Plot

A successful cocaine dealer gets two tough assignments from his boss on the eve of his planned early retirement.

An unnamed drug-dealer (Craig) has always had his priorities straight: he wants to quit while he's ahead. But before he can enjoy the fortune he has made from selling ecstasy and cocaine, he has to oblige his boss Jimmy Price (Cranham) for two last requests. The junkie-daughter of crime lord Eddie Temple (Gambon) has gone missing and Price wants the dealer to find her. The directorial debut of Matthew Vaughn, producer of Guy Ritchie's Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and the director of the Kingsman series.

A successful cocaine dealer, who has earned a respected place amongst England's Mafia elite, plans an early retirement from the business. However, big boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) hands down a tough assignment: find Charlie Ryder (Nathalie Lunghi), the missing rich Princess daughter of Jimmy's old pal Eddie Temple (Sir Michael Gambon), a powerful construction business player and gossip papers socialite. Complicating matters are two million pounds' worth of Grade "A" ecstasy, a brutal Serbian gang, and a whole series of double crossings. The title "Layer Cake" refers to the layers or levels anyone in business goes through in rising to the top. What is revealed is a modern underworld where the rules have changed. There are no "codes", or "families", and respect lasts as long as a line. Not knowing who he can trust, he has to use all of his "savvy", "telling", and skills which make him one of the best, to escape his own. The ultimate last job, a love interest called Tammy (Sienna Miller), and an international drug ring threaten to draw him back into the "cake mix". But, time is running out and the penalty will endure a lifetime.

An unnamed British cocaine dealer treats his work as a business, and neither believes he is or acts like a gangster. He respects those with whom he works, and in return, they respect him. In treating his work as a business, he has amassed a small fortune of laundered money, and despite his relatively young age, he plans on retiring soon. His supplier, Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham), asks him for a small favor outside his normal work: find Charlie Ryder (Nathalie Lunghi), the drug addicted daughter of a well-known colleague named Eddie Temple (Sir Michael Gambon), she, who has escaped from a rehab center. Despite not being his business, he can't refuse Jimmy's request. More along the lines of normal business, Jimmy also hooks him up with a small-time hood named Duke (Jamie Foreman) who has come into a stash of one million ecstasy pills. Jimmy wants in on the business, although the cocaine dealer doesn't like Duke or dealing with him. Problems arise for the cocaine dealer when he finds out the ecstasy pills were stolen from a ruthless Serbian gang, the cocaine dealer, who is implicated as the mastermind. He also runs into problems in his search for Charlie. Regardless of his stance on gangsterism, he may have to act like one to get himself out of this dilemma.—Huggo

Successful drug dealer Mr. XXXX (Daniel Craig) plans his criminal career intermediating business with drugs without calling attention to himself, working with a small gang and honoring his payments with the suppliers. On the day planned for his early retirement, powerful mobster Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham) gives him two assignments: find Charlie Ryder (Nathalie Lunghi), the addicted daughter of his associate Eddie Temple (Sir Michael Gambon) and negotiate one million pills of high-quality ecstasy with the stupid smalltime gangster Duke (Jamie Foreman). Mr. XXXX hires two acquaintances crooks in a nightclub to find Charlie, and he unexpectedly meets Duke's cousin Sidney (Ben Whishaw) with his sexy girlfriend Tammy (Sienna Miller) and flirts with her. But Mr. XXXX discovers that the ecstasy was stolen from the dangerous and wild Serbian drug lord Dragan (Dragan Micanovic) who wants the head of Duke and the drugs back. Further, Eddie shows a tape proving that he has been double-crossed by Jimmy, and also wants the ecstasy. The smart Mr. XXXX plots a scheme to resolve the situation and meet Tammy.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The protagonist XXXX (otherwise unnamed) (Daniel Craig) is a London cocaine distributor who abhors violence and operates with the care and professionalism of a legitimate businessman. His chief associates are his enforcer and partner Morty (George Harris) (& Terry (Tamer Hassan)), and Gene (Colm Meaney), an Irish gangster who serves as XXXX's liaison to mob boss Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham). Clarkie (Tom Hardy) is his chemist and cuts the drugs for him. Just as XXXX is ready to retire from criminal life, Jimmy summons him to a lunch meeting and gives him two tasks to perform.

The first is to track down Charlie (Nathalie Lunghi), the drug-addicted runaway daughter of one of Price's friend Eddie. XXXX enlists two con men, Cody (Dexter Fletcher) and Tiptoes (Steve John Shepherd), to find Charlie; they learn that Charlie has apparently been kidnapped (and her boyfriend is found dead, OD on drugs), but are unable to figure out who abducted her.

