Adam (O'Halloran) and Paul (Tom Murphy) are best friends and homeless heroin addicts. The movie follows a day in their lives as they wander through Dublin trying to make enough money to score. In between their attempts at begging and stealing, they have encounters with various bystanders, petty criminals, and people from their past.
Adam & Paul contains examples of:
- Addled Addict: Adam and Paul have lost the ability to care about almost anything except their next fix. They'll do anything for it, including mugging a teenager with Down syndrome, who turns out not to have anything valuable.
- Batter Up!: Two criminals kidnap Adam and Paul and order them to stand watch while they smash up a gas station and threaten the employees with baseball bats.
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: In a seedy apartment building, Adam and Paul see a group of thugs trying to break into drug dealer Martin's apartment. One of them calls, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, but either way you're gonna get your fuck kicked in!"
- Five-Finger Discount: Adam and Paul feed themselves mostly by shoplifting. In one scene Paul attempts to steal from a convenience store but is kicked out for touching a loaf of bread with his filthy hands. Fellow homeless guy Karl manages to steal the bread and gives it to Paul, rationalizing that it would have been thrown out anyway.
- Look Both Ways: Paul walks across the street without looking and is struck by a moped. He spends the rest of the day walking with a limp and complaining about the pain in his leg.
- Orange/Blue Contrast: The scene where Adam and Paul wander around high on heroin has orange streetlights contrasting with blue shadows.
- Pet the Dog: Adam and Paul are at least kind to Janine's infant son.
- Potty Emergency: Paul is struck by cramps while walking down the sidewalk. He's scared of the nearest public toilet, so instead he shits in a narrow alleyway, and wipes himself with a soggy newspaper Adam finds.
- Talk About the Weather: In a cafe, Adam is trying to steal a woman's bag with his foot. Paul unsuccessfully tries to distract the cashier by saying, "Having loads of weather at the moment, aren't we?"
- Toxic Friend Influence: Early in the movie, Adam and Paul learn that their old friend Matthew has been dead for a month. It's implied that Adam and Paul turned him onto drugs, and that he overdosed.
