Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag. In order to pay off his debts, he and his friends decide to rob a small-time gang who happen to be operating out of the flat next door. The film brought Guy Ritchie international acclaim and introduced actors Vinnie Jones, a former Welsh international footballer, and Jason Statham, a former street merchant, to worldwide audiences.

A television series, Lock, Stock..., followed in 2000.

Plot

Long-time friends Bacon (Jason Statham), Soap (Dexter Fletcher), Tom (Jason Flemyng), and Eddy (Nick Moran) put together £100,000 so that Eddy, a genius at cards, can buy in to one Harry "The Hatchet" Lonsdale's (P. H. Moriarty) weekly high-stakes three card brag game. Harry learns that Eddy is a card savant from his bodyguard Barry "the Baptist" (Lenny McLean). Knowing that he cannot win he decides to fix the game. He does so by hiding a camera in the room behind Eddy that allows him to read his cards, and have Barry "The Baptist" send via morse code what he, Barry, learns by watching the video feed on a monitor in another room. Eddy loses not only his £100,000 buy-in, but an additional £500,000 that Harry bullied him into borrowing to play out the biggest pot of the night. Harry demands repayment within a week. Knowing that Eddy and the others have slim chances of raising half a million pounds within a week, he pulls Eddy's father's bar into the deal as an alternative, in an attempt to get his own revenge on Eddy's father. Barry the Baptist tells Eddy that he will remove a finger from each of the four friends for every day the debt is overdue.

After several days with no luck acquiring the funds, Eddy returns home and overhears his neighbours, a gang of thieves led by a man named Dog, planning a heist on some marijuana growers supposedly loaded with cash and drugs. Eddy relays this information to the group, intending for them to rob the neighbours as they come back from their heist. They install taping equipment to record the conversations of their neighbours. Tom acquires a pair of antique shotguns from an underground dealer, known as Nick "the Greek" (Stephen Marcus), who also strikes a deal with Rory Breaker, a gangster and sociopath, to buy the stolen drugs. Nick had purchased the guns from a pair of bungling small-time criminals, Gary and Dean (Victor McGuire and Jake Abraham), who had stolen them from a bankrupt lord as part of a job for Harry Lonsdale, not realizing that of the entire stolen firearms collection, his only desire was the two antique shotguns. After learning the guns had been sold, an enraged Barry threatens the two into getting them back.

The neighbours' heist gets under way; despite a gang member being killed by his own Bren Gun, and an incriminating encounter with a traffic warden, the job is a success. On returning to their flat, the gang is ambushed by the four friends, who take the loot and return later that night to stash the goods next door, before celebrating with a wild night of drinking. Rory Breaker (Vas Blackwood) discovers that the drugs he was going to purchase were stolen from him, as the marijuana growers were in his employ. Rory interrogates Nick into revealing where the four friends live, and enlists one of the chemists to identify the robbers. Meanwhile, furious about their loss, Dog throws one of his men through the wall of their flat and discovers the taping equipment and eventually the stolen goods. While he counts the money, his men prepare an ambush. Gary and Dean, trying to recover the antique shotguns, call Nick, who directs them to the same address, while Big Chris (Vinnie Jones), Harry's debt collector, departs with his son to the same destination, and the four friends drive home from the bar.

Rory and his gang assault the flat and have a shootout with the neighbours, resulting in the deaths of all but Dog and the lone chemist, the former taking off with the marijuana. Dog is mugged by Big Chris of the shotguns and money during his escape; Gary and Dean spot Big Chris with the guns and hastily follow him, while the four friends return to find their loot missing. Big Chris gives the guns and cash to Harry, but on his return finds Dog threatening to kill his son if he doesn't retrieve the loot. Desperate to get the guns, Gary and Dean attack Harry and Barry at their office, realizing their mistake as they kill each other. The four friends arrive, find everyone dead, and take the cash back. Big Chris suddenly crashes into their car to disable Dog, then brutally bludgeons him to death with his car door. He takes the debt money back from the unconscious friends but allows Tom to leave with the antique shotguns.

The friends are arrested, but declared innocent after the traffic warden identified Dog's dead gang as the prime suspects. The four reunite at Eddy's father’s bar and decide that Tom should dispose of the shotguns, which are the only remaining pieces of evidence that links them to the crimes. After Tom leaves, Big Chris arrives to admit he is keeping the debt money for himself and his son, but instead gives them an antique guns catalogue, which reveals that the antique shotguns were each worth a fortune. They quickly call Tom, and the film ends in a both literal and figurative cliffhanger when Tom’s mobile phone starts ringing as he hangs over the side of a bridge, preparing to drop the shotguns into the River Thames and he has to decide whether to answer the phone or drop the guns into the river.

