Snatch (film)

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Snatch

Directed by	Guy Ritchie
Produced by	Matthew Vaughn
Written by	Guy Ritchie
Starring	Jason Statham Stephen Graham Brad Pitt Alan Ford Dennis Farina Vinnie Jones Mike Reid Rade Šerbedžija Benicio Del Toro
Distributed by	Columbia Tri-Star
Release date(s)	2000 DVD: 2001
Running time	UK:104 min / USA:102 min
Language	English / Russian
Budget	$6,000,000
IMDb profile

Snatch is a 2000 film by British writer-director Guy Ritchie. It features an ensemble cast including Dennis Farina, Alan Ford, Stephen Graham, Lennie James, Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro, Vinnie Jones, Rade Šerbedžija and Jason Statham. Set in the London criminal underworld, the movie contains two intertwined plots — one dealing with the search for a stolen diamond, the other with a small-time boxing promoter named Turkish (Statham) who finds himself under the thumb of a psychotic gangster named Brick Top (Ford).

The film is characterised by Ritchie's usual assortment of colourful characters, including the "pikey" Irish Traveller Mickey O'Neill (Pitt), Uzbek ex-KGB agent and arms-dealer Boris 'the Blade' Yurinov (or Boris the Bullet-Dodger) (Šerbedžija), professional thief-gambling addict Franky 'Four-Fingers' (del Toro) and bounty-hunter Bullet-Tooth Tony (Jones), who can "find you Moses in the burning bush if you pay him enough". It is also distinguished by a kinetic direction and editing style, and a circular plot featuring numerous ironic twists of chance and causality. It is also notable for its fast pace.

The movie shares similar themes, ideas and motifs as Ritchie's first film, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. It is also filmed in the same visual style and features many of the same actors, including Statham and Jason Flemyng, who appears in a minor role as one of the 'pikies'.

1 Plot
2 Detailed Summary
3 Reaction
4 Overview
5 Trivia
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie contains two main plots, both of which are intertwined. The first centres around a very valuable 86 carat (17.2 g) diamond. It is stolen by Franky 'Four-Fingers' (Del Toro) in Antwerp and brought to London, where he and the diamond fall afoul of local thieves and underworld figures, all of whom scramble to claim the diamond for themselves. The other revolves around an unlicensed boxing promoter named Turkish who finds himself in debt to a psychotic local crime boss, Brick Top (infamously known for feeding those who fall out of his favour to his prized pigs) after his boxer Gorgeous George is incapacitated in a dispute with a group of pikies over a caravan. Forced to improvise, Turkish and his partner Tommy decide to acquire the services of Mickey, the same pikey who knocked out Gorgeous George. As events twist and turn, the two situations blend into one with a chain reaction of events carrying on for each and every character.

[edit] Detailed Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The movie opens in a darkened office. Opposite a man sitting behind a desk (whose face cannot be seen) sit both Turkish (Jason Stratham), an unlicensed but vaguely principled boxing promoter and arcade owner (and the film's protagonist and narrator), and Tommy (Stephen Graham), his lifelong best friend and business partner. Clearly waiting for the man behind the desk to conclude his (unseen) business, Turkish muses about his friendship with Tommy, and in particular about diamonds, claiming not to know anything about them — although he does know that "they come from Antwerp..."

