Rise of the Footsoldier

Rise of the Footsoldier (2007) is a British crime thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Director Julian Gilbey reconstructs the real-life trajectory of Carlton Leach, who spent three decades moving from football terraces to the upper rungs of organized crime in London and Essex.

In the late eighties Leach was among the most feared faces on the stadium ends. Ricci Harnett plays him without a redemption arc — just the logic of each step forward. From the stands he moved into door work, from door work into serious criminality. Craig Fairbrass and Terry Stone are his associates. Nightclubs, drug money, and escalating violence fill the years between.

The script draws on Leach's own account of those decades. It is a record, not a justification. Stream Rise of the Footsoldier (2007) online on iFILM.