Film / Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels

"Can everyone stop getting shot?"

Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime caper and black comedy written and directed by Guy Ritchie, in his feature film debut.

The plot concerns four bottom-rung English grifters who hatch a plan for a big payday that inadvertently sets off a Gambit Pileup involving two antique shotguns, a bagload of banknotes, a huge marijuana stash, and virtually every criminal gang in London's East End.

Produced on a shoestring, the film was a huge success and launched the film careers of Ritchie as well as producer Matthew Vaughn and costars Jason Statham and Vinnie Jones.

The film was later adapted into the television series Lock, Stock....

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This film provides examples of;

• Accidental Kidnapping: The Traffic Warden in the van.
• Action Dad: Big Chris. Made the mistake of threatening his son, Little Chris? Big Chris is going to have to introduce you to a car door.
• Affably Evil: For a Loan Shark's enforcer, Big Chris doesn't seem like that bad of a guy. Just lay off the kid. No, REALLY, lay off his kid...
• Afro Asskicker: Rory Breaker is a short-statured man with an afro, but he's a formidable gangster.
• Agony of the Feet:
  • Gary likes to put bits of paper between his victims' toes and light it on fire. J gets his toes blasted off.
  • Dog shows that he's not messing around during the robbery by blowing J's toes off with his shotgun.
• All There in the Script:
  • According to the screenplay, Bacon got his name because as a youth he spent so much time in police stations that people thought he was one of them.
  • The poor sods who get robbed and killed by Dog in his first scene are named Gordon (the one being hanged upside down) and Slick (the one with a golf tee in his mouth).
  • The man Big Chris chases up in the tanning salon is named John O'Driscoll.
  • Winston and co. live and operate at Sloanes' House.
  • Danny John-Jules' character, who tells Tom the story about Rory Breaker, is called Barfly Jack.
• Ambiguously Absent Parent: We never see Little Chris' mother at any point.
• And Starring: Sting (JD) gets the 'and' in the closing credits.
• Angry Chef: Soap, although he's more grouchy and pessimistic than he is angry.
  OI. Keep your fingers out of my soup.
• Anti-Villain: Big Chris. He is a loving father, and takes time at the end of the movie to inform the protagonists that their guns are worth a fortune. He even checks to see if they are ok with genuine concern after crashing his car into theirs, only taking the money off them after working out they had stolen it back off his employer.
• Anyone Can Die: To the point that Ed's friends twice in a row enter a place only to find it riddled with corpses.
• Arms Dealer: Eddie speculates that Nick the Greek might be one in his spare time.
  Eddie: What do you do when you're not buying transistors from us, Nick, finance revolutions?
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Several due to most of the characters being deadpan snarkers, including the following.
  Eddie: They're armed.
  Soap: What was that? Armed? What do you mean armed? Armed with what?
  Eddie: Err, bad breath, colorful language, feather duster... what do you think they're gonna be armed with? Guns, you tit!
• Asshole Victim: Most of the deaths after the first three or four are experienced by people who really had it coming sooner or later, though there are a couple of exceptions.
• As You Know: 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 and some fairly shady characters are involved, making sure everyone is playing by the same rules isn't a bad idea.
• A-Team Firing: John when unloading his Bren gun on Winston's group. Granted, he doesn't know exactly where they are, but he is carrying a BFG and firing in their general direction in a fairly small room. The POV shot of his intended targets indicates he got nowhere near. Also Gloria with the same Bren gun, who blows John to kingdom come and destroys the entire room but leaves everyone else unscathed.
• Awesome, but Impractical: A World War II-era Bren gun is an absolutely bonkers choice of weapon to take to a robbery - it's intimidating for sure but also heavy, cumbersome in confined spaces, almost impossible to conceal, and you need ear protection to fire it indoors without nearly blowing your eardrums. Though according to Soap, all guns are impractical compared to knives - as he explains, a big knife is actually more valuable than a gun as Weapon for Intimidation because being silent imparts the dread that the knife is more likely to be used. Not to mention this is set in the UK, a country with some of the most strict and zero-tolerance gun control laws in the world. Big Chris also declines Harry's offer to take a gun for the money collection job, apparently thinking they're more trouble than they are worth.
  Soap: Guns for show. Knives for a pro.
• Bad Boss: Dog to his men, Barry to the Scousers (although to be fair, he's only hiring them for a one-off job) and Rory to the cannabis growers (given that he has to all intents and purposes left them to sort out the security arrangements for themselves).
• Badass and Child Duo: Big Chris and his son Little Chris. It even gives the former an excuse to be extra cruel, as shown when he beats a tanning man twice, first for swearing, then for blasphemy.

• Berserk Button:
  • Big Chris is a very cool customer as long as you don't threaten his son.
  • Don't disturb Rory Breaker when he's watching his footer.
  • Everyone fucking hates traffic wardens.
• Beware the Silly Ones: The characters acknowledge that Rory Breaker's short stature and afro make him look rather comical, but he is not one to mess with.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Soap, the sensible one, is shown to have a proclivity for sharp objects, and during the robbery is the first one to break cover, holding one of the gang members at knifepoint whilst bellowing in his face.
• BFG: John brings a Bren light machine gun to hold up the pot growers. The gun is so loud that Dog threatens to kill him if he fires it again. Ultimately, Gloria grabs the gun and unloads the thing on Dog's crew. In slow-motion, the shells hitting the ground sound like oil drums.
• Big Bad: Hatchet Harry.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Dog and Rory Breaker both serve as secondary antagonists who are unconnected to each other or Hatchet Harry.
• Bilingual Bonus: During Rory Breaker's English-Greek mixed tirade about Nick the Greek, he uses the word "pesevengi". This is the same as "pezevenk" in Turkish (just one of the many words, traditions, dances, drinks and cuisine etc. that the Turks and the Greeks have in common historically). It means pimp, or to be more specific, "a man who doesn't care if his wife sleeps with other men." While this may not be much of a curse word in some western societies, in Turkey (and probably in Greece as well) it's one of the worst insults one could make.
• Binge Montage: After Ed's crew manages to steal a truly epic amount of money and high grade cannabis from Dog, they proceed to celebrate in this fashion.
• Black-and-Grey Morality: The main characters are a group of street hustlers, con men, and gamblers. There are two groups of less sympathetic characters: the underworld bosses that cheat them in a card game, and whose entire purpose for this is to get the father of the character that they cheated to sell his pub so they can buy it cheap, and a group of brutal crooks who steal from, torment, and shoot the pot head marijuana growers who trust them.
