Green Street

Matt Buckner, an American college student studying journalism, is expelled from Harvard University after cocaine is discovered in his room. Though it belongs to his roommate Jeremy, Matt is afraid to speak up because Jeremy comes from a powerful family and is offered $10,000 for taking the blame. Matt reluctantly accepts the money and uses it to visit his sister Shannon, her husband Steve, and their son Ben in London. There, Matt meets Steve's younger brother Pete Dunham, a school teacher and football coach who leads the local football hooligan firm – Green Street Elite (GSE). Steve asks Pete to take Matt to a football match. Though Pete is reluctant to take a "Yank" to a football match, he decides to take Matt to the game, thinking he might "learn something." Matt meets Pete's friends and his firm in The Abbey, their local pub, and they befriend Matt, with the exception of Pete's stubborn right-hand man and assistant Bovver, who takes an immediate dislike to Matt. A few pints in, they head to the match. Afterwards, Pete, Bovver, and the other firm members go off to fight some Birmingham City fans, but Matt decides that it is not for him and heads to the train home. On his way back, Matt is attacked by three Birmingham fans, but is rescued by some GSE members. Though grossly outnumbered, the GSE manage to fight off the Birmingham firm until reinforcements chase them off. Matt does well in his first true fight, is inducted into the GSE, and moves in with Pete. The GSE firm then head to an away game against Manchester United. Matt ends up sneaking onto the train to help when they are warned that 40 Manchester United firm members are waiting for them at the station. Bovver pulls the train's emergency stop handle and at Matt's initiative the firm persuades a van driver to take them into Manchester, posing as a moving equipment van for a film production. When past them, the GSE charge out to attack the United firm members. They win the fight and leave, taunting the United firm as they are arrested. Jealous of Matt's rise in the ranks, Bovver talks to Tommy Hatcher, the head of GSE's rival firm, the NGO. After one of the members of the GSE sees Matt meeting his father, a journalist for The Times, for lunch, they assume Matt is a "journo" as well. Bovver informs Pete of this. Steve goes to the Abbey to warn Matt and discovers that Steve is the founder and former leader of the GSE, "The Major", who retired from football hooliganism after witnessing the death of Tommy's twelve-year-old son in a fight. Infuriated, Pete angrily confronts Matt in the pub toilets over his identity as a "journo". Meanwhile, Bovver secretly informs Tommy and the Millwall firm of Steve's presence, who crash the Abbey and petrol-bomb the pub. Tommy confronts, fights and seriously wounds Steve by stabbing him in the neck with a broken bottle, telling him that if he dies tonight, then they are both even. Bovver, who had been knocked unconscious by Tommy's right-hand man upon arriving earlier, helps get Steve to the hospital, where Pete furiously berates Bovver for his betrayal. Shannon decides to return to the United States to ensure the safety of her family. The two firms meet near the Millennium Dome the next day for a final violent battle. Matt and Bovver show up to fight for the GSE, but Shannon turns up with Ben and is subsequently attacked in her car by Tommy's right-hand man, only for Matt and Bovver to save her. Pete notices that Tommy is approaching the car and in order to allow Matt and Shannon to escape, distracts Tommy by goading him, saying to him that Tommy is to blame for his son's death by having failed to protect him. This eventually enrages Tommy, who angrily tackles Pete to the ground and violently beats him to death out of rage in front of both the GSE and NGO while Matt and Shannon escape. Witnessing this, the two firms stop fighting as they gather around Pete's bloodied and battered corpse in shock while Bovver, who had observed Tommy killing Pete, grieves over his dead friend. Matt returns home to the United States and confronts the now wealthy and successful Jeremy in a restaurant, who is snorting cocaine. Jeremy admits to being the cocaine stash's owner and, as he is about to leave, Matt pulls out a tape recorder. Horrified that Matt has declared his confession as a "ticket back to Harvard", an enraged Jeremy lunges at him, but Matt fends Jeremy off with ease. Victorious, Matt walks down the street outside the restaurant, he sings "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", the anthem of the GSE and their associated club, West Ham United.

Plot from Green Street (film)CC BY-SA 4.0