The Bank Job

The Bank Job
File:TheBankJobposter07.jpg Promotional movie poster
Directed by	Roger Donaldson
Written by	Dick Clement Ian La Frenais George McIndoe Aaron Shuster
Produced by	David Alper
Starring	Jason Statham Saffron Burrows Stephen Campbell Moore Daniel Mays James Faulkner Alki David Michael Jibson Richard Lintern Don Gallagher David Suchet Peter Bowles
Cinematography	Michael Coulter
Edited by	John Gilbert
Music by	J. Peter Robinson
Distributed by	Lions Gate Entertainment
Release date	29 February 2008
Running time	111.5 minutes
Country	UK
Language	English

The Bank Job is a 2008 film based on a 1971 true-life robbery of a bank in Baker Street, London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered. The story was prevented from ever being told because of a D-Notice government gagging order, allegedly to protect a prominent member of the British Royal Family. According to the producers, this movie is intended to reveal the truth for the first time, although it includes significant elements of fiction and the extent to which it represents historical fact is difficult to determine.

The premiere was held in London on 18 February 2008 and the film was released in the UK on 28 February 2008.

Plot

Terry (Jason Statham) owns a failing car-sales garage, and after numerous threats, he is eventually confronted by two debt-collectors who cause damage to a number of his cars. At the same time, Martine (Burrows) arrives telling Terry that she has a job for him; a plan that needs putting into motion. Terry gathers a bunch of petty-criminal friends to help execute the plan that involves robbing a bank on Baker Street, London. What they don't know is that Martine is setting them up on behalf of MI5, who want the contents of a safe deposit box within the bank. This safe deposit box contains compromising photos of a female member of the Royal Family (identified in the film as Princess Margaret). The photos are in a box belonging to a black militant under the name of Michael X; he uses the photos to avoid trouble with MI5, who will do anything to avoid the photos going into circulation.

Terry and his criminals purchase a shop two lots away from the bank and start digging a tunnel underneath the middle shop (a chicken fast-food restaurant) to reach the floor of the bank vault. During construction, it is revealed that the house is being watched by two MI5 officers, making sure that the bank-robbers are uninterrupted in doing their dirty work for them. However, vibrations from jackhammers arouse suspicion amongst the inhabitants of the middle building. This eventually leads to a policeman coming to the building whose basement the crooks are building a tunnel from. Terry is able to convince the policeman that all is well, and he leaves. Terry, however, is still worried, and employs a "watchman" to sit on the roof of the building opposite and keep a look out for further trouble.

This lookout is equipped with a walkie-talkie, which he uses to contact the gang building the tunnel. However, a local amateur radio operator receives the transmission, and manages to listen in on the conversation. When he realises that he's listening to a bank robbery in progress, he calls the police, who arrive and listen in as well. The police try to determine the location of the robbers by parking an ambulance outside all the banks within a 10-mile radius of the amateur radio operator's location, to see if the lookout reports it to the villains, but luckily the lookout drops the walkie-talkie just as the ambulance parks outside Lloyds Bank. The robbers remain undetected, even after the owner of the bank is called by the police to check for a break-in.

Meanwhile, Martine has found the deposit-box that she knows contains the photos, and opens it separate from the others claiming that its number "118" is her 'lucky number'. Terry opens the box with her, and upon seeing the pictures panics and quickly hides them in his jacket. Other photos, meanwhile, are found which show a senior MP in compromising positions in a local brothel; the robbers pocket these with the money and other valuables, and leave. They have set up a bluff however, and Terry had asked a passer-by to drive the van out of the bank's underground car park to Heathrow airport and had paid him £50 to do so. MI5 believe this to be the villains, and so follow it, pulling it over. It turns out to be a hoax, however, and is in fact empty. The hoax had given the robbers a chance to escape.

They park the van in a garage nearby, and begin to rifle through the takings. Two of the robbers out of the six leave with their share of the spoils; leaving the other four to debate about the others. Terry confronts Martine over the photos, and how she knew their location, and she admits to having been blackmailed by MI5 after entering the UK with drugs in her suitcase. The other two member of the group left panic, and one leaves hastily. The third man, with Terry and Martine, leave the garage with what they have; but events quickly turn against them.

The police start to gather evidence, and slowly begin to identify the culprits. They search the locations where they believe the robbers to be, but it appears that MI5 has reached all of the locations first, with the robbers nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile Lew Vogel (David Suchet), a local club owner, admits to two corrupt policeman that his paying-in book (containing records of all the money he had given to them and other corrupt officers over the years) was stolen along with the contents of his safe deposit-box during the raid. He also phones the Michael X to inform him that his box containing the royal 'portraits' has gone missing. He starts to get suspicious of a British spy, who has befriended his brother and gone with the family to Trinidad and Tobago.

