The Firm (1989 Film) - Plot

Plot

Bexy is a married man with a baby son and it is clear his wife does not approve of his activities as a football hooligan which provide contrast to his respectable job as an estate agent. Even when his baby son injures himself with a Stanley knife carelessly left around by Bexy he is unwilling to give up his interest in violence as he admits it gives him a buzz. Conversely, Bexy's father shows complete acceptance of his son's lifestyle, happily taking a group photograph of the gang 'tooled up', and boasts of having been involved in similar activities in his own era, however he shows contempt that Bexy and his friends have gone soft and now use weapons. Bexy uses his natural leadership qualities to cajole (sometimes to the extent of intimidating those less eager) and encourage his peers and plays a key role in organising trips to rival firms. He also has a vision of a national firm, which would join all the smaller firms into one. But his ideas are not accepted by other firm leaders.

Bexy and his fellow hooligans clearly only possess any kind of social status amongst their own groups and Bexy obviously relishes being looked up to and admired by the younger lads in his "firm". Bexy and his friends think of themselves as important, respected figures in their local community but Bexy's wife points out to him that the truth is somewhat different. Everyone thinks of him as a bit of a joke figure but because of their fear of his violent nature few are willing to point out to him that he isn't the working class hero he thinks he is.

Towards the end of the film the character Bexy is shot dead by Yeti, the leader of "The Buccaneers" one of their rival firms during a violent clash. Despite the senseless killing of a family man with a child, Bexy's followers still regard him as a hero figure and claim that when they are fighting European thugs at a forthcoming tournament they will be doing so in memory of their dead leader. This part of the film shows the hooligans from three different firms, which were fighting each other not long ago. They claim that Bexy is a visionary that brought them together, so Bexy becomes a legend in the eyes of the other hooligans.

Read more about this topic:  The Firm (1989 Film)

Famous quotes containing the word plot:

    James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.”
    James Thurber (1894–1961)

    We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.
    —E.M. (Edward Morgan)

    Trade and the streets ensnare us,
    Our bodies are weak and worn;
    We plot and corrupt each other,
    And we despoil the unborn.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)