Honorable thieves, shady crooks, two-bit conmen, and more often than not, lots of money (or something equally valuable) at stake. There's nothing like a good heist movie, where the object is simple but the plan to pull them off are anything but. But what might be some of the greatest heist movies of all time?
While crime movies have always been an attraction in Hollywood, heist movies began to feel like its own thing with the success of The Asphalt Jungle in 1950, directed by John Huston. The acclaimed movie is often considered the forerunner to all heist movies, laying the foundations for future filmmakers to pull and riff from.
Today, the heist genre isn't limited to cool cats in suits and sunglasses with sacks of cash. Enterprising teenagers, comic book superheroes, and even normal people desperate to set their life on track are called to plan the perfect crime. Here are 32 of the greatest heist movies ever made.
32. 21 (2008)
The score: Money from casinos, from right under their noses. Based on the 2003 best-selling nonfiction book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, 21 dramatizes the real-life story of brainy MIT students who counted cards and weaponized other mathematical advantages to beat casinos and get rich quick. 21 is a glossy Hollywood-ized version of what really happened, from simplifying the story to a classic hero's journey structure to the appalling decision to cast white actors in a real-life tale that mainly involved Asian Americans. While critics were not all-in on 21, it was still a hit when it debuted at the box office.
31. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
The score: The Tablet of Reawakening. In this lively rendition of the world-famous tabletop roleplaying game, directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley pay homage to decades of fantasy gaming with a movie that feels like sitting around someone's kitchen table with dice, character sheets, and cans of Mountain Dew. Set in the Forgotten Realms, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves follows a group of rebellious heroes who must steal a mystical relic to save themselves and all of Neverwinter. While the movie stumbled at the box office, audiences have come around to Honor Among Thieves like it rolled a 20 on its charisma check.
30. Good Time (2017)
The score: Robert Pattinson's brother. In this propulsive and stressful modern classic from the Safdie Brothers, a bank robber (Robert Pattinson) plots to break his mentally challenged brother Nick (Benny Safdie) out of jail after their own attempt at a "normal" bank heist goes wrong. Set over one desperate and violent night, where things just never seem to go as planned, Good Time is anything but an actual good time, in its bleak portrait of the lengths people are willing to go for family.
29. Ronin (1998)
The score: A briefcase. Its contents don't matter. What really matters in John Frankenheimer's Ronin is how a group of elite mercenaries and former government intelligence agents – an ensemble led by Robert De Niro – find their loyalties among themselves constantly tested. Featuring realistic car chases and a tangled web of deception and intrigue, Ronin – a word stemming from feudal Japan, referring to masterless samurai – shows the true cost of hired guns.
28. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
The score: The Infinity Stones, spread across time. In the smash hit finale to Marvel's first three "phases" of interconnected movies, this direct sequel to 2018's Avengers: Infinity War sees the Avengers dust themselves off (so to speak) and work to defeat Thanos and restore the missing half of all life in the universe. The success of their plan hinges on collecting the Infinity Stones from earlier chapters across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Part time travel adventure and part heist movie, Avengers: Endgame was a most epic farewell to the original core Avengers team and kick-off to a bold new era.
27. The Italian Job (2003)
The score: Gold… and sweet revenge. In this loose remake of the classic 1969 British caper, this 2003 Hollywood retelling sees Mark Wahlberg play a career thief who reassembles a crew years after they pulled off a successful gold heist in Vienna. Not only do they still want the gold, but they want revenge for the man who betrayed them and killed their mentor. Also starring Charlize Theron, Donald Sutherland, Edward Norton, and Jason Statham, this slick action-comedy weaves suspense like a drifting Mini Cooper.
26. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
The score: A cache of diamonds in London. In this madcap '80s heist comedy, American con artists (Jamie Lee Crutis and Kevin Kline) join an English gangster (George Thomason) in plotting a diamond heist. While the heist goes off without a hitch, it's what happens after that makes A Fish Called Wanda a wild ride as jealousy, seduction, and betrayals run amok amongst the group. A perfect crime pulled off by wildly imperfect people, A Fish Called Wanda ditches the slick swagger of other Hollywood capers to deliver something far more funnier and unforgettable.
25. House of Games (1987)
The score: $80,000 in a high-stakes poker game. In David Mamet's directorial debut, Lindsay Crouse plays a disillusioned psychiatrist, Dr. Margaret Ford, who is drawn in by a con artist (Joe Mantegna) and gets wrapped up in a scheme that revolves around eighty grand in Mafia money and back-room poker games. In this cerebral neo-noir with a surprise twist ending, House of Games blurs the line between victims and perpetrators when it asks: Who is actually feeling the thrill of the con?
