10 Best Movie Thieves, Ranked

Great characters in movies can belong to all sorts of professions. There are blue-collar worker characters, there are writer characters, and—of course—there are criminals. These can be some of the most interesting of the bunch, making for compelling crime films that evaluate the complexities of morality and the deeply human nuances of something like, for instance, theft.

As it turns out, movie characters who happen to be thieves also happen to be one of the art form’s most compelling characters. From indie classics like Pulp Fiction to massive crime blockbusters like Inception, there are plenty of films that have outstanding examples of such characters. In order to qualify, the thief in question mustn’t be based on a real person (sorry, Bonnie and Clyde).

10 Michel

‘Pickpocket’ (1959)

Written and directed by Robert Bresson, a master of cinematic minimalism and one of France’s greatest and most influential filmmakers ever, Pickpocket is one of the director’s best. It’s the story of Michel, who passes the time by picking pockets while under close watch of the police. His friend may suspect his misdemeanors, while both men have their eyes locked on the pretty neighbor of Michel’s ailing mother.

Pickpocket
is packed with everything that makes Bresson such an acclaimed auteur.

One of the best arthouse crime movies of all time, Pickpocket is packed with everything that makes Bresson such an acclaimed auteur, from the airtight storytelling with surprisingly hard-hitting emotional outcomes to the fascinating characters. Michel himself has a riveting arc, which sets the foundation for the film’s questioning of what drives people to criminality. The fact that this character study is centered on just a petty thief speaks volumes about the huge human stories that Bresson was able to tell with the smallest premises.

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9 Pumpkin and Honey Bunny

‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994)

One of the 1990s’ best R-rated crime movies, as well as arguably the decade’s single best and most influential indie film, Pulp Fiction is Quentin Tarantino‘s magnum opus. It’s a dark comedy that interweaves multiple stories: That of two mob hitmen, that of a boxer and his girlfriend, that of a gangster and his wife, and that of a pair of diner bandits.

This gripping tale of violence and redemption broke new ground and started a trend of multi-narrative films that took quite a while to slow down. All of its characters are engaging, but the diner thieves in particular—codenamed Pumpkin and Honey Bunny—are among the film’s most memorable. There’s a good reason why the film opens with them. Their dynamic is entertaining, their dialogue flows like honey, and their storyline is the perfect way of both beginning and closing this unforgettable story.

8 Danny Ocean

‘Ocean’s’ Franchise

First played by the legendary Frank Sinatra in Lewis Milestone‘s 1960 heist film Ocean’s 11, and later by George Clooney in Steven Soderbergh‘s Ocean’s trilogy, Danny Ocean is one of the coolest characters of the heist genre. Ocean’s Eleven is about a gangster rounding up a band of associates to stage an elaborate casino heist, which involves robbing three Vegas casinos simultaneously during a boxing event.

There are plenty of reasons why Ocean’s Eleven tends to be considered one of the best heist movies of the 21st century, and though neither the original nor the sequels truly live up to it, this is still a phenomenal and somewhat underrated franchise. Slick, charming, and prone to taking risks that are always guaranteed to delight the audience, Danny Ocean is as awesome as crime film protagonists come.

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7 Aladdin

‘Aladdin’ (1992)

People looking for a feel-good movie to cheer them up when they’re feeling under the weather needn’t look further than a gem from Disney Animation’s Renaissance era. Of course, one of the best among them is Aladdin, inspired by The Thousand and One Nights. It’s the story of a poor street urchin named Aladdin, who spends his time stealing food from the market. His luck suddenly changes when he meets a beautiful young girl, and later finds a magical lamp containing a genie that’ll grant him three wishes.

Romantic, uplifting, and full of enchanting magic, Aladdin is one of Disney’s most beautiful animated classics. The protagonist is one of the most charming and well-written princes in the House of Mouse’s library, with surprising moral ambiguities that make him a much more complex character than one may think. But though he’s a slippery thief at the beginning of the film, his journey of growth is one that’s nothing if not entertaining.

6 Dom Cobb

‘Inception’ (2010)

At this point, it feels like Inception, which may just be Christopher Nolan‘s most popular film, doesn’t need much of an introduction. This exhilarating action epic is about a thief who steals corporate secrets using dream-sharing technology. One day, he’s given the task of doing the reverse: Using his gadget to plan an idea in the mind of a powerful magnate, but his tragic past puts the mission and his team at risk.

With some of the coolest visuals and most entertaining fight sequences in Nolan’s filmography, as well as one of the best scores of Hans Zimmer’s career, Inception is a legendary spectacle. Its protagonist, Dom Cobb, is one of the most complex and compelling in any Nolan film. His tragic backstory may not have much layeredness to it, but with an actor as good as Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part with such emotion and energy, it’s hard to go wrong.