Cast

• Jason Flemyng as Tom, one of the four protagonists who is described as "the entrepreneur of the group", buying and selling stolen goods.
• Dexter Fletcher as Soap, one of the four protagonists who works as a chef and prefers to keep his hands clean of illegal activity. Throughout the film he develops an obsession with knives.
• Nick Moran as Eddy, one of the four protagonists and the son of a bar owner whose ability to read people's reactions, no matter how small, gives him a special advantage when playing cards.
• Jason Statham as Bacon, one of the four protagonists who become indebted to Hatchet Harry after Eddy loses to him in a card game. He is seen selling stolen goods on the street in the beginning of the movie.
• Steven Mackintosh as Winston, the head chemist who with his colleagues and Rory Breaker's financial investment has developed high quality and extremely potent marijuana.
• Vinnie Jones as Big Chris, Harry's debt collector who scolds people for using violence or swearing around his young son, Little Chris.
• Nicholas Rowe as J, one of the chemists.
• Nick Marcq as Charles, one of the chemists.
• Lenny McLean as Barry "the Baptist", Harry's right-hand man and debt collector.
• Steve Sweeney as Plank, a member of Dog's crew who buys marijuana from Winston and the other chemists.
• Peter McNicholl as Little Chris, who despite his age accompanies his father Big Chris when tracking down debtors and forcing them to pay their debts.
• Suzy Ratner as Gloria, the always stoned girlfriend of one of the chemists.
• P. H. Moriarty as "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale, a loan shark and business owner selling sex toys. He also arranges high-stake card games, resulting in the protagonists' downfall.
• Stephen Marcus as Nick "the Greek", a black market merchant who buys and sells stolen goods, and is a close friend of the film's four protagonists.
• Vas Blackwood as Rory Breaker, a crime lord who provided money to the chemists to produce their high quality marijuana.
• Frank Harper as Diamond Dog, a violent gang leader who orchestrates a heist to steal the chemists' money and drugs.
• Huggy Leaver as Paul, a member of Dog's crew.
• Alan Ford as Alan / Narrator
• Victor McGuire as Gary, a petty and highly incompetent thief hired by Barry to steal antique shotguns that are desired by Harry.
• Jake Abraham as Dean, a petty thief and Gary's partner, who are hired by Barry to steal antique shotguns.
• Sting as JD, a bar owner and Eddy's dad.
• Rob Brydon as Traffic Warden
• Danny John-Jules as the barman

The film originally starred Laura Bailey^{[disambiguation needed ]} as Eddy's love interest. This major plotline was removed only after filming had been completed. The role of JD, Eddy's father, is played by the English musician Sting. Sting's wife Trudie Styler was an executive producer on the film.

The role of Barry "the Baptist" was played by Lenny McLean also known as "The Guv'nor" after becoming the country's top bare-knuckle fighter. McLean became ill during filming, but believed he was only suffering from a lingering case of the flu. McLean died of brain and lung cancer on 28 July 1998, just before the film was released. Producers quickly changed billboards and posters to feature Lenny McLean as a tribute, even though Barry was only a supporting character.

Ross Boatman turned down a starring role in the film, as he did not wish to be typecast following his appearance in Hard Men. The film uses Dexter Fletcher, P.H. Moriarty and Alan Ford in a tribute to the classic London gangster film The Long Good Friday. This is the second film P.H. Moriarty and Sting both appeared in - the other being the film version of Quadrophenia.

Release and reception

The film was released on 28 August 1998 in the United Kingdom, and on 5 March 1999 in the United States in 161 theaters. Its total gross in the U.S. was $3,753,929.^[2]

The film has received positive reviews from critics, and received acclaim from audiences everywhere.^{[citation needed]} The film has cult film status.^{[citation needed]}. John Ferguson, writing for the Radio Times, called the film "the best British crime movie since The Long Good Friday".^[3] The film has ratings of 75% on Rotten Tomatoes^[4] and 66 on Metacritic.^[5]

The film was nominated for a British Academy Film Award in 1998 for the outstanding British Film of the Year. In 2000, Ritchie won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. In 2004, the magazine Total Film named Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the 38th greatest British film of all time.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to the film was released in 1998 in the United Kingdom by Island Records. Madonna's Maverick Records label released the soundtrack in the United States in 1999 but omitted nine tracks from the UK release.

1. "Hundred Mile High City" by Ocean Colour Scene
2. "It's a Deal, It's a Steal" by Tom, Nick & Ed*
3. "The Boss" by James Brown
4. "Truly, Madly, Deeply" by Skanga*
5. "Hortifuckinculturalist" - Winston
6. "Police and Thieves" by Junior Murvin
7. "18 With a Bullet" by Lewis Taylor & Carleen Anderson*
8. "Spooky" by Dusty Springfield
9. "The Game" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes*
10. "Muppets" by Harry, Barry & Gary
11. "Man Machine" by Robbie Williams*
12. "Walk This Land" by E-Z Rollers
13. "Blaspheming Barry" by Barry
14. "I Wanna Be Your Dog" by Iggy Pop
15. "It's Kosher" by Tom & Nick
16. "Liar Liar" by The Castaways*
17. "I've Been Shot" by Plank & Dog
18. "Why Did You Do It" by Stretch
19. "Guns 4 show, knives for a pro" by Ed & Soap
20. "Oh Girl" by Evil Superstars
21. "If the Milk Turns Sour" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes (with Rory)*
22. "Zorba the Greek" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes
23. "I'll Kill Ya" by John Murphy & David A. Hughes (with Rory)*
24. "The Payback" by James Brown
25. "Fool's Gold" by The Stone Roses*
26. "It's Been Emotional" by Big Chris
27. "18 With a Bullet" by Pete Wingfield

* Track omitted from 1999 U.S. release.

Release history

See also

• Borough Market
• Snatch – the spiritual sequel to the film, as several actors appear in both films as different characters. Both films share similar themes, ideas, motifs and style.

References

Further reading

External links

• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at the Internet Movie Database
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at AllRovi
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at Box Office Mojo
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at Rotten Tomatoes
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at Metacritic