History Film / LayerCake

* [[StuffedIntoTheFridge Stuffed Into The Freezer]]: [[spoiler: The Duke]].

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: During the taped conversation, Jimmy uses the word "dead darkies" when meaning Jamaicans.

* UnreliableNarrator: The narrated flashback to Larry's death is first shown as a AteHisGun moment, but at a later stage, when another character retells the story, it's revealed that Larry was shot from behind.

* ReverseMole: [[spoiler: Jimmy Price, who's been planning on shopping XXXX and Gene to the police so he can make a clean getaway with XXXX's money]].

-> ''"Opera tonight. ''[[Theatre/{{Faust}} The Damnation of Faust]]''.\\
Man sells his soul to the devil, it all ends in tears.\\

Directed by Mathew Vaughan, and based on a novel by J.J. Connolly, ''Layer Cake'' is a clever, character-driven take on the classic gangster flick, rounded out by a brief romance, genuinely unexpected twists, and an [[{{Britain}} overload of Britishisms]].

!!This film contains examples of:

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: See FakeNationality below.

* DiabolusExMachina: The end of the movie: [[spoiler: after winning at everything, he walks out of the club, prepared to ride off into the sunset with the girl, and is instantly shot to death by a minor character with no previously shown violent tendencies]]. And apparently, the test audiences ''wanted it that way''.

* FauxAffablyEvil: Several of the gangster characters, particularly Morty and Gene, Eddie Temple, and the protagonist himself.

* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: The Serbians.

* KubrickStare: Used as MatchCut BookEnds when [[spoiler: XXXX decides to kill Jimmy]]

* LoveableRogue: the two con artists the protagonist occasionally hires.
* MacGuffin: Eddie Temple's daughter whom the protagonist is supposed to find but is never actually found by him nor appears on screen.
* MatchCut: Used several times within the film, most notably to [[BookEnds book end]] the assassination sequence.

* NotSoAboveItAll: The protagonist likes to consider himself "not a gangster, only a businessman whose commodity happens to be cocaine", but is increasingly drawn into the grittier side of his profession.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: [[spoiler: On both Jimmy and Mr. Lucky]].

* RareGuns: The gun that the protagonist borrows from Gene [[spoiler: and kills his boss with]] is an obscure Chinese military pistol, which makes it understandable that police were easily able to trace the gun and identify its use in an earlier murder.

* {{Retirony}}: Not by enemy gangsters, but by the jealous ex-boyfriend.

* SpotOfTea: Naturally, being a British film... but horrifically subverted. More pertinently, [[ImprovisedWeapon Several Litres Of Boiling Liquid.]]

--> "Welcome to the layer cake."

* TheVillainKnowsWhereYouLive: The protagonist is going to meet his girlfriend at a hotel rendezvous when he gets abducted by a DiabolicalMastermind gangster, and at the end of their "interview", he's casually dropped off at his home, which the other guy wouldn't know unless he'd been keeping close tabs on him.
** PlayedForLaughs when the protagonist is being threatened by a Serbian gangster; he acts intimidated and agrees to meet him where he lives, "Do you know where that is?" When the Serbian says no, the protagonist hangs up on him.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Eddie Temple (Eddie Ryder in the novel)
* VillainyDiscretionShot: Justified; the protagonist himself finds the "end users" of his business quite distasteful, and steers clear of any involvement with them, so no one is shown becoming addicted to or overdosing on his drugs.

'''''Layer Cake''''' (2004) is a British crime film.

-> ''"Opera tonight. ''[[Theatre/{{Faust}} The Damnation of Faust]]''. Man sells his soul to the devil, it all ends in tears. These arrangements usually do."''

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/layercake_3575.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[NumberTwo Gene]], [[NoNameGiven XXXX]] and [[DarkAndTroubledPast Morty]]]]

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: When Mr Lucky aims at a target who appears to be Dragan, a shot is fired and we see a GoryDiscretionShot of blood splattered on some leafs. We assume the target was hit, but the next camera shot reveals that Mr Lucky got hit by another sniper.

* BookcasePassage: XXXX enters Eddie Temple's vast library through a door that looks like a bookcase.* OvertRendezvous : XXXX wants to meet Dragan in a public place rather than at a hotel room. We later learn [[ColdSniper why]].

