5 Heist Movies You Should Watch After The Massive Louvre Robbery

A gang of thieves robbed the world-famous Louvre Museum on Sunday, October 19, 2025 — and I legitimately haven't been able to stop reading about it or thinking about it. It is, frankly, something straight out of a movie that a group of people dressed as security guards in orange and yellow vests scaled a French furniture crane known as a monte-meuble near a window into the museum's Galerie d'Apollon in its Petit Galerie wing, and grabbed as many jewels as they could, presumably. After all was said and done, and even though these robbers managed to drop an entire royal crown covered in jewels and constructed of gold that once belonged to Napoleon III's wife, Empress Eugénie, they made off with plenty of precious gems that belonged to her, as well as jewels gifted by Napoleon Bonaparte to his second wife and a sapphire-encrusted jewelry set.

Everything about this is absolutely bonkers, from the fact that the robbery happened in broad daylight while guests at the museum were just freely walking around to the fact that, as of this writing, the thieves haven't been identified yet, nor have any of the jewels been recovered. The eventual "success" of this heist remains to be seen, but if this whole thing put you in the mood to watch a high-octane fictional robbery that might be slightly more planned and sophisticated than this one — which seemed to rely on a simple concept of "climb, smash, steal, run" — I've got you covered. Try these five heist movies if you, like me, are absolutely obsessed with this audacious and absolutely crazy real-life robbery.

Why mess with a classic? Yes, Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Eleven" is a remake of the 1960 version starring the "Rat Pack" (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and their buddies), but for my money, it's a better take on this exciting heist. George Clooney, armed with his famous charm, plays the main character, Danny Ocean, who's just left prison and is ready for another job after reuniting with his right-hand man, Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt). 

Together, Rusty and Danny — with the help of their benefactor Reuben Tishkoff (a phenomenally cast Elliott Gould) — assemble a group of 11 tricksters, each of whom brings specific skills to the situation. Frank Catton (Bernie Mac), an experienced casino croupier and con man, infiltrates the casino owned by the wealthy Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the twins Virgil and Turk Malloy (Casey Affleck and Scott Caan) are great at causing distractions, and Basher Tarr (Don Cheadle) knows everything about explosives. "The Amazing" Yen (Qin Shaobo) is an acrobat who can sneak into any small space, Livingston Dell (Eddie Jemison) is a surveillance expert, Saul Bloom (Carl Reiner) has been a conman for his entire life, and the group's final addition, Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon), is an expert pickpocket.

With Julia Roberts on hand as Danny's ex-wife and Terry's new girlfriend Tess Ocean — a factor that further complicates the entire job — and a stunningly planned and shot heist courtesy of Soderbergh, "Ocean's Eleven" is a staple of the genre. If that climactic shot at the very end with all the guys standing in front of the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas doesn't make you weirdly emotional, I don't know what to tell you.

Is "The Italian Job" dumb? Yeah, definitely. Is it a ton of fun? Yes. Like "Ocean's Eleven," F. Gary Gray's 2003 film "The Italian Job" is a remake of an older movie — one of the same name that came out in 1969 and stars Michael Caine — that puts its own stamp on the material, bringing together an all-star cast that includes Donald Sutherland, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Mark Walhberg, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Seth Green. When a group of thieves led by John Bridger (Sutherland) steal gold bars from a difficult-to-crack safe in Venice, Italy, one of John's acolytes, Steve Frazelli (Norton), double-crosses the gang and steals the gold for himself; he also kills John in cold blood. Devastated, John's protégé Charlie Croker (Wahlberg) and the rest of the group's members scatter, though Steve believes that they all died in a car accident in Venice that he attempted to cause (thankfully, the gang's driver Handsome Rob, played by Statham, faked a crash and managed to save everyone but John).

Years later, Charlie, Handsome Rob, explosives guy Gilligan "Left Ear" (Mos Def), hacker Lyle "Napster" (Green), and John's daughter Stella (Theron) — now a master safe-cracker in her own right — reunite to steal the gold bars and then some back from Steve. This movie has Mini Cooper car chases, thrilling action sequences, and a genuinely hilarious subplot about how Lyle "invented Napster" and got screwed over by real-life Napster founder Shawn Fanning (who has a cameo in a flashback). What more could you possibly ask for from a heist movie?

