Heist films have enthralled viewers since the time of The Great Train Robbery. They’ve charmed them with shows of ambitious and crafty individuals performing things that law-abiding folks only think about in jokes.
They outlasted the fedoras and cowboy boots of the 1950s and 1960s, and they flourished in the 1970s under the school of performers coached by famed thespian Lee Strasberg. Then, in the 1990s, there was a flood of modern films that defined the subgenre, like Reservoir Dogs, Point Break, Mission Impossible, Jackie Brown, and many others.
Tight storylines, elegant directors, and warm performers brought the scripts alive in a way that modern heist films still fail to match. Modern heist films have swapped the cigar-chomping, Tommy gun-wielding wealthy criminals of yesteryear with complicated, calculating characters whose ethics are as hazy as their goals.
Most of these films are allegorical critiques of the present position of the capitalist structure, which is eroding the American working class. However, a superb heist movie is stressful, dramatic, surprising, and intelligent. A large gunfight may be equally successful as an unarmed heist if the implementation (by the creators, not the culprits) includes those components.
The warmth, humor, and spirit that Soderbergh and the entire team of Ocean’s Eleven offered to the category wowed viewers all around the globe. It has stood as a pop-cultural monument to film (and song, considering the use of a revised unpublished Elvis track over 30 years later) some more than twenty years from its premiere. Still, it isn’t the sole cunning, stressful, surprising heist picture since the new century.
Even the sequels are gorgeous, hilarious, and intelligent. Regardless of Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen, here are some best heist movies of all time and worth viewing.
30. Inception
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Writer: Christopher Nolan
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Elliot Page, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy
- IMDb Rating: 8.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Christopher Nolan’s intelligent criminal thriller achieved for the crime subgenre what Tenet achieved for science fiction, and it’s a credit to how difficult the latter is that Inception has aged as reasonably easy to understand.
Cobb is a thief who takes data by invading his victims’ minds in a domain where five hours of actual time equals 50 years in the fantasy land. Cobb must conduct an invention on his competitor’s ailing kids to get his criminal background wiped clean when offered a deal he cannot resist.
29. The Usual Suspects
- Director: Bryan Singer
- Writer: Christopher McQuarrie
- Cast: Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Benicio del Toro, Kevin Pollak
- IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
The Usual Suspects is a mystery thriller that drags you into a complicated maze. It was the picture that did strange memories and tricks with the moment before Nolan, and this was the plot that created Keyser Söze, a figure to be dreaded.
Following a horrific fight on a burned-out ship that kills 27, only two people are left to make sense of what occurred: the challenge is how much you can trust what they say.
28. Heat
- Director: Michael Mann
- Writer: Michael Mann
- Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Val Kilmer
- IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Heat may not have received an Oscar nomination, but in the 25 years ever since its premiere, Michael Mann’s murder thriller has become a cult classic. In this drama about an investigator seeking to arrest an experienced criminal performing his final crime, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino make a powerful duo.
Mann worked nine months leading up to Heat, trailing an LAPD officer each Friday and Saturday evening, answering calls around the city to gain a sense of what the crime film was truly like. As a consequence, the movie examines every secret nook of the town in a never-ending play.
27. Reservoir Dogs
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Writer: Quentin Tarantino
- Cast: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney
- IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
Six unidentified thieves recognized only by aliases plan a massive diamond heist jointly, only to have cops turn up and cast doubt on who tipped them off.
Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Madsen shine in this cult heist movie laced with anxiety and growing suspense. Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino’s debut, and still his greatest film that has left its imprint on all subsequent heist tales. A violent, maniacal laugh matched Stealers Wheels’ upbeat song.
26. Dog Day Afternoon
- Director: Sidney Lumet
- Writer: Frank Pierson
- Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, Charles Durning
- IMDb Rating: 8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
At the start of Sidney Lumet’s movie, Al Pacino’s crew appears to be the type of no-holds-barred theft gang. But then, soon, their entire strategy goes apart. They are not a crime gang. They’re a motley crew of foolish gamblers.
