Heist | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | David Mamet |
Written by | David Mamet |
Produced by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Robert Elswit |
Edited by | Barbara Tulliver |
Music by | Theodore Shapiro |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release dates |
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Running time | 109 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $28 million [1] |
Box office | $28.5 million [2] |
Heist is a 2001 American heist crime drama film written and directed by David Mamet and starring Gene Hackman, Danny DeVito and Delroy Lindo, with Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky Jay, Patti Lupone and Sam Rockwell in supporting roles.
Heist received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its characters and script. Although it grossed just around its production budget, the film became the highest-grossing film directed by Mamet in the United States with $23 million, [3] and went on to become a popular hit in the home video market. [4]
Joe Moore runs a ring of professional thieves, which includes Bobby Blane, Donnie "Pinky" Pincus and Joe's wife Fran. During a robbery of a New York City jewelry store, Joe's face is captured by a security camera after he takes off his mask in an attempt to distract the store's last remaining employee. As both the picture and a witness can identify him, Joe retires from crime and plans to disappear on his sailboat with his wife.
This does not sit well with Joe's fence, Mickey Bergman, who runs a garment business as a front. After accruing a number of expenses in setting up another robbery, Bergman decides to withhold the payment due to Joe and his crew. He insists they go through with the other job, robbing an airplane carrying a large shipment of gold. Bergman further insists that his nephew, Jimmy Silk, be a part of the crew. Joe accepts, but a series of shifting loyalties changes the complexity of their task, including Jimmy's interest in Joe's wife and Bergman and Jimmy's belief that Joe's skills are declining.
While setting up the plan for the robbery, they are stopped by a passing police officer. While Joe and Bobby talk the officer into leaving, an agitated Jimmy draws his gun but is stopped by Pinky. Joe forces the team out of finishing the job after he finds out that Pinky did not destroy the getaway car, covered in the team's fingerprints. Bergman does not accept the team's departure and forces them to finish the job.
The plane robbery is a series of misdirects. Pinky poses as a guard while Joe, Bobby and Jimmy pose as airport security personnel. They stop the jet, pretending to be responding to an emergency. They fill a van with what they take from the plane, then move the van to a rented garage on the airport grounds, where they re-brand it and call for a tow truck to have it hauled away.
Jimmy betrays the others to steal the gold and Fran. He knocks out Joe and tells Fran he knew Joe changed the plan. He and Fran take the van, but Jimmy finds out that the hidden compartments are filled with metal washers. Joe avoids arrest and returns to the plane in disguise. He and Bobby remove a shipment of goods they had booked on board the same Swiss flight, which they insist now must be driven to its destination due to the plane's delay. Inside the shipment is the stolen gold, which Joe and Bobby melt into long rods.
Bergman apprehends Pinky, who is walking his niece to the school bus. Pinky discloses the plan in order to save his niece, but he tips off Joe with a code word during a phone call and is killed. Bergman and his crew arrive at Joe's sailboat along with Jimmy and Fran, where they hold Joe at gunpoint. They assume that the boat's golden railings are the gold. Fran leaves with Jimmy, pleading with Bergman to let Joe go. Just as Bergman discovers that the railings are not the gold, a hidden Bobby opens fire. Bergman's men are killed and Joe kills Bergman.
Bobby gives Joe the address to send his share. Joe waits to meet Fran with a truck filled with black-painted rods, but Fran, having switched sides, holds up Joe with Jimmy, taking that truck. Joe gets into a second truck to leave. A black bar in the truck scrapes the garage door, revealing gold underneath. Joe lifts a tarp in the truck bed, revealing the gold rods. He covers the rods with a tarpaulin and drives away.
