There are 16 conventions you need to make a great heist movie. Today in part 2 of 3 we explore conventions 6-10…
This is Part 2 of 3: Conventions 6-10 [see below]
Part 3 of 3: Conventions 11-16
And the full ‘Anatomy Of A Heist’ Series is here: 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.
If you missed us last week we began walking through conventions 1-5. Today we continue our breakdown at #6…
6. A Twist Ending
I don’t know how to technically describe what a ‘twist’ is other than it leaves you saying ‘holy krap!’
The reason we consume stories of any kind is to experience an ending that is ‘surprising yet inevitable’[1] which is a general story telling principle for all types. But heists in particular have to take ‘surprising’ to the next level.
The twist for a heist can be executed in one of two ways:
1. Part of the hero’s plan has been hidden from the audience.
-or-
2. We know the plan but the hero has to improvise.[2]
‘Inevitable’ means that the surprise can’t just be something random. Puzzle pieces have to have been given previously, otherwise the audience won’t like it. This will be covered further in convention #9..
I think that option 2 above works better for action movies and I have a strong preference for option 1 in heists. So much so that I made it a stand-alone convention (see #16).
A master thief is always a step ahead.
7. Recruitment Of The Ensemble
The collection of the team is one of most enjoyable sequences in a heist and should occur within the first 25% of the film (Act 1).
That said, ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ remake did not have an ensemble yet is still one of the most enjoyable films in the genre, because it nailed everything else.
Crown is an outlier that shows us this one convention won’t make or break you but it is a big hurdle to make up.
8. The Ensemble Has Interesting Eclectic Expertise
Regarding said ensemble, merely having a group of guys or gals or they willing to shoot up a bank does not qualify (see Point Break).
The execution of the score needs to be dependent upon the combination of a unique set of talents. Since the purpose of heists is to give us heroes who operate outside the conventions of society the individuals on a stand-alone basis should definitely be experts but also a little wacky, eccentric, off.
And the collection montage has to highlight each members’ quirks.
The Usual Suspects (1995) is another case where the film is great for reasons outside the traditional heist conventions. The recruitment of the ensemble montage is nothing to write home about - it’s simply the cops picking up the guys as they are just going about their daily lives (eating dinner, walking down the street).
The Ocean’s 11 (2001) roundup however, (our #1 flick in the genre) sets the bar for this convention as it consists of Clooney and Pitt traveling around finding each member immersed in their specialty (gadgetry, acrobatics, antics, and all around laughs).
9. Collection Of Heist Tools Are Scattered Throughout The Plot
Ok, back to making it ‘surprising yet inevitable’, we have to be shown bits and pieces throughout the story that will enable the heist at the end.
Some of these are direct. During the preparation in Entrapment Mac (Sean Connery) and Gin (Catherine Zeta Jones) practice a slew of skills they will need for the score. The mock laser field is the exact security obstacle Gin will need to yoga her way through at the museum.
Additionally, they practice some skills that we have no idea how they’ll be implemented, like why do they need that giant airbag? We don’t know until the heist (it’s to quietly catch that huge square of concrete they blow out of the floor from below).
Perhaps most importantly, we need to witness skills and elements that we don’t even realize will be part of the heist at all.
Who would have guessed that when the Malloy Brothers in Ocean’s 11 (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) were screwing around racing supped up toy cars during the recruitment sequence that they would be using that skill in driving a decoy van via remote control during the finale.
10. Target Is Personified
One of the many differences between the original Ocean’s 11 (1960) and the remake (2001) is that Sinatra’s rat pack was robbing generic casino entities while Clooney had a specific person in mind, Terry Benedict, who also happened to own the Bellagio.
The heist is more than merely a story about taking stuff. It’s about standing up to something. Justice and revenge. Good versus evil requires a villain. It’s more fun to watch that than good verus <<insert neutral building containing a vault>>.
The Score (2001) is another example lacking a target. Robert DeNiro and Ed Norton team up to rob the Canadian embassy. This faceless government entity offers difficult tactical obstacles to overcome but we miss out on a personal conflict.
The inter-personal conflict in that movie exists but it focuses on the relationship between the thieves themselves. Internal strife takes away from one of the main reasons we love heists: ‘us against them’.
--
Tune in next week as we close out the list and cover conventions 11-16
Part 2 of 3: Conventions 6-10 [right here]
Part 3 of 3: Conventions 11-16
-
[1] I first heard of ‘surprising yet inevitable’ described from studying the teachings of David Mamet.
[2] In ‘Story Grid’ lexicon Shawn Coyne teaches us that the level of information the audience has in relation to the hero is called the ‘narrative drive’. The 3rd alternative is that the audience knows more than the hero (so, less, equal, or more are your three options). Look for this 3rd case while watching your next horror flick.
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?’