Okay gang, let’s get down to business. I’d like to get one thing out of the way right at the beginning… this is a list ranking “heist movies,” not the heists that are in movies or movies that have heists in them (if it were, we’d include the opening of the original The In-Laws, where the big magnet on the crane picks the armored car up off the road and hauls it away to be raided).
I’d like to make this distinction at the outset because, also, some movies which seem to centrally feature heists are not actually “heist films,” but capers, which are ultimately their own genre, despite many similarities. We also released an accompanying list of the Best Capers shortly after this one, so if you don’t see a film with a great heist in it, keep your shirts on, because it’s probably on the other list.
Okay, so what IS a heist movie? Good question! It’s a movie whose plot and theme centers around a large heist, or a series of heists. But “heists” have to play the weightiest roles in their films; a movie in which there are, say, a whole slew of bank robberies, but the whole thing is ultimately about the relationships between fathers and sons, is not a heist movie (in case anyone remembers The Place Beyond the Pines and thinks it belongs on this list, which it doesn’t).
And actually, I should just explain now why you won’t see The Sting or Hustlers on this list: a heist isn’t a con, either, even if it’s a Big Con. Indeed, Merriam-Webster defines “heist” as a straight-up robbery. In case you’re wondering, although we will get to this later, the dictionary defines “Caper” as an “amusing movie or story about… an illegal or questionable act or escapade” which is not necessarily limited to a robbery but probably is a robbery. Heists are action-packed, serious, and while they can be fun and there will certainly be moments of comic relief, these films are frequently on the darker side.
Indeed, many heist movies are also about failed heists, which begs some further clarification. A movie about a failed heist is a certified heist movie if the “heist” part is the main part. If the movie is mostly about some element surrounding a failed heist, like The Usual Suspects, or uses the setting of the failed heist to tell another kind of story, like Dog Day Afternoon or Goodfellas, it’s not on this list. Also, just to warn you, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is not on this list. It’s not a heist movie. I don’t make the rules.
Most importantly, heist movies frequently feature ensemble casts—these are often movies about working together as team, and splitting the prize. Partially because heists are often too difficult for one person to handle, and partially because the point of the heist is rounding up a crew of motley, misfit criminal savants with disparate skills and connections.
So, without further ado, let’s blow this popsicle stand.
50. Ocean’s Eight (2018)
The all-women Ocean-franchise reboot, Ocean’s Eight is a disaster, a heist movie full of squandered talent (Sandra Bullock! Cate Blanchett! Rihanna! Anne Hathaway! Awkwafina! Mindy Kaling! Helena Bonham Carter! Sarah Paulson! I’m irate!) that does nothing original and also tries to be way too contemporary, and, dare I say, feminine with its choice of target: the group robs the Met Gala. They steal a priceless Cartier necklace that they’ve managed to get on loan for the event, and then all the historic jewelry on exhibit in the galleries. Which is not the same as robbing casinos owned by tycoons, my friends. Robbing museums is kind of off-limits in these movies. (Hey, if you want to make a movie calling out how Western museums justify looting and inhumane mining practices, I’m here for it, but Ocean’s Eight is not that smart.) It’s boring. It’s not good. And also, for a movie that’s supposed to be propelled by so much girl power, there’s a really silly subplot all about getting revenge on Sandra Bullock’s ex, Richard Armitage. Just… no.
49. Now You See Me (2013)
Featuring an all-star cast which includes Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman, this is a movie about four magicians (Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, and Dave Franco) who team up to rob banks. How do they do it? Don’t know— the movie doesn’t reveal their secrets. This is infuriating because of one of the essential aspects of the Heist Film is to capture all the clever, outside-the-box scheming that goes into planning and executing a robbery. And movies about magic shows have that responsibility, in spades. Film isn’t a means to stealthily bypass or conceal praxis, it’s a way to expand the spectacle and then offer a visual explanation. Movies that chalk up their impossible feats to “sleight of hand” without showing you the goods are nothing but a con. There’s a sequel, but I’m not watching it.
