Synopsis
Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) is shown in Belfast stripping lead from roofs of houses when the security forces home in on the district with armoured cars, and the dustbin lids beat out a riot. Although worried that the IRA will punish him for causing a riot, they reveal to his father that they are merely scaring him so he does not repeat the crime. He is then sent off to London by his parents to keep him out of trouble. There he finds a squat, to explore, as he puts it, "free love and drugs." The evening when he walks off with some money from a prostitute's flat is when an explosion at a pub in Guildford kills five people (four soldiers and a civilian) and wounds 74.
Conlon returns to Belfast to share his fortune. His family home is raided by the British Army and Royal Ulster Constabulary who arrest him, and immediately place him on a military flight to the mainland UK. Gerry and his friend are interrogated by police who torture and threaten them until both finally agree to sign a confession after being held for up to seven days under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. When his father Giuseppe traveled from Belfast to help his son, he was arrested at the family's relatives' home in England. In the subsequent trial, his aunt's family (known as the MacGuire Seven, including his father) are convicted of supporting the bombing on the basis of unsubstantiated nitroglycerine traces, and the four, including Gerry, are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
His time in prison shows a progression from a bitter son who rails at his father to an awakening when he discovers the real perpetrator of the bombing in the same facility. When this man leads a prison protest and then sets a hated prison guard on fire, Gerry is the one who saves the man with a blanket. Gerry takes over the fight for justice himself when his father dies in custody.
A campaigning lawyer (Emma Thompson) who has been investigating the case on behalf of Giuseppe in the wake of public campaigns demanding the release of the accused has a break when she tries to access his father's file and is able to look instead at Gerry's, finding that vital police documents in the file are marked "Not to be shown to the Defence". During the course of their appeal, the production of these documents leads to a triumphant scene in court when she produces the evidence that the police officers have been lying all the way through, which leads to the exoneration and release of all the Four.
Read more about this topic: In The Name Of The Father (film)