- A man named Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) sits in an unidentified cell and narrates a story of how he will commit the perfect robbery. In New York, masked robbers, dressed as painters and using variants of the name "Steve" as aliases, seize control of a Manhattan bank and take the patrons and employees hostage. They divide the hostages into groups and hold them in different rooms, forcing them to don painters clothes identical to their own. The robbers rotate the hostages among various rooms and occasionally insert themselves covertly into the groups. They also take turns working on an unspecified project involving demolishing the floor in one of the bank's storage rooms.
- Police surround the bank and Detectives Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) take charge of the negotiations. Russell, the leader of the robbers, demands food and the police supply them with pizzas whose boxes include listening devices. The bugs pick up a language which the police identify as Albanian. They discover, however, that the conversations are in fact propaganda recordings of deceased Albanian communist leader Enver Hoxha, implying that the robbers anticipated the attempted surveillance.
- After being informed of the robbery in progress, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), chairman of the board of directors and founder of the bank, hires "fixer" Madeleine White (Jodie Foster) to try to protect the contents of his safe deposit box within the bank. White arranges a conversation with Russell, who allows her to enter the bank and inspect the contents of the box, which include documents from Nazi Germany. Russell implies that Case started his bank with money which he received from the Nazis for unspecified services, resulting in the deaths of many Jewish people during World War II. White tells Russell that Case will pay him a substantial sum if he destroys the contents of the box.
- Frazier demands to inspect the hostages before allowing the robbers to leave and Russell takes him on a tour of the bank. As he is being shown out, Frazier attacks Russell, but is restrained by another of the robbers. Afterwards he explains that he deliberately tried to provoke Russell and judges that the man is not a killer. However, this seems disproven when the robbers execute one of the hostages.
- The execution prompts the ESU team into action. They plan to storm the bank and use rubber bullets to knock out those inside. However, Frazier discovers that the robbers have planted a listening device on the police; aware of the police plans, the robbers detonate smoke grenades and release all the hostages. The police detain and question everyone but are unable to distinguish the identically dressed hostages from the robbers. A search of the bank deepens the mystery, as the robbers' weapons turn out to be plastic replicas. They find props for faking the hostage's execution, but no money or valuables appear to have been stolen. With no way to identify the suspects and unsure if a crime has even been committed, Frazier's superior orders him to drop the case.
- Frazier, however, searches the bank's records and finds that safe deposit box #392 has never appeared on any records since the bank's founding in 1948. He obtains a search warrant to open it. He is then confronted by White, who informs him of Case's Nazi dealings. She attempts to persuade Frazier to drop his investigation, but Frazier refuses, playing a recording of an incriminating conversation which she earlier had with him. White confronts Case who admits that the box contained diamonds which he had taken from a Jewish friend whom he had betrayed to the Nazis.
- Russell repeats his opening monologue, but with the revelation that he is in fact hiding behind a fake wall the robbers had constructed inside the bank's supply room. He emerges a week after the robbery with the contents of Case's safe deposit box, including incriminating documents and several bags of diamonds. On his way out, he bumps into Frazier, who does not recognize him. When Frazier opens the safe deposit box, he finds a ring and a note from Russell. Frazier confronts Case and urges White to contact the Office of War Crimes Issues at the U.S. State Department about Case's war crimes. Frazier goes home and finds a loose multi-carat diamond in his pocket, realizing it must have been slipped to him by Russell in the bank. It is implied that Frazier will use the diamond to propose to his girlfriend.
- I really like this film because it is full of anticipation and you worry for the safety of the hostages because you don't know if they will make it out alive. The audience are on the edge of their seats and they want to know what happens next.
- It was directed by Spike Lee, produced by Brian Grazer and written by Russell Gewirtz.
- I like that the ending is totally unexpected because you think that the robbers are going to try and get as much money as possible and then go out with the hostages and pretend to be one of them. however the robbers do not actually take any money and I think this surprises the viewers.
- It came out in 2006
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inside_Man#Plot
The trailer^
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