The perfect heist takes patient planning, foresight, cleverness and, above all, a crack team of experts to outmaneuver the cops, casino or fellow criminal when everything goes awry. The heist movie has become a storied Hollywood genre, and Netflix has several great examples available to stream. Of course, as these range from silly fun (Army of Thieves) to dark and gritty (Reservoir Dogs), the thieves don’t always get away clean.
Here are the eight best heist movies on Netflix:
1. HeatYear: 1995
Director: Michael Mann
Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer
Rating: R
Those first watching Michael Mann’s L.A. crime masterpiece should view it with a clean slate—and from then on dissect it in great detail, with all of its separate elements pulled apart to determine how they eventually came together to complete such an intricately constructed work of storytelling. Anything in between would seldom do this sprawling (yet taut) epic justice. Exploring the concept of the cop and the robber on opposite sides of the same coin is a premise that pretty much every crime drama has delved into in one way or another, yet Mann manages to create the dichotomy’s epitome. By implementing, with surgical precision, an impressively pure vision of a grand, boastful and larger-than-life crime story, Mann delivers a culmination of his previously tight, deliberately stylized work (namely, Thief and Manhunter). With its hauntingly cold cinematography, moody score, terrific performances by a slew of legendary stars and character actors (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer) and—let’s not forget—the mother of all cinematic shoot-outs in its center, it more than likely represents the peak of Mann’s ever-shifting career. —Oktay Ege Kozak
2. Da 5 BloodsYear: 2020
Director: Spike Lee
Stars: Clarke Peters, Delroy Lindo, Norman Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Chadwick Boseman, Jonathan Majors, Mélanie Thierry, Paul Walter Hauser, Jasper Pääkkönen, Jean Reno, Lê Y Lan, Johnny Trí Nguy?n
Rating: R
The hunt for buried gold neither ends well nor goes off without a hitch. The long road to reconciliation, whether with one’s trauma, family or national identity, is never without bumps. Glue these truths together with the weathering effects of institutional racism, add myriad references to history—American history, music history, film history—and you get Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, a classically styled Vietnam action picture made in his cinematic vision. As in 2018’s BlacKkKlansman, Lee connects the dots between past and present, linking the struggle for civil rights couched in conscientious objection and protest to contemporary America’s own struggle against state-sanctioned fascism. After opening with a montage of events comprising and figures speaking out against the Vietnam War, referred to predominantly as the American War throughout the rest of the movie, Lee introduces four of the five bloods: Otis (Clarke Peters), Paul (Delroy Lindo), Eddie (Norm Lewis) and Melvin (Isiah Whitlock Jr.), bonded Vietnam vets returned to Ho Chi Minh City ostensibly to find and recover the bones of their fallen squad leader, Norman (Chadwick Boseman). There’s more, of course, “more” being around $17 million in gold bars planted in Vietnamese soil, property of the CIA but reappropriated by the Bloods as reparations for their personal suffering as men fighting a war for a country governed by people who don’t care about their rights. Lee’s at the height of his powers when bluntly making the case that for as much time as has passed since the Vietnam War’s conclusion, America’s still stubbornly waging the same wars on its own people and, for that matter, the rest of the world. And Lee is still angry at and discontent with the status quo, being the continued oppression of Black Americans through police brutality, voter suppression and medical neglect. In this context, Da 5 Bloods’ breadth is almost necessary. As Paul would say: Right on. —Andy Crump
3. Reservoir DogsYear: 1992
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Edward Bunker, Quentin Tarantino
Genre: Thriller, crime drama
Rating: R
Reservoir Dogs‘ debut at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival launched not only the career of one Quentin Tarantino but an American indie genre unto itself characterized by extreme violence, profane dialogue, nonlinear storytelling and a curated soundtrack. Many have tried, but none of his imitators has achieved the visual and aural poetry at work in Tarantino’s oeuvre, particularly his magnum opus Pulp Fiction, upon whose release in 1994 newly minted fans went back to discover the aftermath of Mr. Blonde, Mr. Blue, Mr. Brown, Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink and Mr. White’s botched diamond heist (but not the heist itself). This is where it all began. —Annlee Ellingson
4. Fast FiveYear: 2011
Director: Justin Lin
Stars: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Dwayne Johnson, Matt Schulze, Sung Kang, Gal Gadot
Rating: PG-13