24. The Killing (1956)
The score: $2 million in cash. While Stanley Kubrick is chiefly known for meticulously designed dramas like 2001: A Spacy Odyssey, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut, the director has done his share of more conventional fare. Case in point: The Killing from 1956, and one of the director's earliest feature-length films. An ex-convict assembles a crack team to rob a horse racetrack during a big race, with the goal of stealing millions in cold, hard cash. But bad luck and unexpected betrayals bring the heist to a collapse. While The Killing is comparatively more conventional than Kubrick's more noteworthy later films, its unusual nonlinear structure, occasional documentary-style storytelling, and downbeat ending (to illustrate the failures of ambition) help make The Killing stand out from so many other paint-by-numbers capers.
23. Now You See Me (2013)
The score: Oodles of cash from European banks. In Louis Letterier's crowd-pleaser Now You See Me from 2013, a team of magicians work to steal the fortunes of corrupt banks and corporations to give back to their audience, Robin Hood-style. Now You See Me is the star-stacked first installment of the series, with Mark Ruffalo playing the flummoxed FBI agent racing to bring the magical thieves to justice. But like any good magic trick, there's always something up the sleeve, and Now You See Me – implausible as its story may be – entertains to the highest degree with more twists and turns than the alleyways of Paris.
22. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The score: Diamonds. While a heist is central to the story of Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino's unstoppable filmmaking debut is actually more concerned with the before and after the heist. Despite being his first time behind a camera, Tarantino knocks it out of the park with a "heist" movie that subverts all expectations to deliver something totally new and totally unique that set the tone for the rest of the 1990s. Truthfully, only Tarantino could top himself, which he did just two years later with his acclaimed crime epic Pulp Fiction.
21. American Hustle (2013)
The score: Mayor Carmine Polito, played by Jeremy Renner, of Camden, New Jersey. In David O. Russell's acclaimed 2013 feature, 1970s con artists reluctantly team with an FBI agent to execute a sting operation against the corrupt Mayor Polito and mobsters in a fake investment deal. Naturally, personal tensions among the players – notably the firecracker femme fatale Rosalyn, played by Jennifer Lawrence – jeopardize the operation. Hilarious, heated, and most of all stylish, American Hustle is truly a story of the American dream taken to its most extreme.
20. The Usual Suspects (1995)
The score: $91 million in drugs. Bryan Singer's lauded 1995 heist-comedy The Usual Suspects centers around a botched heist that ends in explosive catastrophe in San Pedro Harbor. The whole story is recounted and narrated by one of the players: Kevin Spacey's Verbal Kint, who reveals to the audience the many layers of deception and manipulation while in police custody. From its tour-de-force performances of its cast to its knife-sharp sense of humor and complexity, The Usual Suspects is a top-rate heist thriller of the '90s, a masterclass in narrative misdirection.
19. The Sting (1973)
The score: Ruthless mob boss Doyle Lonnegan. Set during the Great Depression, rising star con artist Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) ropes in veteran Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman) to swindle Lonnegan out of his fortune after the mobster kills a mutual friend of theirs. In this impeccably dressed heist comedy, vintage Americana comes to life like a moving Norman Rockwell painting as the movie's ragtime soundtrack imbues it a distinct vibe unlike any other. A smash hit when it opened in Christmas 1973, The Sting endures thanks to its powerhouse leading men who epitomize some of the greatest talents Hollywood ever had.
18. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
The score: Bank money for gender-affirming surgery. One of Al Pacino's finest movies of his long and prolific career, the pressure-cooker thriller Dog Day Afternoon sees the famous actor play Sonny Wortzik, a rookie robber (loosely based on real-life criminal John Wojtowicz) who ends up holding a bank hostage when his original plan goes belly-up. What was meant to be a straightforward heist morphs into a tense hostage negotiation with the police. As the world bears witness to Sonny's every move, Dog Day Afternoon tries to find the humanity amid the chaos.
17. Triple Frontier (2019)
The score: Millions in cash from a drug lord's compound. In this blockbuster Netflix actioner, a group of former Special Forces operatives who have little to show for their service plot to take millions from a cartel leader in South America. Despite their training and camaraderie, unforeseen problems and even just greed complicate the heist, forcing the team to make tough decisions as their whole plan comes undone. Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunham, and Pedro Pascal take center stage in this masculine tragedy in which valor bears little reward.
