#The 20 Best Heist Movies Of All Time

A lesser known entry, “The Hot Rock” is one of screenwriter William Goldman’s wittiest and most playful screenplays, and one of the most outright funny heist movies of all time. Based on the Donald E. Westlake story, but much more lighthearted in tone than it’s source material, “The Hot Rock” technically consists of four heists — its hapless band of criminals attempts to steal the same diamond from a museum, a prison, a police station, and, finally, a bank. As their patron (Moses Gunn) says, “I’ve heard of the habitual criminal, but I never thought I’d be involved in the habitual crime.” 

Robert Redford, George Segal, Ron Liebman, and Paul Sand make a brilliantly funny team, constantly bickering and irritating each other. Segal is at his neurotic best as the lock picker, go-between, and grifter (the moment when he freaks out while picking a museum lock is hysterical). Liebman is a blast as the single-minded getaway driver, and Sand’s ineffectual explosives expert is so well observed that it’s a wonder that he didn’t go on to greater things. Redford is the glue that holds the whole film together, though, largely playing it straight but allowing himself a moment of levity in the film’s final moments, which is one of the most well-earned feel-good endings to a heist film ever. Shamefully underseen, “The Hot Rock” deserves way more exposure.