Early in Fast Five, director Justin Lin’s third film in the Fast & Furious—which just so happens to be the title of his previous film—franchise, U.S. Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (The Rock) reminds his team of elite operatives, “And above all else we don’t ever, ever let them get into cars.” Of course referring to a cadre of international outlaw thieves (?) led by Dominic Torretto (Vin Diesel) and ex-supercop Brian O’Conner (Paul Walker), Hobbs is the first character in the storied series to just come in and state all of the previous films’ subtext out loud: These people’s symbiotic connection to automobiles makes them superheroes. What Dominic Torretto would then insist: Their symbiotic relationship to each other makes them gods. Because the magic of the Fast & Furious movies, crystallized in Fast Five, is that it finally realizes that the logical next step from a powerful relationship between man and machine is a powerful relationship between man and machine and man, everything operating in ultra-rare synergy down to the laws of physics, which bend to the will of our titular crew. Stealing $100 million but causing so much more in public property damage—it’s OK as long as a drug lord suffers most. Which he does, after Dom and Brian drag a multi-ton safe through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, reality at their mercy, justice (existential and cosmic) on their side. Fast Five isn’t stupid—it’s the savviest movie in the bunch, the cornerstone of the series’ mega-success—just extremely comparable to Vin Diesel’s body: Over-big, over-blunt and wielded with the overwhelming belief that the world revolves around it. When something’s got this much mass, it grows its own gravity. —Dom Sinacola
5. Army of ThievesYear: 2021
Director: Matthias Schweighöfer
Stars: Matthias Schweighöfer, Nathalie Emmanuel, Stuart Martin, Guz Khan, Ruby O. Fee, Jonathan Cohen
Rating: TV-MA
Army of the Dead is a film full of pleasant surprises, but Matthias Schweighöfer, playing a German safecracker with a hair-trigger for impassioned speeches about locks and bolts, is perhaps the most pleasant surprise of them all. The man has a twitchy sort of charm easily misidentified as “quirkiness.” In reality he’s well-mannered to a fault and polite to the point of timidity, but with one other propulsive quality buried beneath the affable veneer: Intensity. Everything Schweighöfer does in Army of the Dead is informed by a vigor belied by his nervousness. He’s a squirrely burglar, quivering one moment over flesh-eating ghouls and doing a heroic sacrifice the next. This intensity carries over into Army of Thieves, the prequel film to Army of the Dead, where Schweighöfer replaces Zack Snyder in the director’s chair. To allay any fears that Schweighöfer might copy Snyder’s style, don’t worry: Schweighöfer is not Zack Snyder, because nobody is. Everything that singled out Schweighöfer’s work under Snyder’s guidance is infused into Army of Thieves on a molecular level, as if he managed to get his hands on Shay Hatten’s screenplay and bleed all over its pages. Army of Thieves replaces the doom, gloom and zombie chaos with deep-rooted joy, as if Schweighöfer, behind the camera, can scarcely believe he’s directing a film this big established by a filmmaker like Snyder. It’s impossible to resist that sort of bubbly, crackling enthusiasm, which makes Army of Thieves’ predictable elements easier to countenance. —Andy Crump
6. Dragged Across ConcreteYear: 2019
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Stars: Mel Gibson, Vince Vaughn, Tory Kittles, Michael Jai White, Jennifer Carpenter, Laurie Holden
Rating: R
Crooked cops Brett Ridgeman (Mel Gibson) and Anthony Lurasetti (Vince Vaughn) are suspended without pay, following a leaked video of them using excessive force when confronting a suspect. It’s not the first time they’ve had trouble playing by the albeit loose rules given to the police, but they chalk their penalty up to the latent scourge of “wokeness.” With both of them desperately hard up for cash, the pair team up to rob a professional thief. But things don’t quite go according to plan, cascading into a violent climax with a syndicate of assassins that also makes for the film’s most tense and awe-striking setpiece. S. Craig Zahler’s stark, slow filmmaking style crafts a brutal and merciless noir/exploitation drama that plays off of the perceived societal oppression towards white men against the dreaded Other in American society. But interpretation of the film’s reactionary politics aside, Dragged Across Concrete is an effective, pulpy crime thriller. —Brianna Zigler
7. Man on a LedgeYear: 2012
Director: Asger Leth
Stars: Sam Worthington, Elizabeth Banks, Ed Harris, Ed Burns, Jamie Bell, Génesis Rodriguez
Rating: PG-13