* BreakingTheFourthWall: a particularly twisted example. At the end of the movie, X turns around and tells the audience, "My name? If you know that, you'd be as clever as me." [[spoiler: Because he turns around, he can't see that Sidney is coming to him with a gun.]]
* BritishStuffiness: Eddie's line "England! Typical. Even drug dealers don't work weekends."

* ClusterFBomb: The film contains 150 F-bombs, which averages out to one every 42 seconds.

* CoolGuns: Amongst many others, Gene keeps a P08/Luger and a Thompson submachine gun in his cabinet.

* CrazyJealousGuy: [[spoiler:Sidney]]

* CurbStompBattle: Morty against Freddie, [[spoiler: for managing morty 10 years inside and then asking for handouts for the first time they meet afterward]], and later Gene against [[spoiler: XXXX, for killing Jimmy Price]]. See ExtremeMeleeRevenge below.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: X after Eddie robs him his pills. [[spoiler: Turns out he's already planned to ambush Eddie's mercs and rob his pills back.]]

* DefensiveFailure: Subverted. When XXXX is about to blow [[spoiler:Jimmy's]] brains out from close range, he hesitates and it looks like he cannot bring himself to pull the trigger but after a few seconds he pulls himself together and gives [[spoiler:Jimmy]] a BoomHeadshot.

* FadeToWhite

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The movie has approx. 30 named characters.

* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: When XXXX asks Gene what he is going to do about the Serbs, Gene doesn't give a straight answer but leads XXXX to his [[WallOfWeapons gun cabinet]].

* ReadyForLovemaking: MsFanservice Tammy gets ready for mating with XXXX by putting on sexy underwear and [[StockingFiller stockings]]. Unfortunately, Eddie's henchmen have other plans for XXXX.
* RedBaron: Deconstructed. X notes how much he loathes wannabe gangsters who try to make themselves renowned with badass nicknames such as "The Duke", basically placing a bullseye on their backs and drawing the attention of the authorities--not a good option for a criminal who is just in it for the profit.

** The Duke's remaining gang drops their weapons and make a run for the backdoor when the Police storms the warehouse.

* When XXXX is taking medicine with booze a close up shot of his eye is shown, with his pupil widening. This same shot is shown multiple time in ''Film/RequiemForADream'', with the same sound effect.

* [[StuffedIntoTheFridge Stuffed Into The Freezer]]: [[spoiler: The Duke]]

* TooDumbToLive: The Duke and his followers.
** Freddie Hurst.

* WomanInBlack: Tammy is dressed all in black - down to her underwear - when meeting up with XXXX for having sex.

* ApologeticAttacker: [[spoiler: Sidney]]

* BookEnds: The film starts with an [[ArmedBlag armed robbery of a payroll van]] in the [[TheSixties 60's]], and [[FullCircleRevolution ends with an armed robbery of a drug shipment]].

* DrowningMySorrows: XXXX blitzes on pills and whisky [[spoiler: after killing Jimmy]].

* HeelFaceTurn: Gene after hearing Eddie's tape
* JerkAss: Mr. X himself. But Crazy Larry [[IncrediblyLamePun takes the cake]].

* OneLastJob: See {{Retirony}}

* ReadyForLovemaking

* RuthlessForeignGangsters: The Serbians. War criminals who double as drug producers.

* SchrodingersCat: While surviving and leaving England in the book, the protagonist is implied to die in the movie. Connolly does write a sequel book titled Viva La Madness, but whether it's going to be adapted for theatre remains to be seen.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: After Morty's ExtremeMeleeRevenge;

* ShoutOut: When Eddie Temple has the protagonist kidnapped, their conversation is filmed overlooking construction in the Docklands area of London. This is a reference to ''Film/TheLongGoodFriday'', in which LondonGangster Harold Shand wanted to [[RealitySubtext develop that area]] as part of his efforts to become a respectable businessman. Thus, Eddie has succeeded where Harold failed.

** And the UK DVD release too

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of the film's post-''Film/CasinoRoyale'' DVD release shows Craig in a Film/JamesBond-style pose. In the film, he does that in only one scene as a joke.

* ShoutOut: When Eddie Temple has the protagonist kidnapped, their conversation is filmed overlooking construction in the Docklands area of London. This is a reference to ''TheLongGoodFriday'', in which LondonGangster Harold Shand wanted to [[RealitySubtext develop that area]] as part of his efforts to become a respectable businessman. Thus, Eddie has succeeded where Harold failed.

