Guy Ritchie returns to gangster stories once again and his Netflix series is full of winks: here are the five biggest Easter eggs from The Gentlemen.
In 2020, Guy Ritchie released The Gentlemen, a film allowing him to return to a cinema that has always fascinated him – and which had made him famous, between Scams, Crimes and Botany, Snatch and other RockNRolla.
The film with Matthew McConaughey and Charlie Hunnam was a hit, but the director decided to take its essence to adapt it for the small screen. This time in the form of a series, The Gentlemen offers a new story from the same universe. Eddie Horniman, a young aristocrat who has just inherited the title of duke and his family’s lands, discovers that his father had signed a contract with the head of a drug empire.
The eight episodes are a return to basics for the filmmaker, who directed three parts and supervised the entire series alongside Matthew Read. And very quickly, certain nods to the cinema of Guy Ritchie, but also to other popular works, appear. Here are the best Easter eggs from The Gentlemen on Netflix.
Warning: this article will spoil events from the series The Gentlemen.
1 – A rifle too noble for a dealer from Liverpool, but not from London
From the first episode, it starts strong: Freddy kills a dealer, who came to collect his debts by pushing him to the limit for a humiliating video.
The weapon that killed Tommy Dixon was a splendid English-made rifle, the kind of object not found in everyone’s hands. As the Gospel then points out, the weapon is worth more than 200,000 pounds: Jethro, accused of the crime, could not have appropriated it. And above all, why would a dealer from Liverpool choose such a weapon?
Well, in fact, such a weapon has already been chosen – a little reluctantly – by a drug dealer from all over London in another Guy Ritchie film. Indeed, in Scams, Crimes and Botany, a good part of the plot revolves around a duo of Holland & Holland brand rifles, worth $250,000, which are used in particular to rob a rival gang.
When Tom, one of the four heroes in debt, tries to get his hands on a pistol to prepare to rob drug dealers, his fence does not bring him the sawed-off barrel requested, but two magnificent rifles, stolen a little earlier from aristocrats and resold by thieves little aware of its value. Never mind: the amateur robber will use the weapons, even if they do not correspond to the image of a real dealer.
2 – Bobby Glass’ BBQ
Bobby Glass’s barbecue in the series is the same as that of Ray, played by Charlie Hunnam in the film The Gentlemen.
The 2020 feature film revolves around two intertwined stories: on the one hand, we are shown Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) intelligently and firmly directing his crime empire and looking for a buyer to sell his business. On the other, we see Ray, his second in command, talking with Fletcher (Hugh Grant), a journalist seeking to blackmail the drug lords. These last two characters will take the role of narrators, and different dialogue scenes punctuate the film, showing them in varied situations.
Fletcher and Ray even share a luxury steak in a very special barbecue: you can warm your legs there while cooking the meat, sheltered in a trekking tent, and the icing on the cake: it there is no smoke!
When in the series Eddie asks to meet Bobby Glass, the head of the organization which has invested the lands of the Halstead estate, we find the famous barbecue. Another little detail: Bobby’s orange-tinted glasses are those of Fletcher in the film.
More than a wink, we can see a sort of omen about the role of Bobby Glass: from his prison, the godfather observes the action with hindsight, like a narrator, and can anticipate the rest of his next blows.
3 – Dogs who eat what they shouldn’t
Dogs eating things they shouldn’t is a common occurrence at the movies. But fans of Guy Ritchie will certainly see a nod to another doggie from his filmography: that of Snatch.
If the breed changes – we go from the famous dictator’s favorite shepherd to what looks like crusaders raised in shambles in a gypsy camp – the result is the same: the animal swallows a priceless treasure. A huge diamond, nicknamed “the Stone” in Snatch, and the testicle of a famous mustachioed man in The Gentlemen.
4 – Henry Collins is related to Lenny Cole from another film
One of the barons of The Gentlemen series, Henry Collins, is presented as a true tycoon reigning supreme over London. The man has connections, and he made his fortune investing in real estate.
When Eddie visits him, Henry explains to him that the brand new building in which he organizes boxing matches is the result of a smart buyout. A real bargain of a half-finished building on the banks of the Thames, abandoned by a former owner who preferred to go into exile, and whose value has skyrocketed. However, all these details recall another character from Guy Ritchie’s filmography, Lenny Cole.
Lenny Cole is the London tycoon in RockNRolla. And to present it, from the beginning of the film, we summarize one of his last strokes of genius: to defraud some not particularly clever little gangsters, to appropriate at a lower cost a half-finished building, on the banks of the Thames, and whose value will increase drastically thereafter thanks to his shenanigans… at least, until Lenny reaps what he sows.
Its end is only (strongly) suggested in RockNRolla, but we suspect that the building on the banks of the Thames should soon find a new owner.
5 – Jonhston with a t, king of meth in America
The last Easter egg, but probably the most visible for anyone used to series from recent decades, will be the presence of actor Giancarlo Esposito. But above all the character he plays, almost identical to that of another famous production: Breaking Bad.
Stanley Johnston, with a T, is at the head of an American empire: that of methamphetamine. Just like Gustavo “Gus” Fring in Breaking Bad. It seems that the role of the villain sticks to him: the actor is also Stan Edgard, a tyrannical leader for Vought in the series The Boys, and did not fail to make many gamers tremble in the video game Far Cry 6, for which he gave his face to the dictator Anton Castillo.
All eight episodes of The Gentlemen series have been available on Netflix since March 7, 2024.
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