The movie cuts to Antwerp, a week earlier. A quartet of Hasidic Jewish men enter an Antwerp jewellers, engaged in an intense discussion about the origins of the Roman Catholic Church. Entering the main office, the jeweller is startled when it transpires that they are not whom he was expecting - and revealing hidden guns (craftily hidden in an improvised chest holster worn by one of the robbers), the men begin to rob the establishment. The lead robber, grabbing an employee and viciously pistol-whipping him, demands that the jeweller reveal the whereabouts of 'the stone' — an 84 carat diamond. Once done (and after a brief-but-interconnected montage which briefly introduces the main characters), the lead robber — courier and gambling addict Franky 'Four Fingers' (Benicio del Toro), so-named because he has lost a finger due to a large gambling debt — takes the diamond with him, intending to deliver it to his boss 'Cousin' Avi Denovitz (Dennis Farina) in New York. As Franky is heading to London on route to New York, his Russian accomplice in the diamond heist advises him to purchase a gun from Boris 'The Blade' Yurinov (Rade Serbedzija), an ex-KGB arms dealer based in London (also known as "Boris the Bullet-Dodger", because, as Turkish explains, he is apparently nearly impossible to kill) when he arrives.

As it happens, Franky's accomplice is actually Boris' brother, and Boris learns from his brother that Franky has the diamond, and that he will be coming to buy a gun from him. Boris 'The Blade' is advised to steal the diamond by exploiting Franky's one weakness: gambling. While purchasing a gun, Franky is convinced by Boris into placing a bet on an illegal boxing bout as payment for the firearm. Little does he know that Boris has set him up — and hired Vinny (Robbie Gee) and Sol (Lennie James), a pair of inept local pawnshop owners, along with their obese and slow-moving getaway driver, Tyrone (Ade) to rob him when he arrives at the bookies'.

Whilst all of this is happening, Turkish sends Tommy and his only fighter, 'Gorgeous' George (Adam Fogerty), to a gypsy campsite to buy a caravan from Mickey O'Neil (Brad Pitt), a near-unintelligable travelling "pikey", in order to replace his old run-down one. But whilst Tommy and George are leaving with their newly bought caravan, the wheels break off of it. The gypsies refuse to give a refund, but instead agree that Mickey will fight George for the money. Unknown to Tommy and George, however, Mickey is in fact a gypsy bare-knuckle boxing champion, and after taking a series of hard beatings, Mickey proceeds to knock out George with a single punch, breaking his jaw, and nearly killing him.

As a result of this encounter, Turkish now finds himself in debt to the ruthless and sociopathic local crime boss 'Brick Top' Polford (Alan Ford), as his only fighter is now unable to fight in a fixed bout arranged by Brick Top, thus losing Brick Top a lot of money in bets at his illegal bookies'. Turkish hits on a brainwave: rather than George, they will use Mickey in the fight instead. Mickey agrees, on the condition that they buy a new caravan for his mother. Brick Top consents to the last minute change in fighters, provided that Mickey loses the fight by "going down in the fourth". This puts the pressure on Turkish and Tommy, as people who fall foul of Brick Top tend to be brutally murdered and fed to his pigs.

Sol, Vinny, and Tyrone show up at the bookies', along with their dog, (which Vinny obtained from the "pikeys" when he bought some gold chains from them), to wait for Franky 'Four Fingers' - who, unbeknownst to them, is already there, changing his clothes in a van across the street from the bookies. Unwittingly parking behind him, the three robbers quarrel about the amount of space on the other side of the road when Tyrone refuses to park there; when Tyrone goes to move the car, however, his poor driving results in the car hitting the van, knocking Franky unconscious. The three are thus left to wait hours for him to show himself. While waiting in the car, the dog grabs a squeaky toy (to which Vinny responds, "Don't snatch", thus giving the film its title) and swallows it, causing the dog to squeak whenever it barks from then on.

Having mistaken a man with a briefcase entering the bookies for their target, and increasingly tired and irritated with waiting, they decide to rob the bookies' with a huge SPAS-12 shotgun (which Sol comments "looks like an anti-aircraft gun"), but quickly reveal themselves to be ludicrously incompetent robbers (which is ironic, since Boris' brother specifically instructed him "Don't use idiots for the job!"). To top it off, they discover there is no money to rob as "all bets are off" — as Gorgeous George (the original fighter) has been replaced with Mickey, all bets have been voided, and so there is now nothing at the bookies for Sol and Vinny that's worth stealing. After a rather comical episode in which Sol and Vinny manage to set off the alarm, Vinny gets trapped in a closing security door and the bookies cashier even manages to get the drop on them and steals their shotgun, they finally manage to get out of the bookies'. At the same time, Franky Four Fingers has regained consciousness and, disorientated, has stumbled out of the van. Tyrone, being the (slightly) quicker thinker of the three, sees Franky and knocks him out. Discovering the briefcase is actually attached to Franky's arm, the three are forced to kidnap Franky as they flee. And even more unfortunately, none of the would-be robbers were aware that the bookies' belongs to Brick Top.