For 12 hours, Pacino’s Sonny unwittingly becomes a counterculture heroic figure while attempting to raise funds for his beloved’s gender-affirmation operation and progressively losing his wits as he juggles many plates.
25. The Killing
- Director: Stanley Kubrick
- Writer: Stanley Kubrick
- Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards
- IMDb Rating: 8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
Stanley Kubrick’s first adult picture is a tightly coiled and rock-hard-boiled noir drama centered on seasoned thief Johnny Clay striking at one final assignment to put himself up for existence.
Millions of dollars are waiting to be stolen at a racetrack, and he assembles an unusual team to execute it: a crooked cop, a sniper, a bookie, a server, and a professional wrestler. Clay’s spouse, Sherry, is fed up with Clay’s plans failing to yield the wealth she expected, so she organizes a rival theft to obtain the money from him.
24. Le Cercle Rouge
- Director: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Writer: Jean-Pierre Melville
- Cast: Alain Delon, Andre Bourvil, Gian Maria Volonté, François Périer, Yves Montand
- IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%
This Parisian thriller contains several of our favorite elements—an exceptionally well-executed robbery sequence. There are several photos of the French capital appearing haughtily beautiful. Alain Delon is smoking cigarettes while dressed in a Mac.
23. Drive
- Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
- Writer: Hossein Amini
- Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman
- IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
It’s strange to conceive Drive is ten years old. The neo-noir action and robbery movie featuring Ryan Gosling is nevertheless a work of art bolstered by scorching audio. The driver, played by Ryan Gosling, is a stuntman who takes a job as a wheelman for LA’s underground criminal.
22. The Asphalt Jungle
- Director: John Huston
- Writer: Ben Maddow, John Huston
- Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen
- IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
This one spawned so many heist film plot elements that it’s difficult to assume the genre without it: a hand-picked gang of experts assembled by a freed genius; the big incident in which the fantastic strategy is highlighted; a vault they said couldn’t be cracked; hidden security management to be breached; and a progressive unfolding of the scheme that tests the accomplices’ affiliations.
21. Baby Driver
- Director: Edgar Wright
- Writer: Edgar Wright
- Cast: Ansel Elgort, Jon Bernthal, Jon Hamm, Lily James, Eiza Gonzalez, Jamie Fox
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Baby Driver falls only a few notes of melody shy of being a musical. Throughout this giant montage of song and automobile pursuits, the action, framing, edits, and sound are synced to the rhythm of each needle-drop, creating among the most unusual and intense action films ever made.
Ansel Elgort stars as Baby, a competent driver who works as a rescue driver for a corrupt operation managed by Kevin Spacey in Edgar Wright’s movie. It’s full of energy, much like all of Wright’s earlier heist movies. It only takes a breather when Baby is at home, caring for Joseph, his old deaf neighbor, and when he discovers Deborah.
20. Inside Man
- Director: Spike Lee
- Writer: Russell Gewirtz
- Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 86%
As amazing as Spike Lee’s new golden era of movies has been, it’s a little heartbreaking that Inside Man is his final big-budget popular hit. The robbery begins early, and it’s a complicated one, including robbers disguised as decorators, an elaborate hostage-switching scheme, and videos of the late Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha.
As a result, it swiftly shifts from a whodunnit to a pursuing Clive Owen’s criminal mastermind. It’s a great, cerebral mega thriller, as you’d anticipate from Lee, and none films New York with the passion and brilliance that he does.
19. Bande à Parte
- Director: Jean-Luc Godard
- Writer: Jean-Luc Godard
- Cast: Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur
- IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 94%
Anna Karina, Jean-Luc Godard’s muse, plays Odile, a teenage woman who encounters a gentleman named Franz who learns where there’s a huge pile of riches just ready to be snatched.
