History Film / LockStockAndTwoSmokingBarrels

* AsYouKnow: The rules of three-card brag are spelled out for the players, who really ought to already know about the game they're buying into for a hundred grand. Then again, when you're playing for a hundred grand a head, making sure everyone is playing by the same rules isn't a bad idea.

* EvilIsPetty: The Director's Cut reveals that Hatchet Harry is trying to force JD into selling his pub out of bitterness that JD cheated him of it in the first place.

* FatBastard: Dog is pretty hefty and a vicious gangster. So too is Barry the Baptist. Also, Gary the Scouser is the fatter of the two, and the more vindictive. Subverted by Nick the Greek, a criminal, but not a vicious one.

* FootballHooligans: Rory Breaker. Interrupt him when he's watching the football on the pub TV, and at best he'll tell you to clear off. At worst, he'll set fire to you.

** We're told that Eddie is a master cardsharp who can read his opponents like a book, but he has no idea that Harry is cheating, or that he has the winning cards in the final hand.

* InsistentTerminology: Barkeep Joe is ''very'' specific and particular over the fact that he runs a ''Samoan pub'', not a regular one. In fact, the conversation is the TropeCodifier and featured on its page.

* KnifeNut: Soap reveals that he has a collection of large knives ("big fuck-off shiny ones"), and delivers a speech about how they're more practical than guns because they're quiet, concluding, "Guns for show, knives for a pro." The rest of the gang is creeped out. As the sole member of the group with an honest trade, this is both ironic and fitting. His job as a cook would presumably make him comfortable with knives and butchering.
-->"I think knives are a good idea. [[WeaponForIntimidation Big, fuck-off shiny ones]]. Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile. Knives are good, because they don't make any noise, and the less noise they make, the more likely we are to use them. Shit 'em right up. Makes it look like we're serious. Guns for show, knives for a pro."\\
"Soap, is there something we should know about you?"\\
"I'm not sure what's more worrying. The job, or your past."

** In the same scene, the language is toned down in the subtitles -- "that's fucking it" becomes "I've had enough".

* FunWithSubtitles: Barfly Jack recounts a story involving Rory Breaker in an almost impenetrable block of Cockney rhyming slang, with English subtitles.
-->'''Jack:''' He then proceeds to order an Aristotle [[note]] bottle [[/note]] of the most ping-pong [[note]] strong [[/note]] tiddly [[note]] drink (tiddly wink = drink) [[/note]] in the nuclear sub [[note]] pub [[/note]].

* FunWithSubtitles: For (semi-fictional) Cockney Rhyming Slang.

%%* BadBoss: Dog to his men, and Barry to the Scousers.

* BoozeFlamethrower: Rory Breaker does this. Take Barfly Jack's quote: "Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe."

** It's also hard to judge Rory Breaker's importance from his first scene, watching a ballgame in a pub.

%%* TheChewToy: The traffic warden.
* ChromosomeCasting: There are only two female speaking parts in the film - Tanya and Gloria. And the latter only speaks once. Model Laura Bailey had a part as Ed's girlfriend which ended up on the cutting room floor.

* CollidingCriminalConspiracies: The plot follows the intersection of four lowlifes trying to pay off a gambling debt, a group of thugs stealing from a black gang's pot growing operation, and a crimelord ordering the theft of some valuable muskets.

* DoesntLikeGuns: Harry offers Big Chris a gun, but Chris says that they're "not his thing." Given that Chris is a debt collector and not a hitman, this makes sense.

* ChromosomeCasting: There are only two female speaking parts in the film - Tanya and Gloria. And the latter only speaks once. Claudia Schiffer has a part as Ed's girlfriend which ended up on the cutting room floor.

** Winston is clearly the leader of the dealers because he's the only one with any common sense. He gets annoyed at the others for not bothering to lock the security gate and for going around London with a stoned girl on one arm and bag of fertiliser on the other when they grow weed.

* [[DuctTapeForEverything Gaffer Tape For Everything]]: The lads use it to tie up Dog and his gang.

* FatBastard: Dog is pretty hefty and a vicious gangster. Also, Gary the Scouser is the fatter of the two, and the more vindictive. Subverted by Nick the Greek, a criminal, but not a vicious one.

* AffablyEvil: For a LoanShark's enforcer, Big Chris doesn't seem like that bad of a guy. Just lay off the kid. [[PapaWolf No, REALLY, lay off his kid...]]

* AgonyOfTheFeet: One of the scousers likes to put bits of paper between his victims' toes and light it on fire. J gets his toes blasted off.

