The Guard is a 2011 Irish comedy film written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, starring Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong and Liam Cunningham. It is the most successful Irish film of all time in terms of Irish boxoffice receipts, overtaking The Wind that Shakes the Barley 2006, which previously held this status.
Gerry Boyle Brendan Gleeson is a Sergeant in the Garda Sochna, stationed in the Connemara Gaeltacht of western Ireland. He is crass, confrontational, and regularly indulges in alcohol, narcotics, and prostitutes while on duty. Despite this, Sgt. Boyle lives by a very strict ethical code and shows love and concern for his ailing mother, Eileen Fionnula Flanagan. Boyle joins his new subordinate, Garda Aidan McBride Rory Keenan, to investigate a murder in their jurisdiction, with evidence apparently pointing to an occult serial killer. Shortly after, Boyle attends a briefing by FBI Special Agent Wendell Everett Don Cheadle. Agent Everett has been sent to liaise with the Garda in hunting down four Irish drug traffickers, led by Francis SheehySkeffington Liam Cunningham, who are believed to have arranged a seaborne shipment of cocaine worth an estimated one half billion American Dollars. To Everetts shock, Boyle recognises one of the men in Everetts slide show as the victim of the murder he and McBride had been investigating.As Boyle drives Everett to the crime scene, Garda McBride pulls over a speeding car driven by Sheehy and his lieutenants Clive Cornell Mark Strong and Liam OLeary David Wilmot. After Sheehy sadistically boasts that he knows all about him, Garda McBride is shot dead. Garda McBrides wife, Gabriela Katarina as, reports her husbands disappearance to Boyle. A Croat national, she explains that her marriage to Garda McBride was arranged so that she could gain an Irish visa. As her husband was secretly a homosexual, it also allowed him to look respectable. Suspecting the worst, Boyle promises to look into it. ........
Source: Wikipedia