Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels Ending Explained
Summary
- The chemists and their friends, Winston, J, Charles, J, and Willie (and Gloria), ultimately recoup some of their losses after a shootout between Rory’s gang and Dog’s gang, allowing Winston to take back some cash and walk away.
- Big Chris and his son Little Chris, who were the most principled criminals in the movie, come out on top, as Big Chris takes the money for himself after Harry’s death and becomes a lender.
- The ending is open-ended, but it’s likely that Tom dropped the guns before answering his phone, given the string of bad luck they had experienced throughout the film and the pressure he would feel from his friends.
The ending of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is an open-ended cliffhanger following a long, intricate, sequence of convenient mistakes, freak accidents, and dumb luck from a heist gone wrong. As the first feature film written and directed by Guy Ritchie, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels quickly establishes the director’s iconic sharp dialogue, big ensemble casts, dark comedy, in a movie about small-time criminals getting in over their heads.
Ed (Nick Moran) and his friends, Bacon (Jason Statham), Tom (Jason Flemyng), and Soap (Dexter Fletcher) scrape together £100,00 to enter Hatchet Harry’s (P.H. Moriarty) high-stakes underground card game. Unfortunately, Barry the Baptist (Lenny McLean) helps Harry cheat, leaving Ed in £500,000 debt to Harry, with only a week to pay it off. The friends discover an opportunity to steal freshly stolen money and cannabis from Dog (Frank Harper), unknowingly buying a set of antique rifles highly desired by Harry in the process, accidentally kicking off a bloody sequence of events that eventually brings them back to square one empty-handed, unless they can stop Tom from dumping the rifles.
What Happened to the Cannabis Growers?
Winston, Charles, J, and Willie (and Gloria) got lucky in the end.
The chemists and their friends, Winston, J, Charles, J, and Willie (and Gloria) get shot up and robbed, but in the end they’re able to recoup some of their losses after Rory and his gang enter a shoot-out with Plank and the rest of Dog’s gang, eliminating each other so Winston can take back some of his cash and “gear” and walk off scott free.
Granted, Winston didn’t recover all the money. The bag of £500,000 counted out by Tom, Ed, Bacon, and Soap was taken by Dog and subsequently taken by Big Chris, but they still recovered some of their losses. This doesn’t necessarily mean they fully recovered. Some of them were injured in Dog’s attack (Charles’s foot was partially blown off by Dog’s sawed-off shotgun), and many their plants may have been damaged by Dog’s attack. Additionally, the death of Rory Breaker could have a significant impact on their business. At least assuming they desire to continue growing and selling cannabis after their ordeal, considering they were explicitly soft, amateur, and somewhat reluctant criminals anyway.
What Happened to Big Chris and Little Chris?
The father-son duo could be the only victors in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels.
Big Chris and his son Little Chris were hardly “good guys,” although they were arguably the most principled criminals in the movie. Chris operated as Harry’s enforcer, so him (and his son) were inherently participating in illegal activities, although he’s also the only character who doesn’t try to cheat, steal, or double-cross any of the other criminals in the movie, all while teaching his son to be respectful and honest, so it’s only fitting for them to be the only people involved in the complicated mess of botched crimes and bad luck make it out clearly on top in the end.
Big Chris was tasked with recovering the £500,000 Ed and gang owed Harry and conveniently arrives at their apartment just as Dog tries to leave with both the money and the antique rifles Harry wants. Without knowing what went down, Chris rightfully assumes the bag of money was meant for Harry because it contained exactly £500,000, but he conveniently also takes the rifles for Harry simply because he knows Harry collects antique rifles. After Harry and Barry are killed by Gary, Chris takes the money for himself and becomes a lender, filling the void left by Harry’s death.
Did Tom Drop the Guns?
The movie’s cliffhanger ending is ambiguous… but he probably dropped them.
As a show of good faith, Big Chris gives Ed, Tom, Soap, and Bacon the catalog revealing the value of the antique rifles, knowing they had them in their possession. Unfortunately, the friends had no idea how valuable the guns were, having purchased them from Nick for just £700, and they’d sent Tom to drop them off the bridge into the River Thames to get rid of them and distance themselves from the last lingering thread connecting them to the chain of crime they’d become connected to. The movie ends with Tom’s phone ringing as he’s hanging the guns over the edge of the bridge, having to make a choice between dropping them before or after answering his phone.
The ending is intended to be open-ended, leaving the audience to wonder at Tom’s choice. Considering the string of terrible luck they’d all had ever since Ed entered the card game with Harry, it’d seem only fitting for Tom to drop the guns before picking up his phone. On the other hand, logically, their string of bad luck had to end sometime, so it’d be the perfect ending for Tom to answer the phone first. Unfortunately, knowing his friends are calling after berating him for not disposing of the guns, Tom would feel additional pressure to drop them and get it done with before answering his phone, which feels like the most fitting end to their story.
What Actually Happens at the End Of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels?
Did Anyone Actually Come Out on Top?
Harry, Rory Beater, and Dog are clearly the biggest losers from the whole fiasco in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. All three criminal organizations are completely wiped out with Gary killing Harry and Barry, Rory and Dog’s gangs wiping each other out, and Chris finishing off Dog after he threatened Little Chris. The chemist cannabis growers are also losers, although not to the same degree. Assuming Willie didn’t die from his injuries, none of them are dead and they have at least a portion of their money and cannabis back. They certainly got the bad end of the deal, but they made it out better than Dog, Harry, or Rory and their respective crews.
If Tom dropped the guns, Ed, Tom, Soap, and Bacon are still down £25,000 each due to losing the card game, so it wouldn’t be completely full circle for them, but they would be out of debt to Harry, meaning they’re at least in the clear. If by some miracle Tom answers his phone in time and ends up keeping the guns, and there’s no more mishaps in their efforts to re-sell them (a tall order), the friends have a chance of recouping their £100,000 lost in the card game and splitting an additional £150,000 profit between the four of them.
After leaving Ed’s dad’s bar, Big Chris gets into a nice new car with Little Chris, revealing they’re now in the money lending business. Assuming Big Chris continues to operate with his stricter principles, he may find better success than Hatchett Harry, whose own brutal tactics and dishonesty ended up backfiring on him. Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels is full of double-crossing, death, and theft, but Big Chris and Little Chris keep their noses clean through the whole ordeal and are ultimately the only ones to walk away with a clear profit at the end.
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