48. Now You See Me 2 (2016)
Okay, well, I watched it. This time, the gang (minus Isla Fisher, plus Lizzy Caplan, plus also Daniel Radcliffe) has to steal a powerful chip that can control all the computers in the world. That’s right. Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman are back, but all the magic in the world can’t save this one. It’s actually worse than the first one, so why is it higher on the list? Because I’m punishing the first one for pulling a franchise out of its hat.
47. The Bling Ring (2013)
Sophia Coppola’s The Bling Ring, which is based on true events, tells of wealthy, celebrity-obsessed teenagers in Los Angeles who break into and plunder famous people’s homes and wear around their stuff. The movie tries to find depth in shallowness and doesn’t come close to striking it rich. Plus I personally found it unsettling to watch Emma Watson playing a non-nerd.
46. Heist (2015)
So, Heist seems like it’s about how Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Dave Bautista rob Robert De Niro’s casino, but then you find out it’s about how this plan fails and they have to hijack a bus full of people instead. So you start to think that the actual heist in the title is of “people” and not money, but then eventually you realize that the only hostage is actually 93 minutes of your day.
43. The Art of the Steal (2013)
Kurt Russell plays an art thief named “Crunch Calhoun” in this Canadian ensemble film that seems to have been jokingly named after Donald Trump’s book? Anyway, he and his brother Nicky Calhoun (Matt Dillon) are out for one last haul. The interesting thing about this movie is that (beyond stealing the title of a terrible book), the loot they want to steal is actually an old book. These are my only takeaways. These two different things about books and the name “Crunch Calhoun.”
44. Tower Heist (2011)
The actual heist of Tower Heist has very justifiable premise: payback! A bunch of normal guys discover that their superrich boss Alan Alda has been operating a Ponzi scheme, and since he’s managed their pension funds, has totally screwed them over. He gets arrested, but the case against him is not airtight, so the crew (Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Casey Affleck, Michael Peña, Gabourey Sidibe, and Matthew Broderick) decides to rob him. I really can’t figure out the target audience for this film—it’s a Ben Stiller movie, but it’s PG-13. I don’t know a single living soul who has seen this movie.
43. The Ladykillers (2004)
The Ladykillers is a strange movie, because it is so extra in its comedy, and so incredibly grim everywhere else. The Coen brothers are normally able to pull off this marriage of highs and lows, absurdity and profundity, lightness and darkness, but The Ladykillers strains and sags instead. Equipped with a Colonel Sanders drawl, Tom Hanks plays a silver-tongued flimflammer named Goldthwait Higgingson D’or who pretends to be a Professor and the conductor of a classical music ensemble in order to rent lodgings in the home of an elderly woman named Marva Munson (Irma P. Hall). He’s actually a bank robber, his musicians are a team of burglars, and the house is perfectly situated to dig a tunnel to the safe room of a riverboat casino. There are some funny moments (shout outs to J.K. Simmons as “Mr. Pancake,” a garrulous burglar with IBS, and Marlon Wayans, a nonstop force of comic energy, and the always-excellent Tzi Ma who does a LOT with a part that isn’t much), but the movie does traffic in racial stereotypes, and also shills an insulting representation of low IQ. Veteran character actress Irma P. Hall deserved better. (Like the original? It’s on our companion list.)
42. Ocean’s 11 (1960)
This original of all the Ocean’s heist movies stars five members of the Rat Pack (Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis, and Dean Martin) as old WWII buddies who gather to rob a ton of casinos in a single night. Which kind of seems just like a regular night for these guys, idk. (After I wrote this joke, I cruised over to the Ocean’s 11 Wikipedia page just for fun, and it informed me in a well-cited footnote that after Sinatra heard the plot he said, “Forget the movie, let’s pull the job!” THE DEFENSE RESTS.) Anyway, I wish it were a better movie. Ultimately it just seems like an excuse for all those guys to hang out in Vegas (didn’t they do this all the time anyway?)
41. The Newton Boys (1998)
Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, and Vincent D’Onofrio star in this obscure Richard Linklater flick, about the eponymous Newton Boys, four brothers who deftly robbed banks in 1920s America. Apparently their gang pulled off the greatest train robbery in American history. I’m reluctant to include a “train robbery” movie on this list, because that is a whole other list, but this film is very much about how a person becomes a bank robber, and follows the gang’s evolution as bank robbers as the heists get more and more sophisticated. It’s very much about the robberies at hand, so I have to include it. (In case you’re wondering at this juncture, no, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is not a heist movie, even though banks and trains are also robbed in it.)