• Black Dude Dies First: That poor drug merchant who Dog dispatches with a thrown knife to his stomach at the start is the first person to die in the film. Also, Rory Breaker the Yardie is the first main villain to die, and he's the only black one.
• Blade Enthusiast:
  • 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 ("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 chef would presumably make him comfortable with knives and butchering.
  Soap: I think knives are a good idea. 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.
  Tom: Soap, is there something we should know about you?
  Bacon: I'm not sure what's more worrying. The job, or your past.
  • Dog seems to favour a switchblade, killing a victim with one and threatening Willie and Little Chris with one.
• Bland-Name Product: The antique guns are due to be sold at an auction house called Botherby's.
• Blast Out: The gangs of Rory Breaker and Dog stumble upon each other with guns drawn, both expecting to find the protagonists. They start shooting anyway.
• Blatant Lies: Ed's father catches wind of his son's plans to play in Harry's card game. Ed denies it, clearly without expecting anyone to buy it.
• Booze Flamethrower: 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 ^note  chest and the man's lit up like a leaky gas pipe."
• Bottomless Magazines: Zig-zagged when Gloria fires the Bren gun. The magazine only holds 30 bullets, yet she seemingly fires hundreds of them... before they run out.
• Brick Joke: The Man on Fire in an early scene is actually the punchline from a scene we won't get to see until later.
• Brits Love Tea: Ed fortifies himself with a cuppa before the big heist.
  Soap: What are you doing, Ed?
  Ed: Making tea, d'you want one?
  Soap: No, I fucking don't. You cannot make a cup of tea, Edward.
  Eddie: The entire British Empire was built on cups of tea.
  Soap: Yeah, and look what happened to that.
  Ed: And if you think I'm going to war without one you're mistaken!
• Bullying a Dragon:
  • That poor bastard who tried to intimidate Rory Breaker into leaving a pub by turning his precious football game off.
  • Dog makes the worst mistake of his entire life by intimidating Big Chris by threatening his son.
  • Dog and his crew inadvertedly do this by robbing the people who grow weed for an unhinged gangster like Rory Breaker.
• The Cameo:
  • Irish boxing legend Steve Collins plays one of the bouncers minding the card game.
  • Danny John-Jules is Barman Jack, who tells Tom the rhyming-slang infused story about Rory Breaker.
• Caper Crew: Ed is The Mastermind who comes up with idea of robbing the neighbours, Bacon is The Muscle, Tom is The Acquirer and Soap is The Driver. That said, Bacon also spies on the neighbours and Soap provides balaclavas.
• Card Sharp: It's card sharp vs. card shark when card sharp Eddy goes up against "Hatchet" Harry. Harry has Barry spying on Eddy.
  • Ed's father JD is an even better card sharp than his son. He was able to successfully fake helpless crying long enough to trick Harry into losing their card game.
• Cheaters Never Prosper: Averted (initially at least) by Hatchet Harry, who cheats his way to victory in his high stakes three-card brag game against Ed. Although it does set off a chain of events that leads to Harry being killed.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • The traffic warden, who gets the protagonist group off the hook as he only remembers Dog's gang as the ones who stole the drugs and beat him up.
  • It's also hard to judge Rory Breaker's importance from his first scene, watching a football match in a pub.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Dog misses out on two of these, to his cost. He wasn't present to hear either Harry telling Barry that your days are numbered should you dare threaten Little Chris, or Big Chris telling Little Chris about the importance of fastening your seatbelt.
• Cherry Tapping: Hatchet Harry is said to have apparently bludgeoned one of his employees to death with a large black dildo.
• The Chew Toy: The traffic warden, who thanks to being an Acceptable Professional Target gets beaten up by Dog's gang and the lads.
• Chromosome Casting: There are only two female speaking parts in the film — Tanya and Gloria. And the latter only speaks once. Supermodel Laura Bailey had a part as Ed's girlfriend which ended up on the cutting room floor.
• *Click* Hello: Dog sits at the desk and Bacon surprises him from behind with the shotgun.
• Close-Call Haircut: The fatter of the two Scousers takes a shotgun blast to the perm. He is not pleased.
• Cluster F-Bomb: There's barely a scene without one. Or many.
• Colliding Criminal Conspiracies: The plot follows the intersection of four small-time criminals 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 shotguns.
• Colour Wash: The film uses mainly shades of yellow, brown and grey, as if the colour film stock were old and weathered.
• The Con: 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."
• Contrived Coincidence: A lot of the "comedy of errors" plot is fueled by coincidences to keep the hijinks flowing.
• Cool Car:
  • The 1962 Shelby Cobra Mark III that Big Chris buys at the end of the film with the stolen money.
  • Tom drives a 1972 Rover 3.5 Litre Coupé.
  • JD drives a 1966 Mercedes-Benz 250 SE.
• Country Matters: It's a British movie with a lot of cursing, so expect the C-word a few times.
• Creator Cameo: Producer Matthew Vaughn is the yuppie whose car is stolen by Dog.
• Creepy Child: Little Chris is foul-mouthed and eagerly assists his father in collecting money from late payers, sometimes violently. That said, Big Chris doesn't like him being rude.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Rory Breaker, subverted in that he's neither particularly quirky (look aside) nor dim - he's the first to smell a rat when Nick shows him his own skunk.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • According to Bacon, Harry once beat a man to death with a dildo. He notes that it was seen as a pleasant way to go.
  • Dog's death at the hands of Big Chris: having his head beaten to a pulp by having a car door slammed on it. But boy, does he deserve it for threatening to kill Little Chris.
• The Cynic: Soap is the most dour and pessimistic of the four lads. The screenplay even describes him as "a stroppy sod, but he's got more balls than a golfer".
• Danger Takes a Backseat: Dog does this to Big Chris by threatening Little Chris. It does not end well for Dog.
• Dead Man's Trigger Finger: When Rory turns Plank's body over, his shotgun is pointed at him. Rory shoots him and is then promptly killed by the shotgun, due to the movement of the corpse.
• Death Glare: Plank tells Dog that the dealers keep money in a pile of shoeboxes, only for Dog to discover that it's empty. To quote the script, "If looks could kill, Plank would be pushing up the daisies".
• Description Cut: Gary lives down to Harry's expectations.
  Harry: I don't care who you use, as long as they're not complete muppets.
  [cut]
  Gary: Shotguns? You mean, like, guns that fire shot?
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Big Chris visits JD to break the news of Ed's debt. JD refuses to sell and tells Harry to go fuck himself.
