How did Smoke and Stack get rich in Sinners? Details explored

Sinners brings Michael B. Jordan back to the big screen with his frequent collaborator, writer-director Ryan Coogler. Together, they bring a dark chapter of American history in a vampire horror tale where characters desperately try to survive from the clutches of blood-thirsty creatures. Jordan plays Smoke and Stack, a pair of identical twins who move back to Mississippi to start a new business. The locals wonder why the pair returned in the first place. The twins say:

"We came back home to deal with the devil we know."

Their response reveals a couple of things—the first is that they might have some bad blood back in Chicago, where they moved after leaving their home. They might have had big aspirations while heading to this big city, but things may not have been as good as they might have hoped. Racism is an underlying theme in Sinners, so that might be the "devil" they were referring to—both in Chicago and Mississippi. Perhaps, at home, they can count on the company of their known faces.

That might be one of the reasons they decided to start a business in their hometown. However, they start it almost immediately after setting foot back home. So, some viewers might wonder how Smoke and Stack got rich after all. Sinners doesn't go into detail to reveal how they made all the money. However, it hints at some possibilities.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Ryan Coogler's Sinners. Reader discretion is advised.

How did Smoke and Stack get rich in Sinners? Where did all the money come from?

Ryan Coogler's Sinners does not reveal everything about Smoke and Stack's past in Chicago, but it hints that the twins may not have earned money in noble ways. It is briefly mentioned that they were connected to gangster Al Capone during their time in the city. So, their old friends wonder how they are so rich. Smoke's wife, Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), worries that they have stolen the money. It is also implied that the brothers acquired this wealth through unlawful means.

They show up in Mississippi with a lot of imported liquor and impress the locals with their taste. They get intoxicated by the booze and join the twins' plans for their juke joint. As it happens, the twins share the liquor as if they have it in endless supply, offering it freely without a second thought. Similarly, they also don't think a lot when handing out their money to the locals.

In one of the scenes, Smoke offers a young girl some money to watch his car while he walks into a store. He makes her negotiate a deal that gets her 20 cents instead of 10 cents as he initially offers. Through that interaction, he tries to teach her an important lesson: Not to accept what is offered and demand what she deserves. At the same time, it reveals that he has enough money to spare.

While that is true, Smoke remains concerned about how much they are earning through their juke-joint business. This might be because he and Stack are on the run and are trying to sell all the booze as early as possible before its owners can track them. So, even though the twins are rich enough to quickly start a business, they might not have the funds to sustain it in the long run.