Franz enlists the help of some other buddy, Arthur, but the truth is quickly revealed, and the plot must be carried out on roller skates if they are to succeed. Try Bande à Part if you prefer your heist movies with a uniquely French love story and a whimsical type of gloom. Quentin Tarantino adores it; the café boogie in this one inspired the dancing sequence in Pulp Fiction.
18. The Lavender Hill Mob
- Director: Charles Crichton
- Writer: T. E. B. Clarke
- Cast: Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Every British heist movie that came after The Lavender Hill Mob pays a huge tribute to it. The pleasant, urbane genius figure was most likely at its pinnacle with Alec Guinness’ Henry Holland. He discusses a significant assignment he accomplished in London while seated at a Rio de Janeiro pub.
17. The Town
- Director: Ben Affleck
- Writer: Peter Craig, Ben Affleck, Aaron Stockard
- Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper, Slaine
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Ben Affleck’s sophomore directorial effort is probably his best, portraying the underbelly of Boston’s Charlestown through the narrative of a group that wears nun’s faces for bank robberies before settling for the big cash at Fenway Park.
16. Jackie Brown
- Director: Quentin Tarantino
- Writer: Quentin Tarantino
- Cast: Pam Grier, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Forster, Bridget Fonda, Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro
- IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
This Nineties masterpiece, Quentin Tarantino’s lone adaptation of some other author’s work, more than stands on to some of the director’s previous flicks. Jackie Brown, featuring Pam Grier, is a spoof on Seventies Blaxploitation films such as Foxy Brown, in which Grier also appeared.
15. The Friends of Eddie Coyle
- Director: Peter Yates
- Writer: Paul Monash
- Cast: Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Steven Keats
- IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 98%
Robert Mitchum, at this point in life, the quintessential dangerous predator type following Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear, plays Eddie Coyle, a shotgunner for the Irish mafia in Boston. All is going great for Coyle when the group he’s supporting robs a bank manager and flees with the riches.
But when a second assignment goes wrong, Coyle finds himself increasingly forced to produce concessions for a lawman with whom he’s working to commute a term resting over him. The grinding emotions reach a climax in a subsequent, desperate bid for additional money. It’s one of Mitchum’s greatest performances: tired and careworn but sinewy and strong.
14. Ant-Man
- Director: Peyton Reed
- Writers: Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay
- Cast: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena,
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
While Edgar Wright’s Ant-Man would be remembered as among the finest modern “what if” comic-book movies, Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man would be remembered as among the most underappreciated Marvel storylines; it combines the subgenres of comic book films and heist films into engaging display of visual graphics and superhuman action.
As Scott Lang, a robber with a passion who Hank Pym charges with sneaking into Hank’s former corporation and taking back his life’s ambition, Paul Rudd validated his decision. The surprising parts that contributed to this combination of action and humor are a spiteful protégé, a resentful child, and a shrinking outfit. It’s a funny, greatest heist film and origin narrative.
13. Fast Five
- Director: Justin Lin
- Writers: Chris Morgan, Gary Scott Thompson
- Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 77%
The film picks up just where Fast and Furious (2009) left off, with a racing bus comprehensive of convicts clipping and flipping over a parked muscle car as a prelude to the unexpected, off-the-wall, and frequently comic universe of Fast Five.
The Fast clan, commanded by Dominic Torreto, plots a heist to get vengeance on a South American criminal boss. Dom and Brian create a who’s who of Fast & Furious drivers and tough guys. The movie’s last hour is up for the most action-packed closing scene of any movie franchise, with a clever, violent, and altogether absurd robbery for the annals of movie history.
12. Layer Cake
- Director: Matthew Vaughn
- Writer: J. J. Connolly
- Cast: Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Kenneth Cranham, George Harris, Jamie Foreman
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 80%
Matthew Vaughn’s picture of England’s murky criminal underground is a nostalgic smash of Noughties excess, best remembered for purportedly landing Daniel Craig the role of 007 in the film.
