Tower Heist
They spent years caring for New York's richest people. Now they're breaking into the penthouse to take back what one of them stole.
Director
Brett Ratner
Release
4 November 2011
Runtime
105 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
Josh Kovaks has built his career around running The Tower. He's good at it because he understands both the residents and the staff. Arthur Shaw seems to be one of the building's great success stories — an enormously wealthy businessman living in its penthouse. Then the FBI arrives. Special Agent Claire Denham reveals that Shaw is accused of a massive financial fraud. For Josh, the news becomes devastating when he realises that Shaw was also entrusted with The Tower employees' pension fund. Years of their savings may have vanished. Among those affected is Lester, the building's doorman, who was nearing retirement. Josh's anger eventually costs him his job. But it also gives him an idea. If Shaw stole the money, perhaps some of it is still inside his apartment. Josh knows the building. He knows its security. He knows its routines. And he knows the penthouse. What he doesn't know is how to commit a robbery. That's where Slide comes in. Josh recruits his childhood acquaintance to teach the group the basics of stealing. The resulting crew isn't exactly the kind of team that would worry professional criminals. There's Charlie, Josh's brother-in-law and fellow Tower employee. Enrique Dev'Reaux, the building's newest lift operator. Odessa, a maid whose practical skills prove considerably more useful than anyone expected. And Mr. Fitzhugh, a former Wall Street resident of The Tower whose own finances have collapsed. Their plan is ambitious. Get into Shaw's penthouse while he's under house arrest. Find the missing money. Get out without the FBI noticing. But once they're inside, the crew discovers that Arthur Shaw may have hidden his wealth somewhere far more unusual than they expected.
The Movie Trailer
Josh Kovaks knows every inch of The Tower.
For more than a decade, he's managed one of Manhattan's most exclusive residential buildings, overseeing staff and ensuring its wealthy residents receive exactly the service they expect.
One of those residents is billionaire financier Arthur Shaw.
When Shaw is arrested and accused of stealing billions from his investors, the consequences become painfully personal.
Josh entrusted the employees' pension fund to him.
Their savings are gone.
The people who clean the apartments, operate the lifts, work the front desk and keep The Tower running have lost money they spent years earning.
Josh isn't prepared to accept it.
Convinced that Shaw has hidden millions somewhere inside his penthouse, he assembles an unlikely group of employees to steal it back.
There's only one obvious problem.
None of them knows how to rob anybody.
So Josh turns to the one person he knows who might.
Slide.
A small-time criminal whose idea of professional development is teaching a group of respectable employees how to become thieves.
THE TOWER
Josh Knows the Building Better Than the Man He's Planning to Rob
The crew doesn't have experience on its side.
What it does have is access.
These are the people who spend every working day inside The Tower.
They understand its lifts, corridors, security systems and residents because keeping the building functioning is their job.
Arthur Shaw may own the penthouse.
Josh understands everything underneath it.
That turns an ordinary group of employees into something unexpectedly useful.
They've effectively spent years learning how to break into the building without ever realising it.
SLIDE
Every Heist Crew Needs a Professional — Unfortunately, They've Got Slide
Slide immediately sees the problem with Josh's plan.
Wanting your money back doesn't make you a thief.
Josh's crew knows almost nothing about stealing, surveillance or getting away with a crime.
Slide does.
Eddie Murphy's arrival also changes the energy of Tower Heist.
The employees' careful planning collides with someone who operates on instinct, confidence, and an entirely different understanding of the law.
Josh needs Slide because the crew is attempting something none of them has done before.
The difficulty is working out whether Slide can be trusted once millions of dollars are potentially within reach.
THE MONEY
Stealing Twenty Million Dollars Is Difficult. Getting It Out of the Tower Is Worse.
Finding Shaw's hidden fortune is only part of the problem.
The building is being watched.
Shaw is under house arrest.
Federal agents are nearby.
And the crew has to move through a luxury skyscraper without anybody realising that the people normally employed to serve its residents are carrying out a robbery upstairs.
Then their assumptions about where Shaw has hidden his money begin to change.
What looked like a straightforward search for a secret stash becomes a much larger logistical nightmare.
Knowing where the money is is very different from knowing how to steal it.
And even if Josh's crew manages both, they still have to get it out of the building.