17 best heist thriller movies to watch on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and HBO

Who doesn’t love a good heist movie? Whether it’s a bank robbery, a jewelry heist, a long con, or some combination of the three, the heist thriller is a crowd pleaser for good reason.

Some of the most popular heist movies are now available on streaming services like Netflix or HBO Max. We’ve left out some of the more obvious examples (all the Ocean’s movies are on HBO Max if you’re looking for that marathon), in favor of some of our other favorite entries across multiple decades and nations. Make a plan and grab your friends to enjoy a night of heist films.

Army of the Dead

Image courtesy of Netflix

A movie in which a group of misfits led by Dave Bautista robs a Las Vegas vault vault is always great. Army of the DeadThe zombies are now part of the mix. In the movie, a virus causes zombies. However, it is contained within Las Vegas and then spreads to other parts of the world. It is one of the most loud and memorable heist movies. This movie combines the horror of Resident Evil with the excitement of safe cracking. The real key to this movie’s greatness and fun, though, is Bautista, who is without question the most interesting and sensitive of the giant-man action stars. Bautista counterbalances this giddy premise with real heart, and is infinitely entertaining as a one-man zombie army. —Austen Goslin

The Army of the DeadYou can stream it on Netflix.

The Asphalt Jungle

Image: The Criterion Collection

A crime movie classic, The Asphalt Jungle follows a petty criminal named Dix Handley who’s hired onto a crew to complete a $500,000 jewel heist that quickly goes wrong. The Asphalt Jungle It is, in our opinion, the most important heist film. Although the scenes during building the crew and the tense moments of the crime can all be recognized as typical heist movies, the most striking thing about the movie is how dense it is.

John Huston is also the director of this script. He and Ben Maddow co-wrote it. With no time to pause, the audience hears every name of crime bosses. Even after more than 70 years, it’s rare for a movie to trust its audience to keep up this much. Every bit of the movie’s heist and its aftermath remain just as exciting and tense as any other movie on the list. —AG

The Asphalt JungleAvailable to stream online Criterion Channel.

Madonna Street Big Deal

Image: The Criterion Collection

Marcello Mastroianni’s career was boosted by this hilarious Italian comedy of heists.La Dolce Vita, 8½() was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film at 1959 Oscars. An inept group of thieves from the working class attempt to rob Rome’s pawnshop using an increasingly complex scheme. They bore through walls to reach a safe for their jewelry.

This crew isn’t your average flashy and experienced caper group. Mario, a woodworker, grew up in an orphanage and can’t find a steady job but wants a better life for the three women who raised him. Peppe (Vittorio Gazsman), a former boxer, has an even cleaner criminal record. Tiberio Mastroianni, a photographer who pawned the equipment of his camera to take care of his baby. Then there’s Ferribotte (Tibero Murgia), a controlling older brother overprotective of his beautiful sister (Claudia Cardinale), and Capannelle (Carlo Pisacane), an elderly pickpocket. They are all not particularly skilled at this kind of heisting, so nothing is as planned. The end result is a hilarious finale. With great jazz music and many funny gags. Madonna Street: Big deal It is an absolute delight. —Pete Volk

Madonna Street: A Big DealYou can stream it on Criterion Channel.

The Bling Ring

Image: A24

Sofia Coppola’s 2013 based-on-a-true-story film stars Emma Watson as the ring leader of a group of well-off, celebrity-obsessed teenagers who use readily available information on the internet to plan robberies of celebrities’ homes. Coppola delights in both the extravagant excesses of fame-hungry teenagers and those they are targeting. These are the homes of actual burglary victims. The houses are delightfully extravagant against the Los Angeles lights. Watson is terrific as the audacious Nicki Moore, summarized by a line of dialogue that will hopefully live forever: “I wanna rob.” —PV

The Bling RingYou can stream it on ShowtimeWatch free ads online Hoopla Kanopy.

Charade

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment

Heist at the heart of Charade was successful years prior to the movie, and without realizing it, Reggie (Audrey Hepburn) has been living off the profits from her husband’s crime. When he is suddenly murdered, she realizes she didn’t really know anything about him — or, for that matter, the new man in her life, Peter Joshua (Cary Grant). Reggie believes he knows the location of the rest of his money, which makes matters even worse. Reggie’s ability to trust anyone becomes more difficult as more people get pulled into Reggie’s orbit.

