Discription
Inside Man (2006)
Summary
Inside Man is a critically acclaimed American crime thriller that centers on a highly organized and meticulously planned bank robbery and hostage situation in a major Manhattan trust bank on Wall Street. The film unfolds primarily as a tense standoff between the intelligent, calm ringleader of the robbers, Dalton Russell, and the shrewd, ambitious NYPD hostage negotiator, Detective Keith Frazier. A third player, a powerful "fixer" named Madeleine White, is hired by the bank's founder to discretely protect a safe deposit box containing a dangerous secret. The movie uses a non-linear narrative, with flash-forward interrogation scenes, to reveal a sophisticated and surprising crime that is not about money, but about a deeper, morally-driven agenda.
Plot
The film begins with a monologue from Dalton Russell (Clive Owen), claiming he has engineered the perfect bank robbery. A group of masked assailants, all dressed in identical painter's coveralls and using aliases, storm the Manhattan Trust Bank and take employees and customers hostage.
NYPD Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), already under internal investigation for a separate incident, is assigned to lead the negotiations with Russell. Frazier quickly deduces that the robbers are highly intelligent and well-prepared, anticipating the police's surveillance attempts and frustrating the authorities at every turn.
The bank's founder and chairman of the board, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), is concerned less about the cash and more about the contents of a specific safe deposit box (Box 392). He hires a powerful corporate "fixer," Madeleine White (Jodie Foster), to use her influence to retrieve the box's contents before the police or robbers discover them. White gets access to Frazier and, eventually, to Russell, where she attempts to negotiate for the box.
Russell, however, is one step ahead. He knows that the box contains diamonds and documents revealing Case's illegal, secret collaboration with the Nazis during World War II, which led to the deaths of many Jews. Russell's true motive is not to steal the money from the bank, but to expose or punish Case by taking the contents of the box.
The robbers execute a part of their plan by forcing the hostages to strip down and don identical painter's coveralls and masks, making it impossible for the police to distinguish hostages from thieves. They also secretly demolish a wall in a storage room.
The standoff ends when the robbers, having planted explosives as a diversion, release the hostages and disappear among them, leaving the police with no clear suspects. Frazier initially appears to have failed, as the police cannot identify the robbers or find any money missing from the vault.
However, the final twist is revealed: Russell was never intended to leave with the hostages. He had been working on a complex plan to hide himself inside the bank, behind the false wall he had his team demolish. He spent a week sealed in a tiny, custom-built space in the bank's storage room, living off supplies and quietly observing the police investigation. After the police sweep and the bank reopens, Russell emerges, retrieves the valuable contents of Box 392 (including the incriminating documents), and walks out of the bank with a diamond, which he later drops into Frazier's coat pocket.
Frazier, finding the diamond and the documents, realizes the full scope of Russell's plan and Case's dark secret. He confronts a chastened Arthur Case, suggesting he will leak the information to the Federal Government, thereby redeeming himself and achieving the rank promotion he desperately sought.
Cast
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Denzel Washington as Detective Keith Frazier1
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Clive Owen as Dalton Russell2
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Jodie Foster as Madeleine White3
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Christopher Plummer as Arthur Case4
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Willem Dafoe as Captain John Darius5
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Chiwetel Ejiofor as Detective Bil6l Mitchell
Crew
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Director: Spike Lee
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Screenplay by: Russell Gewirtz
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Producer: Brian Grazer
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Music by: Terence Blanchard
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Cinematography: Matthew Libatique
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Editor: Barry Alexander Brown
Release Date
March 24, 2006 (United States)
