Genre: Heist
Heist stories are built on the plan and its unraveling — the crew, the score, and every step that can and does go wrong.
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Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Sidney Lumet's 1975 Brooklyn bank heist. Pacino, John Cazale. Real 1972 incident. Attica, Wyoming, sweltering New York summer. -
Sexy Beast (2000)
Jonathan Glazer's 2000 British crime debut. Ben Kingsley terrifying as Don Logan. Ray Winstone retired in Spain. Coercion drama. -
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
John Huston's 1950 jewel heist noir. Sterling Hayden, Sam Jaffe, brief Marilyn Monroe. The original ensemble heist film. -
Logan Lucky (2017)
Soderbergh's 2017 NASCAR heist. Tatum, Driver, Daniel Craig. Working-class Ocean's Eleven. Coca-Cola 600 setting. -
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Soderbergh's 2001 Rat Pack remake. Clooney, Pitt, Damon, Roberts, Gould. Las Vegas casinos. Effortless cool. Two sequels. -
Inside Man (2006)
Spike Lee's 2006 Manhattan bank heist. Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster. Real plot mechanics, not just style. -
Ronin (1998)
John Frankenheimer's 1998 Cold War remnant action. De Niro, Reno, Sean Bean. Practical car chases through Paris and Nice. -
The Killing (1956)
Kubrick's 1956 racetrack robbery. Sterling Hayden. Non-linear structure that became Tarantino's vocabulary. Lionel White novel. -
Topkapi (1964)
Jules Dassin's 1964 Istanbul museum jewel heist. Peter Ustinov, Maximilian Schell. Source for every roof-rope tension scene. -
Rififi (1955)
Jules Dassin's 1955 French heist. Thirty-two-minute silent jewelry heist sequence. Template for every heist procedural since.