In New York, news that Franky has gone missing - and more worryingly, that he was last seen heading to place a bet at the boxing match - forces Avi and his bodyguard 'Rosebud' (Sam Douglas) to hop on a plane to London. Avi and his British cousin, jeweller and diamond fence Doug 'The Head' Denovitz (Mike Reid) begin their search for Franky at the unlicensed boxing match — the same match where Mickey is supposed to go down in the fourth. Mickey does not go down as planned, however, but instead knocks his opponent out in a single punch in the first few seconds. This puts Turkish and Tommy further in debt to Brick Top, who is not very happy at losing even more money because of them, but nevertheless wants to use Mickey again another fight — but if Mickey does not take a fall this time, all three of them will be murdered and fed to Brick Top's pigs for certain. Stealing their savings as compensation, Brick Top turns his attention to the people who attempted to rob his bookies' - Sol and Vinny - and after studying CCTV footage, Brick Top's henchmen easily recognise Tyrone.

Back at their pawnshop, Vinny and Sol open the case and discover the huge diamond. Boris turns up to collect his prize, but Sol and Vinny are now reluctant to give him the gem after leaving the bookies' empty handed. In the ensuing argument, Sol and Vinny shout Boris' name, forcing Boris to shoot Franky in the head to prevent his identity from being revealed. In doing so, he unknowingly kills the only person who knows the combination to open the briefcase, which Sol and Vinny have put the diamond back in. Boris nonchalantly chops Franky's arm off and takes the briefcase, leaving Sol and Vinny with the body, £10 000 for their trouble and the promise that if he ever sees them again, they'll end up in a similar state to Franky.

Frustrated by their inability to locate Franky, Doug and Avi turn to a better-equipped source — legendary local bounty hunter 'Bullet-Tooth' Tony (Vinnie Jones), who once survived being shot six times in a row — to find Franky and the diamond. Tony soon discovers information regarding the disappearance of Franky, notably the identity of the would-be robbers of the bookies' (where Franky was last seen) from local "grass", Mullet. Avi and Tony pay a visit to Vinny and Sol's pawnshop, who reveal that they were hired to do the job by Boris 'The Blade' and that he now has possession of the diamond.

Approaching Mickey to do the next fight, Turkish and Tommy are exasperated by his demand of an even bigger, more expensive caravan as payment — and they now have no money to purchase it. Tommy is also annoyed that the gun he recently purchased from Boris as protection turns out to be a dud, and vows to get a replacement. Meanwhile, Tyrone is quickly tracked down and has Brick Top's dogs set on him, forcing him to reveal the identity of his accomplices. Brick Top pays a visit to Vinny and Sol's pawnshop (who are very preoccupied with the body that Boris has left them to dispose of), and under threat of being fed to the pigs, they promise Brick Top the diamond in exchange for letting them live.

"Brick Top" played by Alan Ford

Frustrated by Mickey's intransigence and Turkish and Tommy's lack of ruthlessness in dealing with him, Brick Top sends his henchmen around to deal out some punishment to the three of them. Turkish's arcade is smashed up, and Turkish is in very real danger of losing a limb when Tommy arrives, managing to keep Brick Top's heavies at bay with his gun. As punishment to Mickey, Brick Top has his mother's caravan torched — while she is sleeping in it. Mickey is overwhelmed and griefstricken, but nevertheless agrees to fight the next match to stop Brick Top from causing any more carnage.

