How to Rob a BankMovies like How to Rob a Bank
- Key Features:
- Bank robbery, Hostage situation, Slacker, Comedy, Crime, Underdog, Situational humor, Suspense
- Tone:
- suspense-driven, witty
- Target Audience:
- Crime comedy fans, Suspense lovers, Quirky humor
- Emotional Arc:
- Anxiety → Humor → Resolution
How to Rob a Bank

Caught in the middle of a bank robbery, a slacker and a bank employee become the ones who arbitrate the intense situation.
How to Rob a Bank
In this true-crime documentary, a charismatic rebel in 1990s Seattle pulls off an unprecedented string of bank robberies straight out of the movies.

Three mischievous employees of a bank in a small deserted town all make plans to rob it at the same time, however none of them knows about the others.

After getting screwed over by life (again), two losers decide that enough is enough. Using stolen ski masks and stolen toy guns, they take hostages in their local bank, holding them for ransom. Things go well until the hostages learn what's going on, and demand a piece of the action for themselves.

After losing their respective nest eggs thanks to a bumbling bank employee, three men use him to plot a bold and batty heist to get their money back.

A bank heist descends into violent chaos when one of the hostages turns out to be a serial killer. Trapping the well-organized team of bank robbers in the building, the killer is now picking them off one by one.

Four tuxedo clad men show up at a penitentiary to meet a friend who has just been released after three years in prison and is going straight from the jail to marry his girlfriend. En route to the wedding, one of the men asks to stop by a bank to pick up some cash. As it turns out, he is a wanted bank robber who uses Shakespeare passages during his robberies and thus has become known as "Hamlet". Soon all five men are caught up in the bank and involved in the robbery as they end up in a hostage situation. The hostage negotiator shows up who turns out to be Hamlet's father.

A broke mechanic turns a bank loan denial into an impromptu robbery that puts him on the run with his best friend and a starlet they hold hostage.

A charming but ruthless criminal holds the family of a bank manager hostage as part of a cold-blooded plan to steal £90,000.

A man caught in the middle of two simultaneous robberies at a bank desperately tries to protect the teller with whom he's secretly in love.

Desperate for money and running out of options, Marine veteran Brian Brown-Easley holds several people hostage inside a bank, setting the stage for a tense confrontation with police.

An NYPD hostage negotiator teams up with a federal agent to rescue dozens of tourists held hostage during a 10-hour seige at the U.S. Federal Reserve.

After a failed bank robbery, an ex-con, an ex-waitress and a few of their friends train a pack of doberman dogs to rob a bank for them.

With the aid of his girlfriend, Phyllis Potter, and best friend, Loomis, Grimm enters a Manhattan bank dressed as a clown, creates a hostage situation and executes a flawless robbery. The only thing left for the trio to do is make their getaway out of the city and to the airport. It sounds simple enough, but it seems that fate deserts them immediately after the bank heist. One mishap after another conspires to keep these robbers from reaching freedom.

Roper, a hostage negotiator catches a murderous bank robber after a blown heist. The bank robber escapes and immediately goes after the man who put him behind bars.

A thief expert with blowtorch is hired by a group of the Russian mob for a bank assault.

After escaping from prison, Joe and Terry go on a crime spree, robbing banks through Oregon and California in order to finance their scheme for a new life south of the border. Unfortunately, things get more complicated when they meet Kate, who runs into them with her car. She joins the bandits on their cross-country spree, and eventually she steals something, too: their hearts.

Two estranged sisters are forced to rob a bank in order to save their brother. But this is no ordinary bank.

Valencia, Spain. On a rainy morning, six armed men in disguise assault a bank. But what seemed like an easy heist, quickly goes wrong with nothing unfolding as planned, and mistrust quickly builds between the two leaders of the gang.

After pulling off a bank robbery two bandits meet in a deserted mining town to divide their loot but an old miner tries to steal it from them.

