Rise of the Footsoldier is a violent 2007 English crime film, and the third film from BAFTA nominated director Julian Gilbey.

It is a gangster film based on the true story of the Rettendon murders and the autobiography of Carlton Leach, a former football hooligan who became a powerful figure of the English underworld.

Rise of the Footsoldier follows the inexorable rise of Carlton Leach from one of the most feared generals of the football terraces to becoming a member of a notorious gang of criminals who rampaged their way through London and Essex in the late eighties and early nineties.

It is three decades of his life following him from football hooliganism, through to his burgeoning career as a bouncer, his involvement in the crimal aspects of the early ‘rave’ scene and subsequently to his rise to power as one of the most feared and respected criminals in the country.