The film starts out in 1995 with Jimmy Smith (Eminem), a
young and unhappy blue collar worker, struggling with different aspects
of his life. He has moved back north of 8 Mile to the rundown trailer home in Warren of his alcoholic mother, Stephanie (Kim
Basinger), his sister Lily (Chloe Greenfield), and Stephanie's abusive live-in
boyfriend Greg Buehl (Michael Shannon). Jimmy is focused
on getting his music career started, but he seems unable to catch a
break. Just prior to the events of the film, he ends a relationship with
his recently-impregnated babysitter, Janeane (Taryn
Manning), and during the film, begins a new relationship with Alex (Brittany Murphy), whom he meets at the factory when she
shows up one day looking for her brother.
Jimmy comes to realize that his life has remained largely the same
since he graduated from high school. At first, he considers himself a
victim of his circumstances and blames others for his problems. Over
time, though, Jimmy begins to take responsibility for the direction of
his life and realizes that he has a large degree of control over how it
will go. He begins to question whether his group of friends, including
Future (Mekhi Phifer), are holding themselves back from moving on
to bigger things. With his onstage choke still fresh in his mind, he
appears to decide that he will give up on or postpone his dream of a
music career in favor of devoting more time to his day job and building a
home life.
Jimmy's new-found responsibility becomes evident to his supervisor at
the factory as well. At the beginning of the film, when Jimmy requests
extra shifts, his supervisor laughs at him (because of his tendency to
be late to work), but by the end, Jimmy's improved attitude and
performance earn him the extra work he had originally asked for.
However, a late night shift conflicts with the next battle tournament.
Jimmy initially doesn't want to go, but a visit from Alex changes his
mind. Paul, a homosexual co-worker whom Jimmy stood up for earlier in
the film, agrees to cover for him.
The battle acts as kind of a "final conflict" with a rap group called
"The Leaders of the Free World", who have harassed Jimmy throughout the
film. This begins with the deterioration of Jimmy's friendship with
Wink. The latter continually pesters Jimmy everyday with promises that
he can help him "get big"- that he knows people with influence, and that
Wink can hook Jimmy up with the support he needs. However, he is
betrayed when Jimmy shows up at the studio and finds Wink having sex
with Alex. A fight ensues, in which Wink is badly beaten. In revenge, he
shows up with Papa Doc and the other members of "Free World" to attack
Jimmy outside his home in the trailer park in front of Lily, with the
mob badly assaulting him, and leaving him with a black eye that's
present at the final battle.
Jimmy's friends hail him throughout the film as an incredible rapper,
but until this point the film only shows snippets of his skills. The
tournament has three rounds, and in each of them Jimmy faces a member of
the "Leaders of the Free World". Jimmy wins both of the first two
rounds with progressively more impressive freestyle raps. In each one,
including the last he goes over the 40 second limit and the beat gets
cut but he is still rapping which further showcases his abilities. In
the last round, he is paired against Papa Doc, the tournament's most
feared battler and Jimmy's main antagonist throughout the storyline.
Jimmy is aware that Doc knows all his weak points, so he decides to
address them preemptively with his freestyle. Jimmy acknowledges without
shame his white trash roots and the various humiliations
the Free World clique have inflicted on him, and then uses the difficult
life he's had as a springboard to reveal the truth about Papa Doc:
despite passing himself off as a thug, he has a privileged background.
Doc, whose real name is Clarence, attended Cranbrook, a
private school located in upper class Bloomfield Hills, and lived all
his life in a stable two-parent household.
Jimmy makes a reference to "Shook Ones Pt. II", the beat that the DJ
is spinning, by calling Papa Doc a "halfway crook", which sends the
crowd into a frenzy. Doc is left with nothing to say in rebuttal and
drops the mic. As Jimmy leaves the venue, Future suggests that he stay
and celebrate his victory while also offering a position that would
allow him to host battles at The Shelter. Jimmy refuses, claiming he has
to get back to work and do everything his own way, to which Future
agrees. The final shot displays Jimmy walking away from the shelter,
more confident of the future ahead of him.