The Only Recap You Need Before Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man

With its gritty, industrialized aesthetic, its fantastic soundtrack, and its nuanced portrayals of the Romani-Irish Shelby organized crime family, it's easy to see how "Peaky Blinders" became a global sensation — if not all-out obsession — for many viewers. The BBC series takes place in post-World War I England, a time of labor unrest and conflict between the IRA and the United Kingdom. And yet, no matter how hot it gets in that kitchen, the Peaky Blinders (based on a very real Birmingham gang of the same name), weather it all under the unflinching leadership of family head Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy).

Viewers were glued as the gang grew from a small-time operation fixing races and stealing cargo to an expansive operation striving for legitimacy. Over the show's six-season run, Tommy gets an O.B.E (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) and even makes it to Parliament as we go from the roaring '20s to the politically tense and economically unstable 1930s. The "Peaky Blinders" timeline enters the 1940s with the upcoming film "Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man." To make sure you're all caught up going into the movie — which will have a cinematic release in March 2026 before coming to Netflix later that month — check out Looper's in-depth recap below.

Set in Small Health, Birmingham in the aftermath of World War I, "Peaky Blinders" Season 1 picks up with Shelby brothers Tommy, John (Joe Cole), and Arthur (Paul Anderson), war veterans struggling with PTSD as they attempt to reacclimatize to life in Birmingham at the top of the Peaky Blinders crime syndicate. After the Blinders accidentally pick up a Libya-bound crate of arms and ammunition while attempting to steal motorcycles, the Shelbys draw the attention of Winston Churchill (Andy Nyman).

To recover the guns, Churchill sends new Birmingham Police Inspector Chester Campbell (Sam Neill) and his lovely Irish undercover agent Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis), who grows closer to Tommy while working as a barmaid at the pub The Garrison, where he often drinks. Around the same time, Tommy gets the inclination to expand the family business into London, hatching a plot to leverage a rift between two other criminal factions to gain a stronger foothold in the British horse racing racket.

After finding out the Blinders have been fixing races at his track, Billy Kimber (Charlie Creed-Miles) and his Birmingham Boys plan to take Tommy out. Instead, Tommy makes a deal with him to work together against the Lees while secretly planning to ambush them with the Lee family's help on a day marked out with a black star on his calendar.

Despite Grace's professional and philosophical misgivings, she and Tommy begin to develop powerful feelings for each other. After learning the location of the hidden guns — inside the false grave of Danny Whizz-Bang (Samuel Edward-Cook) — Grace tells Inspector Campbell where to find them before resigning her commission. Campbell, who Grace sees as more of a father figure, takes the opportunity to propose marriage, which she politely declines. Instead of respectfully wishing her well, Campbell immediately turns into a seething creep, stewing in his resentment against both her and Tommy.

Meanwhile, Tommy's sister Ada (Sophie Rundle) is secretly involved with Freddie Thorne (Iddo Goldberg), a war vet and friend of Tommy who is actively wanted by police for his communist leanings and disruptive work as a labor organizer. After learning Ada is pregnant, Tommy demands the couple leave the city but Freddie refuses, and they rebelliously marry, naming their infant son Karl after Karl Marx.

At the same time, youngest Shelby brother John announces his intentions to marry Lizzie Stark (Natasha O'Keeffe), a friend of the family with a past as a sex worker. Tommy shuts that pairing right down after Lizzie fails his loyalty test, instead arranging a marriage between John and Esme Lee (Aimee Ffion-Edwards) to solidify the relationship between the two Romani families.

Inspector Campbell digs up the guns, locating all but one that's still missing. Now completely intent on destroying the Blinders, Campbell and his coppers descend on Small Heath in search of Tommy, who takes shelter in Grace's apartment, ironically giving them precisely the excuse they needed to hook up.

Billy Kimber finds out about Tommy's plans to betray him on Black Star Day and heads down to Small Heath with his small army of Birmingham Boys, strolling right into Blinders territory while the police just let it happen. Tommy and his men show up ready to tango. Although badly outnumbered, they just happen to have that missing gun Campbell never recovered. Just before things can pop off, Ada rolls in with Karl in his buggy, placing herself in between the two crews with lofty speech reminding them of their wives. An unfazed Kimber fatally shoots Danny Whizz-Bang anyway, causing Tommy to shoot back, killing Kimber where he stands and paving the way for the Shelbys to expand their operation and grow wealthier.

As the dust settles on that drama, Tommy learns the truth about Grace. Despite everything, they still have feelings for each other. She invites him to leave everything and join her in America, but he decides to stay with a coin toss. Campbell confronts her with a gun to the face on the Birmingham train platform, but she shoots him in the leg with her purse gun, leaving him permanently stuck using a cane.

Shortly after Ada's husband dies from an illness, the IRA blows up The Garrison on the day of his funeral. While investigating the bombing, Tommy is threatened by IRA members demanding he execute an Irishman.