16. Three Kings (1999)
The score: Kuwaiti gold. From David O. Russell, the 1999 war thriller Three Kings sees a group of American soldiers in the Gulf War find a map that leads to stolen gold stashed away in a bunker, deep in dangerous territory. George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, plus Spike Jonze play the movie's main characters who initially set out to find the gold and get rich only to end up helping Iraqi civilians along the way, permanently altering the course of their fates for good. A unique mixture of gritty war action and heist capers, Three Kings is true genre royalty.
15. Widows (2018)
The score: $2 million. Steve McQueen's acclaimed 2018 action-drama Widows tells the story of four widows whose dead husbands failed a heist, leaving them indebted to a ruthless Chicago mobster with political ambitions (Brian Tyree Henry). Devoid of the air-conditioned cool and smarmy cleverness of other Hollywood heist movies, Widows relishes in the working-class grit of its main characters to illustrate a vivid if dour portrait of desperation and resourcefulness – the traumas of what our loved ones leave behind. Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo form up to play some of the most formidable women ever put to screen.
14. Sneakers (1992)
The score: A cutting-edge decryption device. As households everywhere began to adopt computers, Sneakers toyed with the world of hackers and computer hacking for one big heist. In Sneakers, Robert Redford leads a team of renegade tech experts – or "sneakers" – who are blackmailed by the NSA into retrieving a "black box" device that can break into any computer system around the world. Hilarious and suspenseful, Sneakers is an underrated gem of the early 1990s that used the heist movie genre to foresee the urgency of our digital future.
13. Baby Driver (2017)
The score: USPS money orders. Or, as Kevin Spacey's mastermind Doc puts it: "A quarter of a mill' per box. You do the math." While the heist in Edgar Wright's funky 2017 caper Baby Driver is kind of convoluted, what really matters is the personal animosity between main protagonist Baby (Ansel Elgort), a skilled getaway driver with tinnitus who wants to live an honest life, and his former crime boss Doc (Spacey) who forces him into one last job. Between Wright's reliably sharp direction and the movie's stacked cast – including Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, Lily James, Jon Bernthal, and Eiza González – Baby Driver swerves to the beat with style and pizazz.
12. Fast Five (2011)
The score: $100 million, the personal fortune of a villainous Rio mobster. The fifth movie in the smash hit Fast & Furious franchise, 2011's Fast Five, tuned up the series from simple-minded street racing movies into the realm of legit summer blockbusters. Fast Five stages the first-ever reunion of characters from different Fast & Furious sequels into one single event movie, the plot revolving around a heist in Brazil. Dwayne Johnson makes his franchise debut as Luke Hobbs, a broad-shouldered government agent intent on bringing Dom (Vin Diesel) and Brian (Paul Walker) to justice. While Fast Five plays out like a finale, it was only the beginning of a new era for Dom's familia.
11. Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
The score: Chickens, and whatever else cunning foxes can get from mean-spirited farmers. Using picturesque stop-motion animation, director Wes Anderson returns to the heist story genre of his own 1996 directorial debut Bottle Rocket in this adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1970 children's novel. George Clooney voices Mr. Fox, a reformed thief who plans one last job of stealing from farmers, who wind up retaliating against Fox and his community of furry thieves. A heist story that even children can enjoy, Fantastic Mr. Fox earns its title of "fantastic" with its tight story and unbelievably beautiful visuals that feels like flipping through a pop-up book.
10. Thief (1981)
The score: Diamonds, worth about $4 million. Michael Mann's simmering 1981 neo-noir crime film Thief tells the story of Frank (James Caan), a talented safecracker who wants to lead a more honest life and start a family. Embarking on one last job, Frank's plans to go legit are left in jeopardy when Frank is betrayed, forcing him to violently sever ties once and for all. Armed with all the hallmarks of Michael Mann, from his seductive imagery of rain-soaked and neon-lit streets to its ethereal synth score, Thief is a no-nonsense heist classic.
9. Hell or High Water (2016)
The score: Enough to pay off a bank debt. Directed by David Mackenzie and written by Taylor Sheridan, Hell or High Water revives the spirit of frontier Westerns for a more modern story about two estranged brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) who carry out a series of bank heists to pay down a debt to keep their family's ranch, where oil has just been discovered. The problem is the volatile nature of Foster's Tanner, whose unpredictability is a liability to their success. Hot on their tail is a seen-it-all Texas Ranger (Jeff Bridges). A sober and stirring movie about the resilience of people in the face of unfair odds, Hell or High Water is as hot as Texas air.
