The Full Monty

Gary "Gaz" Schofield (Robert Carlyle) and Dave (Mark Addy) Horsefall are desperate to make some money, going so far as to try stealing steel beams from the abandoned factory they used to work at. When Gaz finds out that his ex-wife wants full custody of his young son, Nathan, because he's £700 (700 quid as he says) in arrears, Gaz has the idea of stripping to make money. He originally gets the idea from seeing Dave's wife Jean with some friends at their favored tavern, reasoning that if the Chippendales dancers can do it, so can he. Slowly, he assembles a group of similarly desperate men, including his former foreman, Gerald Arthur Cooper (Tom Wilkinson).

Film opening: The year is 1972, and the place is "Sheffield...the beating heart of Britain's industrial north", as described by the narrator in a short film visualising the city's economic prosperity, borne out of Sheffield's highly successful steel industry. The film shows busy steel mills, producing everything from kitchen cutlery to tensile girders, along with the run-off from the mills...successful retail establishments, nightclubs, and attractive housing. The film concludes with "Thanks to steel, Sheffield really is a city on the move!"

Fast forward to a quarter century later. The same town, but in a far different light than that of the early-1970s. The once-successful steel mills of then have grown brown with rust, rolling equipment has been removed, and the lines are silent. Gaz and Dave are inside their former workplace trying to get a steel beam out of the mill with the intent of selling it. They attempt to get the beam out of the mill by securing it to the roof of a car, which promptly sinks. Undaunted, they try to salvage the beam, but their attempts prove futile.

Gaz is later informed by his ex-wife that she intends to take court action against him for the child support payments that he's failed to make since losing his job. Compromising the situation further is Gaz's son, Nathan, who spends time with his father basically out of reluctance. He grows tired of his father's seeming lack of motivation to do something with his life and get his act together.

While Gaz, Dave, and Nathan are walking down a street, they see a line of women gathered for a Chippendales show outside a Working Man's Club they frequent. Intrigued by the women's willingness to stand in line for a striptease act, Gaz is convinced that his ship has finally come in: he decides to organize a similar act of his own, with the intent to earn enough money to pay for his child support obligations.

The first to join the act is Lomper (Steve Huison), a security guard at Harrison's, the steel mill where Dave and Gaz once worked. After Lomper finally loses his job long after the mill shuts down, he tries to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself in his car through carbon monoxide poisoning. Dave pulls him out, much to Lomper's protests. With new-found friends, Lomper is also added to the lineup. His rescue and inclusion in the group gives Lomper a new outlook on life.

Next on Dave and Gaz's list is their former foreman Gerald, whom they witness attending a dance class with his wife. They later approach him about giving them lessons, but Gerald rebuffs them with insults, telling them he's on his way to a job interview. Gaz and Dave tail Gerald to the interview, where they distract him from outside the office window to the point where he blows the interview. He confronts them both at Jobclub and physically assaults Gaz, revealing that had he been successful, he would have been able to conceal his unemployment from his wife, who is still spending money not knowing that her husband has been out of work all this time.

A despondent Gerald leaves Jobclub and sits on a park bench, all but emotionally defeated. Gary and Gaz patch things up with Gerald and tell him of their scheme. With literally no options left, Gerald agrees to be the act's choreographer.
In a sequence of darkly comic scenes, various former co-workers of Gaz and Dave perform a strip-tease for them as their audition. One of the auditioners is invited to sit down after he flunks; he says that he still has his children in the car, and that 'this is no place for kids'. The auditioner then glances over at Nathan, who was recruited by his father to work their stereo, before leaving. Other auditioners are hired for their penis size (both mythical, in the case of 'Horse', and real, in the case of Guy).

As the men practise, doubts continue to creep in about whether this is the best way to make some money, due to their individual insecurities over their appearances (Dave is overweight, for example). When the men are approached on the street by women who have heard of their show, Gaz declares that their show will be better than the Chippendales dancers because they'll go "the Full Monty" - strip all the way - hence the film's title. Dave quits less than a week before the show, deprecating himself as a 'fat bastard' whom no one would want to see in the nude - including his wife, Jean.

During a dress rehearsal in front of Horse's family, the rest of the men get literally caught with their pants down in the abandoned factory they use for their practice, causing an unconventional chase scene involving most of the main characters running from their pursuers wearing orange leather thongs. Two of the strippers, Guy and Lomper, successfully escape, and fall into a homoerotic embrace after they climb into the window of Lomper's house. The police show the men the surveillance tapes from the factory and soon their secret is out. All seems lost, with the entire city of Sheffield knowing who the members of Hot Metal are and the cast ready to quit, until the owner of the pub informs Gaz that he has already sold 200 tickets for their show.
With not much left to lose, and a sold-out show, the men decide to go for it for one night (including Gerald, who has gotten the job from the interview he thought he'd failed). Dave finds his confidence and joins the rest of the group, stripping to Tom Jones' version of You Can Leave Your Hat On (their hats being the final item removed).

Source: Wikipedia