A bank robber tries to turn himself in because he's falling in love and wants to live an honest life...but when he realizes the Feds are more corrupt than him, he must fight back to clear his name.

Virgil Starkwell is intent on becoming a notorious bank robber. Unfortunately for Virgil and his not-so-budding career, he is completely incompetent.

A deranged prison warden with a nasty habit of killing escapees forces the boyfriends of his teenage twin daughters into a shotgun wedding, after they claim to be pregnant. All hope seems lost, until the husbands hatch a madcap plan to rob a money train to freedom.

Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and advise him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else...

When Banker Till (Axel Stein) is kidnapped during a bank robbery, he has the time of his life...

A Romanian police officer teams up with a small crew of bank robbers to pull off a heist by convincing everyone at the scene of the crime that they are only filming a movie.

A criminal mastermind recruits a group of young bank employees to steal 80 million dollars in one of the largest bank heist in US history.

After their bank heist goes wrong, a desperate criminal, his out-of-control brother, and their motley crew of ex-marines must escape New Orleans, United States.

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.

An untraceable group of elite bank robbers is chased by a suicidal FBI agent who uncovers a deeper purpose behind the robbery-homicides.

A straight-laced bank manager is about to marry the love of his life. When his bank is held up by infamous Ghost Bandits during his wedding week, he believes his future in-laws who just arrived in town, are the infamous Out-Laws.

A champion marathoner leads a double life as a serial bank robber, sprinting between fixes (and away from police cavalcades) as many as three times a day.

A bank security expert plots with a call girl to rob the safety deposit boxes of three very different criminals from a high-tech bank in Hamburg.

In 2006, a group of thieves performed what is considered one of the most famous and smart bank heists in the history of Argentina. How they robbed the Rio bank is as surprising as what happened afterwards. This is their story.

Bank robber Kalle Grabowski escapes from prison while his unemployed smalltime crook buddy is sitting around doing nothing after he just lost all their money. A fast paced comedy from German director Peter Thorwarth.

After a bank job goes badly wrong, three desperate criminals take a young woman and a father and child hostage - it's the beginning of a frantic and violent road trip that not all of them will survive.

A loser of a crook and his wife strike it rich when a botched bank job's cover business becomes a spectacular success.

Two brothers, both with troubled paths, find themselves in the middle of one last bank job.

In Seattle, detective Quentin Conners is unfairly suspended and his partner Jason York leaves the police force after a tragic shooting on Pearl Street Bridge, when the hostage and the criminal die. During a bank heist with a hostage situation, Conners is assigned in charge of the operation with the rookie Shane Dekker as his partner. The thieves, lead by Lorenz, apparently do not steal a penny from the bank. While chasing the gangsters, the police team disclose that they planted a virus in the system, stealing one billion dollars from the different accounts, using the principle of the Chaos Theory. Further, they find that Lorenz is killing his accomplices.

Hoping to foil his own gold-digging wife's plan, a loathsome businessman arranges his own kidnapping, only to realize that there are plenty of other people interested in his wealth as well.

A seasoned team of bank robbers, including Gordon Jennings, John Rahway, A.J., and brothers Jake and Jesse Attica successfully complete their latest heist and lead a life of luxury while planning their next job. When Ghost, a former member of their team, is released from prison he convinces the group to strike an armored car carrying $20 million. As the "Takers" carefully plot out their strategy and draw nearer to exacting the grand heist, a reckless police officer inches closer to apprehending the criminals.

A good looking female social welfare worker makes Egon Olsen forget about crimes for some time, but when an American gangster breaks into a local bank and the police think its Egon's work, he has to get back to work to prove he's innocent.

Arvid is an ordinary bank clerk who lives a rather unassuming life with his dear girlfriend. But his life is turned completely upside down when he bravely manages to avert a robbery against the bank where he works.

A getaway driver for a bank robbery realizes he has been double crossed and races to find out who betrayed him.