Grant and Hepburn are two of the most charismatic and talented actors in Hollywood. Charade. Hepburn can move seamlessly from pragmatic to seductive and fearful in a single scene. Grant’s initial discomfort with their age gap — 25 years, a still not uncommon chasm in Hollywood — resulted in rewrites to the script to make clear that Reggie was pursuing him; it remains one of the few movies in which the gap is acknowledged and dealt with believably, rather than taken for granted. Their chemistry is immediate and undeniable; it’s key in carrying off the film’s snappy dialogue and mixture of flirtatious comedy, captivating mystery, and genuine thriller. It’s His Girl FridayHitchcock. —Jenna Stoeber

CharadeYou can stream the video on Amazon Prime VideoWatch a free video with advertisements Vudu, TubiAnd Pluto TV.

Chicken Run

Image: Aardman Animations

If there is a heaven for elevator pitches, then surely, “The Great Escapadee but with chickens” is there. But Chicken RunIt’s more than just that. The feature-length debut of Aardman Animations may be the best. Great villains, plucky heroines, a decent romance, action, suspense, and joke after joke after joke — all packed into a script as trim as a fatted game hen isn’t. The apex of the film is the apex of all heist movies: A group montage of putting the scheme together, as John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams’ score (a full orchestra with kazoo accompaniment) sets a rollicking beat to a group of chickens defying the laws of nature to build a flying machine. It’s a movie well worth ignoring that Mel Gibson exists. —Susana Polo

Chicken RunYou can stream it on Peacock.

Diabolik is dangerous

Image: Paramount Home Video

Diabolik is dangerous comes from an era where “comic book movie” meant something weird, horny, and European. Diabolik (John Phillip Law), and Eva Kant(Marisa Mell), love to do two things. They love robbering the wealthy and falling in love on their huge rotating beds, which are covered with recently stolen cash. They are a charming couple, with their love for each other and real eroticism making them irresistible as they carry out elaborate and intricate heists. They’re like a pop art version of Gomez and Morticia.

Produced in conjunction with Barbarella — you may remember Law as the angel Pygar — Diabolik is dangerousMario Bava directed this movie, best known for his work in giallo terror. It also features Ennio Marricone’s sparkling pop score. From the film’s framing and cinematography to the parade of bright, borderline-fetishistic catsuits up to the avantgarde sets, the movie looks incredibly elegant. The movie has sci-fi elements as well as comic book art splashes, creative special effects and plenty of provocative props. It’s about as much zany, sexy fun as you can have in two hours. —JS

Diabolik is dangerousIf you have a library card, it is possible to stream the video on demand. Kanopy.

Dhoom 2

Image: Amazon Prime Video

Dhoom 2The 2004 smash hit sequel, titled????? DhoomOne of the best cinematic experiences you can treat yourself to is. This movie, which broke Bollywood box office records, is motorcycle-centric and features amazing action scenes, stunning musical numbers, incredible motorcycle stunts, as well as a lot of fun for everyone.

A little taste: The movie begins with Mr. A (Hrithik Rosshan), a train heist. He is as charming and beautiful as ever. He disguises himself to be Queen Elizabeth to rob the Queen’s crown in the middle of the Namib desert. Dhoom 2Roshan immediately switches to one of most electrifying musical numbers in this century’s history, with Roshan clearly proving that he is one among the best movie stars as well as dancers and choreographers of his time. —PV

Dhoom 2You can stream the video on Amazon Prime Video.

Amazing Mr. Fox

Image: 20th Century Fox

Based on Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, Wes Anderson’s 2009 stop-motion animated comedy Amazing Mr. FoxThe story follows George Clooney’s sophisticated Fox, who resorts to old thieves to escape the fate of his three evil farmers. They will do anything to get rid of him and his family. Filled with beautiful intricate animation, whimsical dance numbers, and Anderson’s idiosyncratic humor and style, Amazing Mr. Fox is regularly hailed as one of the best animated films of the early aughts and must-see for fans of children’s films and highly-crafted cinema alike. —TE

Fantastic Mr. Fox streaming on Disney Plus.