• Dirty Coward: Dog, ultimately. When he sees his gang and Rory Breaker's gang shooting one another, he escapes out the window, taking the guns, drugs and money with him. And when Big Chris mugs him afterwards, instead of confronting him directly, he sneaks into his car and holds a dagger to Little Chris' throat. It doesn't end well for him.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Rory's response to someone changing the channel when he's watching a football match is to set the man on fire.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Bacon's stolen goods.
  Bacon: These haven't been stolen, they just haven't been paid for. And we can't get 'em again, they've changed the bloody locks.
• Doesn't Like Guns: 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.
• The Dragon: Barry the Baptist, to Harry. Also Big Chris because he's seen getting most of the work done, making it a case of Co-Dragons.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Big Chris at the end has no intention of further dealings with the protagonists, now that his boss is dead. He just wants to give his son a good life.
• Dramatic Irony: In a lot of the scenes, the humor/tension comes from the fact that the characters are oblivious to something that the audience knows is happening.
• The Dreaded: Hatchet Harry and Rory Breaker are both high-level gangsters feared by everyone else.
• Drink-Based Characterization: Rory, a badass Yardy gangster, likes frothy drinks of the Umbrella Drink type. On one occasion, he does order a cocktail with a very high alcohol content, but that was only so he could spit it on someone who annoyed him and set them on fire.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Bacon states that Ed spent two days at the bottom of a bottle as a result of having lost the card game.
• Establishing Character Moment: Much of the cast are given one:
  • The Director's Cut opens with Ed explaining the rules of poker to a pair of police officers.
  • Bacon is introduced flogging stolen jewelry on a street corner.
  • Tom is introduced selling a stero to Nick the Greek out of the back of his shop, the latter complaining about the price.
  • Soap is introduced working in a kitchen and complaining about the fruit salad he got from Tom.
  • Big Chris is introduced intimidating a man behind on his payment and chastising his son for swearing.
  • Rory Breaker is introduced being glued to the football game on television in the pub.
  • The dealers are introduced idly getting stoned and Winston chastising them for their lack of common sense.
  • Dog and his crew are introduced robbing a pair of men of their goods and Dog casually murdering them in a manner that shocks his henchmen.
• Establishing Character Music:
  • Big Chris is introduced to James Brown's "The Boss", establishing him as a badass.
  • The dealers are introduced to "Police and Thieves" by Junior Marvin, the joke being that they grow weed and listen to reggae.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Dog's men are visibly disgusted by his Establishing Character Moment.
  • Big Chris doesn't like to hear Little Chris swear, or anyone else swearing in front of Little Chris.
• Evil Counterpart: 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 and his mates are only a little worse than anyone in Only Fools and Horses when it comes to street hustling, whereas Dog is a disgusting brute of a man.
• Evil Is Hammy: Barry is just waiting to go into explosive shouting fits when threatening people.
• Evil Is Petty: The Director's Cut reveals that Hatchet Harry is trying to force JD into selling his pub out of bitterness because JD cheated him of it in the first place.
• Evil Old Folks: Hatchet Harry is an older man but still a formidable gangster and loan shark.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Barry's voice makes him sound a lot more threatening than his boss, Harry.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: Plank, Dog's right-hand man. Possibly on account of all the drugs he takes when he's visiting the weed-growers.
• Evil vs. Evil: Dog's gang vs. Rory Breaker's gang.
• Exposed Embarrassing Purchase: One of Tom's moneymaking schemes is setting up a fake company that sells dildos and then returning the buyer's cheques, the idea being that they'd be too embarrassed to cash them.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Big Chris gets a hold of Dog after endangering his son in a crash after his failed carjacking.
• Facecam: Used to express Ed's devastation after losing a high-stakes card game.
• Failed a Spot Check: As Dean and Gary enter Harry's place, they fail to notice his name on the entrance. Had they done so, the climax would have been a lot less messy.
• Fainting: J. passes out when Plank pulls a gun on him during the robbery. This is just the first of many things that go wrong during the robbery.
• Fat and Skinny: Gary and Dean, the two Scousers.
• Fat Bastard: 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, who is a criminal, but not a vicious one.
• Fat Idiot: Gary the Scouser is not all that clever.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Dog's aggression and violent nature lead him to threaten the wrong person - the son of someone much tougher than he is, which ends in him getting killed.
  • The Scousers' stupidity and lack of common sense leads to a great deal of trouble - from them inadvertently selling the very thing they were supposed to be stealing to them storming a place without even bothering to check who lives there first, which ends very messily.
• Faux Affably Evil: Barry is a lot less genuinely friendly than Big Chris as an enforcer, as shown when he cheerfully tells a nervously sick Eddie what he'll do to him and his friends if he can't repay the loan. Most of the time, he's just flat out rude and abusive.
• Feeling Their Age: In the director's cut, Hatchet Harry had a heart attack after JD tricked him into losing a three-card brag tournament. Big Chris warns JD not to repeat this when confronting him in his pub.
• Fight Unscene: The shoot-out that wipes out Dog's and Rory Breaker's gang is never actually seen, we just see debris, windows shattering, etc. Presumably, this was because the filmmakers didn't have the budget for a large-scale action sequence.
• Fighting Irish: Hatchet Harry's two bouncers are Irish, and they're pretty terse when preventing Ed's friends from joining him in the gambling den.
• Fingore:
  • As well as drowning people, Barry's other method of debt enforcement is to take a finger from the debtor's hand for each day without payment.
  • The script reveals that Charles loses a finger as a result of trying to attack Mick, who is armed with a Bren gun, with a machete.
• Fixing the Game: Harry's brag game is rigged so he can cheat Ed out of not only his money, but his dad's bar. The Director's Cut reveals that Harry cheated at cards in a game with Ed's dad, but J.D. managed to beat him and Harry wants revenge.
• Football Hooligans: Rory Breaker. Interrupt him when he's watching the football on the pub TV, and at best he'll tell you to fuck off. At worst, he'll set fire to you.
• For Want Of A Nail: The climax could have gone differently if Dean and Gary had noticed Harry's name on the entrance to his building or if Barry had called them to say that the guns had been recovered.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Harry instructs Barry not to tell the Scousers how much the guns are worth.
  • Dog angrily tells Mick that he's a dead man if he fires his Bren gun again.
• Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Soap is the Cynic, Ed is the Optimist, Tom is the Realist and Bacon is the Apathetic.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four main lads:
  • Ed is Sanguine - eager, optimistic and naive.
  • Bacon is Phlegmatic - straightforward, laid-back and sensible.
  • Soap is Melancholic - pessimistic, anxious and fussy.
  • Tom is Choleric - opportunistic, business-minded and impulsive.
• Friendship Moment: Gary's reaction to Dean's death is actually kind of touching.
