In this article we discuss the 5 best heist movies of all time. If you want to read our detailed analysis of the film industry, go directly to the 25 Best Heist Movies of All Time.
5. Baby Driver
Edgar Wright’s slick and musical crime story Baby Driver manages to find room for the substantial heist elements in between all the car driving. Ansel Elgort (Baby) is a young fantastic getaway driver who constantly listens to music and wants to escape the criminal life. However, when he is blackmailed to take part in what is supposed to be the last job, the heist goes wrong leaving crew members dead and Baby gets into deep water.
4. Heat
Heat is arguably the greatest American heist movie ever made with an intricate plot and compelling characterizations. Written and directed by Michael Mann, this 1995 movie is remembered for Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s first on-screen appearance together. De Niro plays Neil McCauley, one of the professional bank robbers who is pursued by an intense, coke-snorting detective Vincent Hanna played by Al Pacino, after a heist on an armored car goes wrong. Though Neil lives by the slogan that he should not get attached to anybody, guess what, he falls in love. The film becomes an incredible pressure cooker as the cops and robbers try to outwit each other and the story is told from the perspective of different characters. As they confront each other during a heavily planned robbery, you’ll see the most epic shootouts that’s ever been filmed.
3. Rififi
No list of heist movies would be complete without Rififi. Jules Dassin is critiqued by many for paving the path for the modern heist film with Rififi. After he was blacklisted in Hollywood, American director Jules Dassin went to France and only took on the French film. Adapted from a crime novel by Auguste Le Breton, Rififi follows a group of four men who execute a perfect crime until one guy does a small mistake that bears grave results. This 1955 award-winning classic French film features one of the most famous scenes in movie history: There’s a half an hour heist scene that takes place without dialogue or music. Asolute gripping silence!
2. Ocean’s 11
In this 2001 remake of the Rat Pack’s 1960 heist film of the same title, Steven Soderbergh brings together an all-star cast including Brad Pitt, Matt Damon George Clooney, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, and Carl Reiner. The gang plans to empty the vaults of three major casinos in Vegas in one night.
Ocean’s Eleven is intricate, slick, humorous, and clever in a way that makes it a quintessential Hollywood commercial heist film. The movie was so successful that it led to Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen.
1. The Asphalt Jungle
John Huston’s tough, sordid The Asphalt Jungle is regarded as the godfather of all modern heist films as it renders the original ”bank robbery” template. Based on the novel of the same name, the movie follows a newly liberated mastermind who assembles a crew of specialists who attempt to steal half a million-dollar worth of precious jewels. Though the job goes off without a hitch, a series of double crossings, clever police adversaries, and general bad luck spin the gang and make the criminals pave their own shadowy paths.
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