40. King of Thieves (2018)
Michael Caine, who will say ‘yes’ to any movie you ask him to make, leads a crew of likeable British senior citizens including Jim Broadbent, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Paul Whitehouse, and Ray Winstone (plus Charlie Cox) in a major jewelry heist in London, based on actual events. Although the real event was a disaster, the premise is one of those reliably likeable gambits (they’re retired crooks out for One Last Job), and the story eventually becomes a tale of greed and deception. The problem is that for all its conflict, the movie doesn’t seem to have any tension? At all? For a crime that is so high-stakes, the movie is far, far too understated.
39. Flawless (2007)
Michael Caine’s in this one, too. He’s an amicable cockney custodian at a big London diamond company, and Demi Moore is an executive passed over for a promotion way too many times (she’s basically the only woman). When she’s dismissed, Michael Caine pities her and invites her into his scheme to steal just enough diamonds as will make them wealthy, but not so many that they’ll be noticed. Things go wrong, obviously, but these snags don’t make the movie any more exciting. It’s not an exciting movie.
38. The Maiden Heist (2009)
A daffy little movie about three museum guards (Morgan Freeman, William H. Macy, and Christopher Walken) who are dismayed to discover that their favorite pieces of art are being sold to another museum and so decide to steal them before they are shipped away. The sweetness that it represents in the guards’ love for fine art is undercut by the fact that William H. Macy’s appreciation of a particular statue gives him the pathological urge to take his clothes off in front of it. So.
37. Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
I’m always a fan of getting the band back together, but Ocean’s Twelve, the sequel to Steven Soderbergh’s clever Ocean’s Eleven, feels extra contrived in its excuse to do this. It takes place three years after Ocean’s Eleven, and features a very angry Andy Garcia (the villain who was robbed in the original) demanding full payback from the gang. So they need to reunite and pull off an even bigger score, somehow. But this time, an Interpol agent is on their trail, making things a little trickier. To its credit, it does accomplish the hardest thing any sequel can do, which is restore the entire original cast. It adds some new cast members, too, including Vincent Cassel as a smug French cat burglar, who jumps an intricate grid of lasers as effortlessly as that same scene jumps the shark.
36. Fast Five (2011)
It might shock you that there’s only one car chase in this fifth installment of the Fast and Furious series, but it’s true. Part of the franchise’s abandonment of the street-racing narrative of the first three movies, this is the second attempt to make the series about international espionage and stuff. In this one, former cop Paul Walker and Jordana Brewster have helped break Vin Diesel out of jail, and they’re on the run. Settling in Rio, and problematically noticed by a Brazilian drug lord, as well as tough-as-nails federal agent Dwayne Johnson, they decide to pull off a giant heist to secure enough cash to split for good.
35. Ocean’s Thirteen (2007)
The third in Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s trilogy is tighter than the second—a little less far-fetched, and it returns the franchise to home turf of Vegas and sets them at work defrauding another unscrupulous casino owner. It’s Al Pacino, which is fun, and he seems to have a good time chewing up the Strip scenery as a real-estate developer so underhanded and unprincipled that all the other villains from the previous movies show up and it doesn’t matter because he’s still much worse.
34. Ant-Man (2015)
Incredibly, yes, Ant-Man is a heist movie. And there are two heists in it! One at Avengers HQ and one at Pym Technologies. Including Ant-Man on this list almost feels like cheating, because it is really a heist if you can shrink to the size of a paper clip and squeak inside places easily?
33. The Score (2001)
This suave heist movie has Robert De Niro playing an older thief who wants to get out of the game, but is persuaded by his even older fence Marlon Brando (in his final film role) to take One Last Job. But he has to collaborate with arrogant young thief Edward Norton to do it. Only thing is… they don’t like one another and this probably will lead to some big development. Points given for a fantastic tagline: “there are no partners in crime.” Wow that’s good.