Despite having been pushed into marriage, Esme and John seem to be getting along well. When Tommy calls a family meeting to announce his next bookkeeping expansion bid into London, Esme warns against getting caught up in a turf war between the Italian and Jewish mafia. But just as before, Tommy sees other gangs' problems as a potential inroad, and he believes an alliance with the Jewish crew could help the Shelbys expand into south London. This leads to a tense but promising sit-down with the Jewish leader Alfie Solomons (Tom Hardy) while drawing the ire of Italian mobster Darby Sabini (Noah Taylor), who runs Britain's biggest racehorse operations on top of a whole slew of illegal operations.

Meanwhile, Inspector Campbell hatches a plot to blackmail Tommy into working as an assassin on behalf of the British crown, unsurprisingly planning to double-cross him and have the Blinders boss hanged when the task is complete. Sabini's men attempt to abduct Ada, but the Blinders following her help her escape. They also attack Tommy, severely injuring him, but Campbell intervenes and stops them, saving his life.

Tommy agrees to go along with Campbell's assassination plot, but he wants something in return, personally requesting that Winston Churchill help him acquire an export license as part of his bid for legitimacy. He also buys fancy homes for Ada and his aunt, Polly Gray (Helen McCrory), ostensibly as part of his money-laundering efforts, making a promise to find and bring back Polly's kids who were taken by the authorities back when the family was much less powerful. He learns Polly's daughter has died of spring fever but manages to make contact with her teenage son, Michael Gray (Finn Cole), who is bored with his life and eager to take his place among the Shelbys.

A now-married Grace still carries a torch for Tommy, who has been casually hooking up with Lizzie and May Carleton (Charlotte Riley), a wealthy horse trainer. After visiting for a hookup, she ends up pregnant and decides to leave her man for him. Meanwhile, Arthur continues to struggle with severe PTSD, which causes him to keep accidentally killing other boxers in the ring and pick up a nasty cocaine habit.

Tommy sets up a crew of Peaky Blinders to work under Alfie in Camden Town distilling bootleg liquor while posing as bakers. To appease the police, the Blinders set up a paid fall guy, a sweet Mafia movie-loving kid who goes by the Digbeth Kid (James Eeles), but Sabini has him killed to make a statement. After Michael and Arthur are arrested, Campbell arranges for Polly's son's release — but only after sexually assaulting her.

Tommy tries to regain control of the Field Marshall Henry Russell (James Richard Marshall) assassination plot by bombing the house where it's meant to take place. In preparation for the big event, now meant to take place on Derby Day, he writes the editor of The New York Times to implicate Winston Churchill in case things don't turn out well for him. When Derby Day arrives, Tommy asks Lizzie, now working as his secretary, to distract Russell so Tommy can kill him. Tommy arrives late to find Russell attempting to sexually assault a traumatized Lizzie but gets the job done, killing Russell with his own gun after his jams.

At the same time, the Peaky Blinders are holding up the racetrack's bookmakers, setting Sabini's licenses ablaze while the police are occupied with the murder. Campbell's "Red Right Hand" men kidnap Tommy to execute him. But just as they're about to, one of Churchill's undercover agents turns on the others, killing them and telling Tommy he'll be needed again. Back at the racetrack, Polly corners Campbell in a phone booth and shoots him, walking away triumphantly with blood on her blouse.

Tommy and Grace get married and have a son, and the Blinders complete the assassination of Anton Kaledin (Richard Brake) for Winston Churchill, which they're paid for by Russian Duchess Tatiana Petrovna (Gaite Jansen). Things seem to be going well for the Shelbys until an assassin from the Changretta family kills Grace at a gala while trying to take out her husband after John's feud with Angel Changretta (Pedro Caxade) sends the mobster to the hospital. Around the same time, Tommy and the Blinders become embroiled in an elaborate plot to support an anti-Communist Georgian revolution with the pedophile priest Father John Hughes (Paddy Considine) and Section D/The Economic League, a cabal of hard-line anti-Communist right-wingers.

Following Tommy's orders, John and Arthur take out Angel Changretta's dad Vicente (Kenneth Colley) but defy him by letting Changretta's wife Audrey (Brid Brennan), their former teacher, go free. Tommy obsesses over the idea that Grace died because she was wearing a cursed sapphire, grieves, attends a freaky Russian sex party, and hooks up with the duchess, who is absolutely bonkers (and not in the fun way).

Tommy is attacked while attempting to assassinate the priest who, along with his crony Patrick Jarvis (Alex Macqueen), threaten Tommy's son if he doesn't smooth things over after making a comment about not trusting the priest to the Russians. Although severely injured with a fractured skull from the incident, Tommy chokes out the requisite apology before meeting with the Soviet embassy to divulge the Russian plot to blow up a train and steal tanks, which is actually intended to serve as a false flag excuse to sever British ties with Russia. In the meantime, Tommy plans to tunnel into the Russians' house to steal their jewels and opens the Grace Shelby Institute for Orphaned Children while Polly hooks up with open-minded portrait painter Ruben Oliver (Alexander Siddig).

