heist!

Ask any project manager—well, ask me—what my favorite film genre is, and I will say that it's a heist. What else combines the thrill of tense make-or-break situations with carefully-detailed process mapping? I love it when a plan comes together! Ocean's Eleven (2001) is perhaps the best modern example of a classic heist movie. The heist movie formula is simple: a diverse group of experts unite for a common cause (stealing something). They carry out their work using skills they've honed through years of experience. They prepare for unexpected issues that may arise day-of and adapt their plans to fit. There's a mastermind making sure everything is on time and in the right place. A heist is more or less a project plan with 1 or 2 more twists and double-crosses (if you're lucky).

Heist movies build tension with stakes that ratchet up throughout. There are no repeat attempts or do-overs once the plan has started. Thieves, pickpockets, forgers, and con artists have a job to do and must be at the top of their game. Masterminds often come back for "one more score," giving finality to their career or even their lives. They face impossible odds and almost always come out on top.

Author Charles Kunken did a deep-dive on heist films that I really appreciated. He analyzed dozens of movies to note what makes one of these films so special. Why do we/I like them so much? Kunken describes three traits that make up a good heist movie. He also wrote a detailed breakdown on the 16 conventions found in most heist movies. It's worth reading! I won't go into them here. Kunken says the genre's three defining traits are:

1. Individualism. Outsiders commit heists. Their intense study of the rules of the game means they know where to break them. They stand up to the systems and norms around them. The best heists rob from the people who deserve to be robbed, or when there’s no harm done. Stealing is bad, but is it as bad if we steal from a bad person? What if it's a faceless entity that will get all that money back anyway?
2. Cleverness and Patience. Our thieves spend years learning and building up their skills. There's rich history, a career of success and failure, behind every professional thief. It takes planning and effort to study a mark, create disguises and ruses, and strike at just the right time. Buddy characters in some films may reminisce about past heists that went sideways. They've been doing it so long, and are so good at it, that they know they can get through anything.
3. Art. There's no creativity behind going into a bank with guns blazing. Heist movies often have an intricate set of plans that must happen in perfect sequence to go well. Before I can get to the vault door, our electrical expert has to shut down the lasers. My hacker friend has to forge me an ID and upload new credentials to the face scanner. And the money? Who even cares about the money? We'd set it on fire if it meant we got a little more time to play our games.

Heist movies showcase the main characters' ingenuity by emphasizing the above. These aren't petty criminals looking for an easy score. They know what they want and they know just how to get it.

this isn’t really about heist movies, is it?

Heist movies make it very easy to root for the "criminals." Unlike movies or TV shows where cops are the main characters, in heists the criminals don't get caught. These films remind us that everyone wants a good life. Why do only some people deserve it? Maybe heist movies are more than project management done with style. What if they were a blueprint for something bigger?

Think about the villains in our own world. We all have one or more people that we root against. They work at every level of our government. They try to ruin the lives of everyday trans people. They cheer on the deaths of Palestinians. They lead the companies who design products that cause anxiety and other problems.

We have politicians and government officials tearing apart families and kidnapping our neighbors off the streets. They're occupying our cities. They're carrying out extrajudicial killings. They invest in global calamities. They profit off our pain while they live extravagant lifestyles. Why do they get to have untroubled lives at the expense of everyone else?

I get more out of heist movies than the pleasure of seeing a plan well-executed. I see underdogs working tirelessly against an unfair system. I see people who started from nothing trying to carve out a piece for themselves. I would love to see more heist movies where the ill-gotten goods go back to the communities the villains robbed in the first place. But I still think they all have something to teach us:

1. Commit to breaking the system. We don't live in a good system. People seem to have nostalgia or sentimentality for the institutions around us. The longing for a "different" government is especially loud now. But the institutions some people want back have fallen apart after years of neglect. The systems of our past killed thousands, if not millions, of Black and Indigenous people. Thousands of people seem to be falling into a kind of chatGPT psychosis. Institutions of old are easy to subvert and twist into something even worse. I'd rather amplify new systems and new ways of living. The ones we have are causing (and have caused) us so much harm. Extracting myself from them may or may not hasten their downfall, but I do feel better without them.
2. Be patient and stay clever. I'm honing my skills and picking up new ones. I'm trying to unlearn the patterns and habits of old. Nobody's cracking that kind of safe anymore! We've all moved on to the challenges of today. I'm building communities of care. I'm taking part in tangible practices that give me hope.
3. The work is the payoff. Resistance is not easy. Think about why swimming against the current is such a timeless metaphor. When salmon swim upstream to spawn, they're risking everything for the future. Many of them await exhaustion and death on the rocks or in a predator's belly. Resistance will never be as easy as it should be. Still, we must try.

let's get to work

Heists succeed because everyone is different and everyone is doing their part. We all have roles to play. We all have heists that our talents and teamwork alone can pull off. What's yours?