Thief Looking to Exit The Game Falls in Love With The Hostage He Took During a Bank Robbery

Welcome back to Movie Recaps.  Today I will show you a crime, drama, thriller film from 2010, titled The  Town. Spoilers ahead!

Watch out and take care. The neighborhood of Charlestown Boston is known  for its high amount of bank robberies all year long. Four longlife friends are particularly  good at it: Doug, Jem , Gloansy , and Dez.

Doug is the brain behind their plans, and he tells the  other three all the details they need to memorize without fail before their next operation. When  a guard enters the bank carrying a money bag, they take the chance to push him and enter  with him, immediately taking control of the situation. Every person present is thrown to the  ground, their cellphones are taken, and after the thieves empty the cashier station, they make  manager Claire Keesey open the vault.

After taking all the money and putting the security cameras'  hard drives in a microwave to destroy them, the thieves start pouring bleach all over the place  to take care of any possible DNA proof, unaware that Claire is pressing a silent alarm button  with her foot until it is too late. When they finally notice, Jem beats up the assistant manager  believing it was him, and as he violently moves, Claire gets to see his neck tattoo. Seeing as the  police are about to surround them, Jem decides to take Claire with them as a hostage, which is  something they never do.

They blindfold her before taking off their masks and once they are far  enough from the bank, they drop her at the beach, not needing her anymore. The crime scene is taken  over by the FBI, with Special Agent Adam Frawley in charge. He can see the thieves took care of  every possible detail and left no evidence behind, which means they must be professionals.

His men  also find the van they used for the robbery, but it has been lit on fire and nobody in the  neighborhood is willing to speak as a witness. The next day, Frawley interrogates Claire, who  tells him the little she knows and omits the tattoo detail because the thieves have threatened  to kill her if she gives the FBI any information. Meanwhile, the four thieves get together to  discuss Jem's awful idea of taking a hostage, but when he arrives, he brings worse news: he has  Claire's ID and has noticed she lives near them, so she will see him in the neighborhood  often.

He thinks he should follow her around and make sure she is scared enough not  to talk, but Doug takes over and says he will do it because Jem has already been to jail  once and he can't afford a second strike, but in truth, he will do it because he  doesn't trust how violent Jem has been lately. Afterward, Doug and Jem go around the neighborhood  to do all necessary payments to their gun dealer, their car dealer, and Fergie, an Irish  mobster whose front is a flower shop. Then they spend the evening drinking,  gambling, and taking drugs with callgirls.

The following night, the four of them are having  a drink at a bar when they are approached by Kris, Jem's sister and a single mother. She and Doug  used to be together, and she says she misses him, but Doug doesn't want anything to do with  her and leaves. Some hours later however, when Doug is watching tv at his place, Kris lets  herself in with her old copy of the keys and makes love to him on the couch.

The next day,  Doug starts following Claire around and enters the laundromat after her. When she starts crying  because she finds faded bloodstains on her shirt, he takes the chance to make contact, pretending  to comfort her. To make her feel better, he takes her out for a drink.

They chat and bond, although  Doug lies and tells her he works in construction and that his dad lives in the suburbs instead of  being in prison. Then he takes her on a boat ride, claiming it belongs to a friend, but actually  he is breaking in just for this. When she asks him about all the bank robbers that live in  Charlestown, he just says stories are exaggerated.

The following day, when Doug meets with Jem, he  tells him he has Claire under control and that she doesn't need to be killed. After interrogating  and beating up a criminal contact of his, Frawley gets a clue: these thieves didn't do  trucks like others, they knew how to work the box. This kind of knowledge can only be acquired while  working somewhere like Vericom, so they start looking into work records and employee profiles. 

Frawley also meets Claire for lunch to ask her some more questions and tries to flirt with her,  but she mentions she is already sort of seeing someone. Claire and Doug start going out together,  a fact Doug keeps hidden from his gang. The closer they become, the more they share about each  other.

Claire admits she is working with the FBI, and Doug pretends to be simply curious to  ask her if they have any possible suspects. She also mentions the tattoo she saw, which she  doesn't know if bringing up to Frawley because if it may get her killed. Doug advises her to keep  it a secret for now as a card she can play later, especially if it means avoiding witness  protection.

In return, Doug shares that his mom left him when he was six and he tried to  find her, but his dad never did anything about it. During one of their dates, Claire talks about  having to take the long way to way to work because some gang members throw bottles at her vehicle if  she takes the normal road. So after dropping her at her home, Doug picks up Jem and together they  go intimidate the assaulters.

