SHOOTERS

Year: 2000
UK: Universal Pictures (UK)
Cast: Adrian Dunbar, Andrew Howard, Louis Dempsey, Melanie Lynskey, Emma Fielding, Matthew Rhys, Gerard Butler, Jason Hughes, Ioan Gruffydd, Jamie Sweeney, David Kennedy, Treva Etienne, Nitin Ganatra
Directors: Colin Teague; Glenn Durfort
Country: UK
UK: 95 mins
UK Certificate: 18 contains strong violence, coarse language and hard drug use
UK Release Date: 25 January 2002

Synopsis

Summary: In the gritty London underworld of drugs and guns, violence is 24/7 and betrayal is the only way out.

Gilly (Louis Dempsey) steps out of prison with nothing and no one except J (Andrew Howard), the friend he took the rap for. A two-bit hustler with a major drug problem, J doesn't even notice Gilly is out early. Still, they trust each other and that means something.

All Gilly wants is to start over with the money he's owed, but J has invested it in another drugs-for-guns deal. When he sees J's wife Marie (Melanie Lynskey) again, Gilly can't help but realise everything he hasn't got. She has built a life for them, while J steadily screws it up. Yet despite his anger and frustration, Gilly agrees to go along with J, as always.

J's boss is Max Bell (Adrian Dunbar), a man who will do whatever it takes, whatever it costs and never think twice. Even J's own kid brother, Skip (Jamie Sweeney), is working for him running a team of teenage drug dealers. These kids have seen it all. Skip's already got the attitude, now all he wants is a gun. As J and Gilly do the rounds for Max, the monotony of violence and abuse becomes a catalyst and the tension between them is finally brought to a head. J pulls a gun on his old friend.

Pressure continues to build. The cops are now onto J in more ways than he could know. Max learns from his police contact of J's plans to make a separate gun deal with their main supplier, Jackie Junior (Gerard Butler). In order to regain control of his business Max demands that J sacrifice Gilly in a drug deal set-up. J doesn't realise that Max is onto him and that the real plan is for the police to blame J for Gilly's murder.

Faced with Jackie Junior, wracked with guilt and about to do the deal, J finally cracks, firing off a spray of bullets. All hell breaks loose and he and Gilly blow their way out onto the street. Only then does J discover that Gilly has plans of his own.