The Great Muppet Caper

Image: Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Great Muppet movies come in two flavors: Direct adaptation of classic literature, and fourth wall-breaking celebrations of Hollywood’s most beloved formulas. The Great Muppet Caper is the best-known of this latter group.

In the opening number, the audience is invited to experience all the pleasures of the genre. Diana Rigg vamps all the way through her role of the capricious fashion mogul Lady Holiday, as Charles Grodin oozes sleaze as her inexplicably American brother planning to steal her collection of jewels, right down to — a moment for this pun, please — the Baseball Diamond, a diamond the size of a baseball.

There’s everything you could possibly want in both a heist movie and a Muppet movie: Scheming, betrayal, romance, the clash of high and low society, a jailhouse bust with a motorcycle chase — as well as celebrity cameos, running gags, “how did they do that?” puppetry, and fantastic musical numbers. Most Muppet movies break the fourth wall in some way, but very few have a scene in which Miss Piggy and Kermit begin a scripted argument as their characters that turns into a real argument between them as actors which bleeds into a true reconciliation and a bicycle-top love ballad that exists simultaneously inside and outside the film’s diegesis. —SP

The Great Muppet CaperYou can stream it on Disney Plus.

Hell or High Water

Lionsgate Image

Scratch a Western movie, and you’ll usually find a study of masculinity and what it means to be a man. And whenever two men wind up in opposition — which is most of the genre right there — it’s usually a study in contrasting forms of manhood. The traditional good-vs.-evil face-off does come up a lot, but just as often, Westerns explore the contrast between strong men and cunning ones, whether it’s in classics like Sierra Madre’s TreasureModern followers are a lot like Dog PowerGenre-hybrid thrillers such as the great Hell or High WaterThis novel transforms a contemporary thriller about bank robbers in to a complex reflection on masculinity and the history of West.

Ben Foster and Chris Pine star as the stickups with a Butch Cassidy-and-the Sundance Kid feel; Gil Birmingham and Jeff Bridges play the old Texas rangers who are trying to take them down. Pine and Foster’s characters have a Great Big Scheme that the movie keeps under wraps until a key point, but in the meantime, there’s plenty of action, both on the outlaws’ side and the side of the men hunting them. It’s a thoughtful and nuanced film about the lines of civilization and the people who draw them in ways that benefit themselves, but it’s also a gripping adventure, suitable for sneaking in subtle messages while keeping people entertained — like all the best Westerns. —Tasha Robinson

Hell or High WaterAvailable to stream online Netflix.

Inception

Warner Bros. Pictures

Need a break from trying to decode the order of events in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet? Try decoding the order of events and their actual level of reality in Christopher Nolan’s Inception. This multi-level, dream-reality-heist movie plays with fragmented storytelling and complicates time. But this time around, he unites his challenging ideas behind a comparatively straightforward central idea: a group of corporate raiders trying to seamlessly implant an idea in a mogul’s head via dreams. It’s dizzying and full of jargon and somewhat dubious rules, but the special effects are startling and the characters are memorable. —TR

InceptionYou can stream the video on HBO Max.

Inside Man

Universal Pictures

A rare work-for-hire gig for director Spike Lee, 2006’s Inside Man It’s one of those “have-cake-and-eat it” pleasures. It’s a slick, sinuous, puzzle-box thriller in which Clive Owen engineers a bank robbery that is never quite what it seems. He takes hostages and locks eyes with Denzel Washington, police detective, and Jodie Foster, high-flying fixer. The reversals and twists that ensue from here are hilarious. It’s ridiculously overqualified. Willem Dafoe and Christopher Plummer all play smaller parts. And Lee doesn’t surrender his playful, needling edge just because he’s on popcorn duty. He builds a memorable, squabbling chorus of post-9/11 New York humanity around the edges of the film, while the plot cuts right into Wall Street’s rotten heart. —Oli Welsh

Inside ManYou can stream the video on HBO Max.