Avi and company, meanwhile have the tough task of tracking down Boris... or so they think. Wanting to sell the diamond now in his possession, Boris turns up at the shop of the local diamond specialist — which just so happens to be Doug 'The Head' — as Tony, Avi, and Rosebud are watching on the closed-circuit camera. Rosebud confidently goes out to attack Boris and get the diamond; however, although the skirmish is not shown, it is seemingly not as easy as all that, as Rosebud, Avi and Tony are next seen in their car, nursing various injuries, Rosebud bleeding badly from a wound on his head, and Avi promising to get him to "a nice Jewish doctor". Although Boris apparently did not go easily, the three of them have managed to successfully kidnap him, and he is now tied up and blindfolded in the back of Tony's car. They search his house and soon recover the diamond.

Vinny and Sol, meanwhile, have been staking out Boris in the hope of stealing the diamond back from him, and arm themselves with replica guns with "extra loud blanks" in order to bluff their way along if necessary. Along with Tyrone and their dog, they trail Tony and company in an attempt to steal back the diamond for Brick Top in exchange for their lives. Unknown to all of them, Turkish and Tommy are also on their way to see Boris, with Tommy wanting a replacement for his dud weapon.

This is the only time during the whole film when the paths of the three groups cross; in a chain of events that result in yet more chaos, Tommy throws Turkish's carton of milk out of the car window after giving him a speech on how "the human digestive system cannot handle dairy products". The carton of milk hits Tony's window screen (who, unknown to Tommy and Turkish, is driving directly past them), causing him to crash, killing Rosebud (who is impaled on a sword that he had brought out right before the crash) and releasing the car boot and freeing Boris, who nervously walks blindly in the road. Meanwhile, amid concerns that the replica guns aren't going to do anything effective, Sol decides to test out the pistol - inside the car - and when he fires off a blank round, the noise smashes all the car windows and deafens everyone. In the resulting confusion, Tyrone hits Boris (who has stumbled into the middle of the road) and crashes the car. These events are shown out of chronological order; we first see Sol's firing the gun and Tyrone hitting Boris, then Tommy's disposing of the milk carton (which causes the crash), and then the milk hitting Tony's car and the resulting crash.

Meanwhile, Turkish and Tommy - largely unaware of the chain of events that they have just caused - arrive at Boris' house, only to find that the door is open despite the fact that Boris is apparently not there. As they debate whether to go in and look for him, Boris calmly walks through his front gate (clearly seriously injured, but walking upright and apparently feeling no pain); and as Tommy begins to confront Boris about the dud gun Boris sold him, Boris merely grabs him hard by the groin and shoves him up against the wall, seemingly without even registering his presence. As Tommy falls over in pain, Boris walks into his house and comes out holding an AK-103 assault rifle, muttering Russian swear words and laughing, and walks back towards the crash scene, with a bemused Turkish merely watching.

Back at the crash site, Tony and Avi escape to a nearby pub, leaving the car and the now dead Rosebud. Tony makes a phone call to be picked up while Avi goes to the washroom to clean himself up. While waiting for Avi, Tony is confronted by Vinny, Sol and Tyrone (all three in balaclavas), who want the diamond. Unfortunately for them, Tony - who is reacting rather nonchalantly to their threats - has noticed that their guns have 'Replica' written down the side. He then proceeds to give a speech about "two types of balls" and concisely points out that his gun has "Desert Eagle .50" written on it, prompting a speedy withdrawal on the part of the would-be robbers.