Terry is a small-time car dealer trying to leave his shady past behind and start a family. Martine is a beautiful model from Terry's old neighbourhood who knows that Terry is no angel. When Martine proposes a foolproof plan to rob a bank, Terry recognises the danger but realises this may be the opportunity of a lifetime.

Two would-be thieves forge a surprising relationship with an unexpected housesitter when they accidentally trap themselves in a house they just broke into.

Shopkeeper Victor Garnier has naively invested his family's life savings in an African mine, on his banker's recommendation. When the mine is nationalized, rendering the stock worthless, he considers himself shamelessly robbed by the bank; it seems only fair to him to return the 'favor' and rob the bank, teaming up with the whole family as they were all duped. Even for professionals such an enterprise -he decides to dig a tunnel- is quite demanding, but for simple commoners it's daunting, as they also have their personal downsides; thus Victor's wife has a most unwelcome tendency to blurt out the truth, even to the grumpy local copper: a crazy risk when you need to keep a criminal plan secret.

Dressed as a clown, the clever rascal Grimm holds up the most secure bank of Montreal and takes 30 hostages. While confusing and ridiculing the police with his strange behavior, he calmly manages to rid the bank of a fortune. But then an unsatisfied companion arouses trouble...

Morán works as a clerk in a bank in Buenos Aires. He is as good as invisible to his colleagues. Over dinner with his colleague Román, Morán tells him that he stole exactly $650,000, which is exactly double what he would have made until his retirement. He plans to turn himself in, but not before offering Román to split the money if agrees to hide it for the duration of his incarceration.

While awaiting the next fuel truck at a middle-of-nowhere Arizona rest stop, a traveling young knife salesman is thrust into a high-stakes hostage situation by the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty—or cold, hard steel—to protect their bloodstained, ill-gotten fortune.

Baron, an imprisoned man, strikes up a friendship with cellmate Otis. As the pair hatch an escape plan together, Baron recalls the story of how he met Marmalade, the love of his life, and their Bonnie and Clyde scheme to rob a bank in order to care for his sick mother and give the couple the life they’ve always dreamed of.

While doing a friend a favor and searching for a runaway teenager, a police detective stumbles upon a bizarre band of criminals about to pull off a bank robbery.

A chauffeur kidnaps his rich boss's dog to hold it for ransom, but when she accidentally gets the dog back, she thinks that it's the chauffeur who's been kidnapped.

Kevin, Sam and Rob have an unusual hobby: planning foolproof heists, without intending to actually perform them. The game goes wrong when their latest plan is stolen and carried out. Things get even worse when a mysterious man approaches them with an offer: plan a heist for him, or go to jail. As the clock ticks, they find that the risk might be higher than just their freedom.

Desperate to pay the bills and come through for their loved ones, three lifelong pals risk it all by embarking on a daring bid to knock off the very bank that absconded with their money.

When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncover a bigger conspiracy. Now, he and his 'sneakers' must save themselves and the world economy by retrieving the box from their blackmailers.

With the help of an irreverent young sidekick, a bank robber gets his old gang back together to organise a daring new heist.

In August 1988, two armed bank robbers keep German police at bay for 54 hours during a hostage-taking drama that ends in a shootout and three deaths.

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.

Dale, Kurt and Nick decide to start their own business but things don't go as planned because of a slick investor, prompting the trio to pull off a harebrained and misguided kidnapping scheme.

When an overeager community officer and a reckless ex-detective are forced to team up, plenty of chaos ensues on the streets of Rotterdam.

When a mafia accountant is taken hostage on his beat, a police officer – wracked by guilt from a prior stint as a negotiator – must negotiate the standoff, even as his own family is held captive by the mob.

A comedic thriller that re-imagines Mark Twain's iconic literary characters of "Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" as grown men in current day.

Inspired by one of the longest and bloodiest real-life events in police history, Officer Mike Chandler and a young civilian passenger find themselves under-prepared and outgunned when fate puts them squarely in the crosshairs of a daring bank heist in progress by a fearless team of highly-trained and heavily-armed men.