Franchise Pictures agreed to finance the film as long as it starred Hackman and DeVito. Mamet enjoyed great creative freedom throughout production, because Franchise Pictures did not creatively interfere, only requiring him to finish the film within a certain budget. [5]
The film, set mostly in and around Boston, was shot in Montreal. The opening scene, showcasing a New York jewelry store robbery, was filmed in an Old Montreal building in the process of being renovated into a hotel. [6] The airport scenes, set at Boston's Logan Airport, [7] were filmed at Montréal–Mirabel International Airport. [6]
The film made a profit through international pre-sales before it was finished. [5]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 66% of 128 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.3/10.The website's consensus reads: "Heist didn't cover any new ground, but the cast and Mamet's expertise with witty banter make it worthwhile." [8] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [9] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale. [10]
Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times , wrote, "Heist is the kind of caper movie that was made before special effects replaced wit, construction and intelligence. This movie is made out of fresh ingredients, not cake mix. Despite the twists of its plot, it is about its characters." He went on to praise Mamet's trademark verbal constructions, his restrained approach to on-screen gunplay, and the care that he takes in shaping the relationships between the principals. [11]
Heist grossed $23.5 million in U.S. and Canada, and $5 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $28.5 million. [2]
In its opening weekend, the film opened at number 5 and grossed $7.8 million from 1,891 theaters in the United States. It became the highest-grossing Mamet-directed film domestically. [3]
The film generated more than $72 million in home video rentals in the United States. [4]
Hoffa is a 1992 American biographical crime drama film directed by Danny DeVito and written by David Mamet, based on the life of Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. Most of the story is told in flashbacks before ending with Hoffa's mysterious disappearance. The story makes no claim to be historically accurate, and in fact is largely fictional. Jack Nicholson plays Hoffa, and DeVito plays Robert Ciaro, an amalgamation of several Hoffa associates over the years. The film features John C. Reilly, Robert Prosky, Kevin Anderson, Armand Assante, and J. T. Walsh in supporting roles. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film was distributed by 20th Century Fox and released on December 25, 1992.
Taxi is a 2004 action comedy film directed by Tim Story and starring Queen Latifah, Jimmy Fallon, Gisele Bündchen in her film debut, Jennifer Esposito, and Ann-Margret. An incompetent New York City police officer is banned from driving and comes to rely on a talented taxi driver to help him solve a series of bank robberies. The film is a remake of the 1998 French film of the same name and was panned by critics.
Congo is a 1995 American science fiction action-adventure film based on the 1980 novel by Michael Crichton. It was directed by Frank Marshall and stars Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Ernie Hudson, Grant Heslov, Joe Don Baker and Tim Curry. The film was released on June 9, 1995, by Paramount Pictures and tells the story of an expedition team and a mountain gorilla owned by one of its members who go to the Congo jungles to find a missing expedition and the ruins of an ancient civilization where diamonds might be located while encountering the gray gorillas that lurk near there.
Bandits is a 2001 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Harley Peyton. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in theaters on October 12, 2001. It received mixed reviews, and Thornton and Blanchett's performances received critical praise. Thornton and Blanchett were nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and Blanchett was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Thomas DeSimone was an American criminal associated with New York City's Lucchese crime family who is alleged to have participated in both the Air France robbery and the Lufthansa heist. He also committed numerous murders, including killing William "Billy Batts" Bentvena in 1970. DeSimone went missing in 1979 and is believed to have been murdered.
The Great Muppet Caper is a 1981 musical heist comedy film directed by Jim Henson and the second theatrical film featuring the Muppets. The film stars Muppet performers Henson, Frank Oz, Dave Goelz, Jerry Nelson, Richard Hunt, and Steve Whitmire, as well as Charles Grodin and Diana Rigg with special cameo appearances by John Cleese, Robert Morley, Peter Ustinov, and Jack Warden. The film was produced by ITC Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company and distributed by Universal Pictures. In the plot, the Muppets are caught up in a jewel heist while investigating a robbery in London.
Quick Change is a 1990 American crime comedy film directed by Howard Franklin and Bill Murray and written by Franklin. Based on the novel of the same name by Jay Cronley, the film stars Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, and Jason Robards. Quick Change follows three people on an elaborate bank robbery and their subsequent escape.
The Spanish Prisoner is a 1997 American neo-noir suspense film, written and directed by David Mamet and starring Campbell Scott, Steve Martin, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ben Gazzara, Felicity Huffman and Ricky Jay. It tells a story of corporate espionage conducted through an elaborate confidence game.