* XanatosGambit: Jimmy's plan with Mr. X. Why does he order X to find Eddie's daughter? [[spoiler: To kidnap her. He knows X's plan to retire, and he's been in a deep financial shit because of stupid investments and his feud with Eddie. If Eddie's thugs kill X, Jimmy can cut his losses; if X gets Eddie's daughter, Jimmy can use her to blackmail Eddie to bailing him out.]] Fortunately, Eddie intervenes.

* BillingDisplacement: The film advertising prominently places Sienna Miller with Craig, even though she plays a minor character in the film.

* FakeNationality: The Serbians are played by Romanians who, [[AsLongAsItSoundsForeign when not speaking English, speak Romanian]].

* RealitySubtext: The actor, Jamie Foreman, who plays the Duke, is the son of an actual LondonGangster, Freddie Foreman, who was an associate of the Kray Twins.

* TooSoon: In the novel, in the scene where X tries to use the Sniper to kill one of the RuthlessForeignGangsters, an American tourist is mistaken for the target, and is killed by the Sniper. This is partially PlayedForLaughs, because when the actual target runs away, the Sniper refuses to shoot him, as he was only paid for one killing that day. It's indicated that the death is spun as a casualty of the WarOnTerror. When the film was made, distributors thought that this wouldn't go over well, especially in America, so it instead became a scene where the Sniper got killed by a ScopeSnipe.

* CouncilEstate: The grim location of Kinky's crack den.

* BatmanGambit: Eddie banks on Mr. X's success of getting the ecstasies off the Serbians so the two can make a drug deal for themselves. [[spoiler: X delivers, but Eddie holds his folks under gunpoint and withholds any payment for him. It turns out that X already foresees this and ambushes Eddie's transporters]]

* FalseFlagOperation: X fakes a police raid to extract the ecstasies from splinter gang, as well as to trick Dragan into conceding his people's stolen ecstasies for good. He knows that the Serbians are satisfied enough with the death of those who steal their drugs.

* ScaryBlackMan: Averted by the two main black characters, Morty and Trevor, who are very soft spoken and seem perpetually calm. Eventually played straight when the [[TooDumbToLive idiot who landed Morty in jail for ten years wanders in the restaurant and asks him for money]]. [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown Carnage]] [[VillainousBreakdown ensues]].

* VillainyDiscretionShot: Justified; the protagonist himself finds the "end users" of his business quite distasteful, and steers clear of any involvement with them, so no one is shown becoming addicted to or overdosing on his drugs.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Designated Antagonist's ideology makes the gangster protagonists look good by comparison. Also, in the book, one of the gangsters owns a sex shop and has a practice of telling someone asking for child porn to come back later that night, at which point they will be ambushed and beaten to a pulp.

* PragmaticVillainy: After seeing their stolen ecstasy's holdout busted by the cops, the Serbs let X live. Granted, [[spoiler: they don't know the bust was staged by X]], but the idea is that they don't prolong bloodfeuds for a lost cause.

A not-so-legal London businessman (DanielCraig), planning for an early retirement, gets in slightly over his head during [[OneLastJob one final deal]]. [[FromBadToWorse Things quickly escalate]], until our hero gets double-crossed, loses control and, as they say across the pond, everything goes tits up.

* AffablyEvil: Several of the gangster characters, particularly Morty and Gene, Eddie Temple, and the protagonist himself.

* CrazyJealousGuy: [[spoiler: Sidney]]

* VillainProtagonist: Well, X is a drug dealer...

-> ''"Opera tonight. ''The Damnation of Faust''. Man sells his soul to the devil, it all ends in tears. These arrangements usually do."''

* TheDragon: Actually named Dragan, however, [[spoiler:he's such a tough dragon that he never comes close to getting defeated. His employer also isn't the BigBad of the story.]]
** Also Mr. [[MeaningfulName Troop]], ex-soldier and Eddie Temple's right-hand man for dirty work.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Tons of. JamesBond, obviously, but even more impressive: chem-major Clarkie is [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises Bane]]. Jimmy is [[Series/{{Rome}} Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus]]. Morty is [[Film/HarryPotter Kingsley Shacklebolt]]. Gene is [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Miles O'Brien]]. Eddie is [[HarryPotter Dumbledore]], an hilarious contrast, considering that Eddie is pretty damned evil. Tammy is [[GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra the Baroness]], except she's blonde.