The Big Man 1990

Danny Scoular is a striking Scottish miner who marries Beth Scoular in the mid-1980s, and the couple soon have two children. After a protest turns violent, Danny is sentenced to six months in prison for assaulting a police officer. When he’s released, the nearby mine has closed and he is effectively barred from mining, forcing Beth to become the primary breadwinner to support the family. This sudden shift tests their partnership and the stability of their home.

While in town, Danny runs into his old friend Frankie at the pub, who is accompanied by a man named Matt Mason. Mason implies political and criminal undercurrents and arranges a test of Danny’s fighting skills to impress potential backers. He orders his enforcer to pick a fight with Danny, and Danny emerges victorious. Mason then reveals that he has arranged a much bigger contest in the near future—a bare-knuckle fight that would earn Danny a sizable payout, but only if Danny agrees to entertain the crowd and, implicitly, to fight on behalf of a shady network.

Determined to prove himself, Danny begins training with Frankie, gradually pushing himself to the limit. During this period, Beth and the children travel to Glasgow to stay with her parents, leaving Danny behind to prove he can hold down a steady job. He attends a job interview but clashes with the manager, and he returns to Frankie’s gym to train, buoyed by the village’s goodwill as they gather to bid him farewell before he heads out of town.

In Glasgow, Danny and Frankie settle into a hotel and continue preparing. Danny insists that the fight must be conducted with honor, refusing to resort to dirty tactics, even as Frankie’s trainer warns that his opponent will fight dirty and that Danny may need to bend the rules to survive. Danny even asks Frankie to take his dog back to Beth and the kids, but Frankie’s trip to deliver the message is interrupted when he discovers Beth with Gordon, an arrangement that fills Danny with anger and betrayal. The dog’s fate becomes a turning point: Frankie, unable to keep custody of the animal, abandons it in a river, only for the dog to find its way back to Danny that night. Enraged, Danny leaves the hotel.

Back in the gym, Beth’s absence and Gordon’s presence come into sharper focus as Danny spots Beth again in a club, and a heated chase ensues. He confronts Frankie, and the fight is called off. That night, Beth and Gordon’s relationship deepens, adding personal risk to the looming public spectacle.

The next morning, Mason and Frankie await Danny’s appearance at the gym, unsure whether he will show. When he does, Danny issues a challenge to everyone present. A partner is found, and the bout begins, but Danny is knocked to the floor. To motivate him, Mason guides him toward a stark reality: the fight will be tied to Cam Colvin, a drug trafficker, and the winner will determine whether Colvin’s business is harmed. If Danny wins, the operation could be crippled.

The fight takes place in an abandoned ship-yard, and Danny faces Cutty Dawson, a tough opponent who fights dirty and is blind in one eye. The rules are simple: the last man standing wins. Dawson’s dirty tactics push Danny to the edge, and, pressed by his trainer’s advice, Danny begins to fight dirty as well—targeting Dawson’s eyes and delivering brutal blows on the concrete floor. Danny ultimately wins, but the win comes with a heavy cost: Dawson’s injuries are severe and Danny’s victory is a grim turning point in the underworld conflict surrounding the money and the drugs.

While recovering at Mason’s home, Danny is offered cocaine by Mason’s daughter. Meanwhile Dawson’s brother arrives, and the truth about the fight’s broader motives emerges: Mason and Colvin had engineered the event as a way to settle a grudge against a dealer in Spain, with the bare-knuckle bout serving as a conduit for violence and punishment rather than sport. Dawson reveals that the fight was a means to silence a rival, and Danny’s win has inadvertently tied him to a much larger criminal scheme.

Danny returns to his village with the money, but Beth refuses to accept him or the blood money into their home. Desperate, he returns to the old coal mine and encounters Frankie, who bears a visible scar and has led Mason’s men to the site. In a tense confrontation, Danny hands the money back to Mason, who reveals that he has already visited Beth and the children. The revelation shatters Danny’s hope of an easy reconciliation, and he races home to find the house empty and his family gone.

Mason drives up on the street, and a crowd of villagers gathers to watch. Beth steps forward, standing with the rest of the community as she speaks for everyone: any further retaliation against Danny could bring down consequences for them all, and the crowd’s solidarity makes Mason and his men back down. The village’s support renews Danny and Beth’s bond, and the family embraces as the crowd closes in, offering a quiet, steadfast defense against the abuses of the drug trade that had threatened to tear them apart.