When promos for Man on a Ledge began showing up on screens large and small, it was tempting to write the film off as another tactless thriller for those dumb enough to pay for a ticket, another profit-turning trick of the trade. Fortunately, director Asger Leth’s new film is more than just its title. Man on a Ledge is a fun, creative and captivating story that seamlessly ties together multiple plot threads while presenting the audience with a fast-paced and genuinely funny script. From the outset, the movie, starring Sam Worthington and Elizabeth Banks, is both everything one might anticipate and yet not at all what one might expect. Within the first 10 minutes, Nick Cassidy (Worthington), a former NYPD officer and the film’s protagonist, is standing hundreds of feet above midtown New York on a ledge of the Roosevelt Hotel. Soon after, we learn Cassidy was sentenced to 25 years for having stolen the Monarch Diamond from David Englander (Ed Harris), a prominent and vicious businessman. Cassidy has maintained his innocence throughout the two years he’s already served but is slowly crumbling under the weight of being locked up. In a seemingly lucky turn of fortune, Cassidy escapes during his father’s funeral outside the prison walls—and the plan to prove his innocence is set in motion. What follows are multiple storylines that all revolve around the man on a ledge. Cassidy, along with his brother, Joey (Jamie Bell), and Joey’s girlfriend, Angie (Génesis Rodriguez), has planned an intricate plot during the past year to re-steal the Monarch Diamond from Englander. Despite its bland title, Man on a Ledge is an imaginative thriller that trades the head-scratching plot twists, gruesome fight scenes and desperate love affairs so typical of the genre these days for a really fun, well-written movie. And that, in this era of see-through titles, is still the best way to sell a story. —Chris French
8. One Piece Film: GoldYear: 2016
Director: Hiroaki Miyamoto
Stars: Mayumi Tanaka, Kazuya Nakai, Akemi Okamura, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hiroaki Hirata
Rating: TV-14
Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece series stands as one of the great juggernauts of modern anime. Since first premiering in 1997, the madcap adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his band of pirates have gone on to become one of the best-selling series of all time with over 380 million volumes of the manga sold as of last year. Starting One Piece can be an intimidating challenge for newcomers, what with manga currently ongoing at more than 100 volumes and its television adaptation numbering at more than 1,000 episodes to date, not to mention a dozen tie-in films thrown into the mix and a new live-action series on Netflix. Fortunately, One Piece Film: Gold is a pretty solid entry point for those looking to enjoy the series without having to devote hours to wading through reams of filler episodes and expository fluff. One Piece Film: Gold follows the Straw Hat crew as they encounter Gran Tesoro, a gigantic casino-themed ship made entirely of gold that serves as a luxury bastion for foolhardy criminals and billionaire aristocrats alike. Initially greeted as guests for their storied careers as successful pirates, Luffy and his compatriots are quickly ensnared in the machinations of Gild Tesoro, the ship’s flamboyant captain and chief entertainer. Conscripted into servitude to pay off an impossible debt or see one of their own executed, the Straw Hats instead devise a scheme to escape Gran Tesoro, free everyone imprisoned on the ship, and make off with a tidy sum of gold while doing it. —Toussaint Egan
9. Public EnemiesYear: 2009
Director: Michael Mann
Stars: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard
Rating: R
Public Enemies stars two of Hollywood’s strong leading men, actors of diametrically opposed styles, and they both take the job seriously. Johnny Depp isn’t impersonating any skunks or rock stars, and Christian Bale isn’t shouting needlessly or speaking in an unusually low register. They’re acting, they’re doing it well, and I only wish they’d been able to share the screen instead of stewing and smirking in two counter-posed worlds. Depp is bank robber John Dillinger, on the lam, and Bale is FBI agent Melvin Purvis, on the hunt. Rarely, but inevitably, the twain shall meet. The same could be said for Dillinger and his sweetheart Billie, a beautiful young woman, played by Marion Cotillard, whose sexy aura is only enhanced by a willingness to hitch her wagon to this gangster’s Ford Deluxe. She and Dillinger talk in a crowded, high-ceiling restaurant, but all the noise around them drops neatly away. For a moment, they float, just like in the movies. In a sense, that’s what the film is about: two bodies in a dance or in a tug of war that will eventually end in mud. Good guys vs. bad guys, sure, but also film vs. video, real life vs. the movies, free will vs. determinism, tainted glory vs. tainted glory. The story in Public Enemies has already been told, sometimes in films more exciting but rarely more thoughtful than this one. —Robert Davis
10. WheelmanYear: 2017
Director: Jeremy Rush
Stars: Frank Grillo, Caitlin Carmichael, Garret Dillahunt, Shea Whigham
Rating: R
