Driving to meet IRA members Chris and Frank, Stevo tells Bernie that he was beaten up the previous day by the cousin of a woman he assaulted. The group meet outside a Boston warehouse with intermediary Justine, and a representative, Ord, leads them inside. The group is there to buy guns from arms dealer Vernon and his associates, Martin, Harry and Gordon. Despite tensions between the two groups and the fact that Vernon supplied the wrong rifles, the weapons are unloaded from a van and Chris’ group hands over the money in a briefcase. Stevo realizes that Harry was the one who beat him up the day before, and refuses to go near him, irritating Frank. Harry eventually notices and lashes out at Stevo, furthering the tensions between the groups. Stevo seemingly apologises, but then brags about what he did to Harry's cousin. Infuriated, Harry shoots Stevo in the shoulder. Both groups split off and begin shooting at each other. Martin, who was holding the briefcase, is grazed by a bullet in the head. The briefcase now lies in the open, with Vernon attempting to coerce his men to get it. Bernie is shot in the back by Vernon and dies. Soon, two men with rifles begin shooting at both groups. One of them, Jimmy, is killed, and the other is recognised by Ord as Howie, who explains that he was hired to kill everyone and take the money. Before Howie can reveal who hired him, he is shot dead by Chris's group. Chris, defending Justine, requests that Vernon's group let her go. Gordon crawls after her, intent on killing her. As the shooting continues, a telephone rings in one of the offices. Realising that they can call for backup, Chris sends the wounded Frank to the office, pursued by a wounded Vernon. Gordon chases Justine to the warehouse entrance, but she manages to kill him. As Chris, Ord, Stevo and Harry engage in another shootout, Vernon is severely burned by a trap set by Frank but kills him as he reaches the phone. Martin regains consciousness, and begins deliriously shooting at his own group. He reveals that he planned to double-cross Vernon and hired Howie and Jimmy to kill the others. Martin gets the briefcase, but dies from his injuries. After getting past Ord and Harry, Chris reaches the office and kills Vernon. Using the phone to call his associates, Chris is cut off by Ord while Harry distracts Stevo. Returning to the warehouse, Justine takes Jimmy's rifle but passes out. One of Chris's associates, Leary, arrives at the warehouse in search of his IRA comrades, but is killed by Harry. Taking the briefcase, Harry attempts to escape in the van, fired at by Stevo and Ord. Harry runs over Stevo, killing him, but not before Stevo shoots him dead. The fire Frank caused spreads and the sprinklers come on. Exhausted and out of bullets, Ord and Chris agree to stop fighting, take the money, and attempt to escape before the inevitable arrival of the police. Justine shoots Ord in the head and Chris in the stomach. Lying on the ground, Chris tells Justine he regrets not having known her better as he begins to succumb to his wounds, and Justine reveals she was in on the double-cross with Martin. As Justine limps to the warehouse entrance with the money, the sound of sirens grows louder. When red and blue flashing lights appear under the bottom of the exit, Justine realizes although she survived, she will not escape.
In October 2014, Olivia Wilde, Luke Evans, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy and Michael Smiley joined the cast of the film, with Ben Wheatley set to direct from a screenplay he wrote with Amy Jump. Wheatley and Andy Starke produced under their Rook Films banner, and Film4 Productions produced the film. In April 2015, Brie Larson replaced Wilde, who had to drop out due to a schedule conflict.
In February 2015, it was announced that StudioCanal had acquired distribution rights to the film in the United Kingdom, while Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions had acquired the rights in Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Scandinavia and Spain. In November 2015, it was announced that Alchemy had acquired United States distribution rights to the film. However, on 10 March 2016, in the wake of rumours of Alchemy's financial troubles, distribution of the film was bought by A24. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and served as the closing night film of the London Film Festival, on 16 October 2016. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 31 March 2017, and in the United States on 21 April 2017.
Box office
Globally Free Fire grossed $US2.6 million at the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, Free Fire has an approval rating of 68%, based on 230 reviews, with an average rating of 6.35/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Free Fire aims squarely for genre thrills, and hits its target repeatedly and with great gusto—albeit with something less than pure cinematic grace." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average to reviews, the film has a score of 63 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews."