The second task is for XXXX to oversee the purchase of one million ecstasy tablets from the "Duke" (Jamie Foreman), a low-level criminal who recently returned to London from Amsterdam with his girlfriend Slasher (Sally Hawkins) and crew of thugs led by his right-hand man Gazza (Burn Gorman). Duke wants $5 per pill, but XXXX walks away as Duke is asking too much. He wants Duke to come to his senses on the asking price. Unbeknownst to XXXX, the Duke and his crew have stolen the pills from a gang of Serbian war criminals. XXXX meets the Duke's feckless nephew, Sidney (Ben Whishaw), and finds himself attracted to Sidney's girlfriend Tammy (Sienna Miller). XXXX tries to broker the sale of the pills to Liverpool gangsters Trevor (Louis Emerick) and Shanks (Stephen Walters) but they refuse, informing him of the pills' origin and that the vengeful Serbians have sent an assassin, Dragan (Dragan Micanovic), to recover the pills and kill the thieves. As the Duke had mentioned his name to the Serbians, XXXX is also a target. Trevor and Shanks offer XXXX $2.5 per pill, as they are stolen good, with Dragan after it.

As XXXX tries to track Duke down, he disappears. Jimmy is furious as the deal seems to be going south. Morty loses his cool and takes it out on one of his informants Freddie Hurst (Ivan Kaye). He disappears after that. Duke is killed by a mysterious person, presumably Dragan. Gene tells XXXX about the history between Morty and Eddie. They were disposing off a body together for Crazy Larry (Jason Flemyng), many years ago. Eddie was close to Larry but fell asleep at a red light. Morty was in the back with the body, and both were arrested. Morty did 10 yrs and Eddie did 3. Gene tells XXXX that he was the one who killed Larry all those years ago since Jimmy never liked him. He shows him the gun he used to killed Larry. Meanwhile Dragan calls XXXX and wants the drugs back. Duke had said in Amsterdam that he worked for XXXX. Meanwhile Duke has gone missing, and Gazza tells Gene to find a buyer in 48 hrs or the drugs are gone.

XXXX arranges a tryst with Tammy but is kidnapped and brought to Eddie Temple (Michael Gambon), a wealthy crime lord. Eddie explains that Charlie is his daughter, whom he has recovered; Jimmy, having recently lost a fortune due to bad investments he blames on Eddie (Eddie hosted a golf tournament where Jimmy met Eddie's friend from some African country, who promised a fortune in commodities in exchange for hard currency investments. Jimmy invested 13 MM pounds. But then the communists took over and Jimmy lost all his money), wanted her as a hostage until Eddie recouped his losses by going to Switzerland to negotiate the return of the money with the minister. Eddie gives XXXX a recording, revealing that Jimmy has been working as an informant for Scotland Yard, planning to betray XXXX to the police once the pills were sold in exchange for immunity for his own crimes and XXXX's money (which was parked with Jimmy's accountant for laundering). Eddie demands that XXXX sell him the pills instead, for $3 per pill. If XXXX agrees, he will break the deal with Trevor and Shanks, who won't like it either.

XXXX assassinates Jimmy at his home (using the same gun that Gene used to kill Larry), but later finds that his accountant, an associate of Jimmy's, has vanished along with XXXX's money (about 1 MM pounds that the accountant was supposed to launder for XXXX and return to him as legit). Via Tammy, XXXX had a clue of where Sidney was, and he asked Terry to follow him. Terry reports that Sidney is parked near a garage and is not venturing out very far from that location. Confronted by Gene (who found the ballistics report and figured out that XXXX stole his gun) and Morty, he shares the evidence of Jimmy's betrayal, and the pair acknowledge him as the new acting boss. Gene shows them the corpse of the Duke, who was killed by one of his men when Slasher threatened to go to the cops if Jimmy did not help them out of their situation. XXXX hires a hit-man to ambush and kill Dragan (XXXX had fixed up a meeting with Dragan to clear out any misunderstanding), but Dragan kills the hit-man first and makes XXXX promise to recover the pills.

Sidney brings XXXX to Duke's old hideout, and as he tries to bargain with Gazza for the pills, the police arrive. XXXX and the Duke's gang barely escape the raid, while Dragan watches from afar as the pills are confiscated. However, it turns out that XXXX arranged for the raid, with Cody and Tiptoes posing as officers to secure the pills. XXXX delivers the Duke's severed head to Dragan as a peace offering; satisfied, Dragan reports to the Serbians that the police have seized the drugs. The Serbians accept the loss, which is revealed to be a small amount in comparison to their overall manufacturing capacity.

When XXXX and his crew arrive at Eddie's warehouse to sell the pills as arranged, Eddie's henchmen relieve them of the drugs at gunpoint, and Eddie welcomes him to the "layer cake" of criminal hierarchy. Having anticipated this double-cross, XXXX arranges Trevor and Shanks to gun down Eddie's men in an armed robbery, take the drugs, and sell them so he can settle his accounts. The gang assembles for lunch at the Stoke Park Country Club, honoring their new boss; however, XXXX declines their offer of leadership and follows through on his initial plan to retire. With Tammy on his arm, he exits the club, but is shot by the jilted yet apologetic Sidney. XXXX collapses, bleeding out on the steps.