* DeadpanSnarker: Pretty much everyone.

* EvilIsPetty: Hatchet Harry is trying to force JD into selling his pub out of bitterness that JD cheated him of it in the first place.

* {{Leitmotif}}: Ed and his friends have one, as do Dog and his gang. Ed's is kind of funky, while Dog's is more hard rock.

* ProfessionalGambler: The narrator would [[InformedAbility have us believe that Eddie is one]], but his [[IdiotBall lapse of judgement]] at the table suggests otherwise.

* TheScrooge: In Nick's first scene, he's haggling with Tom over £200 over a stereo system, despite having a lot of money on him. Tom says that he's "tighter than a duck's butt".

* SoreLoser: Don, another young criminal attending Hatchet Harry's three-card brag meeting. When he starts losing, he furiously climbs on top of the table, whereupon Harry has him thrown out into the street, and he continues furiously cursing his gambling rivals out.

** In the scene which introduces Big Chris, he insists that a debtor refers to Harry as "Mister Harry".

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: Nick the Greek, after Rory Breaker threatens him into revealing the protagonists' whereabouts, shuts down his shop and moves elsewhere. Also Winston, after Rory and Dog's gangs have finished shooting one another, apart from Rory himself. As soon as he leaves the apartment, Winston hears Rory and Plank shooting one another.

* EvilCounterpart: Dog's gang to Ed's. They live right next door to each other and are both engaged in low scale criminal activities, but Ed's friends are [[NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters only a little worse]] than anyone in ''Series/OnlyFoolsAndHorses'' when it comes to street hustling, whereas Dog is a disgusting brute of a man.

--->'''Eddie:''' [[EverybodysDeadDave Everyone's]] ''[[EverybodysDeadDave dead]]''[[EverybodysDeadDave , Dad!]] That's about as in-the-clear as it gets!

* LockAndLoadMontage: When Dog and Rory's respective gangs prepare to ambush the heroes, to the tune of [[Film/ZorbaTheGreek "Zorba's Dance"]]. Which speeds up when the gunfight gets going.

* BadBoss: Dog to his men, and Barry to the Scousers.

* BaldOfAwesome: JD, played by Music/{{Sting}} with a shaved head and a serious attitude.
* BaldOfEvil: Barry the Baptist, in contrast to Chris and Harry's full heads of hair.

* BigBad: Hatchet Harry.

* TheChewToy: The traffic warden.

-->'''Jack:''' He then proceeds to order an Aristotle of the most ping-pong tiddly in the nuclear sub.

* GenreRelaunch: There hadn't been a successful British gangster film since the late 1980s (the last really successful one was 1986's ''Film/MonaLisa''). This film changed that.

* HiddenInPlainSight: Gloria, who lies very still on the couch cushions while wearing similarly patterned clothes gets completely overlooked twice.
* HyperlinkStory: The gambling plot, the weed growing plot, the gun-stealing plot, the robbery plot, all end up connected.
* HypocriticalHumor: Big Chris swearing when he's beating Dog to death, since he doesn't like other people swearing.

-->'''JD:''' I do know your reputation. So I choose my words very carefully. You tell Harry... to go fuck himself.\\

** We're told that Eddie is a master cardsharp who can read his opponents like a book, but has no idea that Harry getting fed his cards or has the winning cards in the final hand.

* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: Tom suggests opening a company named "Arse Tickler's Faggot Fan Club", and returning people's cheques - a lot of people would be too embarrassed to cash them. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embarrassing_cheque This is based on a real scam.]]

** The weed growers escape the shootout with their product back and survive pretty much intact [[spoiler:aside J missing a chunk of his toes and Willie possibly dying of shock depending on how many shots of the bren Mick got in him. They're also technically freelance as their chief employer is killed.]]

* LetMeTellYouAStory: Bacon tell the guys the story of Smithy Robinson, a old geezer beaten to death with a [[ImprovisedWeapon "15-inch black rubber cock"]] as a warning tale of what happens to the people that don't pay Hatchet Harry what they own him.

* LockAndLoadMontage: When Dog and Rory's respective gangs prepare to ambush the heroes.

* TheMagicPokerEquation: Notably averted. Not only does Eddie, supposedly the more skilled card player, lose the game due to his opponent cheating, but he loses to a relatively unexceptional hand. And, of course, the game is not poker, but three-card brag.

