Best Robbery Movies
Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of robbery cinema — measured across 3,487 indexed frames from 44 films, against a 408,752-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.
Robbery films over-index on handgun, cowboy hat and neon sign — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.
- 1
The Getaway (1972)
Sam PeckinpahDP Lucien BallardIMDb 7.3TMDB 7.1See in full on FrameThrower →
Carter "Doc" McCoy is a career robber, currently in his fourth year of a 10-year prison sentence at the Texas State Penitentiary. After his request for parole is denied although he's a model prisoner, Doc, unable emotionally to endure life inside, asks his loving wife Carol McCoy to contact crooked businessman Jack Beynon, a man with political connections, to secure his release in return for being "for sale" to Beynon. Beynon is able to get Doc released, the sale price being for Doc to plan and execute a robbery at a small bank branch in Beacon City, Texas where Beynon knows that $750,000 will be kept in the vault for the next two weeks. Rather than Doc using his own men for the job, Beynon directs that the only other people involved will be the men of his own choosing, Rudy and Frank. There are to be no casualties, which is all right with Doc who is not a murderer. After the robbery is completed and the monies divvied up accordingly, Doc and Carol will cross the border into Mexico to live out their lives away from capture. The robbery doesn't go according to Doc's plan, and Doc and Carol go on the run making their way into Mexico with their share of the loot. Various people are in their pursuit, some who know that they will try to cross into Mexico at one of the two major West Texas border crossings. Other bystanders get directly or indirectly involved in the proceedings; two of those people, seeming straight-laced couple Fran and Harold Clinton, get much more intimately involved than the others. Though it all, Doc and Carol must work through some of their own issues, which arise out of a revelation about Doc's release from prison.
- 2
Baby Driver (2017)
Edgar WrightDP Bill PopeIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.4See in full on FrameThrower →
Baby is a young and partially hearing impaired getaway driver who can make any wild move while in motion with the right track playing. It's a critical talent he needs to survive his indentured servitude to the crime boss, Doc, who values his role in his meticulously planned robberies. However, just when Baby thinks he is finally free and clear to have his own life with his new girlfriend, Debora, Doc coerces him back for another job. Now saddled with a crew of thugs too violently unstable to keep to Doc's plans, Baby finds himself and everything he cares for in terrible danger. To survive and escape the coming maelstrom, it will take all of Baby's skill, wits and daring, but even on the best track, can he make it when life is forcing him to face the music?
- 3
Thelma & Louise (1991)
Ridley ScottDP Adrian BiddleIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →
Louise is working in a diner as a waitress and has some problems with her boyfriend Jimmy, who, as a musician, is always on the road. Thelma is married to Darryl who likes his wife to stay quiet in the kitchen so that he can watch football on TV. One day they decide to break out of their normal life and jump in the car and hit the road. Their journey, however, turns into a flight when Louise kills a man who threatens to rape Thelma. They decide to go to Mexico, but soon they are hunted by American police.
- 4
Killing Them Softly (2012)
Andrew DominikDP Greig FraserIMDb 6.2TMDB 6.0See in full on FrameThrower →
Three amateurs stickup a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse. Brad Pitt plays the hitman hired to track them down and restore order.
- 5
Spring Breakers (2012)
Harmony KorineDP Benoît DebieIMDb 5.3TMDB 5.3See in full on FrameThrower →
Brit, Candy, Cotty, and Faith have been best friends since grade school. They live together in a boring college dorm and are hungry for adventure. All they have to do is save enough money for spring break to get their shot at having some real fun. A serendipitous encounter with rapper "Alien" promises to provide the girls with all the thrill and excitement they could hope for. With the encouragement of their new friend, it soon becomes unclear how far the girls are willing to go to experience a spring break they will never forget.
