Heist (2015 film)

Luke Vaughn, a man working in a Southern casino ("The Swan") run by Francis "The Pope" Silva, has a sick daughter in a hospital, with medical bills he fails to pay and further, needs some $300,000, for her surgery. Vaughn approaches "Pope" who refuses his plea for a loan and when Vaughn insists, Pope fires him, which leads to him being beaten by the boss's right-hand man, Derrick "The Dog" Prince.

Security guard Cox tells Vaughn he has observed regular massive losses by an individual on one night of the week and the next night another who wins huge, which leads him to suspect that the casino is laundering for the mob. Initially, Vaughn, who has the codes to gain access to the vault where the money is counted and wrapped, says stealing from "Pope" is suicide, but after Pope fires him, agrees to join with Cox to steal the money.

After the heist, the masked thieves are intercepted by Dog's henchmen. A gun battle ensues, wounding one of the thieves and, once their getaway driver escapes in terror, the rest are forced to hijack a city bus, number 657 at 4 am. Police Officer, Kris Bajos, whose car is parked a half block from the location of the bus hijacking, hears the gunshots and pursues the bus signalling for the driver to pull over. When Cox shoots through a window at Kris in the police car, she falls back and calls for reinforcements to join the chase and when the bus turn off towards the highway, the police setup a road block.

Vaughn writes a passenger's phone number on a bus window, to enable Kris to contact him, during which he warns her that Cox will kill passengers if the police are not instructed to clear the road blocks. Kris obeys and Vaughn orders Bernie, the bus driver, to ram the road block, allowing the bus to enter the interstate highway.

Dog informs Pope that Vaughn has stolen $3 million and Pope orders Dog to retrieve the money. As the sun rises, the bus is being pursued by police on the highway. Passengers' mobile phones are thrown from the bus and, as the wounded thief is dying, Vaughn asks one of the passengers, a veterinarian student, to take care of him. Cox makes a call to Jono, an old man who aided them in planning the robbery, informing Jono that they have the money and are on the way. Cox then orders Bernie to head to Galveston, Texas; unfortunately, the bus is running low on fuel, so Vaughn calls for a fuel tanker.

Detective Marconi joins forces with Kris when she is about to be relieved from duty and instructs her to drive the fuel tanker. Marconi briefs SWAT and monitors the bus via a police helicopter. As Kris prepares to refuel the bus, Vaughn allows Pauline and a young boy to leave the bus. During refueling, Vaughn allows Kris to board the bus to check on the hostages. After Kris suggests that the wounded thief be let off the bus for medical treatment, Cox objects and she has an altercation with Cox, during which she takes his gun from his waist. Vaughn defuses the situation and escorts Kris off the bus. As she wraps up refueling, Vaughn asks her to let him know how 'the girl' (Pauline) is. At the police station, the boy is reunited with his mom and Kris interviews Pauline for information, then lets her leave. Meanwhile, Dog learns the location of Jono through a police radio scanner.

With the wounded thief suffering blood loss, Vaughn calls Marconi, who boards the bus from a SWAT truck with a medical emergency kit. He hands the vet student a syringe with 'pain meds' and the wounded thief dies. Marconi gets a call from Pope and tosses the phone to Vaughn, revealing Marconi's affiliation with Pope. Shortly thereafter, Marconi is thrown from the bus and a SWAT team attacks the bus, popping a tire, causing it to crash to a stop near a bridge. Most of the passengers receive minor injuries.

With police surrounding the bus, Cox holds Bernie hostage in front of the cops and, on live TV, it appears Bernie is shot dead by Cox, but it is revealed that Vaughn shot Cox instead, saving Bernie. Vaughn receives a call from his daughter in hospital saying that she is ok and Kris tells him she knows about the hospital bills. Vaughn negotiates with Marconi the release of all the hostages except one and, once the tire is repaired, the bus departs. The police authorities follow the bus, but find out Vaughn has escaped and only Bernie is inside. In a flashback, Vaughn is seen leaving the bus with a large bag and driving away in a police car.

Vaughn arrives at Jono's, but finds him shot dead. From the shadows, Dog knocks him out with a shot of rock salt from a shotgun, taking Vaughn captive. Back on the bus, they are joined by Pope and Marconi, though Pope soon kills Marconi as Dog pours gasoline over Vaughn. Pope gloats over the fact that Vaughn didn't make it to the hospital by 7pm with the money and Vaughn explains that Pauline was not a pregnant passenger.

At the hospital, Kris overhears Pauline tell the nurse that she is Vaughn's daughter's aunt (she is his sister, who hid $300,000 in her false "tummy") as she pays the hospital bill. Kris deduces what Pauline is doing and does not stop her.

On the bus, hearing Vaughn's 'slight of hand' with the money, an infuriated Dog pours the rest of the gasoline all over Vaughn, is about to burn him alive and threatens to go after Vaughn's daughter next, but Pope shoots Dog dead. Pope loosens Vaughn's ropes and tells him his mother had a saying about people on their death bed who spoke of their regrets; "Regrets in death meant you lived your life wrong. Don't live life wrong Frank.", then hands a grateful Vaughn the keys to his Rolls Royce car parked outside so he can go visit his daughter. Pope waits on the bus and showing disgust that the e-cigarette, lights a cigarette as the police arrive.

On November 6, 2013, at the American Film Market sale, it was announced that film production and financing company Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films acquired a heist script, then titled Bus 757, from writer Stephen Cyrus Sepher.[1] The script, about a card dealer who puts a crew together to rob a bank and hijack a city bus, with an announced budget of $15 million budget, was being produced by Randall Emmett, George Furla, Alexander Tabrizi and Sepher.[1] On May 17, 2014, it was announced that Scott Mann would direct, Lionsgate would distribute, and Robert De Niro would star in the lead role of "The Pope", the casino owner whose money is the target of the heist.[4]

The title of the film had been changed to Bus 657 by September 24, 2014, when Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kate Bosworth, Dave Bautista and Gina Carano joined the cast of the film, which also added Max Adams as an additional screenwriter.[5] On October 13, it was confirmed that screenwriter and actor Sepher was spotted on the set, later confirmed to be performing as one of the robbery crew.[6][7] Morris Chestnut was spotted on the set on October 15, with his casting as Derrick "Dog" Prince confirmed two days later, acting as "The Pope's" right-hand man who has to bring the money back before the cops seize it and realize it's dirty.[8][9]

Filming was scheduled to take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,[10] but was moved to Mobile, Alabama, where filming began on October 13, 2014.[11][6] On October 15, De Niro was spotted filming in the Crystal Ballroom of The Battle House Hotel, which had been transformed into a 1940s-style casino called "The Swan Casino".[12] The same day, scenes were being filmed on the corner of Royal and St. Francis streets in downtown Mobile.[8] On October 21, filming was taking place on the Causeway, which was closed by the police from the eastbound entrance of Bankhead Tunnel to east of the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park.[13]

In October 2014, at the American Film Market sale, the film (under its second title, Bus 657) was sold to a number of international distributors, including Lionsgate International for the UK.[14] The film was released on November 13, 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand.[3]

The film was poorly received by film critics. As of June 2020, the film holds a 29% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews with an average score of 4.53 out of 10.[15] Metacritic gave the film 37/100, generally unfavorable, based on a weighted average rating of 11 reviews.[16]

• Heist at IMDb