10 Best Heist Movie Squads

The best heist movies have a cohesive and remarkable squad to pull off the heist, and these movies have some of the greatest in history.

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Gangster movies have been around since cinema first introduced sound and was one of the original genres, alongside horror and westerns. Over time, the gangster genre introduced the idea of heist movies, and with those came the squads pulling off the jobs. These include some popular tropes, including the driver, muscle, hacker, burglar, and mastermind.

Throughout the years, these squads have carried heist movies to great heights, from those entrenched in the gangster genre to movies that feature comedy, horror, and even superhero fare. The most important part of the heist movie is that each person plays their archetype perfectly while also remaining popular enough for viewers to cheer for a thief.

10 Heat (1995) – Available To Stream on Starz

The classic gangster movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s gave way to directors in the ‘70s like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. Those filmmakers made stars out of two men who ended up synonymous with the genre, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. In Michael Mann’s Heat, the actors shared their first scene together. Pacino was the police officer hunting down the bad guys while De Niro was Neil, the mastermind behind the criminal squad.

In the movie, Neil led a group of organized professional thieves who made minimal mistakes. This included Val Kilmer as right-hand man Chris and Tom Sizemore and Danny Trejo as enforcers Michael and Trejo. It was only a new guy named Waingro that caused things to go sideways and start their downfall. They are one of the best heist movie squads because they remained popular criminals many viewers wanted to escape.

9 Oceans Eleven (2001) – Available To Stream On HBO Max

2001’s Ocean’s Eleven took the idea of a heist movie and made it instantly cool. The film by Steven Soderbergh remade the 1960 Rat Pack vehicle of the same name and added in some of the coolest actors on the planet to fill out the roles of the squad of 11 professional thieves attempting a casino heist worth $160 million.

While Ocean’s Eleven was as much a crime comedy as a heist movie, and the actors carried it to huge box office success. This squad is one of the best thanks to the all-star cast, including George Clooney as the mastermind, Brad Pitt as his right hand, Casey Affleck and Scott Caan as the driver and the muscle, Matt Damon as the pickpocket, and so much more.

8 Sneakers (1992) – Available To Stream On HBO Max

While Ocean’s Eleven remade a classic heist movie with a group of cool actors carrying it, Sneakers came along a decade earlier and cast some of the best actors working to make this squad work. What resulted was a gem that has slipped through time, but deserves a viewing for anyone who loves the genre.

Sneakers took Hollywood movie icons, Robert Redford and Sidney Poitier, and made them the mastermind and his right-hand man. Adding in River Phoenix as the safecracker, David Strathairn as the gadget guy, and Dan Aykroyd as the driver and the cast alone makes this squad almost impossible to beat.

7 The Italian Job (2003) – Available To Stream On Max Go

In 2003, F. Gary Gray remade the 1969 British movie The Italian Job, which was a heist movie that doubled as a revenge flick. This saw a group of thieves planning a heist to steal gold from someone who previously betrayed them. Edward Norton starred as Steve, the former inside man who betrayed this squad and killed their former safecracker and mentor.

The team that came after him included Mark Wahlberg as Charlie, the mastermind, and Charlize Theron as the safecracker, Stella. This squad ended up highly entertaining and remains one of the best as a result, with names like Jason Statham as the driver, Seth Green as the hacker, and Mos Def as the explosives expert.

6 Inside Man (2006) – Available To Stream On Peacock

In 2006, Spike Lee directed a heist movie called Inside Man. He went about it differently, creating a puzzle for fans to discover what was really happening as the movie went on. The plot saw Denzel Washington star as a hostage negotiator arriving at a bank robbery seemingly gone wrong.

This squad remains one of the best thanks to the complexity of the plot, keeping viewers on their toes, and every member of the crew playing their role to perfection. Clive Owen was Dalton, the mastermind who orchestrated the heist, and the movie’s conclusion revealed who his conspirators really were, all carrying out their parts in the successful robbery.

5 Reservoir Dogs (1992) – Available To Stream On HBO Max

Quentin Tarantino made his movie debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992, working with the Sundance Film Institute. Thanks to connections at Sundance, Tarantino put together an amazing cast for a first-time director, and what resulted was the start of an award-winning career.

For aesthetics, there aren’t many heist squads as recognizable. Each man wears a matching black suit and none of them use their real names, getting codenames based on colors. The movie cares little about each man’s specialty, and more about their dynamic as a team, which all falls apart when the diamond robbery ends up botched.

4 The Suicide Squad (2021) – Available To Stream On HBO Max

2021’s The Suicide Squad serves a lot of purposes in the DCEU. They are mercenaries, sent to kill villains who present more of a danger than them, and at other times deployed on rescue missions for the government. They are also a heist team sent in to retrieve information, valuables, or people for Amanda Waller’s own reasons.

Each member of the squad brings something different, but all are dangerous and unpredictable. While the original movie left fans and critics disappointed, the sequel has brought this squad to the big time and they finally reached a level of respect with viewers.

3 The Usual Suspects (1995) – Available To Stream On Prime Video

In 1995, Bryan Singer created his masterpiece and the movie that opened the door for his Hollywood career. This was The Usual Suspects, a heist movie that also played like a puzzle. With one member of the squad at the police station answering questions, he tells how the action went down.

The Usual Suspects presented an unreliable narrator, and the movie plays out, revealing the story he tells the police. What results at the end is a twist that shows the viewers just watched a con, and that makes this heist movie squad a great one that requires multiple watches to see how all the clues lined up.

2 Baby Driver (2017) – Available To Stream On Fubo

In 2017, Edgar Wright made his heist movie and brought in a top-notch cast for the movie’s squad. In Baby Driver, the main character was surprisingly the getaway driver, known as Baby, and played by Ansel Elgort. Much of the story was about his character arc and relationship with a waitress named Debora, played by Lily James.

However, the squad pulling off the heists stole most of the scenes in which they appeared and remained memorable even in limited screen time. They included Jon Bernthal as the muscle, Jamie Foxx as a henchman, and Jon Hamm and Eiza Gonzalez as a Bonnie and Clyde-styled couple.

1 Inception (2010) – Available To Stream On Netflix

Easily the strangest heist movie in history, Inception took the idea of a heist and threw it into a science fiction narrative where the targets were inside someone’s head. Instead of stealing money or diamonds, this team went into a person’s mind and either retrieved classified information or tried to manipulate the memories already there.

That difference alone makes this a notable and beloved heist squad, one that did the impossible. In this crew, Leonardo DiCaprio played the mastermind, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the right-hand man, Dileep Rao the gadget guy, Tom Hardy the con man, and Elliot Page was the new kid and architect of the plans.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/greatest-heist-movie-teams/