Heist stars the talented Gene Hackman (The French Connection, Mississippi Burning, and the upcoming Royal Tenenbaums) as Joe Moore, an aging thief on his way to retirement. The film opens in the midst of Joe and his crew pulling a jewel heist. The crew includes Moore's young, beautiful, and crafty wife Fran (Rebecca Pidgeon, State and Main and Moore's longtime colleagues Bobby Blane (Delroy Lindo, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Cider House Rules) and Don "Pinky" Pincus (Ricky Jay, The Spanish Prisoner). During the jewel heist, Joe's identity is compromised when his face is caught on videotape. Once Joe has been "burned," he decides to retire and leave the country with his wife and his treasured boat. Unfortunately, this plan falls to pieces when his fence, Bergman (Danny Devito, "Taxi", L.A. Confidential) refuses to cough up the half of the money owed Moore and his crew for the jewel heist unless they agree to pull off a gold heist Bergman has already set up. After realizing he has little choice since he desperately needs money to flee the country, Joe agrees to Bergman's demands. However, there is a catch. One of Bergman's conditions is that Joe must take Bergman's nephew Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell, Charlie's Angels, The Green Mile) along on the job for insurance.
The job is a robbery of millions of dollars worth of gold bars from a Swiss cargo jet, requiring every bit of Joe's expertise, a great deal of planning, and cool execution. Jimmy's presence becomes problematic for Joe and his crew as Jimmy is a novice and a cowboy-he is quick to shoot without thinking and lacks the cool and composure of other members of the team. The crew tries to dump Jimmy and get out of the job because Jimmy is such a liability, but end up having to go through with it. However, for a little insurance of his own, Joe sends his wife Fran to watch Jimmy and to keep him under control using all means at her disposal.
As the crew executes the plan and tries to get away with the gold, loyalties are called into question and the focus of the film shifts from how the crew will get away with the heist to which party or parties will get away with the gold and who will be betrayed.
