Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) has had enough. A meticulous, thoroughly professional and highly successful international theif, Nick is ready to retire from the crime. He'll settle down with his girlfriend, Diane (Angela Bassett), and focus on running his legitimate business: a Montreal jazz club. But Max (Marlon Brando), his fence, friend and financial partner, has other plans for him.
Persuading Nick to violate two of his most important rules - always work alone and never operate in the city where you live - Max teams him up with Jackie Teller (Edward Norton). A young, aggressive and talented theif, Jackie needs Nick's safe-cracking talents to maake his first big score: a prize worth millions locked behind the walls of Montreal's Customs House.
It's a volatile combination in which egos clash and spaks fly, but the thrill of the heist has a grip on all three men, who won't give up no matter the risk of capture ... or betrayal. - © Paramount Pictures 2001