"What f**king line ": The only Tom Hardy moment that stole the entire Peaky Blinders spotlight from Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy are two of the most exceptional talents in the industry, who shared screen in Steven Knight's Peaky Blinders. Murphy led this BBC crime series as the lead Birmingham gangster Tommy Shelby, and Hardy joined in Season 2 as a Jewish gangster Alfie Solomons.

While Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy have also co-starred in three big-screen projects, namely Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Dunkirk, they finally created magic on the small screen with Peaky Blinders.

This iconic scene from the Season 3 finale remains one of the most memorable collaborations between the actors, where Tom Hardy undoubtedly stole the spotlight from Murphy.

To jog your memory a bit, Tommy accuses Alfie of betraying him for a second time and giving up Charlie in the Season 3 finale. While Tommy expected betrayal from Alfie, he called him out for putting his son in jeopardy and for crossing the line, to which Alfie replied:

''What f*cking line am I supposed to have crossed? You f*cking stand there, you judging me?''

This is easily one of the most iconic lines and scenes from Peaky Blinders, elevated to even higher cinematic heights by Hardy and Murphy's chemistry.

More on this in our story.

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Peaky Blinders Season 3 Episode 6: Exploring the scene where Alfie overshadowed Tommy

Peaky Blinders became even more iconic with Tom Hardy's Alfie Solomons' introduction, and many of the actor's fans felt that he deserved an Oscar for this scene alone. While Tom Hardy was phenomenal in every scene he graced the show with and his chemistry with Cillian Murphy elevated the gangster drama to even more intense heights, Alfie easily overshadowed Tommy in this scene from the Season 3 finale.

While Tommy was visibly angry at Alfie for giving up his son and involving him in their rivalry, the latter makes him realise that these are the ways of their world. Alfie calls out Tommy for his hypocrisy and jolts him out of his trance, making him realise that he is no different than the Jewish gangster.

Alfie asks Tommy:

''How many fathers, sons, have you cut, killed, murdered, and butchered, innocent and guilty?''

He adds:

''If you pull that trigger, you pull that trigger for a f*cking honorable reason...not like a civilian that does not understand the wicked ways of our world, mate!''

While the dialogue and writing are especially powerful in this Peaky Blinders scene, it became even more iconic with Tom Hardy's exceptional delivery and layered performance. On the one hand, Alfie feels for Tommy (as his son has been kidnapped), but on the other, he makes Tommy realise that he is no saint and thus holds no authority to question him.

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Alfie questioned Tommy's superiority complex in this Peaky Blinders scene

Even die-hard Tommy Shelby fans had to agree that while the Birmingham gangster was clearly distressed over his son in the Peaky Blinders scene, he had no right to question Alfie about crossing a line that he had crossed multiple times in the past.

What's even more baffling and symbolic is that Tommy is completely smeared with blood in the scene, which makes his questioning even more illogical. Tommy was a nihilist who believed in achieving what he deserved by hook or by crook. Alfie's strong dialogues were enough to jolt Tommy out of his superior trance, as he further says:

''I want him to acknowledge that his anger is un-f**king justified. I want him to acknowledge that he who fights by the sword, he f**king dies by it, Tommy.''

This was enough to make Tommy realise that while Alfie may or may not have jeopardised his son for his own benefit, he cannot question him because nothing is off-limits in their gangster world. In addition, this was also the first time somebody managed to silence the great Tommy Shelby in Peaky Blinders, and he accepts his defeat in the end, and says:

''Well said, Alfie.''

This iconic Peaky Blinders scene proves that while Cillian Murphy led the series, Tom Hardy overshadowed him with his exceptional performance. On-screen, Tommy stood defeated for the first time, and he realised that he had finally met his match in Alfie Solomons.

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