Dillon, Val Kilmer works as a cleaner for a ruthless London gangster named Eddie, and the story opens in a rain-soaked Los Angeles where a late-night call from Ray Burns, Mick Rossi, pulls him into a dangerous moment. Ray has just been shot and is fighting to stay alive long enough to tell his would-be rescuer what to do. After a flashy opening title sequence that tracks Dillon’s drive to the scene, he reaches a house where Ray lies on a sofa, fading fast. Dillon does what he’s asked to do—he removes the remaining traces of Ray’s presence, loads him into a car, and torches the house to destroy any evidence. As they speed away, Dillon struggles to keep Ray conscious and, in a rare moment of dark humor, Ray recites a memory about a crooked Mexican auto mechanic, which gives birth to one of the film’s recurring lines: “I’m not gonna taco.”
The narrative then drops back eight years to chart the rise of Riley, Patrick Bergin, a London schemer who fancies himself the mastermind of a major score. Riley is approached by the crooked Detective Brice, Vinnie Jones, who lays out a plan to steal a heroin shipment and haul it back for a substantial payoff. Riley doesn’t hesitate to assemble a crew, tapping Ray Burns—the man he believes can handle the job—and adding Terry Rawlings (the son of mob boss Jack Rawlings) and Terry’s girlfriend Cindy, Patsy Kensit. The setup is simple: Ray and Cindy’s partner, Ray’s colleague Terry, would breach a warehouse and haul away the drugs while Nathan watches from the roof. But the plan unravels in a brutal, fatal instant when Nathan loses his footing and crashes through a skylight, triggering an alarm. Ray and Terry barely escape with the heroin but lose contact with each other in the confusion.
Brice, eager to cover his own tracks, blames Ray for the botched job and pulls Riley into his confidence, insisting that Ray be made the scapegoat. In the meantime, Ray slips into the shadows, trying to reach Terry and understand what happened, only to learn that Riley’s world is more tangled than he thought. Brice’s web widens as a surveillance tape involving London’s criminal circles becomes a dangerous bargaining chip. Ray, who has gone underground, is eventually captured after an anonymous tip points police toward him, and he is tried for the robbery and the manslaughter of Nathan. He serves eight years in prison with little contact with the outside world, even denying a visit from his devoted lover Maggie, Joanne Whalley, who remains a steady presence in his life through the years. While Ray is behind bars, Riley and Brice continue their crooked dealings, and Brice tries to leverage a videotape involving London figures to gain more leverage and cash.
When Ray is released, a fresh thread pulls him toward Los Angeles, where London Charlie has become a pivotal contact. London Charlie recognizes that a clearer path to freedom for himself lies in eliminating Riley—hence he hires Ray to come to Los Angeles, retrieving a $100,000 bag from Jack Rawlings’s club to fund an operation designed to recover a crucial tape. Ray’s return to freedom coincides with Brice’s suspicions and a new directive to keep a close eye on him through a loyal agent, Danny. Danny’s pursuit of Ray on a busy London street quickly escalates, and a tense exchange about Ray’s former girlfriend Maggie underscores how personal the old wounds remain.
On the ground in Los Angeles, Riley meets with his contact and receives orders that pull him deeper into danger. Ray lands in Los Angeles and heads straight for London Charlie’s house, where he is told there is a fat bag with cash to be delivered to Riley so the two can fetch a vital tape later. Ray collects the money, hides his weapon, and attempts to keep a clean getaway as police pressure closes in. A confrontation follows as Riley and Ray confront each other in a tense, heated exchange about what happened eight years earlier, with Riley dismissing Terry’s death in a way that irks Ray. In a moment of deadly resolve, Ray guns Riley down in the apartment, shooting first in the chest and then in the back of the head, a brutal finish to a grueling rivalry.
Ray searches Riley’s apartment for the promised tape but is disappointed to find only a room key to a hotel. As he makes his way to the hotel and then back to retrieve his belongings, the local police tighten their noose. Detective Allen, Bruno Kirby, and Detective Drummond, Anthony LaPaglia, descend on the scene, questioning Samantha Fay, Sile Bermingham, and probing the chain of events that led to Riley’s death. The tension between Ray and the police ebbs and flows as they grind through hours of questioning, and Samantha is eventually released, though not before the detectives reveal that Riley is dead.
Samantha Fay reappears in the plot’s next phase, aided by the pursuit of London Charlie’s powerful circle. She travels to London Charlie’s estate to settle scores, shooting him in his pool and prompting a brutal Mexican stand-off between her and Ray when he arrives to bid farewell. The treasured tape is tossed into the pool and disappears into the water as Samantha retreats, leaving Ray bleeding and reeling. The film then revisits the opening scene as Ray negotiates the grim path ahead with Eddie on the line, while Dillon steps in to clean up the mess once more. The cleanup is not complete, however, as Ray makes it back to Maggie’s care in London for a temporary recovery.
Back in London, the story pivots to a rooftop rendezvous at a car-park in Chinatown where Jack Rawlings’s ally Eddie arranges a meeting that Brice is determined to crash. Eddie’s message to Brice triggers a deadly game of cat and mouse. Brice, watching the action from afar, orders Danny to trail Ray and determine his next move. Danny’s pursuit climaxes with a brutal break-in to Maggie’s flat—the home Ray had once rescued—where he roughed up Maggie, stole Ray’s remaining money, and returns to his own place. Ray, in turn, bursts into Danny’s flat, retrieves the bag of money and the crucial tapes left by Brice, and drags Maggie along as a rescue partner for the final confrontation.
With the money and tapes in hand, Ray and Maggie head toward the Chinatown rooftop rendezvous where Brice himself finally confronts the aftermath of the chaotic web he spun. Brice arrives to face a showdown that has already shifted into a different battlefield, and the tapes that once tied everyone together disappear into a pool of water. The climactic standoff is set, and Samantha reappears with a new adversary in mind, though Ray’s fate hangs in a fragile balance as he contemplates his next move. The rooftop confrontation escalates into violence, and the two sides collide in a brutal exchange that seals the fates of the principal players.
In the end, Dillon reappears as the quiet agent of cleanup, securing a location where Ray can recover, and Ray pays him to return to London, where he spends days recuperating under Maggie’s care. A final call arrives: Jack Rawlings wants a meeting on a Los Angeles rooftop, setting in motion a last round of calculations. Eddie’s discreet tip drives Brice to assign Danny to shadow Ray, hoping to end the threat once and for all. Danny tracks Maggie to her flat, and a brutal confrontation ensues, sealing Danny’s fate and leaving Brice to improvise. The tapes from the answering machine are missing, Brice’s leverage evaporates, and he finally shows up on the rooftop to confront Ray one last time.
> I’m not gonna taco
The movie closes with Dillon’s steady hand guiding the aftermath as Ray, battered but alive, limps back into the frayed orbit of Maggie and a wary London that never truly gives up on its old debts. Ray contemplates his next move as the city’s night noises swirl around him, knowing that old scores—and old loyalties—will always pull him back toward the edge.