Doug only beats them up and plants some drugs, telling them to leave  before the week ends, but Jem gets too much into it and shoots the guy's leg before taking off his  mask and showing him his face. Doug isn't happy with how violent Jem has been lately. Meanwhile,  Frawley finds Dez's file as a Vericom employee, whose sick days match the dates of various bank  robberies.

This allows them to follow him into a family barbecue and discover the identities of the  whole gang, although they still are missing hard evidence to catch them. For now, Frawley orders  his agents to keep surveillance on all of them. While having lunch together on a sunny day,  Claire tells Doug that this weather reminds her of the day her brother died.

When she leaves  the table for a moment to go to the restroom, Jem suddenly shows up and sits with Doug, who  is now worried he will find out his secret so he tries to make him leave to no avail. Claire comes  back and while Jem is clearly shocked to see her, he still plays along and chitchats for a bit  before leaving as Doug makes sure to say goodbye to him as an excuse to cover the tattoo with  his hand. Later, Jem confronts Doug about her, thinking it is a terrible idea to sleep with  the person that could send them to jail.

He hasn't told the others, but he wants Doug to  do something about it and contrate on their next operation instead. Doug doesn't think they are  ready for their next robbery because he doesn't like the guys they will be working with, so they  should find someone else. Jem insists, however, so Doug gives in under one condition: this will  be his last job.

Afterward, he goes to see his father in prison to tell him he may be going  away for a while and ask him why he never looked for his mother. His father replies that there  is no point in trying to make a mother out of someone who clearly doesn't want to be one. When  Friday comes, it is time for their next operation.

They get some hair from a hair salon to plant  as fake evidence, wash themselves thoroughly, and clean all their equipment with bleach  so it doesn't have fingerprints on it. Then they take the car to follow an armored  truck and rob it as soon as it parks. Things go smoothly at first, but one of the guards  tries to fight back and aims his gun at them.

The police are also coming after them, so  as not to waste any more time, they kill the guard and go back to the car, driving  away as fast as possible not to get caught. They cause many crashes in the way, and when  the cops finally corner them, they shoot them too before driving back and escaping through the  way they come. This time Gloansy tries some risky driving moves that allow him to make the police  cars crash against each other, and they finally get to lose them when they find their fourth  team member waiting for them in another car, so they change vehicles and light the previous  car on fire, blocking the way for the cops.

Frawley, who is following the case from his  office, orders the police to close the bridge, but it is too late: the thieves cross it before  the cops get there. As they change vehicles again, they are seen by a random officer that is  parked nearby, but he turns a blind eye on them. While they don't have any legitimate proof to  use yet, Frawley wants to at least talk to them, so he sends his men to bring the four of  them in for interrogation.

After making them read the lines the thieves said to the  victims, Frawley tries to ask some questions, but Jem simply stays silent after requesting a  lawyer, and Doug, knowing they have nothing on him, tells him they have always known they have  been followed by the FBI because everyone knows what their antennas look like. Frawley's next move  is to try to get some clues from Claire again, but when he calls the bank, he finds out  she has quit. Getting suspicious of her now, he makes his men tap her phone and learns she has  been in contact with Doug all this time.

Doug also learns she quit when he meets with her to give her  a diamond necklace, so he takes the chance to ask her to go away with him, which she accepts. After  their date is over, Claire is visited by Frawley, who notices the necklace before showing her  Doug's profile and telling her the truth. Meanwhile, Doug meets with Jem, who has a new job  from Fergie, but Doug turns it down and tells him to find someone else because he is done.

This  enrages Jem, who accuses him of abandoning Kris and her baby, but Doug reminds him nobody knows  who the father is and while heis thankful Jem's family took him in as a kid, it was never going  to be the three of them happily playing house. Jem points out that he once killed a guy to protect  Doug and went to prison for nine years for it, but Doug isn't touched: he still turns down the  job. He then goes to see Fergie to inform him of this as well, but Fergie doesn't want anybody  else because Doug is the real brain here.

Doug's father went solo many years ago, too,  and that is why Fergie hooked his mother up with drugs. She never left, she died of overdoses,  and Doug has been lied to all this time. If he doesn't accept the job, Fergie threatens  to do to Claire the same thing he did to his mom.

Doug rushes to Claire's place to check she is  fine, but she kicks him out and doesn't let him apologize or explain. From then on, he tries  to keep an eye on her apartment and sees one of Fergie's thugs hang a funeral wreath on her  door. Doug destroys it as he finally accepts he will have no choice but to accept this job.