After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes.

What should have been a romantic getaway turns into one hilarious debacle after another when Michael's woman dumps him in the desert where he gets carjacked by a teenager and he is taken hostage in a stickup at the local Sip and Zip.

"The Baron" wanted to commit the perfect heist involving 3 tons of money and no violence. For this he would need the right people willing to get 1 million dollars to take part in this job. Based on true events, in 2005, 168,000,000 Brazilian Real (almost 80,000,000 US dollars) were stolen from a Brazilian Central Bank (Federal Reserve), making it the biggest peace-time robbery in history. It was perhaps the most audacious bank heist ever.

Lightning Jack Kane is an Australian outlaw in the wild west. During a bungled bank robbery he picks up mute Ben Doyle as a hostage. The two become good friends, with Jack teaching Ben how to rob banks, while they plan Jack's last heist.

Doug MacRay is a longtime thief, who, smarter than the rest of his crew, is looking for his chance to exit the game. When a bank job leads to the group kidnapping an attractive branch manager, he takes on the role of monitoring her – but their burgeoning relationship threatens to unveil the identities of Doug and his crew to the FBI Agent who is on their case.

A scientist plots a bank robbery based around his newest invention -- a time travel gadget that will send its user 10 minutes into the past. Everything goes according to plan, until he encounters a group of thieves who've planned their heist for the same day.

Our favourite police men are called together to deal with a gang who rob banks and jewelers. Using their various talents as well as their extraordinary luck, the crooks stand no chance against our men and women in blue.

Jacob, a bank manager haunted by a violent heist that took the life of a coworker, teams up with his ex-cop neighbor, James, to bring down the assailant. While the two men work together to figure out the thief’s next move, Gabriel, the highly-trained criminal, is one step ahead. When Gabriel kidnaps Jacob’s wife and daughter, Jacob barrels down a path of bloodshed that initiates an explosive counterattack and brings all three men to the breaking point.

The Driver is hired by the FBI to help defuse a hostage situation. A disgruntled employee has kidnapped a CEO and has hidden her, demanding $5,088,042. The Driver delivers the money, writing the sum on his hand as instructed by the hostage taker. After he is told that he holds the life of a person in his hand, he is ordered to burn the money. As he complies, the federal agents break in and attempt to subdue the man, who shoots himself in the head before he reveals where the woman is hidden. The Driver then tries to find the hostage before she drowns in the trunk of a sinking car. As a twist, the kidnapped woman is revealed to be the hostage taker's lover. She coldly taunts the dying man in the hospital.

Double-crossed after a bank heist, a team of professional thieves attempts an even more challenging mission: returning the money they stole.

When three friends open a hot pot restaurant in a former bomb shelter, they discover it’s linked by a single wall to the bank vault next door. While deciding to take the easy money or go to the police, they find out one of the bank’s employees is a former classmate and look to enlist her in deciding their future.

When their money scam runs aground, a group of would-be thieves turn to kidnapping in an attempt to blackmail their target.

Coming out from jail, Lucas has decided to change his life and behave like a good citizen. But when he is taken hostage in a bank by a hare-brained robber, no cops can believe he is not part of the action.

When Bússi, Iceland's toughest cop, is forced to work with a new partner to solve a series of bank robberies, the pressure to close the case as soon as possible proves too much for him.

An Interpol-issued Red Notice is a global alert to hunt and capture the world's most wanted. But when a daring heist brings together the FBI's top profiler and two rival criminals, there's no telling what will happen.

Three kindly old men decide to light up the dimming twilight of their lives with a last blaze of glory – by sticking up a Manhattan bank in broad daylight.

Bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss is transformed into a manic superhero when he wears a mysterious mask.