- 6
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Wes AndersonDP Robert D. YeomanIMDb 6.9TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →
Upon his release from a mental hospital following a nervous breakdown, the directionless Anthony joins his friend Dignan, who seems far less sane than the former. Dignan has hatched a hare-brained scheme for an as-yet-unspecified crime spree that somehow involves his former boss, the (supposedly) legendary Mr. Henry. With the help of their pathetic neighbor and pal Bob, Anthony and Dignan pull a job and hit the road, where Anthony finds love with motel maid Inez. When our boys finally hook up with Mr. Henry, the ensuing escapade turns out to be far from what anyone expected.
- 7
Heat (1995)
Michael MannDP Dante SpinottiIMDb 8.3TMDB 7.9See in full on FrameThrower →
Hunters and their prey--Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big 'retirement' score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor--'Never have anything in your life that you can't walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner'--as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending....
- 8
American Graffiti (1973)
George LucasDP Jan D'AlquenIMDb 7.4TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →
It's the proverbial end of the summer 1962 in a small southern California town. It's the evening before best friends and recent high school graduates, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, are scheduled to leave town to head to college back east. Curt, who received a lucrative local scholarship, is seen as the promise that their class holds. But Curt is having second thoughts about leaving what Steve basically sees as their dead end town. Curt's beliefs are strengthened when he spots an unknown beautiful blonde in a T-bird who mouths the words "I love you" to him. As Curt tries to find that blonde while trying to get away from a local gang who have him somewhat hostage, Curt may come to a decision about his immediate future. Outgoing class president Steve, on the other hand, wants to leave, despite meaning that he will leave girlfriend, head cheerleader and Curt's sister, Laurie Henderson, behind. Steve and Laurie spend the evening "negotiating" the state of their relationship. Meanwhile, two of their friends cruise around town for the evening. Steve has left his car to meek and mild-mannered Terry "Toad" Fields to look after during his absence. The wheels give Toad a new sense of confidence, which he uses to try and impress Debbie Dunham, a more experienced girl generally out of his league. And John Milner, who is seen as the king of the street race in his souped-up yellow deuce coupe, tries to get rid of precocious pre-teen, Carol Morrison, who has somehow become his passenger for the evening, while dealing with the challenge of bold out-of-towner, Bob Falfa.
- 9
Duck, You Sucker (1971)
Sergio LeoneDP Giuseppe RuzzoliniIMDb 7.5TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →
Packed with sticks of dynamite, Irish rebel and explosives expert John H. Mallory finds himself in Revolution-torn 1913 Mexico, on the run from the British government. Riding a dusty, V-twin Indian motorcycle, John crosses paths with short-fused Mexican bandit Juan Miranda and his gun-toting family of outlaws, and before long, his expertise in explosives becomes evident. Now, bent on putting Mallory's skills to good use, devious Juan forms an uneasy partnership with John to rob the impregnable Mesa Verde National Bank. Instead, what seemed like an unmissable opportunity to get rich becomes a trap, enmeshing the unlikely duo in the Revolution, having no other choice but to fight together with the troops of Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata against the evil Colonel Günther Reza. Can John's dynamite get them out of the tight spot?
- 10
U-Turn (1997)
Oliver StoneDP Robert RichardsonIMDb 6.7TMDB 6.6See in full on FrameThrower →
When Bobby's car breaks down in the desert while on the run from some of the bookies who have already taken two of his fingers, he becomes trapped in the nearby small town where the people are stranger than anyone he's encountered. After becoming involved with a (unbeknownst to him) young married woman, her husband hires Bobby to kill her. Later, she hires Bobby to kill the husband.
What robbery films are made of
How much more often each element appears in a robbery frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — handgun is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.
- handgun3.6×
- cowboy hat3.4×
- neon sign2.5×
- sunglasses2.4×
- steering wheel2.2×
- mustache2.0×
- hat1.9×
- car1.9×
How robbery films are shot
Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate robbery from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.
- 85%eye levelvs 69% baseline
What breaks the pattern
Dancer in the Dark (2000) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.
Method
Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 3,487 frames from 44 films carrying the robbery label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (408,752 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.
Machine-readable: /api/list/robbery
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