Plot
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.
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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.
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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.
