The
film centers on a cocaine distributor played by Daniel Craig. The
character, who also narrates the film, is deliberately unnamed
throughout, but is listed in the credits as "XXXX". XXXX has
established a successful business in London buying, cutting and selling
cocaine while avoiding the largesse and gangster behaviour associated
with drug dealing. Having made his fortune, he secretly plans to retire
from the business for good.
XXXX's boss, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) sends him to track down
Charlie, the teenage daughter of Price's associate, Eddie Temple
(Michael Gambon), who has fled a rehabilitation centre with her
drug-addicted boyfriend. In reality, XXXX is being sent to kidnap
Charlie to help Jimmy blackmail Temple over a bad investment.
At the same time, Price instructs XXXX to organise the purchase and
distribution of one million ecstasy tablets from a gangster named The
Duke (Jamie Foreman). Unbeknownst to XXXX, the pills have been stolen
from a gang of Serbian war criminals. Jimmy has found out about XXXX's
plans to retire, and believes that either the Serbian gang or Eddie
Temple's mercenaries will kill XXXX, allowing him to recover some of
his losses.
XXXX's world gradually unravels as he discovers Jimmy Price is
informing for the police; XXXX's associate, Morty (George Harris) goes
into hiding after brutally beating a former associate in front of a
restaurant full of people; the Duke and his gang mysteriously
disappear; and the ruthless Eddie Temple involves himself in the
already bungled ecstasy deal.
XXXX devises an elaborate scam to play his various adversaries off
against one another, and ends up in the clear with both the money and
the drugs, and most of his enemies dead. He sticks to his original plan
to retire, but as he leaves a celebratory lunch with his associates, he
is shot on the front steps of the country house restaurant by The
Duke's nephew, Sidney (Ben Whishaw), in revenge for stealing his
girlfriend, Tammy (Sienna Miller). The film ends with XXXX left lying
bleeding on the steps, his fate unknown.
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