The Italian Job (2003 film)

The Italian Job is a 2003 heist film directed by F. Gary Gray. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron, Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, and Donald Sutherland. It is an American remake of a 1969 British film of the same name, and is about a team of thieves who plan to steal gold bullion from a former associate who double crossed them. Despite the shared title, the plot and characters of this film differ from those of its source material; Gray described the film as "an homage to the original."
Most of the film was shot on location in Venice and Los Angeles, where canals and streets, respectively, were temporarily shut down during principal photography. Produced by Paramount Pictures, The Italian Job was theatrically released in the United States on May 30, 2003, and grossed over $176 million worldwide. Critical response was generally positive, with publications highlighting the action sequences. A sequel, The Brazilian Job, has reportedly been in development since 2004, but has yet to be produced as of 2012.

Plot
In Venice, Italy, retired safecracker John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) calls his daughter Stella Bridger (Charlize Theron) and tells her that he bought her something sparkling and that he will participate in his final heist.
Few minutes later, John then meets up with Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) before setting the heist into motion. Their team consists of themselves and four others: Steve (Edward Norton) is the "inside man", Handsome Rob (Jason Statham) is a getaway driver, Left Ear (Mos Def) is an explosives expert, and Lyle (Seth Green) is a technical expert. The target of the heist is $35 million worth of gold, which was stolen a few days ago. They arrive by boat at the building that they been watching, and Steve breaks into the apartment. Steve and Left Ear plant the bombs on the wall to bomb it, so that the safe could fall downstairs. They manage to bomb it, and Lyle and Rob drive away with the safe. They drag away the mobsters, but is revealed that the safe isn't on their boat, but in the water below. Rob and Lyle manage to escape, and Left Ear, Charlie and John steal the gold while in scuba suits, and they escape Venice.
The heist is a success, but when they drive in a Iveco truck on the road deep in the Alps near the Austrian border, two jeeps block their path on a bridge, and Steve pulls the gun on Rob, revealing that he only wants to keep the gold for himself. John tries to get out, telling that he can't escape where they can't find him, with Steve replying that he is right, and subsequently shoots him. Rob drives the truck into the river, and they take oxygen bottles that they used to keep air inside the truck. Steve takes a automatic and fires into the water, to ensure that they are dead.
The guys manage to swim out, with Charlie crying over John's body, and Rob, Left Ear and Lyle standing next to him. Rob tells him that they got to leave.
A year later, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stella is using her safe cracking expertise as a professional Safe and Vault Technician to break into vaults as an assistant to law enforcement personnel. Meanwhile, the team has tracked Steve down with the help of Skinny Pete (a very ironic name, considering he's 300 pounds), and Charlie tries to recruit Stella to participate with the team in retrieving the gold from Steve since she has the required skill and motivation. She refuses at first, thinking that he is interested only in gold, and not revenge, but when she sees old family photos and a necklace (that John bought her on the day of the original heist), she changes her mind. The team travels to Los Angeles, California to begin their surveillance of Steve's house and plan the heist.
Meanwhile, Steve changed his last name to Frizelli to cover his indetity, and he is trying to sell his gold through a money launderer named Yevhen (Boris Krutonog), who owns a jewelry store as a cover up business. The team's initial plan is to have Steve stood up on a date with Stella — who posed as a cable repair woman to get into Steve's house and locate his safe — while the team breaks into Steve's house, load the gold into three Mini Coopers modified by Rob's mechanical friend Wrench (Franky G), and use hacked traffic lights to make their escape. However, Charlie is forced to call the plan off because of a local party, which would leave witnesses to the heist's execution. To maintain her cover, Stella goes on the date with Steve, but he figures out her real identity.
