There are 16 conventions you need to make a great heist movie. Today in part 3 of 3 we explore conventions 11-16…
[Cover Image: Warner Bros. from https://www.wallpaperflare.com/search?wallpaper=movies+inception]
Part 3 of 3: Conventions 11-16 (see below)
Full Series: charleskunken.com/season4
The LIST
This is the breakdown of the 41 films conducted during the research project, subjectively ranked best to worst from top to bottom then mapped to the 16 conventions. The green boxes indicate the conventions met for each one.
11. The Cat Is Personified
The baseline expectation of a heist is that our heroes are trying to steal something. But a surprising number of films fail to take advantage of a key conflict: having an actual character trying to stop them.
Many heists simply fall back on a generic security element surrounding the cheese. This robs the story of an extremely delicious potential element.
This is one aspect where Logan Lucky (2017), also a Steve Soderbergh film fell short of his masterpiece Ocean’s 11 (2001).
As Channing Tatum (Jimmy Logan) and Daniel Craig (Joe Bang) go about robbing the Charlotte Motor Speedway they aren’t pitted against any specific villain, they’re just thwarting the standard security element at the track. It isn’t until 81% that we get an actual character on their tail, which is after the robbery has already taken place. Granted, Hilary Swank is an excellent investigator it’s too little, too late.
Heat (1995) on the other hand, is the best example of cat and mouse there is. As the tension builds the plot actually brings Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, detective and criminal, respectively, face to face over coffee in a diner. It’s delicious. We get to see cat and mouse lay out just why by the end of the flick only one of them is going to be alive. They part ways and it carries out. Really juicy stuff.
Now we can’t move on, of course without addressing our favorite, Ocean’s 11 (2001). In this one casino owner Terry Benedict, plays both the target and the cat, manning the security station of his casino throughout the movie.
I’m not saying the cat has to be the same as the target, although it worked well there, but the cat should definitely know that the mouse is coming.
And when all else fails feel free to include a scene with Pacino and De Niro having a coffee.
12. Iconic Scenes
This convention is related to how the classics are marketed and remembered. It’s an artistic scene within the context of a good story.
Think of the poster image from The Usual Suspects:
Image: Gramercy Pictures from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114814/
Or Paris folding in half in Inception:
Image: Warner Bros. from https://www.hotels-paris-rive-gauche.com/blog/2010/07/27/inception-paris-caprio-nolan-visit-sets/
The iconic scene can’t fix your bad movie but capturing the essence of a story in a single frame is a work of art within a work of art. It provides a nice tidy package that places the memory squarely in the hearts and minds of the audience just like…well, an inception.
13. A Clever/Interesting Heist Sequence
This might seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many films actually miss it.
The promise in a heist is that we are going to get to see a puzzle unfold. Cleverness is valued over gall. Magicians over daredevils. Something that leaves you feeling like how did they think of that?
Where problems arise is when the producer thinks all you need to do is storm a bank with some guns.
Now, there are a few shoot-em-ups in the tier 1 category of our study (such as The Usual Suspects or Heat) but what I’ll say about those is that the elements that make those movies great are actually conventions outside the heist genre. The titles get classified as heists because they happen to have robberies, but actually they are stories about relationships.
If you don’t have complex robberies you have to get the drama correct. Heat and Suspects know that their heist sequences are simple and they do exactly that.
14. A Good Enough B-Plot
This is the flip side of the previous convention.
So as we alluded to, in a classic drama the B-plot carries the theme. For example, Titanic (1997), on it’s surface (sorry for the pun) is a story about a sinking ship. The b-plot of Rose and Leo carries the controlling idea[1]: unconditional love endures. That’s what we go home remembering. Similarly in Heat, we go home thinking about the link between Pacino and De Niro.
But in a classic heist, the score is equivalent of the sinking ship. The A-plot is the thing we came to see. We want to see the magician in action. The B-plot does not have to make us cry.
That said, the B-plot does still have to be ‘good enough’.
Let’s look at Logan Lucky (2017) again. In this film our hero, Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum) sparks up a love interest with an old high school friend at around 31% but she ends up having nothing to do with the score or any of the side plots. Now, I don’t think she should have been eliminated from the script because it would have been nice if a little romance was tied in with the heist. It gives the story that extra drive that has us rooting for the hero for reasons beyond merely getting away with the cash.
But her involvement in this film was more confusing than compelling.
Luckily for Logan the A-plot was really fun, which keeps this movie as a tier 1. Which goes to show they nailed the part they needed to get right.
15. Characters We Love
It’s no surprise that Ocean’s 11 (2001) contains the best reference to the rules for creating heist characters we love. That’s why it’s best in class.
Don't hurt anybody, don't steal from anyone who doesn't deserve it and play the game like you've got nothing to lose. -Danny Ocean
Now that’s something I would embroider on a pillow.
Heists must contain heroes. This means characters we have sympathy for.
This is done by projecting low status, meaning even though they are the best they don’t think they’re better than others…and they put those who do in their place.
They are people we can relate to. People like us. Part of the 99%.
Unless of course, they’re Thomas Crown. But he’s alright ;)
16. Part Of The Plan Is Hidden From The Audience
This is an extra note I felt compelled to add on top of convention #6, ‘The Twist Ending’.
I could say a lot but will sum it up with this: we like heists for the same reason we like magicians.
But in the end we get to see how they made their trick.
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And that wraps up our 16 conventions!
I hope this was informative, and I hope it will help you better plan your next heist.
We’ll be back next week with ‘THE HEIST AWARDS’, where we take our 41 films and tell you which ones win our prizes for things like: ‘Best/Worst Actor’, ‘Best Wing Man’, ‘Best Man or Pig On A Ledge’, ‘Best Masks’, and many, many more Stay tuned...
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[1] ‘Controlling Idea’ is storygrid lexicon for the big takeaway: https://storygrid.com/the-big-takeaway/
Have some thoughts? Feel free to drop a comment or hit me up: charlie@charleskunken.com
Other Posts In The Anatomy Of A Heist Series
The Skytalkers podcast recently aired an episode in which they ran Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) through the heist tracker - the one we made together during paternity leave ;) charleskunken.com/blog/the-anatomy-of-a-heist-the-16-conventions-part-1-of-3).
Star Wars plus heists? Yea…we just had to take this inspiration from our friends at Skytalkers and contribute our own ‘Milk in The Matrix version of ‘is Solo a heist film?’