With all of the bad media attention that banks have gotten in the wake of the financial crisis, you wouldn't be crazy to think that maybe we the people should try to take some of their ill-gotten gains back. And what better way to do so than an old-fashioned bank robbery? In this article, we'll spotlight the absolute greatest bank robbers in movie history, with special attention paid to their planning. We're not saying this is a how-to, mind you. Whatever you do with this information is all on you.
The Best Bank Robbers
You think you have what it takes to pull a bank job? Take some time to study these fictional bank robbers and you might change your mind. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.
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By K. Thor Jensen March 8, 2012 |
Credit: Warner Brothers
| 7 | Neil McCauley |
Ahh, Heat. Will we ever miss a chance to talk about one of the best movies ever. Neil McCauley, played by Robert De Niro, isn't just a bank robber - he also organizes heists on armored cars and precious metal depositories - but the insane bank job he pulls in Michael Mann's masterpiece earns him a place on this list. McCauley is a career criminal, with a cobra's heart and an octopus's brain. He'll do whatever needs to be done to ensure a job goes right, even if it means sacrificing his operatives to do it.
Credit: Lionsgate
| 6 | Terry Leather |
The Bank Job's Terry Leather (played by the inimitable Jason Statham) is trying to go straight at the start of the flick, but there's no room for ex-cons in the workaday world. When he gets the opportunity to make a lifetime's worth of money for one last gig, he does what we'd all do: he takes it. Leather and his gang use the old tunnel gambit to get subterranean access to the bank's vault, but once they get in Leather comes to the realization that there's more than just cash at stake.
Credit: Universal Pictures
| 5 | Dalton Russell |
You don't rob a bank by just walking in the door and waving a gun around. You have to have a plan, and the more complicated and obtuse the better. Enter Dalton Russell, the mastermind behind Inside Man. His plot to rob the contents of a specific safe deposit box is some Inception shizz, it's got so many layers. First a squad of identically-dressed men storm the bank and take hostages. After a police standoff, they escape, but nobody's carrying any stolen goods. That's because Russell has been installed inside the vault behind a false wall, and a week later he loots the box and strides out in plain sight.
Credit: United Artists
| 4 | El Indio |
Bank robbery was a pretty big deal in the Old West. Without the threat of SWAT teams swarming a financial institution, it was easier for bad guys to rip off a counting-house. One of the best bank jobs in Western movie history is in Sergio Leone's classic For A Few Dollars More. The film's villain is an utter scumbag named El Indio, who totes around a musical pocketwatch that tells him when to shoot dudes. After robbing a hidden safe from the Bank of El Paso, Indio runs into a pair of bounty hunters who have a bone to pick with him, and pick they do.
Credit: 20th Century Fox
| 3 | Simon Peter Gruber |
One of the most essential elements of any successful bank robbery is distraction. The more people are paying attention to irrelevant details, the bigger your chance of success. One man who knows this all too well is Die Hard With A Vengeance's Simon Peter Gruber. First planting a bomb on a subway train and then in a New York City school is a lot of prepwork, but it allows his gang to swipe $140 billion worth of gold from the Federal Reserve Bank. Now that's a big score.
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