The Crying Game is a 1992 thriller film written and directed by Neil Jordan, produced by Stephen Woolley, and starring Stephen Rea, Miranda Richardson, Jaye Davidson, Adrian Dunbar, and Forest Whitaker. The film explores themes of race, gender, nationality, and sexuality against the backdrop of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The film is about the experiences of the main character, Fergus (Rea). A member of the IRA, Fergus has a brief but meaningful encounter with a soldier, Jody (Whitaker), who is held prisoner by the group. Fergus later develops an unexpected romantic relationship with Jody's love interest, Dil (Davidson), whom Fergus promised Jody he would protect. However, unexpected events force Fergus to decide what he wants for the future and what his nature dictates he must do.

A critical and commercial success, The Crying Game won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film as well as the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, alongside Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Rea, Best Supporting Actor for Davidson, and Best Film Editing. In 1999, the British Film Institute named it the 26th-greatest British film of all time.

At a fairground in rural Northern Ireland, a Provisional IRA volunteer named Fergus and a unit of other IRA members, led by a man named Maguire, kidnap a black British soldier named Jody. The kidnapping is accomplished after a female IRA member named Jude lures Jody to a secluded area with the promise of sex. The IRA demands the release of imprisoned IRA members, threatening to kill Jody in three days if their demands are not met. Fergus guards Jody and develops a bond with him, much to the chagrin of the other IRA men; Jody tells Fergus the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.

Jody gets Fergus to promise to seek out Jody’s girlfriend Dil in London should Jody be killed. The deadline set by Jody's captors passes. When Fergus takes Jody into the woods to kill him, Jody tries to escape. Fergus cannot bring himself to shoot the fleeing Jody in the back, but Jody is accidentally run over and killed by a British armoured personnel carrier as it moves in to attack the IRA safe-house. With his IRA companions seemingly dead after the attack, Fergus flees to London, where he takes a job as a day labourer using the alias "Jimmy".

A few months later, Fergus finds Dil working as a stylist at a hair salon. Later, they talk in a bar, where Dil is tormented by a drunken customer, and both are followed by Fergus as they go to her apartment for sex. Fergus feels guilty about Jody's death. He pursues Dil, protecting her from an obsessive suitor and falling in love with her. Later, when the two prepare to have sex in Dil's apartment, he discovers that she is transgender. His initial reaction is of revulsion; he rushes to the bathroom to vomit after hitting Dil in the face. A few days later, Fergus leaves Dil a note and the two make up; despite Fergus’s initial shock at Dil being transgender, he is still taken by her. Around the same time, Jude unexpectedly reappears and tells Fergus that the IRA has tried and convicted him of treason in absentia. Jude forces him to agree to help assassinate a British judge. She also mentions that she knows about Fergus and Dil, warning him that the IRA will kill Dil if Fergus does not cooperate.

Fergus continues to woo Dil. To shield Dil from possible retribution, he gives her a haircut and menswear as a disguise. The night before the IRA mission is to be carried out, Dil gets drunk and Fergus escorts her to her apartment, where she asks him to never leave her again. Fergus complies, then admits he had an indirect hand in Jody's death. Dil, drunk, appears not to understand; however, in the morning, before Fergus wakes up, Dil restrains him by tying him to the bed by his limbs with black stockings. By doing so, Dil unwittingly prevents Fergus from completing the assassination. Holding Fergus at gunpoint with his own pistol, Dil demands that he tell her that he loves her and will never leave her; he complies, and she unties him.

Jude and Maguire shoot the judge, but Maguire is shot and killed by one of the armed bodyguards. A vengeful Jude enters Dil's flat with a gun, seeking to kill Fergus for not taking part in the assassination. Dil takes several shots at Jude, hitting her, whilst stating that she is aware that Jude was complicit in Jody's death and that Jude used her sexuality to trick him. Dil finally kills Jude with a shot to the neck. She then points the gun at Fergus but lowers her hand, saying that she cannot kill him because Jody will not allow her to. Fergus prevents Dil from shooting herself and tells her to hide out. He wipes her fingerprints off the gun, replaces them with his own, and allows himself to be arrested in her place. A few months later, Dil visits Fergus in prison and asks why he took the fall for her. He responds, "As a man once said, it's in my nature". He then tells her the story of the Scorpion and the Frog.