A veteran teacher rebuilds his career three thousand miles from where it nearly ended in One Eight Seven, Kevin Reynolds's 1997 drama built around a lead performance from Samuel L. Jackson.
What is One Eight Seven about?
Trevor Garfield teaches high school in New York until a violent classroom attack leaves him unable to return to the school where it happened. Months later he starts over in Los Angeles, taking a position at a struggling campus where the students size up every new arrival within days. Garfield tries to keep his distance from the kind of confrontation that upended his old life, but the pressure of the job and the volatility of a few students keep pulling him back toward exactly the danger he moved across the country to escape. The film tracks how a single act of violence reshapes a person's instincts long after the physical wounds close.
About the cast
Samuel L. Jackson anchors the film as Garfield, playing a man whose calm has been worn thin rather than broken outright. John Heard, Kelly Rowan, Clifton Collins Jr., Tony Plana, Karina Arroyave, Lobo Sebastian and Jack Kehler round out the staff and student body of the two schools at the center of the story.
Context & significance
Director Kevin Reynolds sets the film inside the daily routines of American public schools rather than a single dramatic incident, which keeps the tension centered on Garfield's shifting sense of who around him can be trusted. The 1997 release arrived amid a wave of American dramas examining classroom violence and teacher burnout, and its slow-building dread over a 119-minute runtime sets it apart from more procedural takes on the same subject.
Watching One Eight Seven on Ktime
One Eight Seven streams on K-Time with a free account login, presented with the Farsi-language interface and browsing experience the platform builds for Iranian audiences everywhere. No separate purchase or trial step stands between signing in and pressing play.