Guy Ritchie's latest film waits until the very end to reveal what actually happened, so here's an explanation of The Gentlemen's ending. The film is very much a return to form for Ritchie, as evident by the The Gentlemen's positive reception early on, and sees him turn his attention back towards the British crime scene. But, in his usual fashion, Ritchie delivers a plot that can sometimes be difficult to track, especially as reveals are made.
The Gentlemen wastes no time establishing the core of its story, which revolves around Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) potentially selling his expansive weed empire to Matthew Berger (Jeremy Strong), who is secretly working with a member of the Asian crime syndicate Dry Eye (Henry Golding). This deal becomes more complicated to close after a group of boys steals from one of Mickey's 12 weed houses located throughout England. However, most of the film is told to audiences from the mind of a private investigator, Fletcher (Hugh Grant), as he shares the information he's gathered with Mickey's right-hand guy Raymond (Charlie Hunnam) about Mickey and his potential deal. Despite what Fletcher has learned, he only knows part of the story.
With multiple players in this game and each far from trustworthy and with their own desires, The Gentlemen ending builds towards a twisting finale that recontextualizes much of what came before. People are double-crossed, several individuals are killed and/or blackmailed, and ultimately someone ends up on top of the British crime scene. But how exactly does it all play out? Here's what happened.
In the big picture, it's best to address what happens with Mickey's weed empire. Following the trouble that his business has had as of late, Mickey and Berger meet again to close the deal. Mickey believes the previously agreed-upon price of $400 million euros is still a fair value thanks to his business' infrastructure and specialized weed growing ways, especially since the industry itself could expand once it becomes legal. However, Berger says the theft has compromised not only one of the locations but all 12 and now only values the business at $130 million. Ultimately, Mickey decides not to sell his company to Berger after figuring out what he was really up to (more on that in a bit) and locks him in a freezer until he pays Mickey anyway and removes one pound of flesh from his body.
Meanwhile, Ray meets with Fletcher again, where Fletcher believes he is about to get paid the $20 million he's asked for. Instead of getting his money, Fletcher learns that he has been tricked by Ray all along. Ray reveals that he's been spying on Fletcher spying on them and needed Fletcher to reveal what he knew about Dry Eye and Berger working together. With his life now threatened, Fletcher reveals another pertinent piece of information: Russian gangsters are coming to assassinate Mickey and Ray.
Earlier in The Gentlemen, Ray and some colleagues go to find the daughter of an associate who has run away. It is a relatively smooth process at first until the girl's friends pick a fight and one falls off the balcony. The boy who dies is the son of a Russian and his father pays Fletcher to learn when and where he'll be able to get revenge on Mickey and Ray. The Russians kidnap Mickey after his meeting with Berger, while others are on their way to Ray's house. The surprise comes when Coach (Colin Farrell) kills the two coming for Ray, while Coach's boys kill the ones taking Mickey - although that was unintentional as they wanted to kill Mickey himself. In The Gentlemen's ending, Mickey escapes, Berger's plans thwarted, and Ray finds Fletcher again after he escaped before.
Much like The Gentlemen itself, now it's time to take a step back and focus specifically on what Dry Eye and Berger's plan was. In the grand scheme of things, Berger wants to work with Dry Eye to reduce the value of Mickey's business with the presumed agreement being that Dry Eye will serve as his second in command. Dry Eye is able to do this by getting Coach's boys to steal from Mickey, but his actions were not approved by Lord George (Tom Wu), the head of the Asian crime syndicate.
If all had gone according to plan, Berger would acquire the weed business for far less than it was actually worth, while Dry Eye gained the power he desperately sought. Instead, Dry Eye changes the plan after he kills Lord George and threatens Berger to step aside as he assumes power. Dry Eye offers to buy Mickey's business himself, which Mickey rejects. This leads to Dry Eye assaulting Mickey's wife Rosalind (Michelle Dockery), but Mickey catches him in the act and kills him. Dry Eye's body is then used to intimidate Berger into doing as Mickey says.
As for Fletcher, the end game for him is to get paid a lot of money for the info he has learned. He was originally hired by Big Dave (Eddie Marsan), who was interested in paying for the information, but Fletcher made multiple contingency plans. For starters, he turns the information on Mickey's weed operation and the criminal underworld in Britain into a screenplay that he is hoping to sell. The screenplay and all of his documents, photos, and other records are offered to Ray for $20 million. He tells them that they have 72 hours to accept the deal or he will sell to Big Dave. As a result, Ray gets Coach and his boys to kidnap Big Dave and blackmail him with a video of him having sex with a pig.
Without any competition, Fletcher is left to only sell to Ray, but Ray has managed to steal all of his information before then anyway. This eliminates Fletcher's chances of earning "double bubble" as he calls it, as he's already been paid by the Russians for the info so they can kill Mickey and Ray. Fletcher escapes when they come for Ray and tries one last time to get his money by pitching his screenplay to a movie studio, only for Ray to find him afterward.
Speaking of Fletcher's screenplay, the final gag for his character is a fun The Man from UNCLE joke. Fletcher is shown pitching his script, titled "Bush," to an executive at Miramax - the studio behind The Gentlemen. A poster for The Man from UNCLE - Guy Ritchie's 2015 spy film led by Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, and Hugh Grant - is prominently featured behind Fletcher. The executive questions some aspects of the script, including it not answering what happens to Mickey, but Fletcher insists that he's leaving room open for a sequel. Ritchie could be teasing he's working on a sequel to the cult-hit picking up on the sequel teases it had.
One loose thread that The Gentlemen ending does leave open is what happened to the Asian crime syndicate. Lord George was the one in charge of them and their drug distribution operation and had power of many, including Dry Eye. Once Lord George died though, Dry Eye took control of the organization. But, his reign didn't last long after Mickey killed him near the end of the film. The Gentlemen never goes back to explore the state of the crime syndicate after these events, leaving audiences in the dark as to who now runs the operation. With everything that transpired and much of being tied to Mickey, his peace could be short-lived if the new leader wants to get revenge - although whoever is in charge may be better off leaving Mickey alone at this point.
When The Gentlemen finally comes to a close, all of the back-stabbing still leaves a fair number of main characters alive and well. Mickey and Rosalind are shown together, but whether either have given up their previous lives is uncertain. Ray is shown to still be standing and managed to track down Fletcher, who is alive when the credits roll but possibly not long after. Coach and his boys survive too and have made peace with Mickey and Ray. Big Dave is presumably still alive as well. Meanwhile, The Gentlemen ending doesn't confirm the fate of Berger, but it would appear he is smart enough to do what he must to survive, even if he's a pound lighter after the fact.
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