The 15 Best Heist Movies Ever Made, Ranked

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What makes a great heist movie? The vast majority generally contain the same elements: A ragtag group of criminals, an elaborate scheme that’s so perfectly planned it’s bound to fail, and a few double and triple crosses thrown in for good measure. What separates a good heist movie from a great one is when all of these elements manage to surprise us even though our knowledge of these stories tells us exactly how they’re going to end. 

A great heist movie can take many different forms, from classic thriller to broad comedy. They can be violent, sexy, funny, and even profound. Above all else, they play upon our own greed, and show us that more often than not, trying to get rich quick is a fools errand … but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun while doing it. Here are the 15 best heist movies ever made, ranked.

Although the original “Thomas Crown Affair” could’ve easily made this list, the remake edges it out ever so slightly for finding a fresh take on old material. Pierce Brosnan is the titular Thomas Crown, a billionaire who’s grown so bored that he’s taken up art theft as a hobby. After stealing a Monet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he finds himself pursued by insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Rene Russo), who falls in love with the dashing criminal.

Like the original, “The Thomas Crown Affair” succeeds almost entirely on vibes. The sexual tension between Brosnan and Russo is so palpable that the screen practically sweats, and the final heist sequence is a feat of cinematic storytelling. In a bit of art imitating life, director John McTiernan wrote a sequel while serving time in prison for multiple felony convictions, although it was never made.

Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, Denis Leary, Ben Gazzara, Frankie Faison, Faye Dunaway

Director: John McTiernan

Year: 1999

Rating: R

Runtime: 114 minutes

Where to watch: Prime Video

Although the genre is usually defined by urban settings, some of the best heist films have been set in rural America, like “Hell or High Water.” In West Texas, down-on-their-luck brothers Toby (Chris Pine) and Tanner Howard (Ben Foster) plot to rob the banks that are threatening to foreclose on their family ranch. Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham) are hot on their trail, which becomes increasingly soaked in blood.

The Oscar-nominated script by Taylor Sheridan is equal parts southern gothic and hardboiled noir, with family drama sprinkled in. As Sheridan would later do in his TV shows (“Yellowstone,” “1883,” “1923,” etc.), he turns “Hell or High Water” into an entertaining pot boiler steeped in the everyday rhythms of rural life. As directed by Scottish filmmaker David Mackenzie, it presents the American landscape as a place of beauty and bloodshed in almost equal measure.

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Katy Mixon, Gil Birmingham

Director: David Mackenzie

Year: 2016

Rating: R

Runtime: 102 minutes

Where to watch: Paramount+

There’s no rule that a heist movie can’t be funny, and “A Fish Called Wanda” might be the funniest film the genre ever produced. Written by “Monty Python” alum John Cleese, it centers on a group of thieves who pull off an elaborate jewel heist. But when the group’s leader, George (Tom Georgeson), get arrested, his girlfriend Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) tries to seduce his lawyer, Archie Leach (Cleese), to find out where he hid the diamonds. When Wanda starts to fall for Archie, her real boyfriend, Otto (Kevin Kline in an Oscar-winning performance), goes off the rails.

“A Fish Called Wanda” was directed by Charles Crichton, who helmed such comedies as “The Lavender Hill Mob” (another heist farce) at Britain’s legendary Ealing Studios. At 77 years old, Crichton had been retired for 23 years by the time he made this film, although you’d never know it from how nimbly it unfolds. He was rewarded for his efforts with an Oscar nomination for directing, a rarity for a comedy.

Cast: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson

Director: Charles Crichton

Year: 1988

Rating: R

Runtime: 108 minutes

Where to watch: Prime Video

Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” is a heist movie with a fantasy/sci-fi twist. Rather than robbing banks, master thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) breaks into someone’s subconscious and steals their secrets for high fees. He’s hired by businessman Saito (Ken Watanabe) to implant an idea into the mind of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) in the hopes that he’ll convince his ailing father, Maurice (Pete Postlethwaite), to dissolve his company.

