Cast Profiles

Redirected (2014) Cast

Redirected is an ensemble piece organised around a four-man British heist crew and the local criminal — played by Vinnie Jones — whose ring they steal. The Lithuanian supporting cast, anchored by the late Vytautas Šapranauskas in his final film, carries the cultural specificity that makes the road-movie middle act work.

The story sets up four men hired by Karl to rob an illegal London poker game and lift the ring of a local heavy known as Golden Pole. Three of them — John, Tim and Ben — are professional. The fourth, Michael, is a Buckingham Palace guard who happens to be the right size and is kidnapped into the job at short notice. When the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash cloud diverts their post-heist escape flight to Lithuania, the cast list extends to include the Vilnius criminal underworld that follows the cash.

The London crew

The antagonist

Lithuanian cast — anchored by Šapranauskas's final film

Redirected was the final film of Vytautas Šapranauskas, one of Lithuania's most beloved comedy and drama actors, who died on 18 April 2013, ten months before the film's January 2014 Lithuanian premiere. The film carries an on-screen dedication to him. His presence as Priest — a Lithuanian figure who the British leads encounter mid-act — is part of why the Lithuanian reception was so emotionally charged.

Vytautas Šapranauskas as Priest

Vytautas Šapranauskas as Priest

One of Lithuania's most celebrated comedy and drama actors of his generation. Redirected was his last film — a posthumous release dedicated to his memory.

Why the four-handed structure

British heist comedies in the Lock, Stock tradition tend to use four to seven leads — enough to share screen time, generate intra-group dynamics, and divide between the comic and dramatic registers. Redirected sticks to four because the road-movie form punishes larger groups: a van or a small car has to physically carry the cast, and the script is repeatedly interested in the four of them squeezed into the same space arguing.

The casting also balances visibility — Vinnie Jones as the marquee face but on the antagonist side — with four less internationally known British actors who don't have established personas to lean on. That means Darnell, Jackson, Strachan and Williams can disappear into their roles in a way the Jones brand wouldn't allow.

See also