5 Bilbo Baggins

‘The Hobbit’ Trilogy

Back in the beginning of the 21st century, New Zealand director Peter Jackson shocked the whole world with his unexpectedly flawless adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s Legendarium in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sometime later, he released a prequel trilogy. Though The Hobbit films aren’t nearly as good as their three predecessors, they’re still far above the vast majority of fantasy movies being made today. They tell the story of Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who’s unexpectedly snatched into an adventure led by a group of dwarves meaning to reclaim their homeland from the dragon that hijacked it many years prior.

Bilbo is more of a burglar than a thief, really (at least officially), but semantics don’t matter much when a particular shiny object he steals becomes the pivotal event that kicks off the beginning of the end of Middle-earth’s Third Age. Courageous, yet vulnerable; kind, yet imperfect; and played tremendously well by Martin Freeman at the top of his game, Bilbo is the perfect protagonist for such an entertaining series of films. He may not be one of Middle-earth’s strongest heroes, but he sure is one of its most valuable.

4 Harry and Marv

‘Home Alone’ (1990)

An iconic Christmas classic without equal, Home Alone is a consistently fun watch no matter what time of the year one is watching it at. It’s about eight-year-old Kevin, a troublemaker who’s mistakenly left home alone after his family leaves for a long holiday. So, he’s his home’s last line of defense when a pair of burglars break in on Christmas Eve.

One of few family movies that are genuinely close to perfection, Home Alone is both touching and whimsical, both funny and surprisingly well crafted, with two of the funniest villains in movie history. One shouldn’t underestimate Harry and Marv’s thieving abilities; after all, they were facing off against cinema’s most terrifying one-boy army. Their shenanigans are filled with fantastic slapstick moments, and Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern‘s performances are so perfect that these characters stand out as two of the best parts of Home Alone.

3 Sonny Wortzik

‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975)

It was with Sidney Lumet‘s Dog Day Afternoon that the iconic Al Pacino ended what might be the greatest three-year streak of any actor ever (Lumet’s Serpico in 1973, The Godfather Part II in 1974, and then this gem). It’s about three amateur bank robbers planning a nice, simple bank heist. However, the supposedly uncomplicated robbery suddenly becomes a bizarre nightmare as everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong.

The film was inspired by a wild true story, but isn’t fully factual — illustrated by the fact that Sonny Wortzik wasn’t a real person, and was actually only inspired by the real thief of the story, John Wojtowicz. Pacino plays the part masterfully, imbuing him with complexity and personality. He may not be a particularly good person, but in Pacino and Lumet’s expert hands, he’s surprisingly sympathetic and endearing.

2 Neil McCauley

‘Heat’ (1995)

Filmmaker Michael Mann is well-known for his unique approach to storytelling and masterful directing approach, yet in all of his illustrious career, he’s never been able to top what most people would agree is his masterpiece: Heat. It’s an engrossing character drama with crime action genre tropes in its DNA, telling the story of a group of high-end professional thieves starting to feel the heat from the LAPD after a terrible slip-up at their latest height.

This is a slow-burning cop drama at heart, but with action scenes so thrilling, suspense so effective, character work so intricate, and performances so impressive that it’s impossible to take one’s eyes off the screen at any point during the journey. Robert De Niro is exceptional as Neil McCauley, the leader of the gang of thieves. He’s as much the villain of the story as he is the co-protagonist, embodying the film’s themes of redemption, corruption, and the thrill of the chase. Written so exceptionally and performed so flawlessly by De Niro, McCauley may just be one of the best characters in the history of cinema.

1 Robin Hood

‘Robin Hood’ Movies

There aren’t many thief characters more legendary than the Prince of Thieves. Of course, it’s Robin Hood, a legendary heroic outlaw from English folklore who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. It’s a character archetype that’s become endlessly influential in movies, but it all started here: with a vigilante that’s been the subject of dozens upon dozens of adaptations of varying quality.

You have your Russell Crowe Robin Hoods and your Erroll Flynn Robin Hoods, your Kevin Costner Robin Hoods and your Cary Elwes Robin Hoods. The character isn’t always particularly well written, but that’s precisely the charm and magic of movies about characters in the public domain: They can make them funny or epic, complex or one-dimensional, action heroes or dashing romantic leads. That’s certainly the case with Robin Hood, the most iconic—and best—thief character in all of cinema.

NEXT:Heist Movies That Are Almost Perfect, Ranked