Welcome back to Movie Recapped.
Today I will show you a heist thriller film from 2006, titled Inside Man.
Spoilers ahead!
Watch out and take care.
Dalton Russel can be seen speaking into the camera, saying that he executed a meticulous
bank robbery on a Wall Street bank and managed to walk right out the front door without getting
caught.
The only remaining question is how he actually did it.
He and his team are seen driving up to the Manhattan Trust bank, masked as painters.
Then, Dalton walks into the bank first and knocks out the cameras.
Their well-orchestrated plan gets them from securing the door to having the people in
the bank on the ground in a matter of seconds.
A police officer walks up to the bank when he sees smoke coming out of it and before
he can complete the call, Dalton comes out and tells him that he has hostages and if
the cops come near the door, he'll start killing them.
The officer calls it in quickly and an entire barrage of NYPD blue comes rushing to the
scene, assessing the situation, setting up and securing the location, while shutting
down the entire block.
Simultaneously, the owner of the Manhattan Trust, Arthur Case, gets informed which branch
of his bank is being held up with hostages involved.
Hearing the news makes Case very nervous so he calls a high-power broker, Madeleine White,
to find a way to protect his very important family heirlooms held inside a safety deposit
box in that branch.
However, she gives him one rule, that if he does decide to tell her what's inside the
box, even though he doesn't need to, and he lies to her, her promise of discretion, as
well as their agreement, will be void.
Case doesn't lie but doesn't tell the truth either.
He simply wants her to make sure that the secret contents of the box either stay locked
in there or disappear.
Madeleine agrees to work with him.
Now, on the other side of the situation are the two other major players in this story,
the detectives Frazier and Mitchell, from the Hostage Negotiation Team.
Frazier is a veteran cop who's much too smart to work for the police, but he has a small
Internal Affairs matter hanging over his head that he probably had nothing to do with as
he will keep on insisting until the end.
The detectives are seen rushing to the bank and stepping inside one of the police vans
to talk to Cpt.
Darius, who's in charge of the scene.
He tells them that no one knows the number of suspects or hostages inside the bank yet.
Frazier tells Darius that he'll let him get control of the crime scene and once he has
more detailed information, he expects him to give him a briefing, meanwhile, he and
his partner will be in the dinner.
Meanwhile, the robbers take the hostages down to the safe room and line them up, then separate
them into bank employees and everyone else on the other side.
Dalton instructs the hostages to take their keys and phones out of their pockets or handbags
and hold them in the air to be collected by his associate.
One of the bank employees doesn't give away his cell phone and says that he's left it
at home.
Dalton doesn't believe him so he finds a phone that has his number on speed dial and calls
it, revealing that it has been left in his office.
When Dalton finds that out he takes the man to the office and beats him savagely, making
an example out of him to the others.
Dalton walks out of there splattered with blood so one man gives him his keys and a
boy shows him his video game console, which the robber tells him to keep.
Next, Dalton reshuffles the hostages again, making them line up by their gender, and tells
them all to strip to their underwear.
Everyone except an older lady does it so his female associate takes her to another room
while he instructs the rest of the hostages to put on the suits and the masks they are
being handed.
Later, an elderly hostage who works in the bank begins feeling sick and tells them that
he has a heart condition.
Dalton and one of his associates let him go and the police have him instantly on his knees
while he tells them that he was sent out to tell them not to come close to the bank or
he'll throw out two dead bodies.
The team of robbers checks on the other hostages and then going through the bank, passing the
safe and the deposit boxes, and lastly stopping in a back room with office supplies.
Sometime later, the robbers can be seen preparing the room for something and digging through
the ground.
Darius fetches Frazier and Mitchell and tells them about the man the robbers let go of.
The released hostage has told them that he thinks that there are four perps in the bank.
Darius also informs the detectives about how he's managing the perimeter, that he's awaiting
video footage from the bank when the heist began, and that all the phones from the bank
have been diverted to them.
That's Darius's end of the game, now Frazier has to decide how to move forward.
The detective thinks that it's still not the right time to call the robber because he wants
to see what he does next.
During the wait, Mitchell finds the robbers' van which they will dust for prints even though
it was probably stolen.
When Frazier finally decides to call the bank, Dalton just lets the phone ring and doesn't
pick it up.
The police get the footage from the bank's security cameras and they see how the robbers
managed to disengage all of them, speculating that they used infrared lights to do it.
Suddenly, the police see movement in front of the bank.
Simultaneously, Madeleine goes to the mayor of New York and asks him for a very big favor.
She tells him that she is monitoring the hostage situation in the bank for a client and asks
him to get her inside with the police, to be extended every courtesy to execute her
task.
The mayor says that it's impossible, but Madeleine insists and he agrees to grant her the favor.
The robbers let another hostage go with a message for the police strapped on him.
As one has come to expect from US cops, they see the man is a Sikh, but think he's an Arab
terrorist and disrespect his religion by taking off his turban.
They take him away quite roughly and later he's seen in the diner being questioned about
what he saw by Frazier and the others.
