The Football Factory (film) - Plot

Plot

Tommy Johnson (Dyer) is a member of a violent Chelsea hooligan firm. His friends and fellow hooligans include Tommy's best friend Rod King (Maskell), Billy Bright, a "total fucking psycho", and Zeberdee (Manookian), a volatile younger member who loves powder, and Raf (MacNab), who also hoovers the powder and is a "thieving little cunt". Tommy spends his days drinking, using drugs, womanizing, and most of all, kicking peoples heads in, much to the dismay of his grandfather Bill Farrell (hero), a pensioner and veteran who plans to leave England with his best friend Albert (hero).

Tommy begins to have second thoughts about the direction of his life during a fight with the Tottenham firm. Tommy, Billy, and Rod are arrested for assaulting two Stoke City fans while traveling to an away match. This draws the ire of Harris, the leader of the firm, whose attempts to keep order are thwarted by Bright's violent outbursts.

Rod begins a relationship with the court clerk at their arraignment, she pressures him to skip his weekend meets. Zeberdee and his friend Raff accidentally rob Billy's house and are forced to stand in his living room while Billy's children throw darts at them. Billy deals with his increasing loneliness after he overhears Harris discussing his irrelevance. Bill's plan to retire to Australia is temporarily thwarted when Albert dies the night before they are to leave.

Early in the film, Tommy is caught by the brother of a girl he picked up at a club. He is saved by Rod hitting the man around the head with a cricket bat. The brother turns out to be the brother of the rival Millwall firm's leader, Fred (Hassan), who then hunts Tommy throughout the film. The film culminates in a pitched battle between the Chelsea and Millwall firms. Rod (after a few expressos and a line of coke) leaves a dinner with his girlfriend's parents after insulting them, and attends the "meet". Tommy is brutally beaten by Fred and a group of Millwall hooligans, and winds up in the hospital with Bill, who suffered a heart attack.

At the close of the film, Tommy decides that his place is at the firm with his friends, Bill moves to Australia and Billy Bright is incarcerated for 7 years after being arrested at the Millwall meet (ironically while saving Harris from being arrested). Zeberdee is killed by a drug dealer he robbed earlier in the film, fulfilling a recurring dreams that plagued Tommy throughout the film.

A recurring subplot concerns a racist taxi driver (Jamie Foreman) the characters encounter at various points in the film.

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