These heist movies still hold up today.
A great heist movie is defined by the criminals pulling off the robbery, but the actual heist is also important when judging the films. A great heist does something that few other movies do: it has the viewers root for the criminals.
The heist movie has been around since the start of cinema, with crime movies from the silent era all the way through the 2020s. The different movies' heists have to hold up because they are built with craft rather than spectacle. There are many different styles when it comes to this subgenre of crime films as well.
From the revolutionary silent heist scenes from a movie released in 1955 to a film with a rocking music car chase scene surrounding the getaway, there are a variety of great heists in movies. These different robberies can take audiences on a journey in different ways. It is also important that these individual heists have emotional stakes, because that is the big reason the viewer wants to see these criminals succeed.
The greatest heist movies of all time feature some great heists, with some of them celebrated by critics and others often criminally overlooked. Each of the various heists offers a clever plan, meticulously executed, with the thieves somehow managing to pull off the impossible. The best of these come with a series of scenes that is one of cinema's greatest achievements, regardless of genre.
Den Of Thieves Christian Gudegast's Den of Thieves follows a crew of ex-Special Forces bank robbers planning to rob the Federal Reserve Bank of Los Angeles. While considered the most impenetrable bank in America, they have the perfect plan, but have to deal with Big Nick , an amorally compromised cop who offers a hero to cheer for while also anxiously watching the heist itself.
However, what makes this movie heist hold up so well is that, despite being in the shoes of the police trying to stop it, the entire robbery is not what it seemed. Den of Thieves ends with a massive twist that reveals the man in charge of the heist was being manipulated by someone under him, and when the heist succeeded, it took both the police and the main thief by surprise, elevating the film into something very smart and ingenious.
Hell Or High Water Hell or High Water is a neo-Western written by Taylor Sheridan . The movie follows two Texas brothers, played by Chris Pine and Ben Foster, who rob branches of the same bank as that bank is trying to foreclose on their family's ranch.
Meanwhile, a Texas Ranger is trying to stop them. With a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and four Oscar nominations, this remains one of the 21st century's most acclaimed Western crime movies. As for the movie heist itself, it holds up so well because Sheridan's script makes the bank robbery feel morally complex, rather than just being a criminal action to steal money.
The brothers believe they are robbing a bank that is actively trying to rob them, which makes it more about class warfare than a criminal heist. While not a complex plan, the emotional stakes make this a heist that causes viewers to end up cheering for the brothers, even as their time runs out. Baby Driver Edgar Wright's Baby Driver took on the heist from a unique point of view.
This heist is shown from the point of view of the getaway driver, whose name is Baby , and is one of the best drivers in any crime heist movie. What makes this movie different, other than the fact that it is from the driver's point of view, is that Wright built the entire movie and the heist around the music soundtrack.
What makes Baby Driver's heist stand out so well is that it offers a new rhythm for how the heist plays out, with every cut, collision, and twist set to the beat of the music. The opening getaway sequence, set to"Bellbottoms" by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, shows that the getaway can be just as iconic as the actual heist itself. No heist movie in history has made the actual escape so exciting.
Thief Michael Mann made his name with crime movies, and his debut feature film proved he was a talent to watch. This was"Thief," starring James Caan as Frank, a professional thief who is meticulous in his techniques.
However, in this movie, he wants to start a new life for himself outside of crime, but he makes one last deal with the Chicago mob, which leads him to an almost unachievable task. In the audio commentary on the Thief Criterion Collection release, Mann admitted that he spent months with real thieves and safecrackers studying their authentic methodology.
What makes the movie heist in Thief hold up so well all these years later is that it looks real to life, with a thermal lance, drill bits, and an oxygen tank, showing every single thing that Frank does to achieve his goal. The Town In 2010, Ben Affleck directed and starred in The Town, which follows a crew of Boston bank robbers.