Downhearted, the trio make their escape out the back door and run into Avi, shortly followed by the well-armed Boris. Fed-up and contemptuous, Avi defiantly refuses to hand the case over to any of the people trying to rob him, and overhearing the commotion, Tony approaches the hallway. After gauging the situation, he shouts, "Avi! Pull your socks up!" (meaning for him to duck), and shoots through the wall several times. Boris is wounded and falls, but the others manage to duck in time, and in the confusion, Vinny and Sol steal the case from Avi and flee. Proving that he is the 'Bullet Dodger', Boris survives seven direct shots from Tony, all the while mocking him. Tony, in exasperation, carefully aims and finally kills him, but not without first going through an entire magazine. Tony nonchalantly then tries to shoot Tyrone, but has lost count of how many shots he had fired, and finds he has no bullets left. Fed-up, Tony merely walks away to help Avi (commenting, "You lucky bastard", to Tyrone), leaving him in the hall. (Although Tyrone is unharmed, he is not seen again in the film.)

Fearing what Brick Top could do to them, Vinny and Sol are about to take the diamond to him when they are caught by Tony, who takes them back to their shop. When they get there, they claim that their dog - which for once they have left back at the shop - has swallowed the diamond. In the ensuing chaos — during which Tony attempts to gut the dog and Vinny tries to plead for its life — Vinny finally concedes that they, in fact, still have the diamond, and presents it to Avi. Avi's joy is shortlived, however; when he sits down to inspect the stone with glee, the dog mistakes it for a treat, leaps forward, and snatches it from Avi's grasp, swallowing it for real. The dog then leaps out the window, and Avi, furious, grabs Tony's gun and fires recklessly at the dog, before it leaps out of an open window and escapes. Following the dog's escape, Avi shouts for Tony to follow him as he rushes out the door; unfortunately, Tony's luck has run out, and Avi suddenly realizes that he has accidentally shot Tony and killed him. Now, with Tony dead and the dog escaped, Avi disgustedly returns to America (snarling, "Yeah. Don't go to England." to a customs official asking if he has anything to declare), whilst Sol and Vinny - who now have another dead body to deal with - decide to follow the dog back to its likely destination (the gypsy campsite from which it originally came) the next morning.

It is also the night of the second boxing fight, which Turkish and Tommy have been waiting for with some nervousness. Mickey, having buried his mother on the same day, returns from her wake drunk, and it is uncertain whether he will either knock the other fighter out immediately (ensuring Turkish and Tommy's brutal and immediate murder) or whether he will even make it to the fourth round (which, if he doesn't, will also ensure Turkish and Tommy's brutal and immediate murder). Brick Top, hoping to ensure Mickey's compliance this time around, has stationed his men around the campsite, and should Mickey refuse to follow orders once again they will torch the place and kill any survivors. Mickey is again supposed to go down in the fourth round. After a brutal but seemingly balanced fight in which he has taken a lot of hits, Mickey does indeed go down in the fourth... but then proceeds to get up and knock out his opponent with a single right hook to the jaw. Horrified, Tommy and Turkish drag Mickey out as the crowd erupts in fury; however, Brick Top is out there before them, and as he demands a gun from his men inside his car, Turkish and Tommy cringe as gunshots ring out...

However, unknown to everyone, Mickey and his comrades have been making plans of their own. The ambushers at the campsite are themselves ambushed and wiped out, and Brick Top himself is shot right in his trademark eyeglasses by a group of assassins waiting for him in his own car. The gypsies flee the scene, and Turkish realizes that Mickey had planned the whole ordeal, having put money on himself to win the fight as well as using the opportunity to claim revenge on Brick Top for killing his mother - incidentally leaving Turkish and Tommy worse off than they were before, with no money and now no fighter.

