6 Reasons We Love to Read, Write, and Watch Heist Stories
I have to confess: Heists are my favorite. When it comes to books, movies, even documentaries, give me a heist—successful or not—and I’m happy.
(8 Tips for Plotting a Great Heist Novel.)
It was that love of heist stories that led me to start writing The Lock Box while I was quarantined at home during the COVID lockdowns. But in publicizing and marketing the book, I have discovered my love of heists is anything but unique. Ask a group of readers who likes heist stories and invariably several hands shoot up.
But that raises a significant question: Why do we like these stories so much? What is it about a group of people gathering to plan and pull off a crime that resonates with people? To me, it boils down to six key factors.
1) A Problem to Be Solved
Like any other mystery, heists inherently present our heroes with a series of obstacles. Often, these hurdles are high-tech, like the subterranean vault in Ocean’s 11, the untouchable floor in the first Mission: Impossible, or the web of invisible laser beams in Entrapment. But the threats to our heroes don’t have to be automated. Even a single guard can present a seemingly insurmountable threat, depending who it is.
Just as readers delight in trying to plan or solve the perfect murder, they love the challenge that a heist presents. Figuring out how our heroes can overcome the challenges in front of them is the kind of intellectual exercise that keeps readers turning pages late into the night.
And, being honest, it’s not just readers who love those challenges! Authors, too, enjoy puzzling over what will test their characters’ mettle and, once we’ve designed what appears to be an impossible challenge, figuring out how to beat it.
2) Team Drama
Most heist stories involve some sort of team filled out with colorful characters, which leads to a second reason we love these stories so much, i.e., all the possibilities for how those different and difficult personalities will bounce off one another.
Will giant egos clash, like they did in The Score? Will two teammates become romantically involved, like in Bound? Even worse, will a criminal fall for the one who’s trying to catch him, or vice-versa? If the characters are engaging and well-rounded enough, virtually every option is on the table. That means tons of fun for the writer, and as readers and viewers, we can’t help but want to know what will happen next.
3) The Thrill/Risk of Getting Caught
When I was little, my grandmother had a candy dish in the front room of her house. I would use every bit of stealth I had to sneak over there and steal a piece before dinner. It didn’t matter what kind of candy was in the dish—the caper made it sweeter.
Without a doubt, that same rush from the risk of getting caught fuels heists and heist stories. Unlike some other crime fiction, where the bad acts may take place before the novel or off the page, in heist stories we usually get to watch the score go down. And because we’re invested in the crime, our hearts pound if the cops arrive sooner than expected. Our stomachs drop out if the combination has been changed, or we learn there’s been a double-cross. We sweat along with the crew through every agonizing detail, and even for stories that happen after a heist, we feel nervous about the getaway.
There’s something primal about that fear of getting caught. If you watch interviews of real-life criminals—like those featured on Inside the Heist—they confess to being “scared to death.” The adrenaline fear provokes is absolutely addictive, that’s why we love to experience it vicariously. And that’s not only true for readers and viewers—writers, too, love to feel those same emotions when a nerve-jangling scene comes together perfectly.
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4) The “Batman” Effect
As a comic book fan for nearly 40 years, I can tell you that despite super strength, the ability to fly, and x-ray vision, Superman routinely ranks lower in popularity than Batman, a guy who dresses up in a dark costume with no special powers at all. Why?
Because subconsciously, readers know that it’s theoretically possible to be Batman. Sure, you’d need a vast personal fortune and 18 hours of exercise each day, but in theory you could do it, if you just had the time, resources, and determination.
We love observing characters perform at the outer limits of human ability, and for that same reason, we love heist characters showing us their special talents, whether that’s the Amazing Yen doing backflips or Baby Driver zipping through traffic.
5) More Than the Money
Let’s face it, if every heist was driven by nothing but greed, the genre likely would have died out a long time ago. But usually our heroes aren’t just robbing to enrich themselves—there’s something more at stake. Sometimes, it’s love. Other times, revenge. In rare cases, the fate of the world hangs in the balance.
As just one example of what I’m talking about, consider Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing and the noir novel on which it was based, Lionel White’s Clean Break. Every character involved in the scheme has his or her own unique motivation for wanting to rob the racetrack on the busiest day of the year. A bartender with a sick wife. A crooked cop who’s in debt to the mob. A window cashier desperate to impress his wife. And a mastermind who wants to run away with the woman he loves after spending five years away from her in prison.
Making these motivations emotional, rather than just financial, elevates the importance of the heist to our heroes, and by extension, to us.
6) The “Robin Hood” Angle
Although we readers and writers root for good things to happen to our heroes, we don’t really want to see them triumph at the expense of someone sympathetic. That’s why often the targets of heists are despicable people, like self-absorbed casino magnate Terry Benedict in Ocean’s 11, arms dealer Ordell Robbie in Jackie Brown, or murdering double-crosser Steve in The Italian Job. We’re taught to be suspicious of people who keep secret things in safety deposit boxes like those in The Bank Job and Inside Man.
If the mark isn’t someone we can directly dislike, it might be a giant, unfeeling corporation like a bank, or a behemoth of a government. And it always helps to note that whoever’s being robbed will be paid back by their insurance.
For all these reasons, heists—which leave us rooting for the criminals more than the cops—capture our imagination like few other stories. As a long-time fan of the genre, it was a thrill to create my own heist story, and I hope readers who pick up The Lock Box will see all six of the traits described above in the caper I’ve concocted.
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