The film *Set It Off* (1996) is a tragic crime drama where most of the central characters meet violent ends as a result of systemic failures and their subsequent choice to rob banks.
The following individuals die in the film:
### 1. **Unnamed Bank Customer**
* **How they die:** During the film’s opening bank robbery, the character **Darnell** (played by WC) becomes agitated when **Frankie** (Vivica A. Fox) recognizes him and calls out his name. In a fit of rage and panic, Darnell shoots a female customer in the head, killing her instantly. This event leads to Frankie being fired and serves as the primary catalyst for the plot.
### 2. **Stevie Newsome (Chaz Lamar Shepherd)**
* **How they die:** Stevie is the younger brother of **Stony** (Jada Pinkett Smith). After a bank robbery committed by neighborhood thugs (Darnell and Lorenz), the LAPD raids an apartment complex in the Acorn Projects. Stevie, who is simply hanging out, is mistakenly identified as one of the robbers. As he tries to explain himself, the police shoot and kill him in a case of mistaken identity. His death is the main reason Stony agrees to join the bank-robbing crew.
### 3. **Luther (Thomas Jefferson Byrd)**
* **How they die:** Luther is the girls' exploitative boss at a janitorial service. After he discovers the money they have been stealing and stashing in an air vent, he steals it and flees to a motel. When the women track him down to reclaim their loot, Luther pulls a gun on them. **Tisean "T.T." Williams** (Kimberly Elise) shoots him in the back in self-defense to protect her friends.
### 4. **Tisean "T.T." Williams (Kimberly Elise)**
* **How they die:** During the final and largest bank robbery, T.T. is the first of the core group to be hit. As the women are attempting to leave the bank and are confronted by Detective Strode, a bank security guard suddenly emerges and shoots T.T. in the chest. She is pulled into the getaway car by her friends but eventually succumbs to her wounds and dies in Stony’s arms as they attempt to switch vehicles.
### 5. **Bank Security Guard**
* **How they die:** Immediately after the security guard shoots T.T. during the final robbery, an enraged **Stony** returns fire, shooting and killing the guard on the spot.
### 6. **Cleopatra "Cleo" Sims (Queen Latifah)**
* **How they die:** In an effort to allow Stony and Frankie to escape, Cleo leads the police on a massive high-speed chase through Los Angeles. After her car is cornered and she crashes through a police barricade, she refuses to surrender. She exits her vehicle, lighting a final cigarette and firing her weapon at the surrounding officers. She is cut down by a hail of police gunfire, dying defiantly on her own terms.
### 7. **Francesca "Frankie" Sutton (Vivica A. Fox)**
* **How they die:** After splitting up from Stony, Frankie is cornered by **Detective Strode** (John C. McGinley) and his team near a freeway. Strode attempts to get her to surrender peacefully, but Frankie, disillusioned and vengeful, points her gun (which is later revealed to be empty) at him and asks him "the procedure" one last time. As she turns away or prepares to flee, she is shot in the back and killed by the police.
**Stony** is the only member of the core four who survives, escaping to Mexico with the stolen money.