A man with an important business meeting finds himself having to take care of the carpool for the neighborhood school children when his wife gets sick. Stopping to get donuts for the kids, things go even more awry when he finds himself a victim of a robbery. However, the situation only gets worse as a desperate man who had been contemplating a bank robbery robs the robbers and takes the man and the kids hostage in their van as his truck is blocked by an armored car. The thing then proceeds into a comedic chase movie. The father finds his kids don't really respect him and they react better to the robber. The end result is everyone gets a lifestyle change, including the original store owner.

Former SWAT leader David Hendrix and hard-partying movie star Brody Walker must cut their ride-along short when a police training facility is attacked by a team of mercenaries.

Three female employees of the Federal Reserve plot to steal money that is about to be destroyed.

A father is without the means to pay for his daughter's medical treatment. As a last resort, he partners with a greedy co-worker to rob a casino. When things go awry they're forced to hijack a city bus.

Criminal mastermind Mason is about to execute the score of a lifetime when his lover and key member of his crew, Decker, takes the team down and reveals she’s an undercover Interpol agent. Heartbroken, Mason escapes and retires from the life of crime until his younger brother Shawn is out of his league taking on a big bank heist all on his own. Mason has no choice left but to come to the rescue, while Interpol brings Decker in hoping to unnerve him. Before the SWAT teams storm the bank, Mason must use every tool in his arsenal to not only escape with the prize, but also the love of his life.

Thief Kevin Caffery attempts to rob from the home of rich businessman Max Fairbanks. But Fairbanks catches him and steals his cherished ring that his girlfriend gave him. Caffery is then bent on revenge and getting his ring back with the help of his partners.

Residents of a friendly Pennsylvania town foil three brothers' plan to rob a bank on Christmas Eve.

A gritty crime saga which follows the lives of an elite unit of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. and the state's most successful bank robbery crew as the outlaws plan a seemingly impossible heist on the Federal Reserve Bank.

A single mom and her child are carjacked by a bank robber who has no intention of letting them go.

When a rich man's son is kidnapped, he cooperates with the police at first but then tries a unique tactic against the criminals.

Crime boss Rex hires Frank and his crew to steal a priceless jewel stash — but the job goes wrong when someone tips off the cops. After Frank suffers a blow to the head, he wakes up to find the jewels gone and no memory of his attacker. Now, Frank must confront his team members one by one to find the traitor — before Rex covers his tracks by having Frank murdered.

The life of a bank manager is turned upside down when a friend from his past manipulates him into faking his own death and taking off on an adventure.

Spoof of the "Taken" franchise. An ex-CIA agent who is now a mall security guard discovers that things are being taken from him. He must team up with his mom, also an ex-CIA agent, to defeat his rival and save his family.

Three friends are on the verge of getting their video game financed when their benefactor is taken hostage by terrorists.

A police chief tries to solve a kidnapping that involves a bank robber holding a young boy hostage.

Charley Varrick robs a bank in a small town with his friends, but instead of obtaining a small amount of money, they discover they stole a very large amount of money belonging to the mob. Charley must now come up with a plan to not only evade the police but the mob as well.

An entrepreneurial criminal, Slim (Dorff) is as smart as they come. Cocky and confident, he assembles a team of risk-taking rush-seekers to pull off a series of five bank heists, each time using a different extreme sport to make the getaway. Following an unexpected windfall on only their second job, the gang nets $20 million in untraceable bonds. Having scored enough money to retire on, Slim and his crew decide to call the robbery game quits. But both the mob and the police have other plans in mind for Slim: they want him to keep working, for them.

When her boyfriend dumps Emily, a spontaneous woman in her 30s, she persuades her ultra-cautious mom to accompany her on a vacation to Ecuador. When these two very different women are trapped on this wild journey, their bond as mother and daughter is tested and strengthened while they attempt to navigate the jungle and escape.

After Doug picks up hitchhiking Rosco with his truck, they are mistaken for two bank robbers by the traffic police. They manage to escape only to be confused for two secret agents while trying to take a flight at the airport.
