The Best Heist Movies You Can Stream Right Now

Who doesn't love a good heist? The transgression of stealing something massively valuable -- diamonds, the contents of a casino vault, gold -- is accessible to the vast majority of the world only through film. Actually going out and robbing a bank with your closest pals, or knocking over a casino owned by the sleazy guy dating your ex, will most likely get you thrown in jail. Watching a heist movie remains a much safer past time, one that lets you feel cool without having to do anything illegal.

When done well, these movies can blend a number of genres, from action to comedy, in their pursuit of making a big score. So, the next time you're in the mood for a caper, check out the list below.

The Vietnam War left an entire generation of veterans and families permanently scarred, which often led to new wounds. This mid-90s gem tracks the life of one Vietnam vet who returns to his Bronx home and decides that his best option is to join up with some friends to rob an armored car. Spoiler: Things do not go as planned! While the crux of the movie centers on the armored-car heist, the heart of this movie lies in the tragedy of potential wiped out, and what it means to serve America if it doesn't serve you. 
Where to watch it: Stream on Amazon Prime or Hulu
 

If there's one thing you've probably heard about this often ridiculous bank robbery epic, it's that it steals shamelessly from Michael Mann's crime saga Heat, which you'll find below on this list. The broad plot elements are similar: There's a team of highly-efficient criminals led by a former Marine (Pabro Schreiber) and they must contend with a obsessive, possibly unhinged cop (Gerard Butler) over the movie's lengthy 140 minute runtime. What makes Den of Thieves oddly fascinating is that it feels like a bootleg T-shirt you'd buy for a band outside the venue, all garish and unconcerned with matters of good taste. A screenwriter helming a feature for the first time, Christian Gudegast is not in the same league as Mann as a filmmaker and Butler, sporting unflattering tattoos and a barrel-like gut, is hardly Al Pacino. But everyone is really going for it here, attempting to squeeze every ounce of Muscle Milk from the bottle. You might respect the hustle.
Where to watch it:Stream on Netflix

Dog Day Afternoon is a movie that vibrates with the energy of a city on the brink of exploding. In telling the story of a real-life New York bank robbery, director Sidney Lumet captures more than just the inherent tension between Al Pacino's stressed-out Sonny and the put-upon citizens trapped inside the bank with him. The movie also pulls back enough to capture the media circus, the community uproar, and the law enforcement response without losing sight of the human drama at the center. There's a reason almost every bank robbery movie since has stolen liberally from this one.
Where to watch it:Stream on HBO Max

The appeal is simple: What if The Fast and Furious were more like Ocean's Eleven? What if the ending involved the theft of a bank vault getting pulled by Dom and Brian's cars with cables and tossed around the streets of Brazil like a vengeful Rubik's Cube? And, uh, what if The Rock wore a tiny Under Armour shirt, carried a huge gun, and said "son of a bitch" a bunch? If you're a certain type of idiot, the answer to all these questions is: "Inject that shit in my veins right now." By pivoting into heist-caper territory, opening up the series to bigger stars, and plucking the most charming cast members from the previous films, director Justin Lin and Fast series writer Chris Morgan (who's penned every entry since Tokyo Drift) made their magnum opus here, an exploding Hot Wheels play-set of juvenile comedy, lunkheaded melodrama, and eyebrow-singing action.
Where to watch it: Stream on HBO Max

Penned by Monty Python alum John Cleese, A Fish Called Wanda is the kind of wacky, high-concept comedy that just doesn't get made anymore. Centered around a diamond heist and the insane number of double-crosses it spawns, this Jamie Lee Curtis-starring film is British-American crossover humor at its very best. If you have a problem with (fake) animal death, be warned: There's a lot of it. 
Where to watch it: Stream on HBO Go and HBO Max

AHHHHHH, NIC CAGE HAS TO STEAL 50 INSANELY VALUABLE CARS IN 72 HOURS!!! Can he do it? Plot isn't really the point in this mostly cookie-cutter action film, but a killer cast -- Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Robert Duvall, VINNIE JONES -- and, of course, the absurd stunt work, elevate clichés to classic status. Seriously, this movie is about a virtuoso former car thief gone straight who's pulled out of retirement for one last job to save his little brother. Naturally, he assembles the best damn crew possible to make it happen. Just turn your brain off and enjoy. 
Where to watch it: Stream on Amazon Prime

