Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, produced by Matthew Vaughn and starring an ensemble cast featuring Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran, Jason Statham, Steven Mackintosh, Vinnie Jones, and Sting. Jones and Statham made their feature film debuts.
The film brought Ritchie international acclaim and introduced actors Jones, a former Wales international footballer, and Statham, a former diver, to worldwide audiences. Based on a $1.35 million budget, the film had a box office gross of over $28 million, making it a commercial success.
A British television series, Lock, Stock..., followed in 2000, running for seven episodes including the pilot.
Long-time friends and small-time criminals Eddie, Tom, Soap, and Bacon put together £100,000 so that Eddie, a genius card sharp, can buy into one of "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale's high-stakes three-card brag games. The game is rigged, however, and the friends end up massively indebted to Harry for £500,000. Harry then sends his debt collector Big Chris, who is often accompanied by his son, Little Chris, to ensure that the debt is paid within a week.
Harry is also interested in a pair of expensive antique shotguns that are up for auction and gets his enforcer Barry "the Baptist" to hire a pair of thieves, Gary and Dean, to steal them from a bankrupt lord. The two turn out to be highly incompetent and unwittingly sell the shotguns to Nick "the Greek", a local fence. After learning this, an enraged Barry threatens the two into getting the guns back.
Eddie returns home one day and overhears his neighbours — a gang of robbers led by a brutal man called "Dog" — planning a heist on some cannabis growers loaded with cash and drugs. Eddie relays this information to the group, intending for them to rob the neighbours as they come back from their heist. In preparation for the robbery, Tom visits Nick the Greek to buy weapons, and ends up buying the two antique shotguns.
The neighbours' heist gets underway, and despite a gang member being killed by his own Bren gun, and an incriminating encounter with a traffic warden, the job is a success; they return home with a duffel bag filled with money and a van loaded with bags of marijuana. Eddie and his friends ambush them as planned, and drive away in the neighbours' van containing the marijuana and the traffic warden. They transfer the loot to their own van and return home. They then have Nick fence the drugs to Rory Breaker, a gangster with a reputation for violence. Rory agrees to buy the marijuana at half price, however two of Rory's men visit the house of the cannabis-growers and discover they've been robbed, and the marijuana he just bought had been stolen from his own growers. Rory threatens Nick into giving him Eddie's address and brings along one of the growers, Winston, to identify the robbers.
Eddie and his friends spend the night at Eddie's father's bar to celebrate. Meanwhile, Dog's crew accidentally learns that their neighbours are the ones who robbed them, and set up an ambush in Eddie's flat. Rory and his gang arrive instead and a shootout ensues, resulting in the deaths of all except Dog and Winston. Winston leaves with the drugs; Dog leaves with the two shotguns and the money but is waylaid by Big Chris, who knocks him out and takes everything. Gary and Dean, having learned who bought the shotguns and not knowing that Chris works for Harry, follow Chris to Harry's place.
Chris delivers the money and guns to Harry, but when he returns to his car he finds Dog holding Little Chris at knifepoint, demanding the money be returned to him. Chris complies and starts the car. Meanwhile, Gary and Dean burst into Harry's office, starting a confrontation that ends up killing them both, and Harry and Barry as well.
The friends are arrested but declared innocent of recent events after the traffic warden identifies Dog and his crew as the culprits. Back at the bar, they send Tom out to dispose of the antique shotguns—the only remaining evidence linking them to the case. Chris then arrives to give back the duffel bag, from which he has taken all the money for himself and his son, and which is empty except for a catalogue of antique weapons. Leafing through the catalogue, the friends learn that the shotguns are actually quite valuable (worth £250,000 to £300,000), and quickly call Tom to stop him from disposing of the guns. The film ends with Tom leaning over the side of a bridge, with his mobile phone stuffed in his mouth and ringing, as he prepares to drop the shotguns into the River Thames.
Casting
- Nick Moran as Eddie
- Jason Flemyng as Tom
- Dexter Fletcher as Soap
- Jason Statham as Bacon
- Steven Mackintosh as Winston
- Vinnie Jones as Big Chris
- Nicholas Rowe as J
- Lenny McLean as Barry "the Baptist"
- P. H. Moriarty as "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale
- Frank Harper as Dog
- Sting as JD
- Huggy Leaver as Paul
- Stephen Marcus as Nick "the Greek"
- Vas Blackwood as Rory Breaker
- Vera Day as Tanya
- Alan Ford as Alan
- Danny John-Jules as Barfly Jack
- Victor McGuire as Gary
- Rob Brydon as the traffic warden
- Steve Collins as boxing gym bouncer
