NAKED

In a Manchester alley, Johnny is having sex with a woman, who initially encourages him but then protests that he is hurting her, pushes him away, and runs off vowing that "her Bernard" will get vengeance on him for this. Johnny grabs his things from his apartment, steals a car, and flees to Dalston, a "scrawny, unpretentious area" in east London. He seeks refuge at the home of Louise, a former girlfriend from Manchester, who is not happy to see him. Louise works as a file clerk and lives with two flatmates, the unemployed Sophie, whom she calls her "hippy-dippy friend", and the primary tenant Sandra, a nurse who is away in Zimbabwe.

Johnny seduces Sophie while treating Louise coldly, but soon tires of her. He leaves and walks around central London, expounding his worldview at length to anyone who will listen. Among the people he meets are Archie, a young Scottish man looking for his girlfriend Maggie on Brewer Street, and Brian, a security guard who looks after an empty office building at night, which Johnny calls "the most tedious job in England", while planning to move to a seaside cottage. At one point, Brian and Johnny look across the way at a scantily clad woman standing by her unshaded window.

After pursuing the woman they saw through the window and rejecting her after he notices a skull and crossbones tattoo on her shoulder, Johnny follows a young cafe worker home, but she grows upset and throws him out. He hitches a ride with a man hanging posters around town until the man, exasperated by Johnny's nonstop haranguing, knees him in the groin, and, once Johnny is curled on the pavement, kicks him again before driving off with Johnny's duffel bag containing his clothes and books. Johnny wanders the streets and is severely beaten by a wandering gang of thugs.

Meanwhile at Louise's residence, Jeremy (aka Sebastian), claiming to be the landlord, lets himself in, rapes Sophie, and tosses several hundred pounds at her for "services rendered". Louise returns, realizes that Sophie is traumatised and vainly tries to get Jeremy out of the house. When Johnny, in awful shape, reaches the house, the two women try to keep him quiet, but he has a fit that wakes the sleeping Jeremy.

Sandra returns early from her trip. Though horrified by the state of the apartment, she tends to Johnny's injuries. Jeremy departs. Johnny makes clear that he has no time for Sophie who, desolate and rejected, flees the house with her few possessions. Louise and Johnny seemingly reconcile and discuss returning to Manchester together, but once she leaves for work, Johnny takes the money Jeremy tossed at Sophie and hobbles out into the streets.

After a night of violence and turmoil, Johnny is cared for by Sandra but ultimately takes the money left behind and hobbles back onto the streets, leaving Louise and Sophie behind.

The film closes with Johnny’s refusal to accept connection or stability, highlighting the cyclical nature of his self-destruction and alienation. Despite moments of potential reconciliation, Johnny’s return to the streets signals that his journey is less about redemption and more about an endless search for meaning—or perhaps an embrace of meaninglessness. Leigh’s ending is a bleak commentary on the incapacity of some to escape their own destructive patterns, no matter the opportunities offered.