• From the Mouths of Babes: Little Chris is pretty cheeky and foul-mouthed, much though his father doesn't want him to be. Still, pretty bold of him to insult Barry the Baptist to his face.
• Funny Background Event: The Running Gag of Nick being served his drink at Rory's headquarters concludes with this. At the third go, the henchmen stops just behind Nick, glass in hand. Registers that Rory is this close to going completely Ax-Crazy at Nick, but really, anyone will do at this point. Very slowly, very carefully, backs out of frame, glass still in hand.
• Fun with Subtitles: In play when Barfly Jack recounts a story involving Rory Breaker in an almost impenetrable block of (partly made-up) Cockney rhyming slang, with English subtitles.
  Jack: He then proceeds to order an Aristotle of the most ping-pong tiddly in the nuclear sub.
  Subtitles: He then orders a bottle of the strongest drink in the pub.
  • In the same scene, the language is toned down in the subtitles — "that's fucking it" becomes "I've had enough".
• Gaffer Tape for Everything: The lads use it to tie up Dog and his gang.
• Gambit Pileup: The plot involves antique shotguns, a pile of cash, and a van full of quality marijuana. Almost none of the four factions know the shotguns are incredibly valuable.
• Generation Xerox:
  • Ed's father JD played Hatchet Harry at cards and won, despite Harry's attempts to cheat him. Ed inherited this trait from his dad, but failed to repeat his dad's success against Harry.
  • In the Director's Cut, Harry tells Barry that Big Chris comes from a long line of debt collectors - his father collected debts and his father before him and his father before him and Little Chris will follow him in that line.
• Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: Nick "The Greek" is, well, a Greek gangster.
• Genre Relaunch: There hadn't been a really successful British gangster film since Mona Lisa, back in 1986. This film changed that.
• Get Out!: Dog to his men, once he loses his temper with them.
• Getting High on Their Own Supply: Winston's crew spend most of the time lounging around smoking the weed they grow.
• Golf Clubbing: Dog raids a pair of small-time drug dealers and tortures the whereabouts of their stash out of them by pelting golf balls at one while using the other's mouth as a tee.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Three of them: Mick getting attacked with a machete; the shootout between Rory's and Plank's gangs; and Dog getting his head beaten to a pulp with a car door by Big Chris.
• Greed:
  • Hatchet Harry not only cheats at brag, but he would rather steal a pair of antique shotguns that hand over money at an auction. Not only does his greed drive the plot, it gets quite a few people killed.
  • It's implied that Plank sells out Winston and co. to Dog is so that Dog will give him a better share on their next robbery. This sets off the chain of events that gets them all killed.
• Guns Akimbo:
  • Rory wields a pair of pistols.
  • Dean bursts into Harry's office with two pistols pointed upwards, but it doesn't end well for him because Harry is already pointing a shotgun directly at him.
• Hate Sink: In a story filled with criminals ranging from low-level grifters to proper gangsters, Dog stands out as the single worst person in the film due to his violent, aggressive nature and the fact that he robs, threatens and kills people, even children, with no regard for anyone other than himself.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Gloria, who lies very still on the couch cushions while wearing similarly patterned clothes, gets completely overlooked twice.
• How We Got Here: The Director's Cut opens with Ed explaining the rules of poker to two men who are later revealed to be police officers. It's later revealed that he's in custody.
• Hyperlink Story: The gambling plot, the weed-growing plot, the gun-stealing plot and the robbery plot all end up connected.
• Hypocritical Humor: Big Chris swearing when he's beating Dog to death, since he doesn't like his son (who's witnessing the whole thing) swearing.
• I'll Kill You!: Rory means business.
  Rory Breaker: If you hold back anything, 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. Do you understand everything I've said? Because if you don't, I'll kill you.
• I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: Big Chris, charitably, after hearing Eddie's dad's reaction to Harry's offer to cancel Eddie's debt in exchange for the deed to the pub.
  JD: You do have a reputation. So I choose my words very carefully. You tell Harry ... to go fuck himself.
  Big Chris: Now, I'll put that down to shock. Only once. Only once can I, or shall I, let you get away with that.
• I Will Find You: Dog vows that he will find the people who are robbing him:
  Dog: I'll find you.
  Bacon: What do you think this is, fucking hide and seek?
• Implied Death Threat:
  Harry "The Hatchet": You must be Eddie, JD's son.
  Eddie: (insolently) You must be Harry. Sorry, I never knew your father.
  Harry "The Hatchet": Don't worry, son. You might meet him soon enough, if you carry on like that.
• Improvised Weapon: In a flashback, "Hatchet" Harry kills a man with a sex toy, specifically a 15-inch black rubber penis.
• In the Back: Barry the Baptist kills Gary by throwing a hatchet into his back, right after Gary shoots his boss before him.
• Informed Attribute:
  • Jason Statham described Bacon as the muscle of the group, but outside of the robbery, he doesn't display much of this. Ironic, given that Statham would forge a career as an action star.
  • Tom is frequently called fat. This was originally supposed to be true, and Steven Marcus (Nick the Greek) was originally considered for the role, but when the rail-thin Jason Flemyng got the role, this became a Running Gag. Tom is constantly confused by his friends' ribbing. The narrator even gets in on it, saying that for a skinny man, Tom is quite fat.
  • We're told that Eddie is a master card-player who can read his opponents like a book, but he has no idea that Harry has a superior hand (both have a pair, but two sevens beats two sixes). Or that he's cheating, come to think of it.
• Intentionally Awkward Title: Tom suggests opening a company named "Arse Tickler's Faggot Fan Club", selling non-existent gay sex toys via mail order and then returning the buyer's cheques, the idea being that they'd be too embarrassed to cash them. This is actually based on a real scam.
• Insistent Terminology: 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 Trope Codifier and featured on its page.
• Insufferable Genius: Winston. He's right about pretty much everything he voices an opinion about, but he does it in such an obnoxious way that no one bothers to listen to him.
• Ironic Echo Cut:
  • This example:
    Narrator: Ed would hate to admit it, but he could have kissed the old bastard for that. If he said he'd wanted to settle the debt on his own, it would have been a lie.
    [cut]
    Eddie: ...and I wish to Christ he would have let me settle the debt on my own.
  • There's also the Scousers and Barry repeating a simple question whose significance really is not matched by what is going on: "What the fuck are you doing here?!" To which Barry responds "What the fuck are you doing here?!"
• Karma Houdini:
  • Despite planning a robbery, the main characters never actually get around to doing anything seriously bad. They get let off their more minor offences On A Technicality, and as for revenge from the proper gangsters...
    Eddie: Everyone's dead, Dad! That's about as in-the-clear as it gets!