32. The Good Thief (2002)
One of many heist movies about American thieves in France, this stars Nick Nolte as an aging, heroin-addicted thief who needs to pull One Last Job. Based on Jean-Pierre Melville’s classic Bob le Flambeur, it’s directed by Neil Jordan and features unbeatable shots of Nice, France at night, lit up in neon.
31. The Italian Job (2001)
This is a decent, healthy remake of the original Italian Job (look for the original on our other list) that keeps almost nothing from its predecessor except the name “Charlie Croker” and the soul of the heist, which is a van robbery accomplished by creating a massive traffic jam and executed using mini Coopers. It features some lovely camerawork and production design (I really do love movies set among the wilting, sinking palazzos of Venice), and a mustachioed Edward Norton as the villain.
30. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
The movie that made Guy Ritchie Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham Jason Statham! A rigged game of three-card brag leaves four best friends seriously indebted to a local gangster, and in order to pay up, they decide to rob the gang who lodge next door. Sting, of all people, is also in this movie.
29. Ronin (1998)
Come for the heist story, stay for the elegant car chases through several French cities. Veritable, this movie might have the best car-chase camerawork on this list, if not the best cinematography, which was completed by legendary DP Robert Fraisse. Directed by John Frankenheimer, it’s about a group of former special-ops agents who are tasked with stealing a briefcase. But the real trouble is figuring out who among them remains loyal to the rest. Robert De Niro’s in this one, too.
28. The Bank Job (2005)
The Bank Job is a smooth, very classic, really smart heist film. Saffron Burrows recruits Jason Statham to rob a bank in London—in particular, a room full of safe deposit boxes. But safe deposit boxes don’t only contain money, do they? And before they know it, they get much more than they bargained for. Wear a turtleneck when you watch it, and you’ll have a very swanky evening.
27. Baby Driver (2017)
Baby Driver might be my personal least favorite of Edgar Wright’s films, but there’s no denying it’s tactical excellence. Baby is a very young getaway driver with highway skills that would make Charlie Croker’s head turn, who has been brought into a crime operation as a teenager and gets in far too deep when a heist goes wrong. The stunts are incredible, but the film doesn’t seem to know when to end. Speaking of endings, watching a movie that is so much about ‘soundtrack’ and plays so much with diegetic/non-diegetic sound, I did spend the whole time waiting for the Simon and Garfunkel song it borrows its title from to play. (It does play, thankfully, but it’s during the credits.)
26. Heat (1995)
Robert De Niro, again! Who do you think is in more heist movies, Robert De Niro, Michael Caine, or Morgan Freeman? It’s gotta be close. Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, and Danny Trejo star in this mid-career Michael Mann thriller about a group of bank robbers who find themselves hunted by federal agent Al Pacino (in peak 90s-weariness) after they botch a job. De Niro has always lived by a credo that he should never get attached… and then he falls in love! I tell ya.
25. Point Break (1991)
Here at CrimeReads, we love the genre known as “surf noir.” And we love Point Break, Kathryn Bigelow’s delightful entry into this canon, about FBI agent Keanu Reeves who must go undercover with a gang of surfers led by Patrick Swayze who are suspected of robbing banks when they’re not hitting the waves. Critically under-appreciated during its time, it has since gained some cult status thanks to the Keanu Reeves stans out there doing the important work. On a different note, it’s a fascinating look at the early career of Bigelow, a stylish film that might have ended up feeling silly if it weren’t for such a steady directorial hand. Is it too high on this list? Almost definitely.
24. Set It Off (1996)
Set It Off’s obscurity is a crime of its own. The story about four black women (Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise) who band together to pull off a series of robberies while being hunted by the cop (John C. Reily) who was involved in the shooting of Jada Pinkett Smith’s brother. The only reason they’re even suspected is because the cop does a whole lot of racial profiling on each of them, and they’re hunted with incredible hatred and violence to the full extent of the law. It’s ending might be the biggest gut-punch on this list, because it’s probably the most realistic.
23. Bottle Rocket (1996)
This inaugural Wes Anderson film is one of the only comedies on this list (generally speaking, if a heist is lighthearted, it’s probably a caper). But, crucially, Bottle Rocket‘s frolicsomeness is not winsome; the failed heists that comprise the film’s plot have real, terrible consequences (including being beaten up by the police and being sent to jail). This film is pretty different in style than what you’ve come to expect from Anderson, but does star Owen and Luke Wilson, so it’ll feel familiar, at least.
