A Glean movie guide
The Art of the Double-Cross
Don't trust the plan.
Heist movies where the job is just the beginning of the deception.
Handpicked for this guide
The movie list
- 01
The Usual Suspects
A masterclass in unreliable narration that culminates in one of cinema’s most legendary reveals.
Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.
- 02
Inside Man
A high-stakes bank robbery where the true objective is hidden in plain sight until the final moments.
When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.
- 03
The Sting
Two charismatic grifters execute an elaborate 'long con' that keeps the audience guessing until the very end.
A novice con man teams up with an acknowledged master to avenge the murder of a mutual friend by pulling off the ultimate big con and swindling a fortune from a big-time mobster.
- 04
Inception
A mind-bending heist through nested dream layers where reality itself becomes the ultimate uncertainty.
Cobb, a skilled thief who commits corporate espionage by infiltrating the subconscious of his targets is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible: "inception", the implantation of another person's idea into a target's subconscious.
- 05
The Handmaiden
A lush, three-part puzzle of betrayal and shifting perspectives that redefines the con-artist genre.
1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.
- 06
Nine Queens
A sharp Argentinian thriller that proves the smallest swindles often hide the biggest deceptions.
Two con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps, the "nine queens".
- 07
Widows
A gritty, grounded heist that subverts expectations with a shocking mid-film revelation.
A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.
- 08
Logan Lucky
A deceptively simple 'hillbilly heist' that hides a brilliant secondary objective behind its blue-collar charm.
Trying to reverse a family curse, brothers Jimmy and Clyde Logan set out to execute an elaborate robbery during the legendary Coca-Cola 600 race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway.
- 09
Matchstick Men
A psychological con-artist drama where a personal discovery completely upends the stakes of the final job.
A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
- 10
Heist
A cold, calculated thriller filled with David Mamet’s signature double-crosses and professional precision.
Joe Moore has a job he loves. He's a thief. His job goes sour when he gets caught on security camera tape. His fence, Bergman, reneges on the money he's owed, and his wife may be betraying him with the fence's young lieutenant. Moore and his partner, Bobby Blane, and their utility man, Pinky Pincus, find themselves broke, betrayed, and blackmailed. Moore is forced to commit his crew to do one last big job.