After  visiting Kris to tell her he will be gone after this job, Doug tries to approach Claire again and  promises he will never hurt her, because he has robbed many banks but he has never killed anyone,  then asks her to wait for him before leaving. The gang gets together to hear Fergie's plan:  he has inside information to rob Fenway Park, and they will do it the morning after the big  game, when their safes will be full. While they go over the details, Frawley approaches Kris at  a bar, thinking she may be the weak link in the family.

After fake-flirting with her, he shows her  his badge and implies he knows she is a mule for Fergie. When she asks for a lawyer, he makes his  move and sows the seed of discord by pointing out that even if she was together with Doug for many  years, he never bought her a diamond necklace. Kris gives him a fake lead, so the day of the  operation, Frawley and his men follow the wrong truck while Kris visits Doug to ask him to take  her with him because she also wants a new life, but Doug kicks her out after telling  her he is leaving with someone else.

Frawley finds her later in the hospital after  she crashed her car while under the influence, and he promises he will find protection for  her and her kid in exchange for information. Feeling as she is always getting used, she  gives in and tells her about Fenway Park. While Dez uses his electrician knowledge to  disable the alarms and security cameras, Doug and Jem dress up as cops and are allowed inside  the stadium by a contact of Fergie's.

They come across some employees and guards, but their police  act doesn't work out and soon they are taking out their guns and making the men lower themselves  to the floor so they can tie them up. Next, they go up to the cash room and tell the employees  to open the door and not to make a distress call because they have men outside their homes and  they will shoot their wives if they try anything. Obviously they are allowed to come in, and after  filling their bags with as much money as possible, they leave through the parking lot, where Gloansy  and Dez are waiting for them with an ambulance.

The FBI is already surrounding the perimeter,  but as soon as Jem sees them trying to sneak in, he opens fire on them. A shootout between thieves  and agents begins, and Gloansy gets shot in the middle of it, but at least they got him on the  vest. While the other three continue to shoot, Dez sneaks back and opens the door so they can  push the truck with the agents out of there.

After he closes the door again, Doug tells Dez  that unlike the others, he doesn't have a police record, so he can walk out and get only seven  years and none of them would blame him for it. Dez, however, feels rather insulted by this and  stays after throwing the f-word at Doug. The FBI throws some stun grenades through the windows then  and while the thieves' senses are compromised, they send special agents inside that shoot Dez as  soon as he stands up.

Gloansy decides to go for a very risky plan: he will drive out and keep the  FBI's attention on him while Doug and Jem change back into their cop costumes and simply walk  away through the main door because the FBI won't be looking for police officers. Doug worries about  Gloansy's safety if he goes out there, but Gloansy promises he is a great driver and knows how to  escape. The ambulance goes out and manages to drive down the block without issues, but when the  FBI can't stop it by just shooting at its wheels, a sniper kills Gloansy by getting him on the  head.

While the FBI checks out the ambulance, thinking all the thieves will be there, Doug  and Jem successfully change into their cop uniforms and easily escape by mingling with other  officers. The trick doesn't last long, however: the FBI receives information from the employees  that had been tied up inside, saying they had been ambushed by cops, so Frawley immediately starts  looking around for officers behaving suspiciously. He quickly notices Jem walking away fast with a  big bag over his shoulder and follows him into a parking lot.

As soon as Frawley calls him by his  name, Jem opens fire on him, and soon he finds himself surrounded by the FBI and cops while Doug  watches from across the street. Frawley manages to wound Jem on the leg, so he hides behind a  mailbox, only to realize he is out of bullets. Refusing to go back to jail, he commits suicide  by walking out with his guns in hand, causing the agents to shoot him on the spot.

Doug doesn't let  his sacrifice be in vain and escapes by stealing a police car while everyone is busy checking on  Jem's body. He drives to the flower shop and kills both Fergie and his thug, not getting hurt in  return because he is wearing a bulletproof vest. Afterward, Doug recovers some money he had hidden  and calls Claire, who has the FBI with her in the apartment listening to her conversation.

Claire  asks him to come over, claiming she is alone, but Doug knows she is lying because he is  watching the apartment from a neighbor building. He still accepts to go, though, asking her  to meet him at the back door in an hour. After he apologizes again to her, Claire mentions  "sunny days" as a subtle clue to let him know it is all a trap, and Doug plays along.

While the FBI  waits with Claire for someone that won't arrive, Doug hides some money in her garden  and leaves a note on Frawley's car, insulting him. Then he leaves the city  by train while wearing an MBTA uniform. Frawley is suspicious of Claire's "sunny days"  line, but it is too cryptic for him to use as evidence of anything and Claire is free of any  possible charges.

Days later, she finds the money Doug left for her with a note saying one day  they may see each other again. She decides to donate it to refurbish the local ice hockey arena  where Doug once played in memory of his mother.