Rise of the Footsoldier is a British crime film released on 7 September 2007. The third production from BAFTA Award-nominated director Julian Gilbey, it is a gangster film based on the true story of the Rettendon murders and the autobiography of Carlton Leach, a football hooligan of the infamous Inter City Firm (ICF) who became a powerful figure of the English underworld. The sequel Rise Of The Footsoldier Part II followed in 2015 and the prequel, Rise of the Footsoldier 3: The Beginning, came in 2017
Rise of the Footsoldier follows the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late eighties and early nineties.
On the 6th December 1995, three Essex gang members were brutally murdered in cold blood. It’s now early 1997 and whoever killed the three men have yet to be brought to justice. An associate of the men, still mourning the loss of his friends, is convinced that it’s only a matter of time before he’s next. For him, the only way out is to go back in and work his way back up the criminal ladder. The higher he gets, the more violent the jobs become, his quest for power turning into an obsession. With life and family on the line can he hold his nerve together one last time in order to get out alive?
Notorious gangster, Pat Tate, rises through the ranks of Essex's criminal underworld. A prequel to the 'Rise of the Footsoldier' franchise.
Fresh out of prison, Pat Tate steps right back into his Essex nightclub. But still disgruntled, he soon sets out to Marbelle to revenge those that put him away for five years. While in Spain, Pat cannot turn away from the opportunity to score the biggest drug deal of his life. All he needs is for his Essex pals Tony and Craig to deliver the cash to Marbella to close the deal. But Craig, useless as ever, turns a simple plane trip to a massive road trip packed with trickery and danger. And Tony is more worried about making it back to England as he has promised to support his best friend Nigel Benn at the boxing match of his life. While waiting in Marbella, Pat proceeds with the violent revenge he has craved for years. Revenges are made and Tony and Carlton walk Nigel Benn out to what turns out to be one of the most tragic fights in history. But the drugs they bring back seems to be a bad batch and cause them more trouble than they have ever anticipated before.
A brutal account of how real-life, hard-as-nails Falklands War veteran Tony Tucker came to be involved in one of the most notorious gangland murders in British history.
Pat Tate embarks on a rampage to avenge his loyal and trusted footsoldier's violent death, venturing beyond his comfort zone of Essex into the dark side of 90s Soho to track down the villain responsible. Set to execute his revenge, Tate will stop at nothing even as the world around him starts to explode.
