ONE
COUNCIL ESTATE
EXT. COUNCIL ESTATE — FAILSWORTH, MANCHESTER — 1962 — DAY
Rain. Always rain. A row of identical brick council houses. YOUNG JIM (10) kicks a football against a wall, methodically, relentlessly. His FATHER (40s, working-class, proud) watches from the doorway, tea in hand.
FATHER
You keep hitting the same brick.
YOUNG JIM
I'm trying to knock it loose.
FATHER
You won't. It's mortar.
YOUNG JIM
Everything comes loose eventually.
His father watches him with a mixture of concern and admiration. This boy doesn't quit.
INT. UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM — LECTURE HALL — 1974 — DAY
Jim (22, lean, intense) sits in a chemical engineering lecture. The PROFESSOR draws molecular structures on the board. Jim is the only one taking notes who looks like he's planning something.
JIM (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
Everyone in that lecture hall wanted to work for a big company. I wanted to own one. Chemical engineering isn't glamorous — it's pipes and catalysts and processes nobody thinks about. But everything in the modern world — every plastic, every fuel, every medicine — starts in a chemical plant. I just needed to figure out how to buy one.
INT. COURTAULDS CHEMICAL PLANT — OFFICE — 1978 — DAY
Jim works at a desk in a dreary office at Courtaulds, a chemicals company. He's surrounded by men twice his age. A MANAGER drops a stack of reports on his desk.
MANAGER
Cost reduction study. Due Friday.
Jim flips through the pages. He's not looking at the costs. He's looking at the assets. Mentally, he's already buying this place.
INT. LONDON BUSINESS SCHOOL — 1980 — DAY
Jim earns his MBA. He's older than most classmates. A CLASSMATE in a tailored suit approaches.
CLASSMATE
Investment banking? McKinsey?
JIM
Chemicals.
CLASSMATE
(laughing) Nobody goes to LBS to do chemicals.
JIM
Exactly. That's why there's no competition.
CUT TO:
TWO
BUYING THE UNWANTED
INT. BNFL OFFICES — 1992 — DAY
Jim sits across from EXECUTIVES at British Nuclear Fuels Limited. They're selling their chemical division — a collection of aging plants that nobody wants. Jim and his partner ANDY CURRIE (40s, blunt, Yorkshire) review the deal.
BNFL EXECUTIVE
Frankly, Mr. Ratcliffe, we're surprised anyone wants these assets.
JIM
That's why the price is right.
ANDY
(leaning in) What he means is: you've got perfectly good chemical plants that you've been neglecting because you'd rather play with uranium. We'll take the boring stuff.
The BNFL executives exchange glances. They can't believe their luck — someone is actually willing to take these plants off their books.
JIM (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
The trick was simple. Big corporations shed chemical divisions the way dogs shed hair. They wanted to be tech companies, pharmaceutical companies, anything but chemical companies. So I became the man who picked up what they dropped. And what they dropped made everything.
1998 — INEOS IS FOUNDED. THE NAME MEANS "INspec Ethylene Oxide Specialities"
INT. INEOS HQ — HAMPSHIRE — 1998 — DAY
A modest office. Jim, Andy, and JOHN REECE (50s, precise, the numbers man) sit around a table with a bottle of Scotch and a map of Europe covered in red dots — chemical plants.
JIM
BP is selling Antwerp. ICI is selling everything. BASF is restructuring. The next five years will be the biggest fire sale in European chemicals history.
JOHN REECE
We can't afford them all, Jim.
JIM
We can't afford not to. Every plant we buy, we get pricing power. Every plant we don't buy, our competitors do. This is a land grab, and the land is made of ethylene.
ANDY
So what's the plan?
JIM
Buy. Optimize. Buy more. In that order. Forever.
INT. BP CHEMICALS — BOARDROOM — 2005 — DAY
The biggest deal of Jim's career. He's buying BP's Innovene chemical division — $9 billion. The BP EXECUTIVE pushes a document across the table.
BP EXECUTIVE
This will make INEOS one of the largest chemical companies on earth.
JIM
I know.
BP EXECUTIVE
You're leveraging everything.
JIM
I know that too.
Jim signs. His hand doesn't shake.