  • The weed-growers escape the shootout with their product back and survive pretty much intact aside from 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 Rory, their employer, is killed.
• Karmic Thief: The crew robbing the much nastier gang of thieves who happen to live to next door to them — the cash they plan to steal itself being stolen from a group of drug dealers.
• Kick the Dog: Dog murdering the dealer after torturing the information out of him. Also, when Gary lights a fire under the feet of his burglary victim, he suddenly drops several notches down the Sliding Scale of Antagonist Vileness.
• Laser-Guided Karma: 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 shot by the panicked thieves they'd left scared of suffering a brutal case of You Have Failed Me when they show up to retrieve the shotguns without realizing that Harry already has them.
• Last Breath Bullet: Once Rory turns around a wounded Plank, he shoots him dead.
• Late to the Tragedy: The protagonists keep turning up minutes after a massive shootout has killed everyone off.
• Leitmotif: Ed and his friends have one, as do Dog and his gang. Ed's is a kind of funky bass riff, while Dog's is more hard rock. Harry has a jazzy theme, while Rory Breaker has a 70s-sounding funky one.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: Tom explains that he didn't get rid of the shotguns like he was supposed to.
  Ed: So, the only thing connecting us with the case IS IN THE BACK OF YOUR CAR WHICH IS PARKED OUTSIDE?
• Let Me Tell You a Story: Bacon tell the guys the story of Smithy Robinson, a old geezer beaten to death with a "15-inch black rubber cock" as a warning tale of what happens to the people that don't pay Hatchet Harry what they owe him.
• Little "No": Rory Breaker's response to Bacon requesting him to turn the TV down. A much more civil response than the Man on Fire got.
• Little Useless Gun: Averted. Barry the Baptist winds up dying after a single shot to the gut from a pocket pistol.
  • Also played with, as Tom is worried the shotguns he gets from Nick the Greek for the robbery won't be taken seriously, because they're too big.
  • Played straight with the air rifle the weed growers attempt to use on Dog and his gang to little but hilarious effect, with Rory confused about Winston dramatically claiming to have shot one of them in the neck yet he walked away alive.
  Rory Breaker: What did you shoot him with, an air rifle?
  Winston: Look, we grow weed. We're not mercenaries.
  Rory Breaker: You don't say.
• Loan Shark: Hatchet Harry is an evil porn baron who wants to get revenge against Eddy's father, JD, for beating Harry at cards quite a few years previously. He's quite happy to give Eddy a debt of half a million pounds and one week to find it. If he fails, Harry will cut off a finger for every day that passes without payment.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: When Dog and Rory's respective gangs prepare to ambush the lads, they tool up to the tune of "Zorba's Dance". Which speeds up when the gunfight gets going.
• London Gangster: Many characters, naturally, "Hatchet" Harry Lonsdale being a classic.
• MacGuffin: The titular guns are a textbook example. Also the bags of high quality weed.
• A MacGuffin Full of Money The duffel bag with £1.3 million in cash in it.
• Machete Mayhem:
  • Soap has a collection of giant knives. When Ed sarcastically asks if he has anything bigger, Soap whips out a machete from a scabbard. "Shit 'em right up!"
  • Charles attacks Mick with one and in his words "He's nearly chopped my arm off".
• The Magic Poker Equation: Notably averted. Not only does Ed, 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.
• Man on Fire: Early in the film, a burning man suddenly and unexpectedly emerges from a pub, in what appears to be a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. However, the situation is explained later:
  "Rory knows claret (bloodshed) is imminent, but he doesn't want to miss the end of the game; so, calm as a coma, he stands and picks up a fire extinguisher and he walks straight past the jam rolls (arseholes) who are ready for action, then he plonks it outside the entrance. He then orders an Aristotle (bottle) of the most ping pong tiddly (strong alcohol^note tiddly-wink = drink) in the nuclear sub (pub) and switches back to his footer (football). 'That's fucking it,' says the guy. 'That's fucking what?' says Rory. Rory gobs out a mouthful of booze covering Fatty; he then flicks a flaming match into his bird's nest (chest) and the geezer's lit up like a leaky gas pipe. Rory, unfazed, turned back to his game. His team's won too. Four-nil."
• Mexican Standoff: Inadvertent since the characters don't quite realise it, but the principle applies. Rory's gang breaks into the protagonists' flat and runs into Dog's crew who are in hiding. Both groups realise something isn't right and an awkward pause ("What the fuck is going on here?") occurs before Plank — followed by everyone else — starts firing.
• Minor Injury Overreaction: When being shot at by Winston and his friends with an air rifle, Dog's gang react like they've been hit with real bullets.
• Mister Big: Rory Breaker, somewhat, though his shortness is exaggerated. And he does do the little-boss-with-huge-henchmen part.
• Mugging the Monster: That idiot at the bar really should have known who Rory Breaker was; if he did, he wouldn't have been set on fire for interrupting his footer.
• Mutual Kill:
  • Barry throws a hatchet in Kenny's back. His last act is to turn and shoot him in the gut.
  • Assuming Rory Breaker killed him, a deceased Plank manages to kill him.
• The Napoleon: Rory Breaker. He's described as a "psychotic dwarf with an afro" who once lit a man on fire for changing the channel away from something he was watching. His short height is accentuated by his two mammoth bodyguards, whose faces are sometimes not even visible as they stand beside him.
• Never Bring A Knife To A Gunfight: Though a case where a guy manages to nearly chop an arm off before getting riddled by bullets.
• No Ending: 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.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • Or rather, nickname — unless you've read the script (see above) you'll be puzzled as to why Bacon is called that.
  • Harry is addressed as "Hatchet Harry", but we never see him kill someone with a hatchet on screen. Instead, he uses a rubber dildo and an illegally-obtained shotgun.
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Stephen Marcus originally tried to act with a Greek accent, but it ended up sounding like Harry Enfield's Stavros character. In the end, he played Nick without a Greek accent.
• Not So Stoic: When his son's life is threatened, Big Chris beats the person who did it to death with a car door, screaming abuse at him the whole time. Also counts as Hypocritical Humor, as Chris objects to swearing by or around his son, and he uses a lot of profanity during this scene.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Tom's friend voices the opinion that Rory Breaker's Bunny-Ears Lawyer tendencies are an example of this.
• Oh, Crap!: "Charles, get the rifle. We're being fucked."
  • John has a silent moment of pure terror just before his Multiple Gunshot Death. In fact, everyone in the room did.
• Once Killed a Man with a Noodle Implement: "Hatchet" Harry beat a man to death with a 12-inch black rubber dildo. This anecdote is told specifically as a means of underline that "Hatchet Harry is a man you pay, when you owe".
