City of Industry is a 1997 neo-noir crime film.
After a group of robbers succesfully execute a jewelry store heist, one of their members betrays the others to take the loot for himself. The only other survivor pursues his former partner to get revenge for his brother's death in the clusterfuck.
This film provides examples of:
- The Caper: The heist of a jewelry store by a four-man operation occurs early on and proceeds without a hitch. The actual fall-out results from the newest member of the group later betraying his associates so he doesn't have to share the loot with them. He kills two of them but the third guy gets away, and since one of the other two was the surviving party's younger brother he spends the rest of the movie gunning after his treacherous ex-partner.
- Gangbangers: Odell Williams (Michael Jai White) and his black gang, who first appear to sell Skip Skovitch some illegal firearms, and are later hired by Skovitch as muscle for a sitdown with the Triads.
- Noble Demon: Roy Egan is a thief, but he's a Consummate Professional who would Never Hurt an Innocent. At the end, after he gets revenge on the guy who betrayed him, he leaves some of the money to the widow of one of his dead partners.
- No Honor Among Thieves: A recurring theme. Roy Egan is a career robber who is betrayed by his newest partner Skip Skovitch because the latter wants to keep the money they previously stole for himself. Skovitch later gets betrayed by some new "friends" of his own when they suspect that he's holding out on them. Egan specifically notes that he's going to retire because the younger generation of criminals don't hold themselves to the same old school standards that he used to.
- Shoot the Hostage: Near the climax, the bad guy of the piece, a robber named Skip Skovitch, goes back to his place to find his girlfriend being attacked by two members from a group of Gangbangers he had hooked up with. After he immediately shoots the first, the second guy tries to use his girlfriend as leverage, only for Skip to just shoot them both in response.
- Stealing from Thieves: A group of four criminals pull a succesful heist on a jewelry store. Their youngest member then betrays the other three to keep the loot all to himself, except he missed one—who spends the rest of the film tracking him down to get revenge.
- The Triads and the Tongs: The Triads are one of the gangs allied to the bad guy, a robber who betrayed his partners after a jewelry store heist.
