Snatch is a dual story narrative about an illegal boxing promoter, who gets in trouble with a mob boss, and a diamond heist of a massive 86-carat diamond.
We open with Turkish sitting in front of a Diamond dealer (whom we’ll later find out is Doug The Head) and introduce himself and his partner Tommy in VO.
We then jump into the diamond heist, which nets Franky Four Fingers a massive 86-carat stone.
This triggers a character intro sequence, which helps, as there are many, and is also fun.
Post heist, Franky is on his way to London and one of the guys provides a key contact there, Boris The Blade.
But in London, we go back to Turkish, the boxing promoter, who asks Tommy to get a new caravan from the pikeys.
We then cut to Brick Top, the local mob boss and Turkish discussing the upcoming boxing match, with Bomber Harris and Gorgeous George, Turkish’s fighter.
Franky meets with Boris and agrees to place a bet for him in the upcoming match in exchange for a gun.
Tommy and Gorgeous buy a faulty caravan from Mickey and then agree to a bare-knuckle fight, which Mickey wins and almost kills Gorgeous. This presents a problem for Turkish as he now needs to replace the fighter and he is in Brick Tops' pocket which he didn’t want to.
Boris meets with Vinny and Sol, two minor thieves, and offers them the job to steal Franky’s 86-carat diamond. They agree. They were given a dog by the pikeys which will play a role later on.
Meanwhile, Franky meets with Doug and lets it slip he’s placing bets.
After meeting with Mickey, Turkish offers to replace Gorgeous with Mickey in the upcoming match. Brick Top doesn’t like it but accepts and instructs that Mickey must go down in the fourth round.
While the match is about to start, Vinny and Sol stake out the bookies where Franky is supposed to place the bet. He is a no-show, and they hold up the bookies anyway, gaining no money. This is the first intersection of the characters from the two sequences.
Eventually, they find Franky and the suitcase, kidnap him and take him to their pawn shop, where they discover the diamond, but Boris takes it after shooting Franky.
The match is a bust when Mickey knocks out Brick Top’s fighter in the first round, screwing over Brick Top. He then goes after Vinny and Sol for holding up his bookies. To save themselves, they tell him about the 86-carat diamond, in the possession of Boris.
And now characters from the two stories have fully intersected at about the hallway point, with the diamond at the center.
To add to the complication, Cousin Avi is also in London searching for missing Franky and the 86-carat diamond. He hires Bullet Tooth Tony to help find Franky.
Meanwhile Turkish loses a bet with Mickey and doesn’t have a fighter for the next fight. Brick Top exacts revenge by demolishing Turkish’s game arcade and burning down a caravan with Mickey’s mother in it.
Mickey agrees to take the fight to stop more carnage.
Meanwhile Cousin Avi and his group abduct Boris from his home and re-take the 86-carat diamond. However, they get into a car wreck and Vinny and Sol end up re-taking the Diamond from them. However, their dog snatches it and escapes. After Avi accidentally shoots Bullet Tooth Tony, in the melee, he rushes back to NYC.
The match on, Mickey hungover after his mother’s wake, seems to be going fine, but in the fourth round instead of staying down, Mickey knocks out his opponent, seemingly screwing them over. Again.
It all seems over, and Brick Top is about to exact revenge, but It turns out he and his band of gypsies had it all planned, both by betting on Mickey and by pre-emptively eliminating Brick Tops goons.
Brick Top now eliminated, and Mickey gone, Turkish and Tommy accidentally find the dog who snatched the diamond and then take the diamond to Doug The Head, bringing us to be the bookend of the opening.
The two sequences work in parallel and touch upon each other through characters and eventually the diamond, but they don’t really merge the plotlines. The intercutting between sequences is used to great effect to introduce characters and locations, however, both narratives proceed pretty much as parallel plots, until the very end.
Eventually, characters enter the sphere of the other sequence, such as the dog, and later Vinny and Sol (Dimond sequence) holding up Brick Tops’ betting store and then offering the diamond to Brick Top to save themselves.
However, once this is established, both plots continue side by side. The key protagonists Turkish, Mickey, and Brick Top continue the plot of the boxing match. Avi, Bullet Tooth Tony, as well as Boris, Sol, and Vincent continue the pursuit of the diamond.
It is only incidental that, in the end, the dog that Mickey gave to Vinny and Sol ends up with Turkish and Tommy and yields them the diamond.
The parallel plots have no reason to change or influence each other, intersect more, or merge.
Snatch is a cheeky screenplay and film, and therefore the coincidences work.
Written and directed by Guy Richie.
Comments