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Several characters - Bacon, Soap, Dog and Plank.
• Oop North: Gary and Dean, two petty criminals from Liverpool with thick Scouse accents. The exchange they have with the cockney Barry the Baptist pretty much sums up the whole North/South divide.
  Barry the Baptist: Fucking Northern monkeys!
  Dean: I hate these fucking Southern fairies!
• Orphaned Punchline: A variant. We hear the beginning of the joke, cut to elsewhere, and then cut back to the ensuing laughter.
• Pants-Positive Safety: When talking to Ed in the pub, Soap pulls a large machete out of his trousers, with no indication it was stored in any sort of sheath. Made even worse by the fact that the sharpened edge was facing his groin, meaning he could've castrated himself if he drew wrong.
• Papa Wolf:
  • Big Chris. Made the mistake of threatening his son, Little Chris? Big Chris is just about to have another moment with a car door.
  • JD brutally averts this, refusing at every turn to help his son get out of his predicament.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: One of the Scousers attempts to cover his face with a fishnet stocking during the burglary.
• Pet the Dog:
  • 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.
  • Big Chris's one moment of notable kindness to anyone besides his son is when he goes to ask if the other driver is alright after causing a car crash.
• Phallic Weapon:
  Soap: I brought weapons as well.
  Eddie: What do you mean, weapons?
  Soap: [pulls a bundle from his coat and unrolls it, revealing large knives] These.
  Eddie: Jesus! [grabs the bundle and rerolls it] Let's keep them covered up, eh? Couldn't you get anything bigger?
  Soap: [pulls a big ass machete from his trousers] What, like that? What do you think?
  Eddie: ...I think you need help.
• Plot-Sensitive Latch: During the opening Chase Scene, Bacon's suitcase flies open in slow motion and all the money and valuable inside are scattered about.
• Poor Communication Kills: The Scousers are a pair of Stupid Crooks who are hired by Harry through his Dragon, Barry, to steal a gun collection, because Harry wants two antique guns. Barry gives the two limited information, not telling them the identity of their employer nor indicating that the purpose of the job was to procure those two guns. This results in a situation in which the Scousers attack Harry to get the guns back to their employer (unbeknownst to them, Harry himself) and don't realize their mistake/see Barry in the room until everyone has been fatally wounded.
• Precision F-Strike: Winston uses this quite artfully.
• Pinball Protagonist: Eddie's friends stumble on basically everyone else. Dead or alive.
• Professional Gambler: The narrator would have us believe that Eddie is one, but his lapse of judgement at the table suggests otherwise.
• Pun-Based Title: The name of the auction house on the catalogue Big Chris gives the guys is called 'Botherbys'. This is a combination of the real auction house - Sothebys, and 'bother' which is slang for trouble or getting into trouble.
• Punctuated Pounding: Big Chris slams Dog's head in a car door, enraged at him for threatening his son's life - "NEVER! EVER! HAS ANYONE! BEEN AS FUCKING RUDE! TO ME! AS YOU, DOG!"
• Re-Cut: Guy Ritchie 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. More scenes / extensions that add little to the plot are included, and most of the sepia colour effect has been removed.
• Red Baron: Harry Lonsdale aka Hatchet Harry (a name he's quite partial to himself) and his enforcer Barry the Baptist, so named because he "drowns people for Harry".
• Refuge in Audacity: Ed's plan to rip off Dog's gang after they've just robbed the weed growers relies heavily on this, banking on it being the last thing they'd expect after the initial robbery and being above suspicion due to their limited interations as neighbours. When questioned over the logic of hiding the loot right next door to the people they stole it from, he notes that it's the only place available to store it and also the last place the gang would think to look. This ends up being their undoing.
• Revenge by Proxy: The Director's Cut reveals that Harry cheats Ed during the card game so he can get revenge on his dad for beating him at cards years ago.
• Revised Ending: The film's original ending had the four lads walking off with the money, with Big Chris and his son about to follow them to retrieve it. This was changed due to negative test screenings. According to Nick Moran, Guy Ritchie scrambled a new ending on the back of a cigarette packet. The ending to the film was altered some time after filming had been completed which is why Tom is wearing a woolen cap pulled low down - Jason Flemyng had grown his hair in the intervening period and did not want to shave it short again.
• Riddle for the Ages: The Director's Cut has a Soap suggest a plan to get the money, but we only hear the start and end of his proposal. Whatever it was, it was bad enough for Tom to declare it bad enough to make Bacon's idea of betting on a horse look genius. Just what was Soap's plan?
• Robbing the Mob Bank: Dog and his crew rob a group of marijuanah growers, who, unbeknownst to them, just happen to work for a Yardie gangster.
• Running Gag:
  • Nick, with Rory's glass table.
  • Tom's friends and associates and even the narrator calling the very lean Tom 'fat' as a way to mess with him. Originally Nick the Greek was meant to play Tom before being recast, but the script kept in the jokes about his weight.
• Sadistic Choice: 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 Loan Shark. 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 favour.
• Sawed-Off Shotgun: Dog and his gang use these as their weapons. Except John, who uses a Bren gun.
• Scary Black Man: Rory Breaker is an unconventional variant. He's a Yardie who dresses stylishly, loves an Umbrella Drink, and enjoys murdering people who interfere with his main pleasures in life. He's also five foot nine, considerably smaller than most of his massive bodyguards, and not a normal height for most candidates, but this doesn't affect his willingness to be the first on the scene for a murderous shoot-out. And just listen to his Tranquil Fury when threatening Nick the Greek for information on who stole his cannabis:
  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.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Gloria obliterating John with his own Bren gun is the final straw for Dog.
  "That's it. Tie her up, we're out of here."
  • Nick the Greek, after Rory Breaker threatens him into revealing the protagonists' whereabouts, shuts down his shop and moves elsewhere.
  • 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.
  • When the guys return home to find a bunch of dead bodies and their goods gone, Soap suggests that they keep calm. Ed thinks differently:
  I am panicking and I am off.
• The Scrooge:
  • 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".
  • Harry would rather hire goons to steal a pair of antique shotguns than pay for them. He could have saved himself and others a lot of trouble had he just paid up.
• Serendipitous Survival: The lads go out and get drunk to celebrate their success. While they're out, Dog and his crew discover that they've been ripped off and Rory Breaker and his crew arrive heavily armed. Their decision to go out saved them from being killed.
• Shout-Out:
  • The screenplay acknowledges that the shoot-out in Harry's office was inspired by Taxi Driver.
  • The duel theme from For a Few Dollars More plays when Dean and Harry face off.