The Sikh is rightfully very angry and it takes some convincing to get him to talk about what
has been going on in the bank.
He confirms the information about the perps being 4 and tells them that there are around
twenty to thirty hostages.
Later, the cops read the demands that were sent out with the hostage.
The robbers are asking for two busses and a jumbo jet to be delivered by 9 pm.
If the cops break the deadline, they will kill one hostage every hour.
The bank is also secured with plastic explosives.
Darius says that they can't get a plane and that the bus is a maybe, while Frazier tells
them that until they talk to him they will get nothing, not even a cup of coffee.
Suddenly, Case is led into the van asking if he might be of some assistance and about
the robbers' demands.
The cops tell him that they want a jet and the old man asks if they want him to arrange
one for them.
They're stunned.
He wants to stay there and see the progression of the situation, but he is escorted out of
the van.
Later, the robbers demand food to be brought in which gives the cops an opportunity to
bug the bank and hear what they say.
The officer in charge of the tapping devices suggests they use pizzas so the people can
group around the food more and talk when Frazier asks her about a special listening device
she has there.
She tells him that it's a digital recorder that can take up to 30 seconds of material.
Meanwhile, one of the hostages acts like a tough guy so the robbers give him a reminder
about who's in charge in the bank and drag him across the rooms with all the hostages,
then take him inside the office supply room.
The order of food finally arrives at the bank and Frazier oversees the drop, introducing
himself to Dalton.
He tries to get the robber to open up to him and tells him that he would love to talk to
him if he picks up the phone.
Dalton says nothing.
Later, they listen to the audio from inside the bank and realize they are speaking in
another language, so they guess it's Russian.
Frazier sends Mitchell to find out from the hostages if they heard any Russian or Russian
accents when they were in there.
At the bank, the robbers create a situation with the hostages, moving one of them to another
room.
Then, one of the robbers pretends that she's a hostage too and goes back to the first room.
When the other robber takes her to the room, he takes out another female hostage and takes
her to a third room.
Later, the actual female robber can be seen digging the whole in the supply room.
A cop with Russian heritage listens to the tape and tells them that the language isn't
Russian, but the closest he gets to is Bulgarian and calls it Central European, sort of.
Frazier gets the idea to play the recording over the speaker and get someone from the
crowd outside that can recognize what language it is.
A construction worker recognizes the language as Albanian because his ex-wife was born there
and comes forward with the information.
The police try to reach the Albanian consulate but get nowhere with them, so Frazier tells
the construction worker to call his ex-wife.
When the woman arrives, she sees the help they want from her as an opportunity to make
her parking tickets go away.
Frazier tells her to listen to the recording and tell them what it says.
She laughs, saying that not only does she know what they're talking about, but that
she also knows who's doing the talking.
The cop is excited that he might find out who it actually is, so the woman repeats her
request about the parking tickets before she answers, and when she gets the reply she wants,
she tells them that it's the voice of the former, communist, president of Albania, Enver
Hoxha.
The realization that what they have been listening to is a random tape because the robbers knew
they were going to bug them, changes the game for the police.
Meanwhile, in a series of scattered shots from the bank, Dalton can be seen in the safe
and around the money, making it look questionable if they really are there for the money.
A bit later, he and one of his associates are seen opening up a safety deposit box.
It contains certain documents that they seem to have been initially after as well as diamonds
in little baggies and a jewelry box.
Dalton takes the document and the other one closes the box up again.
Around the same time, the mayor arrives in front of the bank with Madeleine to have a
conversation with detective Frazier.
He introduces them and she quickly presents Frazier with a limited account of the reason
she's there.
The detective is reluctant to accept her supposed help so Madeleine and the mayor use some nice
old-fashioned blackmailing to convince him.
Sometime later, Dalton finally picks up the phone and talks to Frazier.
The conversation goes pretty much nowhere with Dalton just repeating their demands and
threatening the detective to kill hostages if they aren't met in the timeframe he set
up.
The same happens in a later conversation, with Frazier sure that he's the one pressing
the robber for more time, still unaware that the one who's stalling is Dalton by playing
games with him.
Frazier offers Dalton some more food and he asks for sandwiches.
In the meantime, the robbers finish digging the hole in the supplies room which will be
a big part of how the robbery is completed.
After his call with Dalton, Frazier lets Madeleine talk to him as well.
She says something to him, that convinces Dalton that they should have a conversation
face-to-face.
Frazier takes her to the bank, worried that she might make a wrong move, but Madeleine
tells him that she got to where she is by collecting friends and not enemies.
She's searched when she gets to the bank then proceeds to talk to Dalton.
Madeleine gives him an offer of a short prison sentence and 2 million dollars when he gets
out in return for the contents of the safe deposit box.
Dalton makes it clear that he knows who Madeleine is working for and that he knows Case was
a nazi collaborator in WW2 when he worked in Switzerland.
She only asks to go to the deposit box, prompting him to show her what he found there, and tells
her that he'll be keeping it as a guarantee that if he is caught for the robbery she and
her boss will help him get out of it.