The first two movies on this list are about stealing money and gold, respectively — so if the real-life Louvre robbery has you hankering for a good old-fashioned art heist, give "The Thomas Crown Affair" a try. Another remake of a 1960s movie (this one released in 1968 and starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway), this update, directed by John McTiernan, features Pierce Brosnan (as the titular Thomas Crown), Rene Russo, and Dennis Leary, among others ... and focuses on a wealthy man who inexplicably steals a priceless artifact.

Using an extremely literal Trojan horse, a group of thieves commissioned by Thomas himself breaks into New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and steals "San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk," a world-famous painting by Impressionist master Claude Monet. Unfortunately for Thomas, when he lends the museum another painting (one by fellow Impressionist Camille Pissarro) to the museum to fill the empty space, insurance investigator Catherine Banning (Russo) grows suspicious of Thomas' motives, leading to an exceptionally crafted game of cat-and-mouse. Even as Catherine's attraction to Thomas grows, she's still obligated to report to NYPD detective Michael McCann (Leary), and watching the two fall in love while also trying to outsmart each other is just an absolute delight. "The Thomas Crown Affair" is a total classic, if for no other reason than it's definitely one of Brosnan's best (and coolest) performances.

Speaking of great cinematic cat-and-mouse games, few are better than the one depicted in Michael Mann's stone-cold masterpiece "Heat," released in 1995. Based on Mann's own TV pilot script "L.A. Takedown" (which never made it to air anyway), "Heat" casts Al Pacino as Los Angeles police lieutenant Vincent Hanna and Robert De Niro as his greatest nemesis, career conman and thief Neil McCauley, and as the film opens, one of Neil's robberies — which lifts over $1 million of bearer bonds from an armored car — goes horribly wrong when one of his colleagues, Waingro (Kevin Gage), kills one of the guards. As the investigation into the robbery and murder opens, Vincent and his men start investigating Neil specifically after an informant points them in the right direction ... but when the LAPD sets a trap to catch Neil and his men during their next heist and one of Vincent's cops accidentally makes a noise, Neil calls off the job and the chase begins anew.

The undeniable highlight of "Heat" is the diner scene between Vincent and Neil, where the two men bond over their surprisingly similarly troubled minds, agree that they share mutual respect for one another despite being on opposing sides of the law, and ultimately determine that they'll kill each other if they absolutely must ... but the entire movie is a masterclass in suspense and performance thanks to the combined starpower and talent of Mann, Pacino, and De Niro. If you've never seen "Heat" but can't get the Louvre robbery off your mind, now's the time.

Yeah, there are two "Ocean's" movies on this list, but hear me out. First of all, besides a tenuous "familial connection," the movies are only sort of related. Secondly, this movie is literally about a jewel heist at a museum. Third of all, I don't really have a third thing. Wait! Yes, I do! Cate Blanchett is in this movie!

Directed by Gary Ross and released in 2018, "Ocean's 8" centers around Danny Ocean's sister Debbie (Sandra Bullock), who emerges from prison just like her brother once did, determined to pull off a massive heist. After also reuniting with her own best friend, Lou Miller (Blanchett), the two bring together a group of women to crash the annual, extremely exclusive Met Gala and steal the Toussaint, a massive and historic Cartier necklace that's worth $150 million. (Why women? "A him gets noticed. A her gets ignored," Debbie wisely tells Lou.) After bringing in broke fashion designer Rose Weil (Helena Bonham-Carter), pickpocket Constance (Awkwafina), stolen goods expert Tammy (Sarah Paulson), jeweler Amita (Mindy Kaling), and hacker Leslie "Nine Ball" Jordan (Rihanna), the gang figures out how they can place the Touissant on the neck of gala chair and actress Daphne Kluger (a winningly self-aware Anne Hathaway) and steal it before the event ends.

"Ocean's 8" has its detractors, but I think it's absolutely delightful, and again, you can't really get more on-the-nose for a Louvre heist-themed binge watch than a movie where, at the end of the day, quite a lot of royal jewels end up missing from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Haven't seen "Ocean's 8" before? There's no better time to enjoy this snappy, breezy, and unbelievably fun heist flick.