Craig is excellent as a heroin seller who wishes out and is pushed to do two difficult tasks by his dissatisfied employer, and who can forget Sienna Miller’s dancing is among the finest nightclub moments in film history?
11. Sexy Beast
- Director: Jonathan Glazer
- Writer: Louis Mellis, David Scinto
- Cast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane
- IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 87%
Sexy Beast is a British film from the 1960s in which a gangster searches down a former staff to pull him out of old age. Ray Winston is excellent as Gal, the laid-back ex-criminal who simply wants to pack fumes around his gleaming pond and who is driven over the line by his maniacal employer in a fit of rage.
Sexy Beast is structured like a play with two scenes: the first sets the atmosphere of the Spanish paradise being attacked, and the other is the theft that concerns Gal’s survival. It also contains, in our opinion, Ben Kingsley’s most famous part. From the calamari appetizers to the house architecture to the short-sleeved tops, it’s all from the year 2000.
10. Logan Lucky
- Director: Steven Soderbergh
- Writer: Rebecca Blunt
- Cast: Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes
- IMDb Rating: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
The master of heists’ behind the Oceans series, Steven Soderbergh, directs this dark criminal comedy about two guys attempting to steal their passage out of the center of nowhere America.
The plot revolves around the Logan siblings, who organize an intricate plan to loot a racing circuit in North Carolina and become entangled in a complicated web while attempting to elude the FBI. It also demonstrated that Daniel Craig could be incredibly humorous, as he accomplished so in Knives Out.
9. American Animals
- Director: Bart Layton
- Writer: Bart Layton
- Cast: Evan Peters, Barry Keoghan, Blake Jenner, Jared Abrahamson, Ann Dowd
- IMDb Rating: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
The heist movie is based on the comical true tale of a team of four Kentucky students who stole important library resources from their school, and the team’s jaw-dropping ignorance truly lets the tale sing.
Using real-life people and a group that comprises Evan Peters and Barry Keoghan transforms a narrative that might be comedy into a tragic adventure.
8. Payroll
- Director: Sidney Hayers
- Writer: George Baxt (screenplay), Derek Bickerton (novel)
- Cast: Michael Craig, Françoise Prévost, Billie Whitelaw
- IMDb Rating: 7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
Tyneside has a strong heritage of strong, knees-to-the-asphalt noir dramas even before Michael Caine came on the East Coast mainline and began hitting Geordies around and demanding his beers in tiny glasses. One of the several greatest is Payroll, in which four would-be criminals arrange an attack on a payroll vehicle.
Unfortunately, things go wrong, and the group and the birds who want a piece of their gains end themselves battling in the Norfolk forest. It has a rough edge, and Newcastle and Gateshead are as dramatic as San Francisco or Sicily.
7. Dragged Across Concrete
- Director: S. Craig Zahler
- Writer: S. Craig Zahler
- Cast: Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Thomas Kretschmann
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
When it relates to brutal, powerful films, S. Craig Zahler is continuing the flame left by his forebears from the 1980s and 1990s. Dragged Across Concrete is the newest film to explore human development, cynicism, and American faith.
The plot is mostly around two suspended officers attempting to rob a convict, who reveals to be a bank robber. It’s a movie filled with dialogue and characterization, as well as stunning and explosive violence.
The dark, miserable society shown adds to one of cinema’s most unpleasant and scary bank heist sequences, which is carried out by extremely threatening and cunning characters. Strong acts by individuals in perilous situations anchor the world and provide meaning to all the activity and suffering.
6. Dead Presidents
- Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
- Writer: Michael Henry Brown
- Cast: Larenz Tate, Keith David, Chris Tucker, N’Bushe Wright, Freddy Rodriguez, Bokeem Woodbine
- IMDb Rating: 6.9/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 49%
This is among the flicks that have the most fun with the heist genre. Unlike other films, we begin with the aftermath of the operation, with burning dollar notes and a feeling that things have gone wrong, before flashing back to 1968 to see how these men were so desperate that they’d have to rob a bank.
