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The Tournament is a 2007 British independent direct-to-DVD action film. The film was conceived by Jonathan Frank and Nick Rowntree while at the University of Teesside, the script was written by Gary Young, and the film is the directional debut of local filmmaker Scott Mann.

The Tournament was partially filmed in Bulgaria, and numerous locations around Northern England (where the film is set) and Merseyside. The film stars Robert Carlyle, Ving Rhames, Kelly Hu, Sebastien Foucan, Liam Cunningham and Ian Somerhalder. The film received additional funding internationally, from Sherezade Film Development, Storitel Production and others, earning the film a budget of just under £4,000,000, and the film also features a renowned international ensemble cast.

However, numerous problems involving production, finance (the budget ran out twice), and securing a distributor, meant the film was not released until two years after filming, in late 2009.

A group of the world's wealthiest and most powerful men, who are themselves tied into law enforcement agencies and criminal underworlds alike, and who also control the international media with their billions, have devised the ultimate entertainment for themselves - simply referred to as "The Tournament" - which takes place at intervals of every seven or ten years.

"Contestants" volunteer, but due to the nature of the tournament are some of the toughest or craziest individuals on the planet - they are expected to kill, and only the last surviving combatant will win the cash prize of £10,000,000. The men and women running the tournament, as well as observing for entertainment, gamble on the high stakes and bet on the outcome.

For each tournament, combatants are selected from the world's best, deadliest and most feared military special forces, serial killers, athletes, trained contract killers and assassins. The last combatant standing receives not only the cash prize, but also the glory and reputation of having the title of World's No 1, and which itself carries the legendary million-dollar-a-bullet contract killing price tag. Each of the assassins carry a tracking device, embedded under their skin, allowing the observers to monitor the Tournaments movements, and the assassins to track each other. The tournament lasts twenty-four hours, and if no assassin has won by killing all the other assassins, then the tracking device under their skin will explode.



The mayhem which take place in this "game" are passed off in the international media as natural disasters, terrorist outrages, accidents, or put down to rampages committed by lone madman. The unsuspecting towns where the tournament takes place are randomly selected, and the public never know of its existence. This year, the latest tournament has come to the Middlesbrough, a city in the United Kingdom - the country with the most prevalent mass surveillance in the world - so that the events of the tournament can be easily followed and recorded through the ever-present CCTV as well as satellite surveillance. They also jam the communications of the emergency services, completely taking over the electronic infrastructure, and the stage is set.