Four Lions (2010)
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A group of dim-witted jihadi terrorists attempt to bomb the London Marathon.
The story
Four radicalised British Muslims living in Sheffield, including a group of friends and family, aspire to become suicide bombers. The group consists of Omar, his anxious cousin Waj, a rash convert named Barry, and the naive Faisal. After Omar and Waj travel to a training camp in Pakistan and experience a disaster, Omar returns to Britain and asserts authority over the group. The men begin to argue over their target, while Omar's brother, Ahmed, tries to convince him to abandon their violent plans. As the group begins preparing explosives, they face internal tensions and the looming threat of discovery.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Four radicalised British Muslims in Sheffield—Omar, Waj, Barry, and Faisal—aspire to become suicide bombers. After a disastrous training trip to Pakistan where Omar accidentally destroys part of a camp, the group returns to Britain. They struggle to agree on a target until Omar decides on the London Marathon. During the preparation, Omar's brother Ahmed tries to talk him out of the plot, but is mocked by Omar and his wife, Sofia. The group eventually moves their explosives to a new location, where Faisal is killed in an explosion. Omar then focuses on the Marathon, using mascot costumes to hide bombs. During the event, Hassan is killed by a remote detonation, and Omar experiences a change of heart. In the chaos, Barry swallows a SIM card and is nearly killed, while a bystander in a Wookiee costume is accidentally shot by police. In the final moments, Waj is cornered in a kebab shop; Omar tries to talk him down, but the police mistakenly kill the last hostage and detonate Waj's bomb. Omar then detonates his own bomb in a pharmacy. An epilogue reveals that Omar's brother was arrested as a terrorist, the police deflected blame for their mistakes, and Omar unknowingly killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
- First release year
- 2010
- Runtime (minutes)
- 101
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Chris Morris
- Writers
- Chris Morris · writer; Sam Bain · writer; Jesse Armstrong · writer
- Cast and characters
- Riz Ahmed · Omar; Kayvan Novak · Waj; Nigel Lindsay · Barry / Azzam Al-Britani; Adeel Akhtar · Faisal; Arsher Ali · Hassan Malik; Craig Parkinson · Matt; Preeya Kalidas · Sofia; Julia Davis · Alice; Benedict Cumberbatch · Ed; Alex Macqueen · Malcolm Storge MP; Kevin Eldon · Sniper; Darren Boyd · Sniper
- Genres
- satire; black comedy
- Themes
- radicalization; terrorism; identity; absurdity of fanaticism
- Tone and mood
- satirical; black comedy; farce
- Premise and plot tags
- British comedy; terrorism satire
- Reception
- The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the screenplay, direction, themes, humour, and cast performances.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 84% · scale: percentage · review count: 136; Metacritic · score: 68 · scale: 100 · review count: 28
- Production trivia
- The film was based on research that predated the 7 July 2005 London bombings.; The film was shortlisted for the World Cinema Narrative prize at the Sundance Film Festival.; The film's music supervisor was Phil Canning.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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