22. Sexy Beast (2000)
Ben Kingsley is a sinister ex-gangster who shows up at his ex-mentee Ray Winstone’s retirement pad in Spain with a request to pull off One Last Job. Actually, he’s not really asking, and every time Ray Winstone turns him down (because Ben Kingsley is a psychopath and also by now his nemesis), Ben Kingsley grows more irate and dangerous. Obviously Ray Winstone gives in and begins a strenuous and stressful bank job in London, with expert safe-cracker Ian McShane. But the movie, which is peppered with Ray Winstone’s hallucinogenic dreams of strange beasts coming to kill him, eventually becomes a battle of wits between the two men. It’s a bit overdone for my taste, but man Ben Kingsley is thrilling, if terrifying, to watch.
21. Charley Varrick (1973)
Walter Matthau is never better than when he’s playing a slightly disheveled bureaucrat, and I say this here in a plot description for a movie that has nothing to do with characters like this simply because I think it every time I see Matthau onscreen. I thought this when I watched Charley Varrick, in which he plays a crop duster turned bank robber. The thing is, Matthau has an incredibly wide repertoire, and though he’s most associated with playing a certain kind of chill laconism, he can convey incredible range within this general personality—and the most impressive thing he can do with it is mix it with moral bankruptcy. I’m thinking about his performance in Billy Wilder’s The Fortune Cookie, which got him his Academy Award, but also Charley Varrick. In this film, an inexperienced trio of bank robbers are caught in a terrifying bind when their attempted bank heist turns bloody, and then they discover they’ve stolen cash that the bank has been laundering for the mob. What begins as a heist movie becomes a chase movie, with Matthau keeping and losing his cool in various degrees along the way.
20. Tangled (2010)
I know, I know. You’re probably wondering what Tangled, an animated Disney film based on a fairy tale, is doing on this list ranking the best heist movies of all time. But let me describe the plot of Tangled for you: it’s about a gang of burglars who steal a priceless royal heirloom from a guarded display, and then, when their ringleader, a career thief, double-crosses the other two, and attempts to find a place to stash the loot, he stumbles on a woman who does not realize she is the keeper of another priceless, once-stolen treasure or that she is a kidnapping victim who has spent her whole life held hostage. They flee, pursued by the associates who are determined to re-acquire the stolen goods. There. That is the actual plot of Tangled. A heist movie. How do you like them apples?
19. The Old Man & the Gun (2018)
Because it is so very charming, I’d be inclined call The Old Man & the Gun a caper if it weren’t so bittersweet. The story of real-life serial prison escapee and bank robber Forrest Tucker, this sweet, nostalgic Robert Redford vehicle contains the kindest bank robbery scenes on this list. The film, as a whole, is a lovely homage to Redford’s whole career, one which is filled with men who are kind and loyal despite their shady occupations. You’re right, it isn’t your standard heist film, but it’s on this list because it is so invested in praxis; there are many bank robberies and the film delights in showing you each perfect little detail.
18. Drive (2011)
One of the few films on this list that isn’t about a bank or casino robbery, Drive stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman and getaway driver for small-time heists. Albert Brooks is wonderful, playing against type as a small-time gangster. And an early-career Oscar Isaac will blow your mind.
17. Thief (1981)
Well, I don’t personally love this very dark James Caan movie because there’s a black market sale *of a baby* that really turns my stomach, but it’s a very well-fashioned thriller, and beautifully-shot; the screen glows with blacks and navy blues. It might be a little too much of a thriller to be a real heist movie, but it’s got a large One Last Job component to it, and that is a bank robbery, so I guess it’s on here. (On another note, I want to add that I do love the casting of Robert Prosky.)
16. The Killing (1956)
In this early Stanley Kubrick number, Sterling Hayden is a career criminal plotting One Last Job before he has enough cash to marry his girlfriend and settle down. He assembles a crack team to help him steal $2 million from a racetrack, which includes a sharpshooter, a wrestler, a cop, and two inside men. But complicating things is that one of the inside men, a betting teller, tells his cheating wife about the plans, and she sends her boyfriend to go steal the money from the gang. You’ll white-knuckle your couch armrest (I assume this is where you’ll be watching it) from start to finish.