* MexicanStandOff: Inadvertent since the characters don't quite realise it, but the principle applies. Rory's gang breaks into the protagonists' flat and runs into [[spoiler:Dog's crew]] who are in hiding. Both groups realise something isn't right and an awkward pause occcurs before someone - followed by everyone else - starts firing.

* NoEnding: Tom decides to dispose of the shotguns that are the only evidence of the crime he and the other protagonists have committed. As he prepares to dump them off a bridge into the Thames, his buddies discover that the weapons are rare antiques, each worth a fortune. The movie ends with Tom hanging over the side of the bridge, poised to drop the guns in the river, and his cell phone clutched between his teeth (put there to avoid it falling into the river while he is hanging over the edge) - and it rings.
* NonIndicativeName: Or rather, nickname - unless you've read the script (see above) you'll be puzzled as to why Bacon is called that.

* PantsPositiveSafety: When talking to Ed in the pub, Soap pulls a large machete out of his trousers, no indication it was stored in any sort of sheath. Made even worse the sharpened edge was facing his groin, meaning he could've castrated himself if he drew wrong.

* PetTheDog: Maybe it was just because they were rattled and in a hurry, but given the rest of their behavior, Dog and his crew leaving Winston and his friends alive after the fight they put up can feel like this.

* SadisticChoice: What sets the movie's plot in motion; after he learns Eddie has a shitty hand, Harry makes a bet Eddie can't match, then offers to loan him 500 grand to stay in the game and gives him a week to pay Harry back if he loses. Eddie can either fold and lose the 100 grand he and his friends put together to buy into the game, or accept the loan and potentially lose to a very dangerous LoanShark. Eddie knows he'd never be able to pay back the loan in time, but he's so confident in his hand that he accepts it anyway, having no idea the game is rigged in Harry's favor.

-->If you leave anything out, I'll kill you!. If you bend the truth, or I think you're bending the truth, I'll kill you. If you forget anything, I'll kill you. In fact, you're going to have to work very hard to stay alive, Nick. Now do you understand everything I've said? Because if you don't, I'll kill you.

* XanatosGambit: When Hatchet Harry cons Ed by cheating in three-card brag and forcing Eddy to borrow money from him or else, Ed then gets in deep by owing a quarter of a million quid. This is all to get vengeance on Ed's dad for beating him in cards years ago. If Ed doesn't pay up, and his dad doesn't bail him out, he gets vengeance by killing Ed, Harry wins. If Ed doesn't pay up, but his dad does bail him out, Ed's dad loses his pub, which he bought with the winnings he got off Harry. Harry wins. If Ed does pay up, he has earned a quarter of a million pounds, which wont be in the hand of Ed or his dad. Harry wins. Pity about the spanner in the works.

* YouCanKeepHer: Big Chris offers JD the option of giving up his bar to cover the cost of Ed's debt...to which JD, replies:

"There is one more thing. (beat) It's been emotional."

** Traffic wardens to everyone.

A 1998 British crime caper and black comedy written and directed by Creator/GuyRitchie. The plot concerns four bottom-rung English grifters who hatch a plan for a big payday that, instead, set off a GambitPileup involving two antique shotguns, a bag of cash, a huge marijuana stash, and virtually every criminal gang in London's East End.

* SteelEarDrums: Averted during the Bren gun sequence. It's fired in close proximity, deafening everyone else. Its user wears Peltors before he opens fire though.

* SuddenlyShouting: Dog, once he finally loses patience with the stupidity of his men, and when they're saying that getting the drugs and money they themselves stole stolen from them is "a problem".

* FriendshipMoment: The Gary's reaction to Dean's death is actually kind of touching.

* TheShill: In the opening, Bacon and Ed are selling stolen goods in the street. Ed, playing the shill, triggers the audience's enthusiasm by saying "Did you say ten pounds? That's a bargain! I'll take one."

* LaserGuidedKarma: [spoiler: Dog and his gang preparing to ambush the people who robbed them only to have the very dangerous people ''they'' robbed wander in instead]]. Barry and Harry getting [[spoiler: shot by the panicked thieves they'd left scared of suffering a brutal case of YouHaveFailedMe when they show up to retrieve the shotguns without realizing that Harry already has them]].

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Rory Breaker.

* TheCameo: Music/{{Sting}} has a small role as Eddie's father. (his wife is an executive producer)

** Big Chris is introduced to Music/JamesBrown's "The Payback", establishing him as a badass.

* ReCut: Creator/GuyRitchie later released a Director's Cut that delves into the backstory between Harry and J.D. and explains why Harry wants the bar so much.