The next day, Turkish and Tommy arrive at the campsite, looking for Mickey. The campsite, however, is deserted; the gypsies have fled the area to avoid the authorities after the previous night's massacre, and the chances of finding a gypsy who doesn't want to be found are non-existant. Deciding to cut their losses, the two men turn to leave; but the police have arrived, and are also looking for the gypsies, cornering Turkish and Tommy. By chance, the dog arrives back at the campsite at that moment, and with a bit of quick thinking from Turkish, the police are persuaded that the two men are merely walking their dog. Allowed to leave, and forced to take the dog with them, as they are driving away, they unwittingly pass Vinny and Sol - on their way to retrieve the dog, and the diamond - who have also been stopped by the police, and who watch open-mouthed as Turkish and Tommy unwittingly take the dog with them. Unfortunately for Sol and Vinny, however, they are in a much worse position than Turkish and Tommy as the police are very interested in why they have Franky's body in the boot of their car — and why he has a tea cosy on his head.

The movie cuts back to the opening scene, with Turkish and Tommy sitting in the darkened office. Turkish continues his musing, revealing that he allowed Tommy to keep the dog on condition that they took it to a vet — who found the squeaky toy, an undigested shoe, and the diamond in the dog's stomach. Turkish then reveals that they decided to take the diamond to someone who knows about such things; the camera then reveals that they are sitting in Doug's office, who having completed his examination of the diamond, knows of a buyer who would definitely be interested — and the movie ends with Avi making a very quick return to London.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Reaction

Snatch was largely successful, both in critical acclaim and at the box office. From an estimated budget of $10 000 000 (according to the Internet Movie Database), the movie grossed a total of $30,093,107 in the United States and £12,137,698 in the United Kingdom [1]. The website Rotten Tomatoes lists Snatch as having 74% of the reviews (121 reviews listed in total) as being 'fresh' (positive)[2], and as of December 2006 the Internet Movie Database ranks it at #199 of their 250 most popular movies as voted by regular users [3].

Despite receiving many positive reviews, however, several reviewers commented negatively on perceived similarities in plot, character, setting, theme and style between Snatch and Ritchie's previous work, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. In his review, Roger Ebert, who gave the film two stars, raised the question of "What am I to say of "Snatch," Ritchie's new film, which follows the "Lock, Stock" formula so slavishly it could be like a new arrangement of the same song?" [4], and writing in the New York Times Elvis Mitchell commented that "Mr. Ritchie seems to be stepping backward when he should be moving ahead" [5]. Critics also argued that the movie was lacking in depth and substance; many reviewers appeared to agree with Ebert's comment that "the movie is not boring, but it doesn't build and it doesn't arrive anywhere" [6]. The lack of prominent female characters was also commented upon by many reviewers.

[edit] Overview

Snatch is a dark comedy of errors, in which most of the humor results from accidents, ironic coincidences and bad luck. It is marked by frequent use of irony and causality - the actions of a character (or characters) will frequently have unexpected (and even unintended or unknown) consequences for other characters whom they may not even be aware of. Much of the plot depends of unfortunate circumstances for the characters stemming from the actions of others who may not even be aware of the effect of their actions or even the people to whom they are having an effect on. A notable example of this is the "bottle of milk" scene, in which Tommy, citing the unhealthiness of dairy products and insisting that he is doing Turkish a favour, tosses Turkish's bottle of milk out of a car window; far from being a beneficiary act, however, this in fact causes Tony's car to crash, releasing Boris from the boot, which causes Sol and Vinnie's car to crash - a chain of circumstances involving people and actions that neither Tommy nor Turkish intend or are even aware of. Almost all of the characters cross the path of the other characters at some point in the movie, whether intentionally or unknowingly.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

It is also notable that the film's ending relies heavily on irony and this chain of circumstance and interconnection. After the diamond has switched hands numerous times, more often than not bringing terrible luck, unpleasant ends or both for those who were desperately searching for it, it eventually transpires that Tommy and Turkish - two of the only characters in the film who were completely unaware of the diamond's existence and were not looking for it at all - eventually possess and presumably benefit from the diamond.

Spoilers end here.