15. Hell or High Water (2016)
I loved Taylor Sheridan’s modern neo-noir, heist-western about two brothers (a reserved Chris Pine and a haywire Ben Foster) who rob banks in dusty, desolate Texas to help save their family farm. They’re hunted by two aging rangers, Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham, first for duty, then with purpose. In a movie bursting with memorable, dedicated performances (ahem, Ben Foster drilled out his own tooth to give his character a gap), I remember Katy Mixon’s gutsy waitress the best. And Margaret Bowman, also a gutsy waitress.
14.
Reservoir Dogs (1991)
Quentin Tarantino’s directorial debut is a harrowing series of flashbacks along the timeline of a jewelry store heist. Set to a radio station’s themed broadcast (“the sounds of the 70s weekend”), this alarming, jarring movie tells the story of the motley gang of thieves, as it forms before the heist and fractures after it, with the thieves looking for a mole among them. The best part, besides every scene with Steve Buscemi, is the visual immersion used to tell Tim Roth’s backstory. And you’ll never hear Steelers’ Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle with You” the same way again. (I love this movie.)
13. Criss Cross (1949)
Finally, an honest-to-god armored car robbery is on this list! Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo (despite her massive filmography, it’s always funny to me, watching her play someone who is not Lily Munster) star in this film about a truck driver who conspires to rob the very truck he is driving, in an attempt to steal his ex-wife away from her current husband. It’s gritty. You’d be hard-pressed to find a movie more gritty and dirty than this one.
12. Bob le Flambeur (1956)
A stylish, noirish heist from Jean-Pierre Melville, this film (made early in Melville’s career) takes its inspiration from American gangster flicks to tell of Bob, an aging, veteran gambler who assembles a crew to rob a casino, after the house cleans him out. The score will be 800 million francs, and the odds are stacked against him.
11. Logan Lucky (2017)
How many Steven Soderbergh films are on this list? A lot. He likes heists. This one features a gang of thieves who pull off a heist during a NASCAR race. I know! So inventive! Siblings Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, and Riley Keough want to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but to do it, they’ll need a crackerjack safecracker. And they know a guy, and his name is Joe Bang. His name is Joe Bang, and he’s played by Daniel Craig, and he’s in prison! So they have to break him out and then rob the speedway. A prison break and a heist in one movie—a high-octane thriller if there ever were one.
10. Rififi (1956)
This classic, Cannes-celebrated French heist film from director Jules Dassin, is a study in perfect maximization; what begins as petty smash-and-grab is turned into an elaborate jewel heist when recently-excarcerated (not a real word, I know) Tony discovers that his former girlfriend has taken up with a mobster during his absence. Featuring French cinema’s original gripping, silent half-hour-long robbery scene, which is the best part. The worst part is when Tony brutally beats up his ex-girlfriend for her new choice of romantic partner.
9. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway play in this extremely sleek heist story, about a suave bank executive who believes he’s pulled off the perfect heist, and the tough insurance investigator who knows it and is determined to catch him for it. This movie is so sexy that it’s almost a caper (if a movie has stylish cars, it’s almost certainly a caper), but it contains enough fringe neo-noir elements that keep it grounded on this list. Also, the chemistry between McQueen and Dunaway is real. It’s real. (If you’re looking for the adaptation, look at our Capers list.)
8. The Red Circle (1970)
Another French noirish-heist movie from Jean-Pierre Melville, this is the story of three men (a thief, a prison escapee, and an ex-cop) who plot a jewelry heist together. The engrossing heist itself is an exercise in diligent film-making: totally silent, and basically a half-hour long.
7. Widows (2018)
In this dark and elegant thriller, the widows of four bank robbers who are killed during a botched heist team up to repay their husbands’ debts, but also to make the future they want. Its excellence runs deep. To start off, you FIND me a more dynamic and magnetic central cast than Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, and Elizabeth Debicki. But the real splendor of Widows is in watching these four clever and strong female characters outsmart and outmaneuver the crooks after them. Viola Davis is the group’s leader, and her taking over from her dead husband Liam Neeson offers a symbolic transfer from an old archetype of action-movie hero to a new one.
