Heist Stories!

I'M BAAAAACK!

Two weeks of time off, and it's over. In all fairness, I could have come back and blogged last Monday, but I got hit hard with a bad cold, and last Monday it had a thriving business in my chest and throat and was opening a franchise in my nose, so all I wanted to do was sleep it off. Now, a week later, my voice is (mostly) back and so is my motivation.

Like I said, it was bad.

The social media fast was good. I learned that I can be super-productive when I'm not on social media, and I also learned that while Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media sites let you turn off notifications to your phone, Facebook not only doesn't allow you to fully turn them off, but also totally ignores your input on the ones you DID turn off.

Darn it, Facebook.

Anyway, today I want to talk about heist stories.

I don't think it's any surprise to you that I

Love

Heist stories.

On a related note, I saw Solo over the social media fast (the new Star Wars movie) and I really liked it. I was hoping for thieves in space, which was exactly what I got. It was fun and exciting and a blast to watch. I don't know why it did so badly in theaters.

I was talking about this with a friend and she said she actually liked Solo better than Ocean's 8, another heist movie. I asked why, and she said Ocean's 8 was too straight-forward. There wasn't a moment when the heroes seemed to have lost, like in Ocean's 11 or in many, many episodes of Leverage.

That got me thinking about heist stories and what we love about them. Sure, there's the element of the "bad boy" hero - the thief that we're supposed to root for, and that's a fun twist. But if that were all, then we'd be okay with something like Ocean's 8 or a simple back robbery story. We'd see thieves winning, and that would be enough.

But it's not.

There's something about a heist story that makes it different than a subverted hero trope, or even an action/adventure story. I've been thinking about it, and this is what I have decided.

The most important part of a good heist story is two powerful minds at war with each other.

It's a game of freaking chess, but with laser grids and motion sensors. And oddly enough, considering how many people might not care to watch a game of chess, that mental game is the draw.

Heist stories are all about outsmarting each other. We're not happy, as an audience, unless we see someone win through brains and planning, not by getting off a cheap escape or by pulling a gun. (By the way, I often see pulling a gun as proof that the gun-toter has lost the game.)

Player 1 has something valuable. So, Player 1 sets up the best protection they can to protect this valuable thing. No matter when the story takes place, this is always true. This can be walls, devices, guards, bribery, etc. The stronger the fortifications, the more hopeless the task to steal this, the better.

Player 2 (or "players" 2, in the case of a team) wants to get the thing, but they plan to do it in a sneaky, clever way. They have to think past all the protective walls and guards and policies to get what they want. We sit and watch them work against impossible odds, wondering how they'll do it.

But Player 1 didn't just vanish after the first play. Oh, no. They're still there, ready to counter any move they see Player 2 making. And in the best stories, they do. And Player 2 counters, and plans.

In my opinion, the best heist stories are the ones you can't see the end of. You don't know who is going to win: the mark or the thief. Even though you know who the heroes are, you don't know if they'll actually pull this off and get away with it. Even better, at the end, you actually think they lost.

But then they pull off one last sleight of hand, one last plan that proves that they were the smartest player after all. It doesn't come down to a car chase or shoot-off; it comes down to that last chessboard play when the thief knocks down the king for good, and there's nothing Player 1 can do about it.

(On a related note, I saw a stage production of The Scarlet Pimpernel this weekend as well; that's one heck of a great heist story, if set in Revolutionary France and with a very heroic "thief.")

We like the puzzle and cleverness of a heist story. We want to see how the thieves will outwit the mark. They can't just win; they have to win with style. And when that happens, and we were duped and surprised just like the mark, by the people we've been rooting for the whole story, we are delighted by it. A heist story isn't just a robbery; it's checkmate.

And it's so, so satisfying.