Affleck is the leader, but when he falls for a bank manager they take hostage, it causes him to make some questionable decisions that put his entire crew in danger. With a 92% Rotten Tomatoes score, it is a blockbuster that also delivers a masterful heist scene. The main heist in question is when the crew decides to rob Fenway Park's gate receipts during a Boston Red Sox game while disguised as Boston police officers.
Thanks to the iconic location of the baseball park and the sequences shot with handheld cameras throughout the neighborhoods, the entire heist looks more realistic than almost any other crime drama. The Town proves that great heists can also live in mainstream movies. Ocean's Eleven There might not be a more popular blockbuster movie that relies on a heist scene to carry it than Ocean's Eleven.
Steven Soderbergh's remake of the Rat Pack movie has an all-star cast led by names like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, and more. The plan here is to engineer the simultaneous robberies of three Las Vegas casinos belonging to one man that Clooney's Danny Ocean has a grudge against. This entire heist is brilliantly executed, with all 11 thieves working together, each with their own specific part of the plan.
The final reveal, as the entire plan plays out, is brilliant, since the audience thinks they are watching the robbery, but are in fact watching the trick that Ocean set up to throw off his nemesis. Ocean's Eleven sets the template for the modern-day heist movies, and it is the best execution of that template. Inside Man Spike Lee took his turn with a heist movie in 2006 with Inside Man.
The movie stars Clive Owen as Dalton Russell, a bank robber who takes an entire Manhattan bank hostage. Denzel Washington is the hostage negotiator assigned to resolve it, while Jodie Foster appears as the fixer the bank's founder hired to protect a secret in his safe deposit box. A lot happens in this movie, but the heist is one of the best as well.
What makes this heist so impressive is that it was all a front, and Dalton Russell had another reason for the hostage situation. The entire bank robbery is to give him an alibi for what he is really trying to obtain, which is proof that the bank's founder was a Nazi war collaborator. His escape in the end is brilliantly executed, and when the smoke clears, it is a masterful heist.
The Italian Job The Italian Job was remade in 2003, but the original movie remains the superior effort. The film follows Charlie Croker as he leads a team of British criminals on a heist to steal gold bullion in Turin, Italy. The plan is to create a city-wide traffic jam using three Mini Coopers so they can steal the gold while the entire city is gridlocked.
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The entire Mini Cooper chase through Turin's streets, rooftops, and sewers is one of the best car chase scenes in history. The idea of creating a traffic jam to keep authorities from getting to them is brilliant, and turning the city itself into a weapon works so well. The team, about to lose the gold, only to have a freeze-frame end the film without a resolution, remains one of the best endings in crime cinema.
Rififi Released in 1955, Rififi contains what might be the best movie heist in history, and very few movies have ever come close to touching it. Directed by Jules Dassin, four aging criminals in Paris plan and execute the robbery of a high-end jewelry store. What makes this heist stand out so well today is that the entire 32-minute heist sequence is shot in complete silence, without a single line of dialogue or even any music.
While that seems tedious, the entire heist is so intense and stressful that the lack of music and dialogue makes it even more nerve-racking, allowing the viewers to just intently watch these thieves pull off a seemingly impossible task. This scene is a masterclass in visual storytelling, with improvised problem-solving shown in real-time detail. Every movie that followed, from Thief and The Town to Ocean's Eleven, owes its existence to Rififi.
Heat The best action crime drama in movie history is Michael Mann's 1995 release, Heat. This movie is known as the first time Robert De Niro and Al Pacino shared the screen together, despite both men starring in The Godfather Part II. De Niro is a master thief, and Pacino is the LAPD detective who is trying to arrest him. Their relationship carries the emotional weight of the movie, but the action makes it a masterpiece.
The movie heist scene itself is the bank robbery sequence where Neil McCauley's team robs a downtown Los Angeles bank with military precision. This led to the gun battle in the streets of Los Angeles that remains the best of its kind in cinema. The bank heist is brilliant, but Heat remains the greatest heist film ever made, and nothing else comes close.
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