The Killing

Criterion Collection Photo

Stanley Kubrick’s The KillingThe film is par excellence a heist film. A labyrinthine drama with skilled performances interlocks like the tumblers on a lock, before reaching a thrilling and engrossing end. Sterling Hayden plays Johnny Clay, an ex prisoner who forms a gang and tries to hold a $2,000,000 racecourse robbery. The Killing features Elisha cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Joe Sawyer. Kubrick hailed it as his first mature film. Today, it’s a film whose influence can be felt and seen in everything from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs to 2008’s The Dark Knight. —TE

The KillingAvailable to stream online Amazon Prime Video Criterion ChannelYou can stream for free with your library card Hoopla.

Ronin

Image by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Ronin isn’t your typical heist movie. John Frankenheimer directs the American action thriller of 1998. Jean Reno stars as Jean Reno, while Robert De Niro plays Jean Reno. The elite group of mercenaries is assembled by a mysterious handler who aims to find and steal a suitcase from the Russians. While it certainly doesn’t lack in terms of bristling gunfights and nail-biting chase sequences, the strength of Ronin lies in the meticulous and deliberate set up leading up to its fateful third act. Frankenheimer’s film is as austere as it gratifying; an action film with an emphasis on richly-crafted characters with byzantine alliances and a plainspoken sense of style. —TE

RoninYou can stream it on Amazon Prime VideoFree streaming with a librarycard KanopyYou can stream it for free with advertisements Tubi Pluto.

Spanish Prisoner

Image: Sony Pictures Classics

Some heists don’t require ski masks and blueprints. In David Mamet’s Spanish Prisoner, the dramatist’s usual rat-a-tat dialogue propels a con-man cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious McGuffin. Mamet never tells the viewer exactly what corporate engineer Joe (Campbell Scott) has invented, only that the “Process” will bring on a technological revolution and make him and his bosses unimaginably rich. He is a target of corporate espionage and a perfect candidate to be watched slip into the flames of sexism. Joe would do anything to have his. However, Joe’s partner George (Ricky Jay), Mr. Klein (Ben Gazzara), the romantically-inclined assistant Rebecca Pidgeon) and Jimmy (Steve Martin), seem all ready to make a run for him. Mamet gives his plot of greed and backstabbing the frigid heart of an old noir, and not even the bad ’90s corporate wear can sink Campbell and Martin at the top of their games.

Spanish PrisonerYou can stream it on PeacockYou can also get it for nothing with the ads Roku, Tubi, PlutoAnd IMDb TV.

Thief

Warner Home Video

Michael Mann is one of American cinema’s preeminent auteurs, a director responsible for some of the inextricably memorable, visually remarkable, and fascinating crime dramas with films like 2006’s Miami Vice, 1995’s Heat, and 2004’s Collateral. His 1981 debut Thief, starring James Caan (The Godfather) as a professional safecracker and ex-con attempting to escape a life of crime and build a family with his wife stands as one of the many jewels in Mann’s long and storied career, is packed with all the defining idiosyncrasies that he would go on to hone develop in the decades to come. From the film’s beautiful score by Tangerine Dream to its stunning night time cinematography of Chicago courtesy Donald Thorin, Thief is a masterful neo-noir thriller charged with an overwhelming sense of inimitable style and smoldering cool. —TE

ThiefYou can stream it with your library card Hoopla KanopyYou can stream ads free of charge on Tubi Pluto.

Thomas Crown Affair

Image courtesy of M Home Entertainment

They don’t make heist movies hotter than this. John McTiernan’s remake of the 1968 Steve McQueen/Faye Dunaway classic is a steamy romp, with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo at their sexiest. Brosnan plays Thomas Crown, an arrogant playboy billionaire who is also the world’s greatest art thief in his spare time (in many ways, this is Brosnan’s Batman movie). Russo is Catherine Banning, an insurance investigator tasked with solving and recovering Crown’s most recent daring theft. The two fall for each other over the course of a delicious cat-and-mouse game, culminating in an unforgettable, intricately choreographed sequence set to Nina Simone’s “Sinnerman.” —PV

Thomas Crown AffairYou can stream the video on Amazon Prime VideoYou can stream for free without ads Roku, TubiAnd Pluto.