Michael Mann's three-hour action-thriller is about the personal and professional lives of cops and criminals, but it's really about putting two powerhouses, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, in the same room and seeing what happens. In the beginning of the end, Pacino's Lt. Vincent Hanna and De Niro's Neil McCauley confront at one of Los Angeles' most famous restaurants, Kate Mantilini, creating a nucleus in which an epic showdown can form around. The duality of human instincts is on full display as the two outrun one another -- literally, in the film's final footchase shootout. Heat is not good. It is Biblically Awesome.
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

The rootin', tootin', consideratin' modern Western follows bank-robbing brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) looking to save their family farm from foreclosure while sticking it to The Man. Hot on their tails is a soon-to-retire sheriff (Jeff Bridges) and his partner, who engage in their own morality dialectic as they drive deeper into the Texas heartland. Hell or High Water has shoot-outs and car chases -- the slickest you'll see this year -- but it's in diner conversations and pickup-truck small talk where Mackenzie finds a beating heart, economic depression as the greatest equalizer. The material turns villains into heroes, heroes into villains, and simple characters into some of the actors' best performances to date.
Where to watch it:Rent on Amazon Prime

Denzel Washington is at his wily, sharp, and sharply dressed best as he teams up once again with Spike Lee for this wildly entertaining heist thriller. He's an NYPD hostage negotiator who discovers a whole bunch of drama when a crew of robbers (led by Clive Owen) takes a bank hostage during a 24-hour period. The mystery gets even weirder when it appears as though there was no heist at all, and Jodie Foster shows up as an interested party with uncertain motivations. You'll have to figure out what's going on several times over before the truth outs. 
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

This might be the only film in which A-listers are overshadowed by an itty-bitty car: once you arrive at The Italian Job's stunning MINI Cooper car chase, you'll forget all about Mark Wahlberg and Charlize Theron. Though not a faithful remake, F. Gary Gray's fast-paced update of the 1969 Michael Caine-starring heist flick is stylish as hell, with Donald Sutherland leading the ragtag robber crew this time around. Seth Green, Yasiin Bey (the artist formerly known as Mos Def), Jason Statham, and Edward Norton round out the all-star team -- though one of those partners in crime turns out to be a dirty double-crosser. Sure, The Italian Job is a predictable one, but what it lacks in depth, it makes up for with plenty of flash.
Where to watch it:Rent on Amazon Prime

For all their blood, guts, and mayhem, the best Quentin Tarantino movies are love stories. Functioning as both a savvy blaxploitation riff and a tender tribute to QT’s literary hero Elmore Leonard, Jackie Brown follows Pam Grier’s flight attendant title character and a weary bondsman, played with a knowing twinkle in his eye by Robert Forster, as they plot a convoluted scheme to run off with half a million. The two slowly fall for each other while outsmarting an endless barrage of con men, wise guys, and dumbasses, and while it may lack the flash and formal audacity of some of his bigger hits, Jackie Brown is undoubtedly Tarantino’s most human movie, an empathetic character portrait from an artist who often gets unfairly pegged as a sadist. And, damn, is there a movie with a better final shot?
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

Steven Soderbergh, the mastermind behind the Ocean's franchise, possess Danny Ocean's keen sense of operation and attention to detail (no one shoots mundane insert shots quite like him). With Logan Lucky, the filmmaker gifts those of us without bespoke tuxedo collections the heist movie we deserve: a bluesy, Southern-fried, NASCAR-set bank job where pick-ups do the heavy-lifting, gummy bears and cleaning solution make the vaults go boom, and blue collars are worn with pride. No one believes Jimmy and Clyde Logan (Channing Tatum and Adam Driver), known around West Virginia for their bad luck "curse," could rob the Coca-Cola 600 race. How they stick it to the naysayers is one of the most pure-fun times you'll have on a random movie night. 
Where to watch it:Stream on Amazon Prime