CUT TO:
THREE
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
INT. INEOS HQ — CRISIS ROOM — 2008 — NIGHT
The financial crisis. INEOS is carrying $7 billion in debt from acquisitions. Banks are calling in loans. Jim, Andy, and John sit in a conference room surrounded by bankers and lawyers. It is two in the morning.
LEAD BANKER
Mr. Ratcliffe, we need to discuss restructuring. Your covenant ratios are—
JIM
(calmly) My covenant ratios are temporary. My assets are permanent. Every plant I own is producing. Every plant I own is essential. You can call in my loans, and I'll find other banks. Or you can ride this out and make your money back with interest.
LEAD BANKER
And if the recession deepens?
JIM
People will still need plastic. They'll still need fuel. They'll still need the chemicals that make their toothpaste taste like mint. Recessions don't repeal the periodic table.
Jim pours himself a cup of black tea. The bankers watch. Eventually, they blink. INEOS survives.
JIM (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
I nearly lost everything in 2008. Not because the business was bad — but because the financial system panicked. I learned that the most dangerous thing in capitalism isn't a bad product. It's a nervous banker.
INT. INEOS HQ — 2014 — DAY
Jim reviews plans for importing American shale gas to Europe via specially built ships. His team thinks he's mad.
LOGISTICS DIRECTOR
You want to ship ethane across the Atlantic in purpose-built Dragon ships?
JIM
America has cheap gas. Europe needs cheap feedstock. The Atlantic is just a puddle.
LOGISTICS DIRECTOR
A 3,500-mile puddle.
JIM
Details.
INEOS BUILDS THE WORLD'S LARGEST ETHANE SHIPS — "DRAGON CLASS"
CUT TO:
FOUR
SPORT, SPEED, AND LEGACY
EXT. CYCLING ROAD — FRANCE — 2019 — DAY
The Team INEOS cycling squad races through the French countryside. Jim watches from a team car, radio in hand. EGAN BERNAL leads the peloton.
JIM
(into radio) Keep the pace. Don't let them breathe.
Bernal crosses the finish line. Jim pumps his fist — a rare display of emotion. Team INEOS has won the Tour de France.
JIM (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
I bought the cycling team because I love cycling. I bought the sailing team because I love sailing. People say I'm buying trophies. I'm buying challenges. There's a difference.
INT. OLD TRAFFORD — MANCHESTER — 2024 — DAY
Jim walks through the tunnel at Old Trafford. The pitch is empty. The stands are silent. He runs his hand along the wall. He's just acquired a stake in Manchester United.
JIM
(to Andy, who walks beside him) I used to stand in the Stretford End as a kid. Couldn't afford a proper seat.
ANDY
And now you own the place.
JIM
I don't own it. The supporters own it. I just promised to fix it.
EXT. INEOS CHEMICAL PLANT — GRANGEMOUTH, SCOTLAND — DAY
The sprawling Grangemouth refinery. Pipes stretch to the horizon. Jim walks through in a hard hat and high-vis vest, talking to PLANT WORKERS. He stops to examine a valve.
PLANT WORKER
Sir Jim, you don't need to—
JIM
I'm a chemical engineer. Let me look at a valve.
He turns the valve, checks the pressure gauge, nods with satisfaction.
EXT. COUNCIL ESTATE — FAILSWORTH, MANCHESTER — PRESENT DAY — EVENING
Jim drives past his childhood council estate in a Land Rover. The houses look the same. The brick wall where he kicked the football still stands. He stops the car and stares.
JIM
(to himself) Same bricks. Same mortar.
He drives on. The streetlights glow orange behind him.
JIM (V.O.) (breaking the fourth wall)
I didn't set out to be the richest man in Britain. I set out to build something. It just turned out that building things with chemicals — things nobody thinks about, things nobody sees, things inside every product on every shelf — is extraordinarily valuable. The invisible empire. That's what INEOS is. And it all started because nobody else wanted the plants.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe founded INEOS in 1998. Through relentless acquisition of unwanted chemical assets, INEOS became one of the world's largest chemical companies with annual revenue exceeding $60 billion and operations in 29 countries. Ratcliffe became Britain's richest person with an estimated net worth exceeding $30 billion. INEOS also owns Team INEOS cycling (multiple Tour de France wins), the INEOS Britannia sailing team, FC Lausanne-Sport, and OGC Nice. In 2024, Ratcliffe acquired a 27.7% stake in Manchester United, becoming the club's football operations leader.
FADE OUT.