At the event celebrating Grace's charity, Hughes kidnaps Tommy's son Charles Shelby (Wil Marwood), demanding that there now be casualties in the train crash. The Blinders find and kill Hughes, who dies by Michael's hand much to Polly's dismay. Unfortunately, it's too late to stop the train explosion. Tommy and Tatiana work together to steal her family's jewels. While paying his family their cut, Tommy reveals that they're all about to get arrested thanks to a deal he made with police. Police suddenly rush the estate, arresting Arthur, John, Polly, and Michael in a shocking turn of events.

The Shelbys narrowly escape the gallows thanks to Tommy's wheeling and dealing, but it happens so last-minute that everyone is left traumatized. Understandably, everyone is severely salty over this. The family spends the next year almost completely out of contact until Christmas, when every Shelby family member gets a "black hand" letter from the New York mob, implying they all have a hit on them. The letters come from yet another vengeance-minded Changretta family member, this time Luca (Adrien Brody). Tommy orders them all to hide out in Small Heath, but Esme resists, leading to John Shelby's death amid an ambush at their home as Michael is also seriously injured.

As the family takes shelter in Small Heath, Tommy meets up with Communist union leader and labor organizer Jessie Eden (Charlie Murphy). Lizzie, Ada, and Polly continue to take on more responsibilities with the family business, while Lizzie reveals she is pregnant with Tommy's second kid. The mother of a young man Arthur killed in the boxing ring invites him to a forgiveness-themed birthday celebration for her late son, but the Shelbys realize it's a trap arranged by Luca Changretta and thwart it with a counter-attack. Polly pretends to cut a deal with Luca to hand over Tommy, using it to lure Luca out of hiding.

Alfie begins working with Changretta to take out Tommy, ultimately realizing it was a bad idea. At a huge boxing match between Alfie's and Tommy's boxers, the Blinders brilliantly fake Arthur's death to trick Luca, who ends up shot in the head by Arthur's bullet. Despite their close friendship and respect for each other, Tommy tracks down Alfie and shoots him in a "Peaky Blinders" exit even the cast didn't see coming. 

In the aftermath of all that has happened, Tommy's mind begins to break down under the pressure of PTSD, heavy drinking, and the weight of all he has been through. He decides to give up some control of the family business to focus on becoming an informant for the United Kingdom, leveraging this relationship to become a Labour Party MP.

The Shelby family fortune takes a dive in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, but diversification in American markets may just save the day. While working in the House of Commons, Tommy faces scrutiny from a reporter and conservative politician Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin). Amid his rising political star, the Blinders boss still makes time for a government-sanctioned killing every now and then, even if the trouble on Wall Street interferes with the payout. Around the same time, Ada announces she's pregnant.

Back at his home, Tommy sees a scarecrow way out on his lawn with a letter directing him to look down, where he finds someone has laid out some land mines, which he promptly detonates with the help of a gun. While that's happening, the IRA calls to reveal Michael has been double-crossing the Blinders, but they've got him and they're more than happy to take him out. Tommy cuts a deal to transport several tons of Chinese opium a few times per year, And, during a ballet performance party at Tommy's house, Arthur's wife Linda (Kate Phillips) points a gun at him in retaliation for his attack on her friend Fredrick — but ends up shot in the arm by Polly.

Tommy, who is secretly working to take Mosley down, begins to realize his own principles are driving his choices in the matter just as much as the other benefits. Colonel Ben Younger (Kingsley Ben-Adir), the father of Ada's child and a British intelligence officer working with Tommy, is killed in a car bomb intended for Tommy.

The opium deal is ambushed by a group of Irish Titanic soldiers, one of whom was a police officer, suggesting there's a leak in their ranks. Linda finally leaves the family. A war with the Billie Boys gets a temporary armistice as Winston Churchill tells Tommy there's a new world war brewing. Polly gets engaged to Romani boss Aberama Gold (Aiden Gillen), uniting the families. Michael and his wife Gina (Anya Taylor-Joy) propose expanding into the U.S. market with themselves as heads of the new division, suggesting Arthur and Tommy's generation are too old for Americans to want to work with. Concerned about where things are headed, Polly tenders her resignation.

It turns out Alfie actually lived through Tommy's gunshot, and Tommy reaches out for help starting a riot to cover his assassination of Mosley. Alfie agrees, as long as he can stay "dead" himself. But Tommy's plans fall apart, and Polly and Aberama are killed, which Michael blames Tommy for. As Mosley continues his rise to power, Tommy's daughter Ruby (Heaven Leigh-Clee) dies of consumption. After learning he is also dying, Tommy executes Michael for trying to kill him. Tommy then settles his estate before retreating to the caravan to end things on his own terms — only to realize he isn't actually dying. He decides to take a page from Alfie's book and fake his own death anyway, literally riding off into the sunset.