This long-delayed heist farce from director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) finally came out... and critics didn't go for it. But Masterminds is must-see for fans of Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Zach Galifianakis, filled with no shortage of surreality and so-dumb-it's-fun humor to offset the unfortunate tale of David Ghantt, idiot bank supervisor. In other words: Come for the robbery antics, stay for the bizarre turns, like these insane engagement pics.
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

Steven Soderbergh (Logan Lucky, Traffic) polished every square-inch of this 1960 Rat Pack remake. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, and the rest of the star-studded cast blow past the charisma singularity as they execute the greatest caper in film history, which weaves together acrobatics, EMPs, and Danny Ocean's punchable face before walking away with millions in cash. Sequels took bizarre turns (Ocean's Twelve) and derivative stumbles, but this cool-as-ice trilogy-starter remains the heist movie to beat -- as a bonus, however, you can still catch the two sequels on Netflix.
Where to watch it: Stream on Netflix

Pitched somewhere between fan letter and true crime, this loving tribute to '70s cinema transforms a real life tale of bank robberies and prison escapes, written about in the pages of The New Yorker by journalist David Grann, into a sly showcase for its aging star, Robert Redford. As geriatric felon Forrest Tucker, the former Sundance Kid gets to lay on the charm in his signature low-key manner, flirting with bank tellers and building a relationship with his no-nonsense love interest Jewel (Sissy Spacek), and director David Lowery shoots it all in a grainy, nostalgic style that stops just short of coming off as too precious. Even when the movie feels like it might float away, you want to float with it.
Where to watch it:Rent on Amazon Prime

Quentin Tarantino’s debut is all talk, and mostly bullshit, spewing from the mouths of knuckleheads who just screwed up the diamond heist of a lifetime. Unencumbered by Hollywood’s rules, Tarantino deconstructs masculinity through monologue, standoffs, and the literal removal of body parts (the now-legendary ear scene deserves that status). Speaking of ears, Tarantino has one; the "tipping" scene alone is an apogee of crude, poetic vernacular. Reservoir Dogs will always feel primordial, an introduction to the writer-director's isms and a kickoff for endless imitators.
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

Before he led his buddies into a casino to rob it blind, George Clooney led his buddies into Iraq to steal a shitload of gold following the Gulf War. David O. Russell's madcap direction captures the lawless deserts of post-war Iraq, where Clooney's Major Archie Gates enlists the assistance of three other soldiers (played by Mark Wahlberg, Ice Cube, and Spike Jonze) to track down gold supposedly stolen from Kuwait. As in most heist movies, the plan does not go quite as well as anyone hopes, a problem exacerbated by crisscrossing Iraqi soldiers and rebels with competing interests. Think of it as the action-packed companion piece to Jarhead -- boredom leads to strange behavior when soldiers are dropped into a foreign desert. 
Where to watch it: Rent on Amazon Prime

Before he won an Oscar for directing Argo, Ben Affleck flexed his crime-movie muscles with this pulse-pounding adaptation of Chuck Hogan's novel Prince of Thieves, a Boston-set caper that builds to a robbery at Fenway Park. While the premise might sound over-the-top, the execution here is the ideal combination of grit and flash, bouncing between scenes of working-class melodrama and bullet-strewn action. Affleck's no-nonsense, ex-hockey-player thief works with his hot-head best friend (Jeremy Renner) to pull off big scores, but the group finds themselves pursued by a determined FBI agent (Jon Hamm) who tracks them across the city. As far as Heat tributes go, this one is top-notch.
Where to watch it:Stream on Netflix

Theft powers the moral universe of daily Chicago life we see in Widows: innocent lives are snuffed out by gunfire; public resources are funneled through nefarious means; land rites and business arrangements are finessed by ruthless violence and political favor-trading; and, to top it off, there's a carefully planned heist at the center of the story. The makeshift gang formed by former teachers union rep Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) after her master thief husband (Liam Neeson) is killed in a robbery-gone-wrong is a joy to root for and the script, which McQueen adapted from an '80s British television series with novelist Gillian Flynn, is tricked out with pulpy flourishes, genuinely surprising plot twists, and caustic wit to spare. In an era of over-praised TV series that could afford to lose an episode (or eight), this sprawling and tough-minded crime saga knows just how to get out when the heat is around the corner.  
Where to watch it:Rent on Amazon
 

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