Tyrannosaur (film)

One night, unemployed widower Joseph in a drunken rage, kicks his dog Bluey to death. He almost immediately regrets his actions and seems to realize that his anger was out of control. The next day, he buries the dog then goes to the post office, where he mocks several Pakistani workers. He apologizes but, since he has been verbally abusive to them many times before, he is told to never come back. He remains calm, but as he's walking past the entrance, he angrily throws a brick through a large plate glass window. Afterwards at the pub, Joseph yells at then attacks three young men playing pool after one threatens and mocks him. He quickly leaves the bar and hides in a second-hand shop, where a religious, compassionate employee, Hannah, offers to pray for him.

That night, Joseph goes to his home and meets up with his 6-year-old neighbor Samuel, who is forced to wait outside while his Mother is inside with her intimidating boyfriend. The boyfriend teases and berates Samuel and threatens to let loose his dog on the young boy. After Samuel is allowed back in the house, Joseph is attacked by some of the men from the post office. The next morning, Joseph wakes up and goes to the shop, where Hannah looks after him. He begins to berate and insult her, criticizing the comfortable, privileged life he assumes she leads. She listens, without commenting, but she begins to tear up.

Hannah returns home, drinks wine and falls asleep. When her husband, James returns home and is unable to awaken her, he urinates on her. As he walks away, Hannah's eyes open. The next morning, James finds her washing clothes and scrubbing his urine off of their couch. He attempts to initiate sex with a visibly shaken Hannah, but becomes cold and resentful when she refuses his advances. When Hannah goes to work at the second-hand shop, Joseph apologizes. Disgusted and angry with her husband, she asks Joseph to go have a drink with her. They go to a local pub, and both behave in an improper, but platonic manner. That night, James tells Hannah that someone saw her earlier that day with another man, which she denies.

The next morning, Hannah comes to the shop with a black eye and claims to have fallen in the bath. In the back room, she drinks from a bottle of vodka, revealing that she has been hiding a drinking problem. Joseph arrives again and asks her to come with him, and pray for his best friend Jack, who is dying of cancer. A few days later, Jack dies. Joseph returns to the shop to get a suit for his friend's funeral. James finds Hannah tying Joseph's tie as he tries on a suit and quietly threatens her. Joseph hears enough of this to realize that James was the cause of Hannah's black eye. She continues to claim that she simply fell in the tub but she is visibly upset. She asks him to immediately leave the store.

After work, Hannah is afraid to go home for fear of what her husband will do to her. With no where else to go, she finds a bar and sits alone, getting very drunk. James finds out where she is and comes to take her home. He hits her and she begins to mock him. She screams that she can no longer stand to even look at him and that he disgusts her. She goes upstairs and tries to compose herself in the bedroom. James enters after a minute of silence and beats then rapes her. Hannah Quietly rushes out of her house in the early morning. She finds Joseph and tells him she is leaving James, and asks to stay with him because she has no where else to go. He hesitatingly agrees, and in the course of her settling in, Joseph reveals that his heavy set wife has been dead for 5 years, due to complications from her diabetes. He also tells Hannah that he regrets using the nickname "Tyrannosaur" for his wife. He used it because it reminded Joseph of the scene in the film Jurassic Park where the tyrannosaur could be heard stomping after the children in the film, much like how his wife sounded when she was walking up the stairs of their house. At the time, he'd thought it was funny but expresses guilt for the way he treated her.

After a few days, Joseph tells her that she is not safe with him and suggests she leave. Joseph escorts Hannah back to her house to retrieve some items, but she ends up running away, saying she was not ready to confront her husband. Hannah then goes with Joseph to Jack's wake, where they sing and dance and tell tales in remembrance of Joseph's old friend. While Hannah is sleeping in the next room, Joseph decides to confront James. He takes her keys and goes to her house, where he finds a dead James, stabbed multiple times and still propped up against the closet door. Shocked, he returns home and confronts Hannah, admitting he knows about the murder. She breaks down and reveals that James had been abusing her for a long time- even mutilated her reproductive system with a glass bottle, rendering her unable to have children. She weeps, saying all she ever wanted was to be a mother. She pleads with Joseph to hold her and comfort her but he remains at the door, shocked and silent.

A year later, it is revealed through a letter that Joseph wrote to Hannah, and that Samuel was mauled by his mother's boyfriend's dog. In retaliation, Joseph beheads the dog with a machete, for which he spent a few months in prison. He says that he regrets having killed another dog, but he knew it was eventually going to hurt the boy even worse if nothing was done. He also says that he didn't enter the second-hand shop randomly the day he met her. He went there on purpose because he had seen Hannah through the shop window and thought she was beautiful. The film ends with Joseph visiting Hannah, who is now in a minimum security prison for James's killing. They both appear hopeful for a better future.

• Peter Mullan as Joseph
• Olivia Colman as Hannah
• Eddie Marsan as James
• Paul Popplewell as Bod
• Samuel Bottomley as Samuel
• Sian Breckin as Samuel's Mum
• Ned Dennehy as Tommy
• Sally Carman as Marie
• Julia Mallam as Drunk Woman
• Andrew Milburn as Guy in Pub
• Natalia Carta as Drunk Woman's friend

Tyrannosaur is an expansion of Dog Altogether, a short film for Warp Films that Considine wrote and directed, which won the Best Short Film BAFTA and BIFA awards as well as the Silver Lion award at Venice in 2007. The film received a grant of £206,540 from the National Lottery fund through the UK Film Council. The remainder of the film's budget came from Warp X, Inflammable Films, Film4, Screen Yorkshire, EM Media and Optimum Releasing (StudioCanal). It depicts an environment similar to what Considine witnessed growing up on a council estate in the Midlands, although the film is in no way autobiographical. The film's title is a metaphor, the meaning of which is revealed in the film.

The film is set in an unspecified town in the North of England, although much of it was shot on location in residential areas of Leeds and Wakefield, including Seacroft, Cross Gates, Eccup, Harehills and Alwoodley, and the accents of many of the main characters are drawn from a wide geographical area. The film makes reference to the fictional Manners Estate as an area in the town where the more wealthy inhabitants reside. Manners Estate is the name of the council estate in the parish of Winshill near Burton-on-Trent where Paddy Considine grew up.

Many of the extras used in the film were local residents, including local busker Chris Wheat who was given a part after singing to the cast and crew on set. He performs his own original song in the film. Workers from the local St Vincent's Charity Shop used in the film were also given small parts. Several other small roles were given to members of the crew, including the film's producer Diarmid Scrimshaw, the film's make-up designer Nadia Stacey, and the production coordinator Samantha Milnes who was featured in a photo as Joseph's late wife. The film is dedicated to Considine's late mother, Pauline Considine. The end credits gives special thanks to both James Marsh and Gary Oldman.

1. "Wand'rin' Star" – Nick Hemming (of The Leisure Society), cover of Lee Marvin's 1969 hit song from the western musical film Paint Your Wagon[3]
2. "This Gun Loves you Back" – Chris Baldwin (written By Paddy Considine & Chris Baldwin)[3]
3. "Truth or Glory" – JJ All Stars[3]
4. "Saturday Night" – JJ All Stars[3]
5. "Psycho Mash" – JJ All Stars[3]
6. "Hi Jack" – Chris Wheat[3]
7. "Sing All Our Cares Away" – Damien Dempsey[3]
8. "We Were Wasted" – The Leisure Society[3]

Original music composed by Chris Baldwin & Dan Baker

• Tyrannosaur at IMDb
• Tyrannosaur at Rotten Tomatoes
• Tyrannosaur at AllMovie