Taking its inspiration from the 1969 James Bond thriller “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” “Inception” features big action thrills and deeply emotional themes, as Dom’s late wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard), haunts his dreams during his mission. The use of dream logic allows Nolan to create a new type of heist film, one with multiple unique locations that defy the rules of space and time. Theories abound about “Inception’s” ending to this day, as Nolan fanatics debate whether or not it was all just a dream.

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Elliot Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine

Director: Christopher Nolan

Year: 2010

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 148 minutes

Where to watch: HBO Max

One of the best movies ever made about Britain’s criminal underground, “Sexy Beast” announced Jonathan Glazer as a major filmmaker who flipped genre expectations on their heads. It centers on Gary “Gal” Dove (Ray Winstone), a former London gangster who’s retired to Spain. His former associate, Don Logan (Ben Kingsley), shows up to try and rope him into returning to the UK for a bank heist. Gal at first declines, but he’s eventually convinced to perform an elaborate underwater robbery. 

Anyone who knows Kingsley from his Oscar-winning performance in “Gandhi” will be shocked to see him as Don, a violent sociopath who threatens to extinguish a lit cigarette into a flight attendant’s eye when he’s politely told there’s no smoking allowed on an airplane. His profanity-laced outbursts have a tinge of humor to them, and therein lies the secret to “Sexy Beast’s” success. At its core, it’s a black comedy about lowlifes with big dreams.

Cast: Ray Winstone, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Amanda Redman, Cavan Kendall, James Fox

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Year: 2000

Rating: R

Runtime: 88 minutes

Where to watch: Criterion Channel and Prime Video

Spike Lee has always been one of the best New York filmmakers, and “Inside Man” is nothing if not a tribute to the great Big Apple crime thrillers. It kicks off when master thief Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) enters a Manhattan bank and takes everyone inside hostage. Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) is called in to negotiate, but he’s met with resistance by a high-power fixer, Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), who’s protecting the interests of the bank’s mysterious founder, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer). 

The script by Russell Gerwitz contains more twists and turns than a pretzel, with an ending that brings everything we’ve just watched into question. Like “Dog Day Afternoon,” it turns the heist movie into an ensemble drama, with the cops, criminals, hostages, and onlookers representing the vibrant cultural rainbow that is New York City. One of Lee’s most purely entertaining films, it also remains his highest grossing, with a $186 million worldwide box office draw.

Cast: Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor

Director: Spike Lee

Year: 2006

Rating: R

Runtime: 129 minutes

Where to watch: Prime Video

Few directorial debuts are as assured as the one Michael Mann had with “Thief.” James Caan plays Frank, an expert jewel thief who wants to settle down with his new girlfriend, Jessie (Tuesday Weld). He’s got to pull off one last job before leaving the life behind, but his boss, Leo (Robert Prosky), wants to keep Frank in his employ, setting up a deadly showdown between the gangster and his lackey.

More than just a warmup for “Heat,” “Thief” displays Mann’s meticulous attention for detail, especially in the central heist sequence, which plays almost like a silent film. It also foreshadows the themes of obsession and isolation that would characterize his filmography. Like Neil McCauley, Frank is dedicated to his work to an unhealthy degree, bottling up his thoughts and feelings to protect himself from harm. It’s only when he starts to care that things fall apart, and Frank goes to extreme lengths to protect his newfound love.

Cast: James Caan, Tuesday Weld, Robert Prosky, Willie Nelson, James Belushi, Dennis Farina

Director: Michael Mann

Year: 1981

Rating: R

Runtime: 123 minutes

Where to watch: MGM+, Kanopy, and Tubi

Before he was an enigmatic auteur defined by totemic works, Stanley Kubrick honed his talents with a series of low-budget, black-and-white films like “The Killing.” Unfolding at a brisk 84 minutes, it stars Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay, who’s fresh out of prison and planning one last heist at a racetrack. He assembles a crack team of criminals to pull this off, but things go south when the weak-willed George (Elisha Cook Jr.) spills the beans to his manipulative wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), who plans to run off with the money with her boyfriend, Val (Vince Edwards).