The Brink's Company is an American cash handling company, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Its operations include cash-in-transit, ATM replenishment & maintenance, and cash management & payment services, such as vault outsourcing, money processing, intelligent safe services, and international transportation of valuables.
The Lufthansa heist was a robbery which took place at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport on December 11, 1978. An estimated US$5.875 million was stolen, with $5 million in cash and $875,000 in jewelry, making it the largest cash robbery committed on American soil at the time.
The First Great Train Robbery is a 1978 British heist comedy film directed by Michael Crichton, who also wrote the screenplay based on his 1975 novel The Great Train Robbery. The film stars Sean Connery, Donald Sutherland and Lesley-Anne Down.
Family Business is a 1989 American neo noir crime film directed by Sidney Lumet based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Vincent Patrick, who also wrote the film's screenplay. It stars Sean Connery, Dustin Hoffman, and Matthew Broderick.
Get Shorty is a 1995 American gangster comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld and written by Scott Frank, based on Elmore Leonard's novel of the same name. The film stars John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Delroy Lindo, James Gandolfini, Dennis Farina, and Danny DeVito. It follows Chili Palmer (Travolta), a Miami mobster and loan shark who inadvertently gets involved in Hollywood feature film production.
American Buffalo is a 1996 drama film directed by Michael Corrente and starring Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Franz and Sean Nelson, the only members of the cast. The film is based on David Mamet's 1975 play, American Buffalo.
The Big Heist is a 2001 crime drama television film directed by Robert Markowitz and written by Jere Cunningham and Gary Hoffman. The film, based on the 1986 non-fiction book The Heist by Ernest Volkman and John Cummings, tells the story of the 1978 Lufthansa heist. It is a co-production of the United States and Canada, and stars Donald Sutherland, John Heard, Jamie Harris, and Janet Kidder. It aired on A&E on June 10, 2001.
Kenneth Leishman, also known as the Flying Bandit or the Gentleman Bandit was a Canadian criminal responsible for multiple robberies between 1957 and 1966. Leishman was the mastermind behind the largest gold theft in Canadian history. This record stood for over 50 years, until it was surpassed by the Toronto Pearson airport heist in 2023. After being caught and arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Leishman managed to escape twice, before being caught and serving the remainder of his various sentences.
Logan Lucky is a 2017 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh, based on a screenplay credited to Rebecca Blunt. Soderbergh came out of retirement to direct the film and distributed it independently through his own company, Fingerprint Releasing. The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Channing Tatum, Adam Driver, Riley Keough, Daniel Craig, Seth MacFarlane, Katie Holmes, Hilary Swank, Katherine Waterston, and Sebastian Stan. The film follows the Logan family and their attempt to rob the Charlotte Motor Speedway whilst avoiding security officers and the FBI.
The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World is a non-fiction book written by Daniel Simone in collaboration with Henry Hill. It was published by Lyons Press, an imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, on August 1, 2015.
Wrath of Man is a 2021 action thriller film directed by Guy Ritchie, who co-wrote with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. It is loosely based on the 2004 French film Cash Truck. It is Ritchie's fourth directorial collaboration with lead actor Jason Statham, and the first since Revolver (2005). Holt McCallany, Jeffrey Donovan, Chris Reilly, Josh Hartnett, Laz Alonso, Raúl Castillo, DeObia Oparei, Eddie Marsan and Scott Eastwood appear in supporting roles. In the film, H (Statham) is a new cash truck driver in Los Angeles whose thwarting of a robbery leads to his skillset with guns and mysterious past being questioned.
On April 17, 2023, a major theft occurred at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada, with over C$20 million worth of gold and cash in foreign currency being stolen. In the evening of Monday, April 17, a container which contained goldbars and foreign currency was offloaded off an inbound aircraft and transferred to an Air Canada holding facility at the airport where Air Canada staff were tricked by a forged shipping document to load it onto a getaway truck. Nine people have been charged in relation to the heist.