally right and his duty as a police officer. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Chili and Shoes are police officers who have known each other their whole lives. They were raised together in a home for abandoned children, so they are more like brothers than friends.
The two of them, especially Chili, want to make a difference, but even when they catch criminals, nothing changes, as the criminals eventually get acquitted. Whenever Chili is frustrated with the way the system works and wants to do something irrational, Shoes acts as the voice of reason.
They then target a gangster named the Hyena Man, who is the underground hunter of gold. They conduct a sting operation to get solid evidence against him. Due to this, Shoes is not able to go to his wife when she goes into labor.
The Hyena Man starts suspecting Chili and tries to escape with the police’s money. However, Chili catches him after a long chase but soon finds out that the gold given to him by the Hyena Man was fake. On top of that, the Hyena Man gets released because of the lack of evidence.
The Brigadier, Chili and Shoes’ superior, gets angry at them for not being able to get the real gold, as she had promised to give the General, her superior, a share of it to keep him happy. She then sends Chili and Shoes to work with a man named Van Zyl in the basement.
Initially, Chili refuses and is ready to resign but later agrees to work with him for Shoes’ sake. Shoes has a family, so he cannot resign, and he cannot do anything without Chili.
Van Zyl’s conviction rate is 100%, but for the last six months, he has not been able to make any arrests. Van Zyl has been trying to catch the Gold Gang, a gang that steals gold and gives it to the needy.
Van Zyl agrees to make Chili and Shoes a part of his team when he realizes that they know a lot about Black gangs and can help the team. Chili offers to infiltrate the gang and join them for a heist. Van Zyl can then catch them in the act.
Chili goes to the club where the gang often goes and manages to grab their attention. The gang consists of Seeng, Dimo, and Dikeledi. The three of them are siblings, and they like Chili enough to defend him when a fight breaks out.
Chili then lies to them and tells them that he used to be a police officer but left the force because he was sick of the corruption. The siblings ask Chili to join them for a heist, and Chili agrees. He also leaves behind the comms and the tracker with his clothes.
Even though Shoes and Van Zyl’s team follow them, the gang still gets away with the stolen gold. The siblings take Chili to the warehouse where they live with their mother, who melts the stolen gold and mints real Krugerrands that can be exchanged for money at a gold exchange.
The siblings are from Lesotho. Their father was killed because he started a resistance against the dictator of their country, who was stealing gold from his people. The three of them consider themselves activists and plan to finish what their father started.
Apart from working towards their dream of taking the gold from the dictator of Lesotho and returning it to the people, they also steal from the rich to help the poor. Chili believes that they are making an impact, which he failed to do as a police officer, so he decides to join them in their biggest heist.
He also asks Shoes, who is threatened by Van Zyl, to keep the police away from this till the heist is over. The siblings are going to steal their country’s gold from the Jozi Gold Refinery, as the dictator of Lesotho regularly brings gold worth millions to the refinery in order to turn it into gold bars.
Chili then finds out that the siblings need the Hyena Man’s help, as he is the only one who knows when the gold is coming to the refinery. Chili is forced to make amends with him by getting Shoes to return the Hyena Man’s hyena.
Unbeknownst to Chili, Shoes is now working with Van Zyl and the Brigadier to catch the Gold Gang red-handed. He gets promoted to lieutenant and Van Zyl to colonel. While the Gold Gang prepares for their greatest heist, the police prepare to catch them.
iNumber Number: Jozi Gold ending explained in detail:
Does the Gold Gang’s plan work?
It turns out that when Chili and Shoes caught the Hyena Man, the Brigadier helped him come out of prison. He owes her, so she now asks him to be her informant. He has to tell her the Gold Gang’s plan.
The dictator goes to a hotel after visiting the refinery, and there, the Gold Gang manages to render the dictator and his guards unconscious. They then dress Chili up as the dictator. Chili, pretending to be him, goes to the refinery to retrieve his gold bars.
At the same time, the Brigadier, who wants the gold for herself, orders her team to go to the airport to capture the Gold Gang. Additionally, she forcefully takes control of the operation from Van Zyl and Shoes, who have no choice but to do as she says.
However, the Brigadier gets betrayed by the Hyena Man, who fed her false information. The Gold Gang does not go to the airport to fly to Lesotho in the dictator’s plane as they had planned. Instead, they go to a warehouse.
They wake the dictator and his guards up and put them back into their cars. The police believe them to be the Gold Gang and chase them fruitlessly, which allows the Gold Gang to get away with the gold.
Do Chili and Shoes find the gold?
When the Brigadier’s men attack Van Zyl’s team, Van Zyl and Shoes steal guns and manage to escape the Brigadier’s hold, but not without Van Zyl getting shot by the Brigadier.
Shoes and a bleeding Van Zyl catch the Gold Gang when they are getting away. The Gold Gang then comes to the realization that the gold they are carrying is not real gold. The Hyena Man betrayed them also; he not only took their gold but also killed the siblings’ mother.
Chili knows where the Hyena Man must have gone with the gold, so he goes after him with Shoes. The Brigadier sees their car and follows them in the hope of finding the gold.
Chili’s guess turns out right, and he finds the siblings’ mother’s dead body as well as the gold. While Chili goes to look for the Hyena Man, Shoes stays with the gold, as he no longer wants to be a part of Chili’s plans.
The Brigadier also reaches there to take the gold. Shoes tries to stop her, but the Brigadier nearly kills him. Shoes is first saved by the Hyena Man’s hyena, and then he shoots the Brigadier in the arm, even though he never shoots anyone. Meanwhile, Chilie fights and kills the Hyena Man.
Who gets the gold?
The rest of the Gold Gang also arrives at the scene and finds out that their mother has been killed. Chili continues to stand by their side, and Shoes knows that he will not let him arrest them.
Shoes gives Chili the keys to the truck with the gold in it. Chili then hands them over to the Gold Gang and asks them to escape. The siblings say goodbye to Chili and leave with the gold.
Chili decides to stay back, as he knows that Shoes will need his support when this whole mess is taken to court. He knows that he will end up in prison because Van Zyl knows everything, but he is satisfied because he believes that they finally made an impact.
Chili also keeps one gold bar with him. He, along with Shoes, gives it to the priest who runs the home for abandoned children where Chili and Shoes grew up. The priest did not have enough money for the home and was going to close it. Now, the children do not have to lose their home because of Chili and Shoes’ help.
What happens to Chili?
Chili ends up in prison for his involvement with the Gold Gang. The Brigadier is also sent to the same prison for trying to steal the gold.
There, she approaches Chili and tells him that she is going to break out of the prison with some other women and asks Chili to join her. Chili considers it, but the film never reveals his answer.
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