2017’s Netflix exclusive Wheelman is a brilliant case-study in cinematic minimalism. The barely 80-minutes long action/thriller hybrid stars Frank Grillo, one of the most underrated genre actors, as Wheelman—your everyday getaway driver with a heart of gold. Story counts for little here as the plot is nothing more than a mere vessel to usher Grillo’s Wheelman from stunt to stunt. Someone is double-crossed, someone is blamed and Wheelman’s family gets mixed up in some shady business. In turn, he sets off in his car to get to the bottom of it and save the ones he loves. From then on out, the film is in near constant motion as the camera almost never leaves the confines of Wheelman’s BMW. It is almost a one-man show for Grillo—think Locke but with a higher body count—and director/screenwriter Jeremy Rush’s decision to have the camera rarely leave the car really puts the viewer in the headspace of Grillo’s character, and the employment of medium and extreme close-ups always keeps the viewer in the metaphorical and physical action. Thus, every scene is filled with an underlying tension built from Grillo’s quiet, but strained performance paired with the genuine claustrophobic nature of remaining in the car’s interior. The car chase and action scenes are breathlessly intense due to the camerawork and practicality of the stunts themselves. The viewer sees, quite literally, what driver input goes into making a car drift and every impact on the car feels chunky and tangible as the camera bobs and shakes with every clash. Yet, Rush’s camera remains beautifully steady until it can’t be steady anymore. There is one moment that sold me on the film: Grillo’s Wheelman is idling in his BMW, revving the engine every now and then to keep it warm, and in a matter of seconds a gunfight erupts, blood sprays, bodies crash and fall and Grillo’s Wheelman puts his gun away as he catches his breath. The camera never leaves the car and the action is over in seconds. It is blunt, abrupt with no lead-up as the film employs a naturalistic soundscape and I quite literally jumped when the first random shot cracked the BMW’s windshield. Wheelman nearly falls apart in the end once plot reasons for Grillo out of his car and into a seemingly different, more generic film, but, overall, it is worth the ride. —Cole Henry
11. Deidra & Laney Rob a TrainYear: 2017
Director: Sydney Freeland
Stars: Rachel Crow, Ashleigh Murray, Sasheer Zamata, Tim Blake Nelson
Rating: TV-14
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train is a heart-melter. The film, like its two title characters, like its handful of supporting characters and like its director, has spunk, personality, a spark of vitality keeping its narrative humming from start to finish, but it takes its material as seriously as it needs to at the precise times when it needs to, as well. There’s a certain level of amorality here, as you might expect from a film about locomotive larceny, but submerged beneath the murky ethics of theft are currents of empathy: Freeland has constructed a judgment-free zone for telling the tale of sisters Deidra (Ashley Murray) and Laney Tanner (Rachel Crow), inspired toward criminal enterprise all in the name of family. It’s a caper, alright, but a caper that refuses to make light of the premise-shaping predicaments that shape its premise, a feat Freeland pulls off with casual brio. You get the feeling that there are lots of Deidras and Laneys out there who are constantly denied the chance to escape their circumstances, whether in backwater America or elsewhere, by the very institutions that are supposed to help them achieve. Deidra & Laney Rob a Train manages to address these ideas, without focusing on them. They remain in the background for the whole of the film, self-reinforced by the flow of Freeland’s plotting. This is appropriate for the sort of picture that Deidra & Laney Rob a Train wants to be: a romp, but a romp of substance and heart. —Andy Crump
12. Army of the DeadYear: 2021
Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Matthias Schweighofer, Nora Arnezeder, Tig Notaro, Ana de la Reguera
Rating: R
Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead is an oft-frustrating, occasionally entertaining, would-be zombie epic blockbuster, but one that frequently concerns itself more with the trappings of setting up future installments in a burgeoning new cinematic universe than making the most of its bloated runtime. The film does manage to deliver some truly gnarly zombie action and gore, particularly in its extremely Snyder-y opening credits sequence, which sees some of the stickiest and most bombastic zombie violence put on screen in recent memory. But Snyder’s inability to reign in his compulsions to tinker in strange visual ways, most notably via an obsession with shallow focus and obnoxious rack focus throughout Army of the Dead, becomes problematically distracting from what is otherwise supposed to be a high-octane Aliens ripoff. Army of the Dead might have been really fun if it was made by the same Zack Snyder who remade Dawn of the Dead years ago, but this one plays to many of his worst impulses. —Jim Vorel