  • Two of Dog's gang are named John and Paul.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Inverted for Big Chris. He's the character with the cleanest mouth in the entire film, telling off other people for their profanity in his or his son's presence. He only ever swears four times, when he's unbelievably enraged. Basically, Big Chris is Sir Swears-Very-Little.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: The petite and perpetually-stoned Gloria ends up with the Bren gun. Carnage (and a strong contender for the film's crowning awesome moment) ensues.
• Smoking Barrel Blowout: Inverted; after the protagonists successfully steal the stolen money and marijuana from their neighbors, they're seen using the shotguns they used for the job as "a novelty smoking device for tobacco use only" during a party montage, thus breathing in the smoke, rather than blow it out.
• Sophisticated as Hell: A lot, especially from Winston. For example, "You don't look like your average horti-fucking-culturalist!"
• Sore Loser:
  • 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.
  • The Director's Cut reveals that Harry fixed the card game so he can get back at J.D. for beating him at cards years ago, despite Harry cheating.
• Sound-Only Death: When Winston accompanies Rory Breaker to identify the thugs who robbed Rory's marijuana-growing operation. Once Winston has identified the primary culprit, as he hurries away with an armful of loot he hears gunfire.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: A shootout that wrecks a flat and kills just about everyone involved is scored by "Zorba's Dance".
• Stealing from Thieves: This is how Eddie, Tom, Bacon, and Soap come up with the half a million pounds they owe to Harry: they plan on robbing their neighbors after they have themselves robbed a major cannabis grower.
• Steel Ear Drums: Averted during the Bren gun sequence. It's fired in close proximity, deafening everyone else. John wears Peltors before he opens fire though.
• The Stoic: Big Chris, who pretty much never raises his voice or conveys much emotion until his Berserk Button is pressed.
• The Stoner: Winston's crew grow weed and fit the stoner stereotype - baggy clothes, unkempt appearance and lazy attitude. Plank buys weed off them and gets the idea to rob them. Of the four main lads, Bacon appears to be the only one who indulges in weed, as he takes a toke of the stash they've stolen and offers it to the others, who all refuse.
• Stress Vomit: Eddie's reaction to losing the match, and ending up owing a loan to Hatchet Harry.
• Stupid Crooks: Just about every character qualifies one way or another. The film's tagline is even "A Disgrace to Criminals Everywhere." However, special note has got to be given to Dean and Gary, who are instructed by Barry the Baptist to retrieve antique shotguns from an estate home and keep anything else they can carry for themselves. Even in a mansion decorated with numerous expensive antiques, they rationalize that "old" must mean "worthless" (among other boneheaded decisions).
  Dean: Can't you see these people haven't got any money? They can't even afford new furniture!
• Sudden Morbid Monologue: Soap delivers this charming monologue as the gang plan the robbery:
  Soap: Yeah, little bit of pain never hurt anybody. If you know what I mean. Also, I think knives are a good idea. 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.
  Tom: Soap, is there something we should know about you?
  Bacon: I'm not sure what's more worrying, the job or your past.
• Suddenly Shouting:
  • 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".
  Dog: I'd say it's more than a problem. I'd say it's the Mount fucking Everest of problems! And the reason it's such a MON-FUCKING-STROSITY OF A PROBLEM IS, YOU LOT DON'T HAVE THE FIRST CLUE WHO FUCKING DID IT, DO YOU?!
  • Also, Barry's response to the two Scousers selling those guns that his boss wanted.
    Dean: We had to sell them, we needed the money!
    Barry: I'M NOT FUCKING INTERESTED!!! If you don't want to be counting the fingers you haven't got, or sharing a bed with the Antichrist, THEN I WANT THOSE GUNS QUICK!!!
  • Soap during the robbery.
  • Ed when Tom reveals that he didn't get rid of the guns.
  So, the only thing connecting us with the case IS IN THE BACK OF YOUR CAR WHICH IS PARKED OUTSIDE?
• Surrounded by Idiots:
  • Winston is clearly the leader of the dealers because he's the only one with any common sense. He gets annoyed at Willie for not bothering to lock the security gate and for going around London with a stoned girl on one arm and a bag of fertiliser on the other when they grow weed.
  • Dog gets so annoyed at the incompetence of his henchmen that he mutters that he's working with "fucking planks of wood". Funnily enough, one of his men is called Plank.
  • Soap tends to be the most sensible of his group, including bringing balaclavas on his own initiative to hide their faces for the robbery, as Eddie was apparently planning to rob his next-door neighbours without a disguise.
• Suspicious Ski Mask: Eddie, Tom, Soap, and Bacon wear these along with identical brown long coats while robbing Mad Dog and his gang.
• Tactful Translation: The subtitles that show up for the Man on Fire scene above zigzag this, as it starts out translating the story with curse words edited out, then puts one in when there wasn't one, before editing them out again.
• Taking You with Me: Plank's last act is to take Rory with him in a Mutual Kill. Also Gary, after taking a hatchet from behind by Barry, spins around and shoots him with his two tiny handguns before he dies.
• Tap on the Head: Dog and his gang are able to knock out Gloria and the traffic warden with a single blow, but the protagonists aren't as tough, and it takes all of them pounding on the traffic warden to put him out.
• Team Chef: Soap is an actual chef, though we never see him cook outside his first scene.
• There Are No Police: With all the crimes that take place, the police appear sparingly. A pair of coppers chase Ed and Bacon when they're flogging dodgy jewelry and the climax reveals that the surviving characters (apart from Tom and Big Chris) got arrested. The Director's Cut even shows Ed in custody.
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!:
  • In the Director's Cut, in the scene which introduces Big Chris, he insists that a debtor refers to Harry as "Mister Harry".
  • Initially, Nick and his own mooks address Rory by his first name. After he finds he has been double-crossed, he angrily tells them, "That's Mr. Breaker. Today, MY name is Mr. Breaker!"
• Title Drop: Half way done, with Barry's "Lock, stock, the fuckin' lot". The barrels of the titular guns are actually seen smoking later on, which may qualify as a visual title drop.
• Those Two Guys: The Scousers.
• Token Good Teammate: Soap is the only one of the four main lads who has a legitimate profession (Ed's a card hustler, Bacon flogs goods on street corners and Tom deals in stolen goods from the back of his shop) and got his nickname because he likes to keep his hands clean of any unlawful activity. The only reason he goes along with the crime is because it's the only option.
• Torture for Fun and Information:
  • Dog tortures two drug dealers into telling him the location of their stash by pelting golf balls at one while using the other's mouth as a tee.