Kubrick co-wrote “The Killing” (adapted from a book by Lionel White) with crime novelist Jim Thompson, who peppers the script with the kind of hardboiled dialogue that characterized his pulp fiction. It also displays the pessimistic worldview that would define Kubrick’s films from then on. More than most heist films, “The Killing” leaves you with the sense that all that “hard work” was for nothing. 

Cast: Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Marie Windsor, Ted de Corsia, Timothy Carey, Elisha Cook Jr.

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Year: 1956

Rating: Approved

Runtime: 84 minutes

Where to watch: Prime Video and Tubi

Most heist films center on a criminal plot that’s almost too outlandish to believe, and that’s true of even “Dog Day Afternoon,” which is based on a true story that’s stranger than most fiction. Amateur crook Sonny Wortzik (Al Pacino) and his accomplice, Sal (John Cazale), attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank so that Sonny can pay for a sex change operation for his partner, Leon (Chris Sarandon). The botched heist soon turns into a media circus, with the onlookers (and even the hostages) taking Sonny’s side.

Director Sidney Lumet adopts a documentary realism in bringing this true story to life, shooting on the streets of New York and taking a naturalistic approach to the performances. Lumet’s restrained style works in the film’s favor, keeping the story’s salacious details from spinning out of control. What could easily have become a sideshow becomes a classic, one that predicted our obsessions with true crime and 24-hour news.

Cast: Al Pacino, John Cazale, James Broderick, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penelope Allen

Director: Sidney Lumet

Year: 1975

Rating: R

Runtime: 125 minutes

Where to watch: Paramount+

With his debut feature, Quentin Tarantino threw his various influences into a blender and poured them out as a wholly original work. “Reservoir Dogs” is a classic heist thriller with a “Rashomon” twist, jumping back-and-forth through time to dramatize a diamond theft gone wrong (unlike other movies in this genre, we never actually see the heist). It soon becomes clear that one of the criminals, who only know each other by color-code names, is an undercover cop, and the gang turns on each other in a deadly Mexican standoff.

With its graphic violence and tsunami of four-letter words, “Reservoir Dogs” went off like a bomb at the Sundance Film Festival, which up to that time was famous for premiering small-scale character dramas. Afterwards, indie movies became a breeding ground for aspiring genre filmmakers, many of whom tried (unsuccessfully) to mimic Tarantino’s singular voice and style. What those imitators miss is the affinity Tarantino feels for his gang of scumbags, who feel ripped from the pages of Damon Runyon stories.

Cast: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Year: 1992

Rating: R

Runtime: 99 minutes

Where to watch: Paramount+

The crime films of Jean-Pierre Melville are revered for their cool detachment, and “Le Cercle Rouge” is like a magnum opus of cool. Alain Delon plays Corey, who gets released from prison and immediately links up with escaped murderer Vogel (Gian Maria Volonté). With the help of disgraced ex-cop Jansen (Yves Montand), they plan a jewel heist, yet Vogel’s captor, Commissioner Mattei (André Bourvil), is hot on their trail.

Like its spiritual predecessor, “Rififi,” “Le Cercle Rouge” features a dazzling half-hour heist sequence, which plays out almost entirely without dialogue. It’s a tour-de-force of pure cinema from Melville, who, like other directors of the French New Wave, took his influence from noirs and gangster films from Hollywood’s golden age. And as the circle of cinema goes, the influence of Melville’s crime capers can be seen on Jim Jarmusch, David Fincher, and Quentin Tarantino.

Cast: Alain Delon, André Bourvil, Yves Montand, Gian Maria Volonté, François Périer

Director: Jean-Pierre Melville

Year: 1970

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 140 minutes

Where to watch: Prime Video

The granddaddy of all heist films, John Huston’s “The Asphalt Jungle” established many of the hallmarks that would become defining traits of the genre. Adapted from a novel by W. R. Burnett, it stars Sterling Hayden as Dix Handley, who assembles a team of crooks to steal $1 million worth of diamonds. Yet greed and deception threaten to ruin the plan after a stray bullet hits one of Dix’s crew.