Charlie then confronts Steve, speaking quietly with him, saying that he has no idea how much he is stopping himself from killing him then and there. He also says that Steve has "no imagination", as he had only spent the gold on what the others wished to use it on (Rob's Aston Martin Vanquish, Lyle's dream stereo and Left Ear's dream house). Steve lies that he is down on the last 2 bricks which he is changing, and that he "blew the element of surprise", after which Charlie punches him in the face, and leaves with the team. Steve tries to sell the rest of the gold to Yevhen, but he is forced to kill him after Yehven unitentionaly gives away that he knew about the original Venice heist, unaware that Yevhen is the cousin of a local Ukrainian Mafia boss Maskhow (Olek Krupa), who arrives at the shop just as Steve escapes. Now with no options, Steve makes preparations to move the gold, not knowing that Charlie heard about this. Charlie starts to plan about the new heist.
Meanwhile, Maskhow, angry about his cousin's death, meets a guy named Vance at the junkyard, which is his cover up business. Vance tells him that he used to work at Yevhen's shop, and that the guy was asking about the gold. He describes the person, and Maskhow goes to his hideout, revealing that the person is Skinny Pete. Maskhow pulls out an axe as a threat, and asks him why he was asking about the gold. After they leave, Skinny Pete calls Charlie and informs him that Mashkow is accusing him of killing Yevhen, because Skinny Pete was asking about the gold bricks to track down Steve for Charlie. Charlie refutes the accusation, and he asks him for a favor. To set up the new heist, Lyle, (now known as Napster,) hacks into the traffic control systems while Left Ear and Charlie set explosive charges in the Red Line tunnels.
On the day of the heist, Left Ear and Rob arrive at Steve's mansion to take care of the trucks, and Stella and Charlie are waiting in midtown. Rob spots the truck, but it is revealed that he is using three armored trucks instead of one (two are decoys, and one contains the actual gold). Rob and Left Ear return to midtown to join Charlie and Stella. Napster isolates the truck containing the gold by checking each truck at a traffic light and determining if it is weighed down (due to safe and gold weight). Napster then hacks into the traffic system, stages several accidents and shunts all traffic lights to red to throw the city into gridlock. Controlling individual traffic lights, he is able to route the truck to the location where Wrench is waiting to time the explosives for them.
Meanwhile, Napster hacks into the subway's control systems and Charlie, Stella, Rob and Left Ear drive their cars into the 7th Street / Metro Center station, and narrowly jump onto the tracks in front of an arriving train, which Napster remotely stops to block the tunnel. When the truck reaches its position, the road underneath it is blown up, causing it to fall into the tunnel below. As Wrench knocks down the sign on the truck to cover the huge hole on the street, Rob fires a gas to take out the guards, and they open the door to the safe, revealing that this isn't the safe that they expected to see. Stella tries to open it with tools, but the screw is blocked into the door, and she opens the door by touch, how her father worked. They measure the gold, and Napster calculates that there is $27 million worth still inside. They load the gold into the cars, but they soon find themselves being chased into the sewers by the armored trucks' motorcycle escorts.
Steve follows them as they cross town, and Charlie tricks him into flying into a parking garage, causing the helicopter to break down. Steve subsequently carjacks a truck and follows him to Union Station. Steve bribes Wrench to let him into the train cargo where the Minis are stashed, but he only encounters Charlie. He pulls out his gun, demanding his gold, but the gangsters disarm him and he realizes he has fallen into a trap: Charlie has already informed Maskhow that Steve killed Yevhen, and Charlie gives the Maskhow a portion of the stolen gold for his help. Steve is taken away by the gangsters, begging them not to shoot him, and Maskhow tells him that he won't kill him, but he will take him to his workshop, assuring Steve that he "will be interested in the machinery there". The team splits up the remaining gold and raise a toast to Stella's father as they leave Los Angeles on the Coast Starlight. During the credits, a series of scenes show what each member of the team does with their portion of the money: Rob buys an Aston Martin (and gets pulled over when he is breaking it in, but getting off with a warning after flirting with a female officer), Napster buys a huge stereo (with speakers so loud that they'll blow a woman's clothes off), Left Ear buys a mansion in Spain (with a room for his shoes), and Charlie is seen with Stella in Venice.