Jason Statham as Bacon in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
In Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Jason Statham plays Bacon, one of four friends who pool their money for a card game that goes badly wrong. The group is Nick Moran’s Eddy, Jason Flemyng’s Tom, Dexter Fletcher’s Soap and Statham’s Bacon. For many viewers it was the first time they saw Statham on screen.
The film was Ritchie’s first feature as director and his own screenplay. It reached UK cinemas on August 28, 1998 and US theaters on March 5, 1999. Statham’s part is a supporting one inside an ensemble, but it set up the screen persona he has kept ever since.
Where Statham was before Bacon
Statham came to the film with no acting career behind him. Screen Rant describes him at that point as a diver and a model, and says Ritchie noticed him while casting. The film’s own world fit him: Ritchie felt Statham’s history of working at market stalls made him right for a small-time London crook.
That shaped what the part asked of him. Bacon is not a hero or a mastermind. He is a working-class hustler who has to sound convincing talking his way through a crowded, fast-moving script, and the role needed street credibility more than technique.
What the part asked of him
Bacon is the dry voice in the group. Statham’s deadpan delivery gave Ritchie’s one-liners a flat, unbothered timing, and Screen Rant singled out that delivery in a piece on his first film. Around him the film is loud: Eddy is all nerve, Soap is anxious and Tom is wary. Bacon reacts to the chaos without losing his composure.
The ensemble also meant Statham had to share the screen. Ritchie’s film plays out as several crews colliding over a pair of antique shotguns, with Vinnie Jones’s debt collector Big Chris as the most feared figure. Bacon’s scenes are about how a friend reacts when everything is already going wrong.
How the film was received
The film outlasted its modest start. US audiences came to it late and in small numbers, with Box Office Mojo recording a domestic gross of about $3.75 million. It is now well regarded: Rotten Tomatoes lists a 75% critics’ score from 67 reviews, and audience scores are higher. Critics at the time noticed its Tarantino-style cool filtered through British humor, and the film remains a reference point for British crime comedy.
What changed afterwards
Lock, Stock gave both Statham and Ritchie a start in features, and they have worked together on five films: this one, Snatch (2000), Revolver (2005), Wrath of Man (2021) and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023). Screen Rant argues that none of the later films has bettered the first. It also says the film established Statham’s screen image, an authentic tough guy with a sharp sense of humor.
He went on to become one of the most recognizable action stars working, with franchises such as The Expendables and Fast & Furious. His recent work includes Shelter, directed by Ric Roman Waugh, which opened in US theaters on January 30, 2026. In it he plays Michael Mason, a former agent who hides on a Scottish island. He also starred as Cole Reed in Mutiny, directed by Jean-François Richet, released in August 2026, which was reported as the most-watched film on streaming in September 2026.
Almost three decades on, Bacon is still the role where Statham’s talents sit most evenly: the toughness, but also the timing.
Header photo: MTV International / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0, modified: resized and blended with an AI-generated background. The person in the header is a real photo; only the background is AI-generated.
