Film Treatment
Robbie, Yasir, Hannah, Luke
The year is 1995, London, and we see a working class estate, where old worn-down electrical appliances found on the street and blood stained walls is a norm. Two best friends (aged 10), who have grown up together, are running away from an old man with broom shouting at them. The smaller, more ‘nerdier’ looking boy, TOMMY, falls over and the bigger more older-looking boy, DAN, helps him up and leads him to a back alley where they are safe from the old man. As they both catch their breath, they smile at one another and laugh about how he will get them one day and how Dan will always have Tommy’s back.
The year is now 2010, and we can see a man running through an alley, looking very scared and worried, sounds of fighting are heard in the background. Another man jumps out in front of him and criticises how Millwall fans are cowards. The nervous man then begins to verbally abuse the other man before the man tries to hit him. Before he lands his punch, a bigger man jumps out and knocks him out. The bigger then laughs before winking at him. We now find out that the bigger man is DAN. Tommy then laughs and asks why he is here because Crystal Palace aren’t even playing today. Dan then tells him once again that he will always have his back. This is when we find out that the two friends support opposing teams.
When they are walking down the street, Tommy invites Dan to the pub for a drink but Dan informs him that all the Palace fans are there at the moment and how badly they would react if they saw a Millwall fan with a Palace fan. This is when we find out that they are part of Firms and they both know about it.
A few days later, we now see Dan walking into the pub to see a group of males singing songs about how Palace is the greatest team in the world; this establishes that these people are the Palace firm. They all greet Dan very fondly, which shows us that he is of a high rank in this particular firm.
As we find out more about the characters and their friends, family and personalities, we then see Dan being informed by one of the members of the Palace firm that Crystal Palace will be playing Millwall next Week and he has to be there to lead them.
Dan then meets up with Tommy in his flat and informs him of this and that there is no way of getting out of it. They are both upset by this and feel as if it’s the end of their friends because they know they will have to fight one another. The moment is very sad and the characters are almost brought to tears. Tommy lets Dan know that both of them always knew that this day would come and they couldn’t be friends forever. Dan disagrees strongly and tells him that they will be friends till the end.
Once the match fight time arrives, both teams’ members are all fired up and ready to fight whilst Dan and Tommy are looking very serious and slightly nervous with little movement. The fight begins and we see both Dan and Tommy beating up others people but deliberately staying away from each other to avoid fighting one another, every so often, they will glance at each other. After a while, Tommy gets seriously injured with by someone wielding a knife and Dan runs straight over and carries him away, others members are shouting at him, asking what he is doing but he keeps running with Tommy in his arms.
Now both are in an alley way, Tommy is on the floor bleeding to death whilst Dan is kneeling next to him with a tear in his eye. Tommy then musters up a laugh and reminds Dan that they couldn’t be friends forever, they both laugh and Dan asks what he does now because he can’t go back or they will kill him. Tommy says that they both knew that this was a bad idea to begin with and then he bids Dan farewell as he dies. Dan begins to cry, gets up slowly and starts to walk away.
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