The Hughes Brothers’ directing is expressive and packs an expressive punch. There’s a particularly amazing jump cut that transports Larenz Tate’s Anthony from back gardens in the Bronx to the jungles of Vietnam.
It’s about far more than the mission, and it converts a heist movie into a rant against how America abused Black troops and towns after they returned to an ungrateful country.
5. Set It Off
- Director: F. Gary Gray
- Writer: Kate Lanier, Takashi Bufford
- Cast: Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 70%
Four pals in Los Angeles are at rock bottom, washing floors for a pittance. Following a police gunshot, they start taking their fate into their arms, several bank robbers with privileged information and building up a hefty wedge each.
They’re dragged back in for one more hoorah after being double-crossed. F Gary Gray’s picture still seems fresh, and while the opening half-hour is a touching twist, matters rapidly pick up.
4. Quick Change
- Director: Bill Murray, Howard Franklin
- Writer: Howard Franklin
- Cast: Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, Jason Robards
- IMDb Rating: 6.8/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 83%
Bill Murray’s jaded Grimm pulls off the ideal theft with the help of his lover and partner. It’s gorgeous, clever, and makes him a million bucks. All he has to do now is board a flight and eventually leave New York.
However, it is during the escape that things become sticky. Broken road signs, muggers, suspicious tenants, flames, cab drivers, and mobsters all combine to keep the three robbers from fleeing, but there is still a possibility they’ll get away with it.
3. Bandits
- Director: Barry Levinson
- Writer: Harley Peyton
- Cast: Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thorton, Cate Blanchett, Troy Garity, Brian F. Byrne, Stacey Travis
- IMDb Rating: 6.5/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 64%
In this early 2000s gem, Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thorton play a witty and funny partnership. Those weren’t the stated needy folks dragged into a criminal by society; these are two men determined to live a lifestyle that 99% of the global cannot afford.
They begin by attacking banks unarmed and progress to a method that has earned them the title of The Sleep-Over Bandits. They are not cruel criminals but cold, cunning robbers and kidnappers. Their objectives are thwarted by an unhinged Cate Blanchett, who will be an accomplice in their criminal rampage.
Her entrance, singing, and dancing along to “I Need a Hero” is just the commencement of her unanticipated hilarious greatness. The three companions inevitably become a love story that ventures to investigate what love and camaraderie might entail outside of heteronormative boundaries.
2. The Taking of Pelham 123
- Director: Tony Scott
- Writer: Brian Helgeland
- Cast: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzmán, Michael Rispoli, James Gandolfini
- IMDb Rating: 6.4/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 51%
Walter Matthau plays Lieutenant Garber, who is tired and cranky at his New York Metro office when a gang of closely disguised and highly armed men takes a subway train. The group wants a million dollars and is commanded by Robert Shaw’s icy psychotic Mr. Blue.
How do they intend to extract the cash from hundreds of yards deep beneath? Garber and his male’s bone-dry wit keeps you on their team, but it never compromises the movie’s gradually mounting suspense or the hijackers’ casual cruelty. It’s quick on its feet, has lots of personalities, and the funk music actually, truly kicks.
1. Army of the Dead
- Director: Zack Snyder
- Writers: Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, Joby Harold
- Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Ana de la Reguera, Omari Hardwick, Matthias Schweighofer
- IMDb Rating: 5.7/10
- Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
Zack Snyder had a fantastic year in 2021. He saw the dissemination of his Justice League vision four years after the picture’s cinematic premiere, as well as the release of his Netflix zombie heist film, labeled a spiritual sequel to his debut film.
Army of the Dead is an action-packed, savage zombie and best heist movie. It’s audacious in its reimagining of exactly what a zombie and a heist film are.
Dave Bautista gathers and heads a band of mercenaries and troublemakers on a task to break and empty a secure beneath the Las Vegas strip, a region isolated from the main of the United States due to a zombie outbreak.
