Caught this movie in passing this morning. I have seen it before but never really thought about it other than it was a pretty good cast and a pretty interesting script. Anyway, if you never seen it then watch for some spoilers; an armed gang dressed identically iin painter coveralls invade a prestigious New York City bank. Things go wrong and the police are called. Denzel Washington is the detective who ends up in charge but a shadow hangs over his head. Money is missing from an earlier bust, a lot of money, and he is the prime suspect. The customers, about 50 in all, are rounded up and forced to put on painter's coveralls and face masks just like the robbers. For the next 24 hours everything seems to be at a stand off. In between Jodie Foster is called in by a very rich philanthropist. He (Christoper Plummer) owns the bank and has something very important in the vault. He wants her to negoiate with the head robber (Clive Owen) for their exit from the bank without removing any of the contents. She also has to approach the police (Denzel) for breathing space. She promises that the investigation will go away and the detective will get that promotion.
Eventually the police are prepared to go into the bank with full force but the hostages coming running out of the bank amid smoke and explosions. To the police, the robbers are mixed in with the hostages, the weapons were fake, and nothing is missing from the vault. The police leadership call it day and say that the investigation is over. Jodie Foster approaches the rich philanthropist and tells him that she knows he made his fortune dealing with the Nazi's for Jewish wealth. He sold out his own people for blood money but the head robber would allow him to keep his secret in exchange for untraceable diamonds.
Later the head robber leaves the bank where he has been hiding behind a false wall for a week. He has left clues to lockbox 392 which shows up on no list. Denzel and his partner go to the bank and open the box. Inside is a diamond ring missing since before World War II that belonged to a Jewish family that disappeared in the Holocaust.
It occurred to me that the real bad guy here (rich Jewish philanthropist Christopher Plummer) is modeled after George Soros. You know, Soros the rich, Jewish, democrat party owning philanthropist who plays with a nation's currency. Russell Gewirtz is the screenwriter who has had a limited career writing about tough justice and going after the truly corrupt.