Slamming its message into audiences with all the subtlety of a 12-car collision, How to Rob a Bank is a flash-bang of a film which packs in enough harsh language, mob justice and vigilante violence to send parents hiding. The only thing being stolen here is the time of anyone willing to watch.
Ryan is a numbers guy.
Numbers like 4 out of 10. Or, your odds of owning a house in the current economy. Or perhaps 2 out of 10: the chance you have of making a six-figure salary.
But his most important stat—according to him and his group’s YouTube channel, “Who’s Hungry,” and their ongoing web series, “How to Rob a Bank”—is that 9 out of 10 armed robberies end with the robber leaving with the cash.
Quickly gaining traction through millions of views, Ryan’s message is clear: The only way to stop big corporations from bleeding the little guy dry is to take back what never should have been given to those corporations in the first place.
Extreme as this may sound, Ryan and his pack of animal-masked co-robbers don’t resort to lethal measures—at least, not at first. Why, that would defeat the whole purpose of their message! The local bank’s security guard is also just barely getting by, putting his life on the line for poverty wages in order to protect some sleazeball’s dough. Cops are just doing their jobs, too—just another cog in the wheel that takes advantage of all except the elusive 1%.
Ryan’s seemingly endless string of robberies may be coming to a close, though. The FBI is on his trail. Agent West, who’s assigned to the case, has enlisted the help of Reagan—a woman who created a piece of tech that can locate almost anyone just by watching video footage. Reagan is on house arrest, since the tech led to a federal judge’s house being burned down (thankfully, without him in it), but West has promised to wipe her record clean if she can help catch the How to Rob a Bank crew.
61 felonies committed. 15 banks robbed. Those are Ryan’s most recent numbers. But hopefully, by the time Agent West retires there will be a new number on file: Four criminals behind bars.
While their methods are clearly illegal, these wannabe Robin Hoods do donate millions to charities and churches. The film also goes out of its way to point out that law enforcement is not the enemy in a bank robbery, and Ryan’s team does try to avoid fatal force. A robber takes a moment to reassure a pregnant woman that she won’t be harmed during the crime.
The robbers do care for each other and their families, and although their actions are reprehensible, they believe that they are, in some twisted way, helping people.
A father’s nighttime lullaby to his daughter makes for a sweet moment.
Agent West seems to empathize with the robber’s motivations, although he obviously disagrees with their methods. He attempts to verbally deescalate tense situations rather than taking a life on a couple occasions.
In one of the YouTube videos, Ryan’s wolf-mask persona is seen dressed in an angel costume, with the set behind him invoking a neon-soaked church, complete with a fluorescent pink cross. He discusses how Jesus flipped the tables of merchants within the temple in Matthew 21, claiming “even the Prince of Peace chose violence.” The video breaks down the “10 commandments of robbing banks,” accompanied by a choir that sings of said robberies. During this video, Ryan says, “Treat the fifth amendment like your first commandment.” This bit is returned to during the end credits of the film, with a gospel choir singing a song with lyrics such as “Glory to the wolf.”
A brief clip shows a robber donating money to a Catholic priest. A character makes a joke about how the Catholic church handles allegations of sexual misconduct against the clergy.
A married couple passionately kisses, removing their shirts and presumably having sex, although the camera cuts away before anything sensitive is seen. A few couples kiss and cuddle. Two different men are seen shirtless on a few occasions. A few sexual jokes and innuendos are thrown out as well, such as “OnlyFans is not a charity.” A woman talks about using software she invented to track down her ex. Someone alludes to male genitalia.
Short skirts and tight, cleavage-baring, midriff-revealing shirts are worn by female characters throughout.
A couple of characters are shot, accompanied by spurts of blood. One of the shootings is fatal and occurs while the victim is on the phone with his wife and young daughter. People are held at gunpoint throughout. The robbers carry both nonlethal blanks and very much lethal bullets.
Car chases end in brutal crashes, although the fatality of these crashes is not confirmed. A crash and an accompanied fight sequence leaves a character’s face bloodied. People are painfully hit with the butts of guns, sometimes repeatedly. The film’s end revolves around a peaceful protest turning into a violent riot—in which law enforcement is enveloped and buildings are burned. Fistfights and flying bullets abound.
While the details are not entirely clear, the death of a young toddler is linked to an unpaid loan and increasingly oppressive medical bills. A man with lung cancer coughs up blood in a handful of scenes.
The troupe of robbers frequently calls in fake bomb threats. They taze and tackle police officers and security guards on multiple occasions. A character prods law enforcement, saying, “Since when do cops have a problem with terrorizing civilians?”
At least 60 f-words are clearly heard throughout the film, with a handful of those coming from background music. Between frequent explicit song choices and fast-moving text from livestream chats, even more f-bombs likely find their way into the soundtrack and onto the screen. Around 35 s-words and a couple uses each of “d–n,” “b–ch,” “a–,” “d–k,” “p—y” and “h—” pepper the script as well. Jesus’ name is misused once, and God’s name is misused three times—all of which are paired with “d–n.” Multiple middle fingers are clearly shown throughout the film.
A character smokes from a bong in a few scenes, claiming to law enforcement that the residual smell is “incense.” One character tells another that they should invest in some Xanax. Adults drink throughout the film, and empty wine bottles and beer cans populate a woman’s apartment. A man touts a flask, presumably filled with hard liquor.
The entire movie pushes a message that the ultra-wealthy have rigged the supposed game of capitalism in their favor, and therefore, it is a righteous cause to steal from them. The film suggests that many civilians are willing to join in this pursuit, with the ones portrayed here buying their own animal masks online and helping the robbers with their final score at the end of the film. Rioters tout signs reading things like “Eat the rich” and “Class war ahead.”
A woman’s computer sports about a dozen stickers, all invoking some level of activism regarding gender, race relations and the growing economic divide.
“People only raise their voices when they feel they aren’t being heard,” Ryan solemnly says at the film’s end.
Listen, never would I choose to watch a crime film directed by ex-stuntman David Leitch (The Fall Guy, Bullet Train), costarring comedian Pete Davidson and assume that such a picture might include any subtlety with its message. That being said, How to Rob a Bank would have been more nuanced if, instead of sitting through the screening, a theater employee spray-painted “capitalism” on a brick and repeatedly hit me in the head with it.
How to Rob a Bank plays out like an edgy middle schooler watched half of a YouTube video about socialism on 2x speed and is now screaming at their hard-working parents about how big corporations screw everyone over. The great irony of this message is that it’s all sloppily packed in a film from Amazon Studios—a conglomerate that has repeatedly been scrutinized for its less-than-ideal treatment of employees.
Also, the film’s approach to the real issues so many families face during an economic crisis is so smugly preposterous that it negates any goodwill it may have had to begin with.
All irony aside, beyond a couple of competently filmed car chases and a decent turn from Pete Davidson of all people, How to Rob a Bank holds next to nothing in artistic value.
Excessive language, murky morals and misplaced violence will undoubtedly sound the alarms for parents. The only people robbing anything are the filmmakers, stealing two hours from anyone willing to watch this film.
Jonah Parker’s first interaction with Plugged In came when he was just five years old, after his parents read a review for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and deemed the content too intense for him. What started out as a contentious relationship between Jonah and a staff of reviewers who knew not of his existence would later turn into an appreciation for the site’s ability to present media content in a way that was accurate and fair. Jonah enjoys analyzing how our entertainment echoes the creativity of our Creator while finding glimpses of Biblical truths within every genre. He believes that Robert Pattinson’s Batmobile is the perfect mix of cool and practical.
