The Best Heist Movies of All Time, Ranked for Filmmakers

Best new heist movies

25. American Animals (2018)

The film's director of photography describes Baby Driver as a “postmodern musical,” saying, "there's not singing and dancing in the street but the world acts to music." This is a perfect way to describe the rhythmic pacing that director Edgar Wright creates in all his work.

This time, he combines it with gripping car chase scenes, a standout cast, and witty banter that makes it a uniquely humorous and entertaining watch.

A Fish Called Wanda is a clever comedy with the guise of a jewel heist movie plot. Kevin Cline’s Oscar-winning performance will leave you in stitches. This witty screenplay follows four hilarious characters who team up to commit a robbery, but when they begin to double cross each other, the comedy ensues. 

The hilarious cast is what makes A Fish Called Wanda one of the few funny heist movies that manages to be hilarious, even decades later.

This modern take on the 1969 film The Italian Job attempts to fill its predecessors shoes by matching its star-studded cast, redemption, and plenty of Mini-Coopers. While it fails to take any risks to make its plot or characters more engaging, it is nonetheless a fun watch, filled with entertaining chase scenes performed by the cast themselves.

Fast Five completely revamps the Fast and Furious franchise with the introduction of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and a new heist plot line. These new movie elements took the franchise from a rather redundant street racing series to a world of crime, thrill and entertainment.

It’s also worth mentioning that Vin Diesel and The Rock face off in an epic fist fight you thought would never happen which makes the film one of the best action heist movies of all time.

Female heist movies

16. Jackie Brown (1997)

While many rank the 1999 take on The Thomas Crown Affair among the best crime movies, we think it is appropriate to pay homage to the original for establishing the cleverness and coolness of the film despite the differences in plot. Steve McQueen is “like ice” and remains a presence on screen over 50 years later.

Although Spike Lee is known for his auteurist style, his restraint in directing Inside Man proves to work for the story. This gripping tale of bank robbers, a police detective, and a high-power broker took screenwriter Russell Gewirtz five years to write.

Patience paid off when it landed in the hands of Spike Lee. The film is reinforced with outstanding performances by Denzel Washington, Willem Dafoe, and Jodie Foster and lands among the top ten of Spike Lee’s best movies.

Best casted bank heist movies

11. Ocean's Eleven (2001)

While many were skeptical about a remake of the original, Ocean’s Eleven exceeded all expectations. The screen presence of The Rat Pack is matched by the remake's star-studded cast, including Clooney, Pitt, and Damon. Director Steven Soderbergh draws on past heist movies to create one of the most iconic heist films of the modern era.

Based on the true 1972 event, Dog Day Afternoon finds Sonny (Al Pacino) robbing a bank to pay for his lover's operation. What ensues is a media circus and hostage situation that, in reality, became an event that police departments later used in training officers how to handle hostage situations. As wildly outrageous as the film is, it boldly and respectively attempts to stick as close to the real story as possible.

Who is Keyzer Soze? The Usual Suspects uses a non-linear structure and a star-studded cast to answer this burning question. Without giving too much away, the film follows the interrogation of the sole survivor of an elaborate heist, full of trickery and question marks.

Quentin Tarantino’s first film, Reservoir Dogs, still holds a flame over 25 years later. Why? It provided a fresh take in a genre full of stereotypes, tropes, and cliches.

The film, with elements of a classic heist film, focuses on what other movies of the genre do not. The non-linear structure of the film opens up on the aftermath of the heist and Tarantino keeps us engaged fully through as we as the audience actively pieces the story together.

Although Christopher Nolan dipped his toes into the heist genre with the opening scene of The Dark Knight, it wasn't until Inception that we found out where Nolan could take a heist film.

The result is one of Nolan’s best movies and one of the most original heist films ever. Although the point of the heist is not money, gold, or jewels, the team executes a robbery nonetheless with an ending that has left audiences and theorists scouring the internet for answers.

This stand out film of American cinema follows the real life story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow, a criminal couple who led a gang of bank robbers and outlaws during the Great Depression.

The film showcased violence and shootouts that marked the beginnings of New Hollywood. The film operates with a sense of naturalism that capitalizes on the true, dangerous nature of crime.

The gripping suspense of Rififi unfolds in a thirty-minute scene without dialogue or music. The beginning of the film has influenced many of its successors in the crime genre. It sets up both the reward and risks before the intense thirty-minute-long heist scene.

While many modern thrillers and horror films utilizes sound design to immerse the audience into the suspense of a scene, Rififi was one of the first to implement it in such an intense way. It’s ingenuity in its use of sound as a device to create suspense as well as its well-structured screenplay made it Cinefix’s number one best heist movie.

Before they were genre cliches and tropes to avoid, many of the heist film elements were mere ideas in the wild imagination of a 27-year-old Stanley Kubrick. To understand the ingenuity of Kubrick’s The Killing, you must first recognize the plethora of movies it has influenced.

The non-linear structure of the killing has been said to inspire the works of Tarantino in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. The hiding of a gun in a gift or box has been used in films like Dog Day Afternoon and The Godfather. Critics have also pointed out the influence of the film on Ocean's Eleven, The Dark Knight, and Logan Lucky. The Killing has stood the test of time among Kubrick’s best films and as one of the best heist movies of all time.