When Madeleine gets out of the bank, she has an off-the-record conversation with Frazier
telling him that she made him another offer that he's considering.
Frazier asks her about what she thinks Dalton is like and Madeleine tells him that he's
smart and that he's not a murderer.
Sometime later, the three cops continue talking about Dalton, trying to figure him out, when
Frazier decides to switch up the game a bit and stop playing by the book because he thinks
Dalton knows every step they will make.
He calls him and tells him that he will give him his jet if he allows him to come inside
and check the hostages first.
Dalton agrees and we see Frazier walk inside the bank in the next sequence.
He's taken to the hostage rooms where he sees that all of them are alive and well when he
sees the boy and is denied taking him out with him when he asks.
Before he leaves, he promises the hostages that he'll take them all out.
Frazier confronts Dalton and tells him about the tactical team waiting outside, but the
robber outsmarts him again.
As they reach the door Frazier tackles him and tries to take off his mask, but is stopped
by one of the others in time.
Dalton is pissed at him and asks for the buses again.
After that, Dalton goes to the supply room and asks his associate how long it will take
him to finish up there and he says that it will be in around two to three hours.
Frazier gets back in the van and tells Darius that Dalton isn't a killer and they should
wait and see what he does when he calls him again and tells him to point their cameras
at the window.
As soon as they do that, they see Dalton holding a gun to a hostage and killing him on camera.
The consequence to that is Frazier getting booted down in the case with Darius taking
his place to call the shots in the situation.
Naturally, Darius plans to get the tactical team inside as soon as possible but getting
inside the bank presents him with a tactical nightmare with very problematic outcomes.
The only solution to their problem is using rubber bullets so they don't kill anybody.
Mitchell thinks that if something goes wrong again that Frazier will be the scapegoat,
but he tells him that he caught a deal with Madeleine and that he'll make detective first
grade.
Suddenly, before Darius storms the bank, Frazier discovers that the robbers have been listening
to them the entire time via a transmitter in the drawer so he calls the captain to inform
him.
However, Darius decides to proceed.
When Dalton hears that, he throws smoke grenades, and they get the hostages out of the bank
before the cops can come in.
As soon as everyone comes out the tactical team gets them all down on the ground and
arrest everyone.
Then, the tactical team goes inside the bank to clear it from the robbers or find any possible
bodies.
They check all the rooms, the safe, and the supply room, but find nothing.
Frazier, Mitchell, and Darius come down and the head of the tactical team tells them that
they didn't find the body of the hostage and that nothing was taken from the bank.
Furthermore, the cops realize that their weapons were toys and that the killing of the hostage
was just a hoax.
Meanwhile, the hostages and all of the robbers are being taken into a police station to be
questioned.
No one knows who the hostages and who the robbers are so, sometime later, Frazier's
captain tells him that the case no longer exists.
Frazier didn't expect that, but he also won't be letting it go.
Before he leaves, the captain tells him that his problem with IA is gone.
Later, Frazier finds a clue to the secret safe deposit box from the bank and begins
putting it all together.
He meets with Madeleine again and shows her his recording of her and the mayor blackmailing
him about his problem.
In exchange for not getting the recording out, he asks her for information about Case's
box.
She only gives him a hint but tells him to let it go.
Madeleine goes to speak to Case later and tells him that Frazier won't be a problem,
but that Dalton will be hanging on to the document from the box as insurance against
his retaliation.
Furthermore, Madeleine knows that there were diamonds in the safe along with the document
and Case tells her that there is also a Cartier ring that belonged to some of his Jewish friends
he didn't save from the nazi's because they paid too well.
He pays her before she leaves and she pretends that she isn't judging him.
One week after the heist, Dalton can be seen, finally revealing how he managed to pull off
the heist.
He was hiding inside the bank, behind a trick wall they built in the supply room.
Dalton has the diamonds, the ring, and the document.
He breaks through the trick wall and gets out of his hiding spot, then walks through
the bank like he's just another client.
All of his conspirators can be seen waiting for him in front of the bank as Frazier and
Mitchel arrive.
Dalton bumps into Frazier as he's walking out of the bank, but he doesn't recognize
him.
Frazier goes into the bank with a court order to open the deposit box and inside he finds
chewing gum, the Cartier ring, and a note saying follow the ring.
The detectives go to speak to Case and Frazier asks him about the box, having figured out
that it's connected to something bad.
Case tries dodging all of his questions, but Frazier shows him the ring, saying that once
he learns more about he would surely know what those bad things are.
When the cops leave, they laugh because they know they have Case exactly where they want
him.
Later, Frazier interrupts Madeleine's and the mayor's lunch to show them the ring and
give her the number of the War Crimes Issues office in Washington, D.C.
She will gladly call that number so he gives her the pen with their recording successfully
taking down a nazi, overplaying a high-powered broker and an aloof mayor.
The only thing left for him to do, since he's also made the first grade, is to go home and
make love to his wife.
In the final image of the film, we see him finding a diamond that Dalton has left in
his pocket when he bumped into him in the bank.