6. The Town (2010)
Ben Affleck’s best directorial effort, The Town is a compelling story about a veteran bank robber (Affleck) who falls in love with the bank manager (Rebecca Hall) he holds hostage during a heist. Once the heist is over, he pursues her and they fall in love, as he plans his next heist and she deals with the debilitating trauma of what she has experienced. He also has to deal with his loose-cannon partner (Jeremy Renner, fabulously evil) believing that the teller has incriminated them during the heist, and an asshole FBI agent (Jon Hamm) obsessed with bringing them down.
5. Band of Outsiders (1964)
Here at CrimeReads, we really love Band of Outsiders, Jean-Luc Godard’s delicate crime masterpiece made four years after Breathless. Two young men convince the young woman with whom they are both infatuated to commit a small robbery in her own house—stealing 10,000 francs from the man who lives with her aunt. But this love triangle doesn’t effectively produce a linear strategy, and once lines are crossed, things eventually go very wrong. It’s a haunting, transfixing masterpiece. And it has a fascinating dance sequence.
4.
Jackie Brown (1997)
I’m sure not everyone agrees with me about placing Jackie Brown higher on this list than Reservoir Dogs but I don’t care—there is more going on in Pam Grier’s performance as an airline stewardess caught by the feds and torn between helping them catch her arms-dealer employer or getting away with her life than in most Tarantino character profiles. One thing that Jackie Brown does better than Reservoir Dogs and most of the heist movies on this list, is show how ensemble jobs are often really about individual insecurities and desires; many of these movies devolve from group dynamics into loner struggles. But Jackie Brown starts out as the story of an individual whose life is specifically endangered by the ensemble that forms around her. Watching Jackie’s deft juggling five other players’ attempts to apprehend the cash she’s smuggling, to look out for herself, is a thrilling, electric inside-out-turn of the genre, one we don’t see played out enough to this extent.
3. Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
The first of the rebooted Ocean’s movies is simply splendid—a dazzling, focused heist with fun twists and fine-tuned showmanship. Part of the fun comes from the squad itself, a collection of personalities from all different kinds of crime movies (my favorite crew member is Carl Reiner, but I also love Bernie Mac). The only thing that miffs me about this movie (this movie which I really do enjoy) is its gratuitous masculinity; this isn’t the 1957 set of Twelve Angry Men, it’s the millennium, and there’s no reason why a bunch of these dudes shouldn’t be women. Swap out Casey Affleck and Scott Caan, easily. If Ocean’s Eleven had done this from the start, there’d be no reason to embark on the whole Ocean’s Eight mess, I’m just saying.
2. Inside Man (2006)
In this heist-hostage film, directed by Spike Lee, Clive Owen has engineered the world’s most brilliant bank robbery, bringing an entire Wall Street Bank and the innocent people inside it under his control. Denzel Washington is the hostage negotiator in charge of the operation, and he’s always one step behind the criminal mastermind calling the shots. But things aren’t moving fast enough to satisfy Christopher Plummer, the head of the bank, who brings in fixer Jodie Foster to negotiate for the return of something of particular value from inside the bank. More confusing is that the thieves seem to be taking their time. If you haven’t seen it, you should watch it. Terence Blanchard does the score. Just watch it.
1. The Asphalt Jungle (1960)
This tough, sordid John Huston flick provides the original ‘botched bank robbery’ template; Sterling Hayden (another one for the ‘how many heist movies are they in?” drinking game I suppose we’ve been playing) assembles a crew to pull off an ace jewel heist, which goes perfectly according to plan until it doesn’t. Double crosses, clever police adversaries, and general bad luck cause the job to unravel, spinning the gang out into a series of individual escape attempts. Watch it with your friends.
Olivia Rutigliano is an Editor at Lit Hub and CrimeReads. She is also a Contributing Editor at Bright Wall/Dark Room. Her other work appears in Vanity Fair, Vulture, Lapham's Quarterly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Baffler, Politics/Letters, The Toast, Truly Adventurous, PBS Television, and elsewhere. She has a PhD from the departments of English/comparative literature and theatre at Columbia University, where she was the Marion E. Ponsford fellow.