There's a strange symmetry to this one. Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963) opened with a man at the top of his empire watching everything slip through his fingers. Now, in 2025, Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest does the same—only this time the fall lands on Apple TV+.
The film drops September 5, 2025, at midnight PT / 3 a.m. ET. No fanfare of a wide theatrical rollout, no festival prelude—just the instant, global stream. It's a very 2025 kind of release strategy: prestige director, powerhouse cast, straight to living rooms.
Denzel Washington headlines as David King, a New York City music mogul dragged into a ransom plot that tears at his morality. Washington doesn't need me to sell him—his presence alone lifts any material. But here, opposite Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Aubrey Joseph, and even A$AP Rocky, it feels like a project deliberately stacked with voices across generations. John Douglas Thompson, LaChanze, and Dean Winters round out the law enforcement side. It's a cast that reads like both a Broadway marquee and a hip-hop playlist.
Spike Lee directs from William Alan Fox's script, reinterpreting Kurosawa rather than remaking him. That distinction matters. Lee's cinema—from Do the Right Thing to Da 5 Bloods—has always balanced spectacle with simmering tension. You can bet he's less interested in a crime-thriller puzzle box than in the moral fracture at its core.
Apple TV+, meanwhile, has been angling for exactly this: films with marquee names and auteur cred, dropped into the subscription model. A $12.99 monthly fee (after the trial period) gets you Washington and Lee at home on a Friday morning. New iPhone buyers get three months free, which isn't a bad way to lure eyeballs toward an otherwise risky crime drama.
The official synopsis keeps it blunt:
“When a titan music mogul, widely known as having the ‘best ears in the business,' is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma.”
Nothing flashy. No cape. Just a moral chokehold.
And maybe that's the play. In a year clogged with spandex and sequels, Highest 2 Lowest feels unusually classical—an echo of Kurosawa by way of streaming economics. Whether it connects with audiences who have never heard of High and Low is another story.
What to Know About Highest 2 Lowest
Confirmed Release Date and Time
September 5, 2025, at 12:00 a.m. PT / 3:00 a.m. ET on Apple TV+.
Denzel Washington Leads a Heavy Cast
Washington anchors the film as David King, supported by Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, Aubrey Joseph, A$AP Rocky, and more.
Spike Lee Reinterprets Kurosawa
This isn't a carbon copy of High and Low—Lee reframes the moral crisis through his own lens.
Apple TV+ Gets the Exclusive
Available only through Apple's $12.99 streaming service, with trial periods still in place for new users and device buyers.
Moral Stakes Over Action Spectacle
The teaser and synopsis emphasize ethical tension, not gunfire or spectacle—true to Kurosawa's original spirit.
A mogul under siege, a director with something to prove, and a platform hungry for credibility. That's a volatile mix.
So—will you be streaming Highest 2 Lowest on release night, or letting it sit in your queue until word of mouth decides for you?