The club owner manages to find one of the robbers, and tortures him for information. When he eventually tells Vogel everything, Vogel goes to the garage where Terry worked and kidnaps a mechanic, taking him to the same secret location and tying him down. At the same time, the senior MP is shown the photos of himself in the brothel, and agrees to try and help to clear the robbers' names in return for a safe return of the photos. Terry demands passports for him and his accomplices to leave the country, and an agreement that they will not face prosecution. Meanwhile, MI5 issues a D-Notice forbidding the press from reporting on the heist any longer. Police simultaneously release recordings from the walkie-talkie interferences, in the hope that someone will recognize the voices. These recordings are heard on the radio by Terry's family.

The club owner goes on to shoot dead one of the robbers, around the same time as the militant murders the British spy. MI5 make an agreement with Terry, and agree to meet him at Paddington Station in London. Terry gives the same instruction to the officer in charge of the investigation, citing knowledge of corrupt officers under his control. He also convinces the club owner to go to Paddington Station at the same time, offering him the book with details of corrupt officers in return for the safe return of his mechanic. This results in a large meeting of all of the involved parties at the same time.

Terry stands on the platform waiting for the others, while Martine meets up with her original contact within MI5 on a bridge overlooking the scene. The club owner and his accomplices arrive with the mechanic, but recognize the detectives present and run. At the same time, the head of MI5 arrives (with Lord Mountbatten), handing over the documentation and passports that Terry bargained for, in return for the photos of the princess. Terry then chases the fleeing club owner and his aides. He starts to attack the club owner, and then fights with one of the aides, knocking them both out. The second aide appears with a gun, and Terry manages to avoid the shots, and knock him out with a brick hastily dislodged from a wall.

The police officer in charge of the investigation then arrives, and sees the robbers being arrested. He speaks with the MI5 officers present, who draw his attention to Terry's innocence. He and the other robbers are then released, the policeman saying "I don't see any bank-robbers in here" upon looking in the car in which the robbers are sitting. The club owner and the corrupt officers are arrested, and the militant is arrested in Trinidad and Tobago. His house is then burnt down after orders from Tim Everett and this leads to a scene showing Terry spearing a fish in the sea, then climbing onto a yacht, which the audience is led to believe has been bought with the money stolen in the raid.

Cast

• Jason Statham as Terry Leather
• Saffron Burrows as Martine
• Stephen Campbell Moore as Kevin
• James Faulkner as Guy Singer
• Craig Fairbrass as Nick Barton
• Daniel Mays as Dave
• Alki David as Bambas
• Michael Jibson as Eddie
• David Suchet as Lew Vogel, club owner
• Peter Bowles as Miles Urquhart
• Peter de Jersey as Michael X
• Keeley Hawes as Wendy Leather

Historicity

The film is in part based on historical facts. A gang tunnelled into a branch of Lloyds Bank at the intersection of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, in London, on the night of 11 September 1971 and robbed the safe deposit boxes there. The robbers had rented a leather goods shop named Le Sac, two doors down from the bank, and tunneled a distance of approximately 40 feet, passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant. Robert Rowlands, a radio ham operator, overheard conversations between the gangsters and their rooftop lookout. He contacted police and tape recorded the conversations, which were subsequently made public. The film includes lines recorded by Rowlands, such as the lookout's comment that "Money may be your god, but it's not mine, and I'm fucking off." After four days of news coverage, British authorities issued a D-Notice, requesting that news coverage be discontinued for reasons of national security, and the story disappeared from newspapers. The purpose for the D-Notice was never disclosed, and its existence was not confirmed until recently.

The film's producers claim that they have an inside source, identified in press reports as George McIndoe, who served as an executive producer. The film's claims that the issuance of the D-Notice was because a safe deposit box held sex pictures of Princess Margaret, and the possible connection to Michael X (whose governmental file purportedly is secret until 2054), are apparently based on information provided by McIndoe, though it is not clear what is the basis of his information or how specific it is supposed to be. The film makers apparently have acknowledged that they made up the character Martine, and The New Yorker's conclusion that it is impossible to say how much of the film's story is true appears to be correct.

Critical reception

Critics gave the film generally favorable reviews. As of 16 March 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 79% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 115 reviews. Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 69 out of 100, based on 21 reviews.

Box office performance

As of 9 March 2008, the film has grossed an estimated $7.6 million worldwide — $1.8 million in the United Kingdom and $5.7 million in the United States and Canada. When the film opened in the United States and Canada, the film grossed $5.7 million in 1,603 theaters, ranking #5 at the box office.

Soundtrack

• "Get It On" - T.Rex
• "Hey There" - The Basics
• "Money (That's What I Want)"

External links

• The Bank Job at IMDb
• The Bank Job at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Bank Job at Metacritic
• The Bank Job at Box Office Mojo
• Template:Amg movie