8. Logan Lucky (2017)
The score: Millions of dollars from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Swerving from the buttoned-up glamour of his Las Vegas-centric Ocean's movies, director Steven Soderbergh (with a screenplay by Soderbergh's wife Jules Asner, credited as Rebecca Blunt) takes the action to Bible belt America. Two frustrated brothers (Channing Tatum and Adam Driver) carry out a heist to steal millions during a Memorial Day NASCAR race. Logan Lucky is a uniquely Nashville spin on the heist genre, a movie lathered in Southern barbecue with an ensemble of eccentric characters and amusing twists on heist conventions. (Exploding gummy bears, for example.)
7. The Town (2010)
The score: Over three million dollars in gate money at Fenway Park. Leave it to Ben Affleck to make the best heist movie ever set in Boston. The director/actor stars in his 2010 crime drama The Town as Doug MacRay, the ringleader of a bank robbery gang who gets romantically involved with a pretty bank manager (Rebecca Hall) who has incriminating evidence against them. While The Town doesn't reinvent the heist movie genre, it's a skillful and suspenseful picture about torn loyalties in a grounded vision of Boston.
6. Bottle Rocket (1996)
The score: A safe at a cold storage facility. Wes Anderson's feature-length directing debut is a wry little caper where real-life brothers and actors Owen Wilson and Luke Wilson play inept bank robbers whose attempts at pulling off heists to impress a local crime boss go hilariously wrong. Their big score is a safe at a cold storage facility, but even as that job also goes up in smoke, what remains are the most memorable kooks and their lasting friendship. A quirky take on the heist genre, Bottle Rocket foreshadows Anderson's forthcoming brilliance.
5. Drive (2011)
The score: $40,000 from a Los Angeles pawn shop. Nicolas Winding Refn's acclaimed 2011 noir stars Ryan Gosling as a nameless Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a freelance getaway driver for criminals. While that premise sounds like a recipe for bombastic popcorn fare, Refn's Drive is instead a masterfully composed character piece about a lonely man seeking a reason to keep his hands on the wheel. The movie's plot revolves around a heist where Gosling's character agrees to partake to help his pretty neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) settle her husband's (Oscar Isaac) debt to gangsters. Eventually, things go very wrong, and Gosling grows compelled to protect Irene and her young son. A brooding and atmospheric movie, Drive is less Fast & Furious and more Taxi Driver, a searing thriller about the costs of doing the right thing.
4. Inside Man (2006)
The score: Documents that trace the wealth of a bank chairman (Christopher Plummer) to Nazi Germany. When such an individual's reputation is at stake, who is really doing the world a disservice? Such is the dilemma faced by detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), who works to negotiate with principled criminal Dalton (Clive Owen) whose plan to smokescreen his real goal with a more typical bank heist goes off maybe too well. Essentially a heist film told from the perspective of the cops on the outside, Spike Lee's Inside Man is a modern 21st century classic that swerves from typical heist movie conventions.
3. Inception (2010)
The score: Not stealing, but planting an idea in a CEO son's dreams. In Christopher Nolan's mesmerizing sci-fi actioner, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a family man whose professional specialty in dream infiltration is hired for one last job: To implant the idea of breaking up a powerful corporate empire in the dreams of its imminent heir (Cillian Murphy). A seismic blockbuster released in the summer of 2010, Inception proved that Nolan was a bonafide Hollywood auteur who could beckon audiences to theaters even without superheroes and with a movie as enigmatic as our own dreamscapes.
2. Heat (1995)
The score: A cash-filled armored truck and a Los Angeles bank. But forget what is being fought over and think about the characters instead. In this simmering piece of modern L.A. noir, a manic detective (Al Pacino) butts heads with a veteran professional thief (Robert De Niro), whose game of cat-and-mouse heats up all of the City of Angels. A gripping crime epic that arguably defined its era, Michael Mann's Heat still feels red hot after all these years.
1. Ocean's Eleven (2001)
The score: $160 million from Las Vegas casinos. Arguably the ultimate heist movie and easily one of the best of its era – even surpassing the original 1960 Rat Pack version – Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven famously stars George Clooney as ace thief Danny Ocean who assembles a team of specialists to lift hundreds of millions from Vegas casinos. It just so happens that the money belongs to Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the new boyfriend of Danny's ex-wife (Julia Roberts). A-list stars in designer labels who plot the perfect crime under the shining lights of Las Vegas make Ocean's Eleven not just the best in its trilogy, but one of the greatest heist movies of all time.
