Imdb Ranking 6.7
An estimated 3720 people were killed as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
The movie starts with Alistair Little talking about how he joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) when he was fifteen. There were riots every week. he said they were under siege and they all felt they had to do something.
In 1975 Alistair was seventeen years old. Alistair takes out a gun he has hidden with his old toys and loads it with bullets. Two other boys steal a car and four of them head out where one Alistair tells them the plan. The IRA had threatened one of their men, so in retaliation were going to kill one of them. This is to be the boys' first kill.
Jim Griffin is the target. He had been warned to leave. All the boys seem to know him, his mother or his sister. they head towards the house, but there is an army truck in the street. They put on their ski masks and shoot Jim through the window. His younger brother, Joe, watched the whole thing happen. Joe's mother yells at him asking why didn't he do something
Alistair (Liam Neeson) went to jail for twelve years and then made his living after that traveling around the world talking about what he did, and the burden he carries. Now thirty-three years later, a TV promotes the meeting of Alistair and Joe in a house in River Finn.
Joe isn't interested in reconciliation. He has brought a knife and is going for revenge. Joe feels he could get his five minutes of heaven if he killed him. Joe is really tense and runs outside just before the meeting is to take place. Alistair has been living with the guilt for thirty three years and Joe has been living with the anger. Joe leaves and the TV taping doesn't take place.
Alistair rights a note to Joe asking to meet him, and Joe grabs his knife and heads out. They meet in an abandoned building and Joe tries to stab Alistair, but Alistair gets the knife away. Joe then starts punching Alistair and Alistair fights back. They fall through a window, a story down on the street.
Injured on the ground Alistair tells Joe what happened with his brothers and then tells him to get him out of his head so he can go on with his life, for his daughters.
Phone Rings:
Joe: "Alistair Little?"
Alistair: "Yeah"
Joe: "It's Joe Griffin. We're finished."
Really good acting by Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt in this story about the aftermath of the "troubles." For some, it never ended.