  • When the Scousers break into the stately home, Gary puts burning paper between the Lord's toes to find out where his money is. Dean points out to him that he doesn't have any (hence why he's selling the guns).
• Traffic Warden: A recurring Butt-Monkey played by Rob Brydon. Notably, once a Tap on the Head fails to knock him out, the whole group of protagonists decides to pummel him instead after Ed states his hatred for Traffic Wardens.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • Dog is calmly threatening until things start going wrong, then he starts shouting.
  • Rory Breaker is disturbingly calm after finding out that Eddie and his friends stole his cannabis, even while he's violently threatening Nick the Greek to find out their whereabouts.
  • JD takes the news of Ed's debt and the threat of losing his bar very well. He confronts Ed by silently, yet crossly punching him in the face.
• Trapped by Gambling Debts: The plot is driven by Ed's need to pay off a massive gambling debt owed to Hatchet Harry. Harry's hoping to use the debt to force Ed's father to hand over his pub.
• Trapped In a Tanning Bed: Our first introduction to Big Chris, Hatchet Harry's debt collector, is when he captures John, a late debt-payer, using a tanning bed, and starts interrogating him by repeatedly lifting the sunbeam and slamming it onto John's face when he says things Big Chris doesn't like- such as addressing Chris' boss as "Harry" instead of "Mr Harry", or swearing and blaspheming in front of Big Chris' son Little Chris. Later on in the film, Big Chris meets John on the way to Harry's office, and he has visible burn marks on his skin.
  Big Chris: Now tell me, John, how can you be concentrating on improving this lovely tan- and it IS a lovely tan, by the way- when you've got more pressing priorities at hand?
  John: I don't suppose there's any chance of you lifting this sunbeam up, Chris, is there?
  Big Chris: (after taking John's money) You can go home in a plastic bag tonight, John. You owe what you owe. And by the time this tan's faded, you wanna have paid. (punches John)
• Umbrella Drink: Served at the Samoan pub to the incredulity of the protagonists. This is also the drink of choice for Rory, who not only favors that pub, but drinks those at his headquarters and serves them to guests. Like one of his other food preferences (ice cream bars), it's part of his characterization as seemingly kind of goofy and ridiculous (but actually terrifyingly badass).
• Unstoppable Rage: Big Chris, for all his ruthless coercion and threatening demeanor, is rather a reasonable chap...until Dog takes his son prisoner. He goes full Papa Wolf on the man, smashing his head repeatedly in a car door while roaring incoherently.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Bacon, Soap and Tom stroll up to Samoan Jo's pub when a man runs out of the pub on fire. The three watch the man run off screaming, then just turn and go into the pub anyway.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
  • Had Gloria not scared Plank and made him discover the weed growers had lots of stashed money, they wouldn't be targeted by his gang.
  • Plank selling out Winston and co leads to his gang's downfall. Not only does this give Ed the idea to rob them, but Plank doesn't know that they grow weed for Rory Breaker.
• Upper-Class Twit: The majority of the weed growers. Not Winston, though.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Gloria blasts John with his own Bren gun.
• Use Your Head: Big Chris disarms Dog of his guns by headbutting him.
• Villainous Breakdown: After he and his men are deprived of their illegally-obtained drugs and money, Dog reaches his Rage Breaking Point with his men, and he furiously screams at them and starts attacking them. He calms down after accidentally shoving Plank's head through a wall into Ed's apartment, giving him a good look at where the drugs and money went.
  • Plank himself has one near the end when Dog's crew hides in Eddy's flat ready to ambush him and his guys. Instead, Rory Breaker and his mooks bust in armed to the teeth. Hiding under the bed, Plank starts sniveling and sobbing, wondering just what the fuck is going on before firing the first shot, triggering the infamous....well, you know.
• Wall of Weapons: Harry collects antique shotguns and has them displayed on the walls in his office.
• Wallpaper Camouflage: Gloria blends right into the upholstery, allowing her to get the drop on people twice.
• Weak Boss, Strong Underlings: Harry has Big Chris and Barry the Baptist at his disposal (but Harry's not above getting physical himself, even if the only weapon available is a 15-inch black rubber sex toy).
• Weapon for Intimidation: The two muskets are bought purely for intimidation. However, Soap asserts that knives are actually better for intimidation, since they can be used without drawing the police. "Guns for show, knives for a pro."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: The only characters whose fate is left unclear are Nick the Greek and Winston and his surviving friends. Last we see of any of them, Winston is fleeing with the weed in Rory's van. Alan says that "everyone else" (i.e. not Tom or Big Chris) got arrested, but it's unclear if this refers only to the other three protagonists, or every other character. Certainly, only the former are subsequently seen in custody.
• What Is Going On?: Or rather, "What the fuck is going on?", when Dog's crew and Rory Breaker's gang, both sides fully tooled up, realise that they're confronting each other rather than the four main characters.
• Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises: Excellent example of this when Eddie realizes that his hand isn't all that good.
• Worthless Yellow Rocks: The eponymous shotguns get written off as useless and old by almost everyone who comes into their possession. At the end of the movie, they wind up in the hands of the four main characters, who also deem them completely worthless and order Tom to dispose of them. Shortly after Tom leaves, they're handed a book that reveals the true worth of the guns to be up to £300,000 before ending on one of the best Cliffhanger endings out there.
• Would Hurt a Child: Dog holds a knife to Little Chris' throat to force his father to get the drugs and money back. Sadly, he fails to recognize whose son he's holding captive, and it costs him his life.
• Xanatos Gambit: 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, JD, for beating him in cards years ago. If Ed doesn't pay up and JD doesn't bail him out, he gets vengeance by killing Ed; Harry wins. If Ed doesn't pay up but JD does bail him out, that latter 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 will be in Harry's hands; Harry wins. Pity about the spanner in the works.
• The Yardies: Rory and co. However, they avert the typical "lower class thug" portrayal, instead dressing stylishly and having a swanky headquarters.
• Yiddish as a Second Language: The film pokes fun at London gangsters not realizing the origins of their slang when Tom assures Nick the Greek that a deal is "kosher as Christmas," to which Nick answers, "Jews don't celebrate Christmas!"
• You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: Variation: "What are we going to do, Rory?" "Mister Breaker. Today, my name is MISTER BREAKER."
• You Can Keep Her!: Big Chris offers JD the option of giving up his bar to cover the cost of Ed's debt...to which JD, replies:
  JD: I do know your reputation. So I choose my words very carefully. You tell Harry... to go fuck himself.
  Big Chris: Careful, JD. You'll give Harry another heart attack. Now, I'll put that down to shock. Only once.

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"There is one more thing. [beat] It's been emotional."

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