Formula 51 (2001) - Synopsis
One's all talk - the other's all action. Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle star in "51ST STATE", a smart action comedy from Hong Kong's leading action director Ronny Yu.
Elmo McElroy (Samuel L. Jackson) made one little mistake in 1971. He was caught smoking pot while driving home from his graduation. Just like that - in the blink of an eye - McElroy's dream of being a fully licensed pharmacologist, went up in smoke like the joint in his hand.
Fast forward to 2001 and McElroy is on the wrong side of the tracks. He makes drugs all right. But the wrong kind. He wants out of this business badly - only this time he has an ace up his sleeve.
A wonder chemist, McElroy has created POS-51, a new party drug that promises to be a "personal visit from God". His boss, The Lizard (Meatloaf), a white dude with a skin condition who talks like Huggy Bear and thinks he's black, has a plan to sell this drug to a syndicate of the world's top drug dealers. But McElroy has other ideas.
McElroy does humanity a favour by blowing them all to kingdom come and takes the drug to the most obscure place he can think of to sell it - Liverpool, England.
But there is a fly in the ointment.
What McElroy doesn't know is that The Lizard survived the explosion and has dispatched sultry Dakota (Emily Mortimer), a twenty something, card-playing beauty with a sniper rifle and a matching attitude, to track him down and bring him back to the fold.
Dakota knows Liverpool well. It's where she left her ex-boyfriend, Felix DeSouza (Robert Carlyle), a tough, chain smoking, fast talking, anti-American hood. Felix now works for Durant, Liverpool's biggest drug baron, the man with whom McElroy is about to make a 20 million dollar deal. And it is Felix who Durant has assigned to watch over McElroy while he's in town.
"Welcome to England," Felix announces. "Actually that makes me out to be a liar, coz let's face it you're about as welcome as a dose of the clap"
