A successful cocaine dealer, who has earned a respected place among England’s Mafia elite, plans an early retirement from the business. However, big boss Jimmy Price hands down a tough assignment: find Charlotte Ryder, the missing rich princess daughter of Jimmy’s old pal Edward, a powerful construction business player and gossip papers socialite. Complicating matters are two million pounds’ worth of Grade A ecstasy, a brutal Serbian gang and a whole series of double crossings.
The title “LAYER CAKE” refers to the layers or levels anyone in business goes through in rising to the top. What is revealed is a modern underworld where the rules have changed. There are no ‘codes’, or ‘families’ and respect lasts as long as a line. Not knowing who he can trust, he has to use all his ‘savvy’, ‘telling’ and skills which make him one of the best, to escape his own. The ultimate last job, a love interest called Tammy, and an international drug ring threaten to draw him back into the ‘cake mix’.
Layer Cake (also occasionally stylised as L4YER CAKƐ) is a 2004 British crime thriller film directed by Matthew Vaughn, in his directorial debut. The screenplay was adapted by J. J. Connolly from his novel of the same name. The film’s plot revolves around a London-based criminal known as XXXX, played by Daniel Craig, working in the trade of cocaine who wishes to leave the drug business. The film also features Tom Hardy, Colm Meaney, and Sienna Miller.
About the Story
An unnamed man (XXXX), is a London underworld criminal who has established himself as one of the biggest cocaine suppliers in the city, with effective legitimate cover. Considering himself a businessman and patience as a prime virtue, XXXX leaves the darker aspects of the business to his henchman Morty, a man having recently ended a 10-year prison sentence for murder. Once he has earned enough to ensure his long-term financial security, XXXX plans to retire.
On the evening XXXX intends to set these plans into motion, his sponsor and powerful supplier Jimmy Price puts two crucial missions in his hands. The first is to track down Charlie, the teenaged daughter of Jimmy’s associate Eddie Temple, who has fled a rehabilitation centre along with her drug-addicted boyfriend. XXXX decides to enlist two con men, Cody and Tiptoes, to perform this task. They investigate, and find the boyfriend dead and Charlie apparently kidnapped, although no ransom has been demanded.
The second mission Jimmy assigns to XXXX is to organise the purchase and distribution of one million ecstasy tablets from a low-level gangster who styles himself “The Duke”. Unbeknownst to XXXX, the pills had been stolen from a gang of Serbian war criminals based in the Netherlands, a massive drug production outfit with an honour-avenging bend.
XXXX encounters the Duke’s out-of-touch nephew Sidney at a bar and becomes attracted to his disillusioned girlfriend Tammy. XXXX tries to broker the sale of the ecstasy pills to Liverpool gangsters Trevor and Shanks, but they refuse, informing him of the drugs’ purloined nature, and that in response the Serbs have sent an assassin, known as Dragan, to find the pills and kill those responsible for their theft. Duke had mentioned XXXX’s name to the Serbs beforehand, so he too is in danger. Members of the Duke’s gang soon start turning up dead and the Duke himself goes missing.
XXXX arranges a tryst with Tammy, but before it can be consummated, he is kidnapped by henchmen of Eddie Temple, father of Charlie, the missing girl. Eddie informs him that Jimmy Price has recently lost £13 million in a failed investment in Africa and planned for XXXX to find Charlie so Jimmy could take her hostage until Eddie could get him his money back. Jimmy was also hoping to sell the pills to recoup his losses; Eddie then plays XXXX a recording indicating that Jimmy has been a long-term informant for Scotland Yard and intends to betray XXXX to the police as soon as the deal is done, planning to gain clemency from the deal and also take away XXXX’s wealth. Eddie demands that XXXX sells the pills to himself instead.
A furious XXXX shoots and kills Jimmy at his home, but does so with a gun that Gene, Jimmy’s henchman and his main liaison with XXXX, had used to commit a prior murder, putting Gene under police attention. XXXX then discovers that his accountant, who operated his legitimate front and was referred to him by Jimmy Price, has stolen all of his money and disappeared. Gene and Morty initially suspect XXXX of foulplay; after being shown the evidence of Jimmy’s snitching, the pair acknowledge XXXX as the group’s new acting boss and show him the corpse of the Duke. Gene killed him along with girlfriend and crime-partner, Slasher, when the latter threatened to alert the police about the pills.
Layer Cake (2004)
Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, George Harris, Jamie Foreman, Sienna Miller, Michael Gambon, Tamer Hassan, Sally Hawkins, Jamie Foreman, Nathalie Lunghi
Screenplay by: J. J. Connolly
Production Design by: Kave Quinn
Cinematography by: Ben Davis
Film Editing by: Jon Harris
Costume Design by: Stephanie Collie
Set Decoration by: Joanna Barrs
Art Direction by: Steve Carter
Music by: Ilan Eshkeri, Lisa Gerrard
MPAA Rating: R for strong brutal violence, sexuality, nudity, pervasive language and drug use.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: October 1, 2004
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