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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