Heist movies bridge the gaps between drama, comedy, and action flicks. Between the official mission, a group of experts, and an elaborate plan, each heist film is full of thrills, one-liners, and a dramatic moment where everything almost falls apart. The official mission typically involves stealing a coveted item, robbing a bank, or stopping an event that is predicted to happen. Each team is made up of an ammunitions expert, a scientist or mathematician, a wild card, and the leader who is the one who assembles the team to carry out the elaborate plan. Once the team is assembled, the plan is detailed down to the most minute detail, typically with someone asking about security or scoffing at the estimated time to bypass something.
The streaming giantNetflixhas a grand collection of the best heist movies.Inception, for example, is a highly regarded heist film, where the team assembled hopes to prevent a social disaster. Heist films likeDriveandPublic Enemiescan be based on a novel or real events. Cult classics likeReservoir DogsandHeatare also available on the streaming service. Of course, any heist list would be incomplete without a bank robbery film likeBank Robbers: The Last Great Heist. Whatever the heist film contains, Netflix has a variety ready for streaming.
15Inception
One of themost mind-bending filmsfrom director Christopher Nolan is the multi-layered heist movie,Inception. Cobb and his partner Arthur are spies-for-hire, who use dreams to dismantle corporations. They are asked to step in to plant an idea into an heir’s mind to create their own world instead of living up to their father’s legacy. Cobb and Arthur assemble a team to bring forth their plan of a five-layered dream that are intimately timed with each member waking up in time for a flight’s descent. The ultimate goal for Cobb, however, is to reunite with his children and clear his name.
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14Baby Driver
Director Edgar Wright is known for his comedies and bringing comic books to life, but his heist filmBaby Driversets him apart. The film revolves around a for-hire getaway driver named Baby. After a final heist, he begins his journey of a normal life, only to be pulled back in to assist in robbing the post office. The film has plenty of action sequences centered around muscle cars and high speed chases.
But the film’s ending left some of the audience confused as Baby was arrested, sent to prison, and eventually released and reunited with Debora. AsThe Cinemaholicexplains, the ending is like a dream, indicating that Baby hasn’t been released but is imagining his reunion with Debora.
13The Italian Job
A remake of the 1969 British heist film,The Italian Jobfollows a team who is out to steal $35 million in gold. Yet the remake adds to the original story where the gold that this team is stealing was already stolen by a different team. The featured team is spearheaded by a safecracker named John who teams up with a professional fixer named Charlie. Part of their plan is to use a romantic date to cover up the safecracking, which involves explosives. A high speed chase through Venice involving Mini Coopers occurs deviates from most heist movies. Typically, high speed chases involve muscle cars. But the Mini Cooper, though an economy car, is fashioned after race cars and has a great drifting ability, which is great for getaways.
12Inside Man
Director Spike Lee is renowned for his social commentary, and his filmInside Mandrives the message home that corruption from the past is corruption of the present. He flips the script on heist movies by focusing on those in power rather than the robbers. As a bank robbery turns into a hostage situation, a detective is made into the negotiator. The bank robber discovers that the bank’s founder colluded with Nazi’s and benefited off their genocide, which allowed him to open the bank in the first place. In the film, much of the action revolves around the police’s tactics during a heist.
11Now You See Me
With a star-studded castincluding Mark Ruffalo,Isla Fisher, and Morgan Freeman,Now You See Meis a unique heist movie that focuses on magicians and Interpol. A quartet of magicians known as The Four Horseman are accused of robbing international banks and showering the crowds in the United States with the stolen money. The Four Horseman evade both Interpol and the FBI using misdirection through a cloned cell phone, a decoy, and balloon animals.
The heist filmHeatis the third iteration of director Michael Mann’s story focused on Neil McCauley, a thief pursued by Chicago detective turned Hollywood producer Chuck Adamson. Before the 1995 film premiered, the script was originally adapted into a TV drama then into a for-TV film. WhenHeatpremiered, it starred mafia film icons Robert De Niro and Al Pacino at odds.
De Niro portrays Neil, a career criminal who assembles a team to steal $1.6 million from an armored car. Pacino portrays an LAPD Lieutenant who stumbles onto the robbery through one of the team members murders. The film’s final pursuit occurs on the LAX tarmac where the Lieutenant pursue Neil on foot as he attempts to escape with the money he stole.
9Reservoir Dogs
Director Quentin Tarantino is known for gory action films with plenty of curse words. His heist movie,Reservoir Dogs, is no exception to this legacy. A team in Los Angeles, lead by Joe Cabot and his son, Mr. Cabot, is on a mission to steal diamonds. This team, other than the Cabots, use nicknames starting with “Mr.” and involve a color of some kind. Each team member has an intricate past that aids in the heist being pulled off. Though the film doesn’t have a chase scene involving modes of transportation, the team ends up in a standoff before they’re all killed by each other or police.
8Logan Lucky
When a construction worker named Jimmy loses his job, his brother, Clyde, takes him on as a bartender. In the bar, a NASCAR-team owner reveals that under the speedway is a vault, so the brothers and their sister assemble a team to steal the money from the vault.
Logan Luckyis unlike any other. Not only does the film involve a break out of jail, but a break into jail to break someone out of jail. Additionally, the way in to the vault is for Jimmy to use his construction skills to fix a sinkhole.Vultureexplains the film’s comedy is based around the stereotypes of Southerners speaking slowly, with the cast speaking so slowly at points that the camera appears to loiter.
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7The Usual Suspects
A motif in modern films is to mimic the noir films of the 1930s and 1940s.The Usual Suspectsfollows the neo-noir structure both in plot line and in its title, which is an homage to one of the most popular noir films,Casablanca.
Roger, a conman, is one of two survivors of a ship that caught on fire. In his retelling of the events leading up to the fire, he reveals that he was part of a crew wrongfully blamed for a bank robbery who turned around to commit various robberies in NYC. These robberies eventually landed them in Los Angeles where they were in a stand-off with associates of a crime lord called Söze.
6Da 5 Bloods
The second Spike Lee film on our list also marks the late Chadwick Boseman’s final film to be released before his passing.Da 5 Bloodsis an atypical heist movie. A group of the war on Vietnam veterans return to where they were stationed to recover treasure they hid during their tour. While film features flashbacks, it centers on their present trip back to where they were stationed. The vets, who call themselves The Bloods, are connected with a financier who will help them retrieve their treasure and return home. Along the way, The Bloods lose several members but the ones who survive split the treasure evenly as if they had survived.
