One of my favorite sub-genres. Movies are always interesting when you show someone doing something intricate and unusual, and heist movies are a great way of doing that (prison break movies are another version of this... sort of the heist movie's doppleganger, if you will).

You listed most of my favorites but I'd also add:

Bob le Flambeur (1956).

Heat (1995).

The Killing (1956). More of a minor film that the two others I listed, but hey, it's Kubrick!

I also consider Sneakers to be sort of a neighborly version of the heist movie.

If you're going to talk about heist flicks, you have to talk about Kubrick's THE KILLING. Such a lean, mean picture, and one with an ending for the edges.

And I see Joe beat me to it. (Except in no way would I regard THE KILLING as a "minor film" when weighed against BOB LE FLAMBEUR and HEAT.)

And yes, EVERYONE... go watch Riffifi! It's the best one of them all, in my opinion.

The Killing is more of a minor film in my view because the ending -- while surprising and dramatic -- is basically a Twilight Zone cosmic fate kind of thing.

In Bob le Flambeur and Heat, the way the stories unfold and particularly end are more of a reflection of the themes at play and the specifics character traits of the leads. That makes them greater than The Killing -- that resonance -- though of course to each their own.

Now we're into my genre. :)

Gonna share the conclusions I've come to on the Heist film.

I think your average writer tries to think of the perfect heist. That somehow when they come up with the perfect plan for a flawless heist, something that will let the badguys get away scott free with the bootie, they believe they will have written the PERFECT HEIST MOVIE.

They will be 100% W R O N G.

How can I make such a blase claim? Well, there's only my own opinion as to what makes a good heist movie.

Here's the thing -- what makes for great action, suspense, and thrills in a heist movie is NOT how well the plan is executed, rather it is how the plan goes to shit.

The heist movie is about a seemingly flawless plan being completely ruined, destroyed, turned on its head over and over again creating CONFLICT.

Sadly, a "perfect heist," is a heist devoid of conflict.

The "perfect heist movie" is all about the plan failing. Where the heist goes wrong are almost always the best moments in the movie.

Good other suggestions, folks.

@James: I would concur with your point assuming the point of narrative attack is from the characters carrying out the heist. But if we looked at the broader sub-genre of con movies, if the perspective of the story is told through the person who gets conned eyes, then it's precisely the opposite. The Usual Suspects, Body Heat, The Spanish Prisoner -- they all have that great "Oh, now I see" moment where they realize they've been had. And in order to pull that off, we - the viewer - can't be privy to the details of the heist.

But specific to heist movies where we enter into and experience the story through the characters carrying out the heist, yes, always great to have things go wrong - what I call Complications, Roadblocks, and Reversals.

@Scott -- I agree with your assessment, but I think you're blurring sub-genres.

DIE HARD is a heist movie. So is RESERVOIR DOGS. Or SWORDFISH. Or DOG DAY AFTERNOON. They're all from different POVs.

Movies like USUAL SUSPECTS are more akin to the Agatha Christie films. They're "Whodunits." A sub-genre of Mystery. Heist films are typically a sub-genre of Action.

A great example to illustrate the point is THE INSIDE MAN. By all accounts it should be a heist film. But it's not. It shares much more with a "Whodunit" than a heist film.

Consider THE INSIDE MAN without the scenes of Denzel Washington interviewing possible suspects. His objective is to figure out who and how they pulled off the job.

Almost nothing happens. There's no tension and no conflict inherent with the robbery.

The tension comes from Denzel trying to unravel the mystery.

Also note how the interview seems to be a staple of "Whodunits" where they are unneeded in heist films.

While SWORDFISH has a similar "Whodunit" feel, it cheats. Big time. It makes the audience believe that the heist plan went to shit -- when in fact, that had been the plan all along. This is also why I think it has such a mixed critical response.

INCEPTION is a heist film. A fairly by the numbers heist film at that.

In Heist films, the object being stolen is the MacGuffin. It could be replaced with something else and the movie would work just as well.

The irony of the heist film is that the failure or success of the heist is completely incidental.

In a "Whodunit" unraveling the mystery is VERY important.

@James: Point taken. So let me back up and just say that there are some movies where, depending upon the point of narrative attack, the tension arises primarily from the character getting conned, and not the people conning that character.