Another theme of the movie lies in its cyclic nature and its playing with time and spatial perceptions. It begins and ends with the same scene (Turkish and Tommy attempting to sell the 86 carat (17.2 g) diamond to Doug the Head), which reveals that the entire movie is largely a flashback. Certain sequences - such as Avi's flying sequence, which illustrates in quick-shot the entire journey made by Avi from New York to London and back through use of split-second shots of London and New York taxis, a passport being stamped and a Concorde in flight - are repeated, as are lines of dialogue and character descriptions (such as the term "sneaky fucking Russian" to describe Boris).

In order to quicken the pace of the movie and remove as much material that is not central to plot or the comedy as much as possible (as a described aim of Richie's was to make a film with "no fat on it,"), the movie frequently plays with the perception of the passage of time - Abrupt cuts will take place between scenes (and sometimes during scenes, with characters occasionally changing clothing and location several times within space of a single conversation) in order to quickly show the passage of time; a notable example of this is the confrontation between Boris and the trio of Avi, Rosebud and Tony; whilst the actual fight is not shown, the action abruptly cuts from the trio preparing to ambush Boris to some time later, with the three clearly the worse for wear as a result of their encounter. In order to contrast with what is happening, events occurring in the past, or obviously taking place over an extended period of time, will also be shown parallel to events which take mere moments or minutes; this is demonstrated through the scene in which Turkish, Tommy, and Mickey are coursing the rabbits, which is shown in direct contrast to the scene of Tyrone being captured by Brick Top's men and brought before Brick Top. A series of quick cuts between both scenes take place; however, whereas the scene with Turkish, Tommy and Mickey takes place over a matter of minutes (being merely the length of time it takes for a pair of dogs to chase a rabbit), it is apparent from the changing of locations, situations and characters that the scenes with Tyrone take place over a much longer period of time.

Additionally, Snatch employs the use of theme music for certain characters as a method of introducing them. Turkish is usually preceded by a light, jazzy theme; Boris the Blade's theme music sounds like traditional Russian folk; Mickey is introduced by brass-heavy Gypsy-style music; and Avi is sometimes shown to music from the soundtrack of "Get Shorty" (Ritchie stated his admiration for that film led him to cast Farina, who played a mobster in it). While most of the theme music occurs at the same moment the character appears, it occasionally is used to give the viewer clues as to who is about to resurface. For instance, when Turkish stands up to say "Let's use the fucking pikey", Mickey's theme music begins to play in the background before he speaks, indicating pre-emptively that the character is about to re-enter the storyline.

The film has several sections where many hours go by and incidents are implied but not shown, noticeably the confrontation between Avi's accomplice 'Rosebud' and Boris the Blade, as well as the resulting kidnapping of Boris by Tony and Avi. Additionally, there are scenes in which previous interactions among the different characters are inferred, (such as Brick Top's henchman, Errol recognizing Tyrone from the security footage, and Bullet-Tooth Tony's past relationship with Mullet), and are used to further drive the plot, but are otherwise unexplained.

[edit] Trivia

Writer-director Guy Ritchie originally had planned to work another plot twist into the film, involving a false diamond that resembles the 86 carat (17.2 g) diamond. However, he eventually decided that the subplot was unnecessary, and all the scenes involving this were cut from the final cut of the movie. Most of the cut scenes can be seen as extras of the DVD of the film; among them is a scene in which Tony, Avi and Brick Top — who do not encounter each other in the final cut — attempt to negotiate for the diamond.

Ade, the actor who played Tyrone had originally shown up looking for work as a security guard. Ritchie stated that they told him they had a job for him in the film, rather than on the set.

In the beginning of the film, the diamond is referred to as weighing 86 carats (17.2 g), while later on, it is mentioned that the stone is 82 or 84 carats (16.4 or 16.8 g).

In a scene following the aftermath of the climactic series of car crashes, numerous Indian women are shown looking curiously into one of the cars. Ritchie has stated this occurred because he felt Indian women didn't get seen much in mainstream films (as well as stating that he was "quite keen" on Indian women).