Although movies about robbery dated all the way back to the silent era, “The Asphalt Jungle” distinguished itself by placing so much emphasis on the planning of the crime, from recruiting the players to mapping out the particulars. Of course, the best laid plans always have one flaw, and Huston delights in watching this motley crew turn on each other when things go wrong. In this way, “The Asphalt Jungle” places us within the criminal perspective, and implicates us in their crimes.

Cast: Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, Jean Hagen, James Whitmore, Sam Jaffe, John McIntire, Marilyn Monroe

Director: John Huston

Year: 1950

Rating: Approved

Runtime: 112 minutes

Where to watch: Kanopy and Prime Video

Before getting blacklisted during the Hollywood red scare, Jules Dassin was one of the leading directors of film noir, and he took that aesthetic with him to France when he helmed the crime thriller “Rififi.” Jean Servais plays Tony, an aging gangster who’s just finished serving a five-year stint behind bars for jewel theft. Rather than go straight, he decides to break into a heavily guarded Paris jewelry shop with three of his fellow ex-cons.

The centerpiece of “Rififi” – its crown jewel, if you will — is the heist sequence, which plays out without music or dialogue for 30 minutes. It’s so intricately detailed that it functions almost like a how-to guide for criminals (there should almost be a disclaimer warning viewers to not try this themselves). But what makes the film feel so modern is its nihilistic worldview, undoubtedly influenced by Dassin’s own struggles at the time.

Cast: Jean Servais, Robert Hossein, Magali Noël, Janine Darcey, Robert Manuel, Carl Möhner

Director: Jules Dassin

Year: 1955

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 118 minutes

Where to watch: Buy on Amazon

The original “Ocean’s Eleven” was little more than an excuse for the Rat Pack to get paid while sipping martinis, so Steven Soderbergh’s remake didn’t exactly have a high bar to clear. It finds professional thief Danny Ocean (George Clooney) assembling a crew to rob three Las Vegas casinos in one night, all of which are owned by Terry Benedict (Andy García), who just so happens to be dating Danny’s ex-wife, Tess (Julia Roberts).

When it was released in 2001, “Ocean’s Eleven” was seen as something of a lark for Soderbergh, who was fresh off the Oscar-winning successes “Traffic” and “Erin Brockovich,” both released the year before. Yet what a lark it is, unfolding at a brisk pace and featuring breezy performances from an all-star cast of rising stars (Matt Damon, Brad Pitt) and Hollywood veterans (Elliott Gould, Carl Reiner). As Soderbergh has spent the last half of his career trying to bring movies for adults back to the big screen, one can look back fondly at “Ocean’s Eleven” and realize we didn’t know how good we had it.

Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Casey Affleck, Scott Caan, Elliott Gould, Bernie Mac, Carl Reiner

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Year: 2001

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 116 minutes

Where to watch: TBS, TNT, and Prime Video

With “Heat,” Michael Mann takes the heist movie to almost Shakespearean heights. A three-hour epic set on the streets of Los Angeles, it centers on a clash between expert thief Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and LAPD Police Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), as McCauley and his team plot a bank robbery. Yet that barely scratches the surface of the various themes of masculinity, isolation, and the toll one’s professional life takes on their personal one that Mann’s screenplay delves into. 

There’s so much about “Heat” that’s become iconic that it’s almost impossible to recap. There’s the diner scene between De Niro and Pacino, the first time these titans of ’70s cinema shared the screen; the central bank heist, which plays out almost like a mini movie; and the parting moment between McCauley’s lieutenant, Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer), and his wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd), encapsulating the devastating truth of their chosen profession. At its heart, it’s the story of two men on opposite sides of the law who discover something resembling respect for each other, as each finds the only other person who can understand their obsessive, self-destructive drive.

Cast: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Jon Voight, Val Kilmer

Director: Michael Mann

Year: 1995

Rating: R

Runtime: 171 minutes

Where to watch: Criterion Channel and Prime Video