The Heist is a 1989 HBO made-for-TV movie, starring Pierce Brosnan, Tom Skerritt and Wendy Hughes.
After spending four years in prison, Neil Skinner (Brosnan) has only one aim: revenge against the man who framed him, his former business partner Ebbet Berens (Skerritt). Neil and Ebbet once handled security for a San Diego racetrack, but since sending Skinner to prison, Ebbet has run the business solo. He has also stolen Sheila (Hughes), Neil's former love. The embittered Neil assembles a group of track insiders to pull off a robbery that will vindicate him and send his rival to jail. And, if he's lucky, he'll win the girl back too.
Contains examples of:
- The Caper: Neil formulates a plan to knock over the counting room of the racetrack on one of the busiest days of the year.
- Clothing Combat: Neil uses a bar of soap in a sock to defend himself against three thugs who jump him the morning he is supposed to get out of prison.
- Fixing the Game: As a distraction, Neil plans to get Ramirez to ride one of the horses, then fake a fall to cause the race to so Dancer will pick him up in the Trojan Ambulance. This actually a decoy plan, and once he is certain that Ebbet knows about it and has put plans in place deal with it, he switches it ensure that Ramirez wins.
- The Gambling Addict: Dancer is a compulsive gambler who keeps making bets based on anything he can interpret as a omen; no matter how unlikely.
- Impersonating an Officer: Ebbet sends his thugs to beat up Ramirez for winning a race he was supposed to lose. But when they get to him, they see him being tackled by a Border Patrol officer who handcuffs him, throws him into a van, and drives off with him. However, the 'officer' is actually working for Neil and this is Neil's plan to extract Ramirez from the track after the race.
- Just Got Out of Jail: The film opens with Neil being released from prison after serving four years for a crime he did not commit.
- Lost in a Crowd: Ebbet tells the security staff to keep tabs on Neil while he is at the racetrack. As Neil is wearing an especially garish Hawaiian shirt, this should be easy. However, Neil has arranged for a tour group visiting the track to be wearing identical shirts and the guards quickly lose him.
- Sock It to Them: Neil defends himself against the thugs who jump him in prison with a bar of soap inside a sock.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The Gambling Addict Dancer is stuck working as the racetrack paramedic because he owes the track so much money from his gambling losses.
- Trojan Ambulance: Neil plans to use Dancer's ambulance to smuggle the stolen cash out of the racetrack. Neil actually realizes that Dancer is too unreliable to pull off his part of the plan and comes with a second method of smuggling the cash out, while allowing Ebbet to assume he is using the ambulance.
