The Last Heist

Plot

Bernard (Henry Rollins) arrives at a small bank in L.A. to withdraw his belongings from a safety deposit box due to the bank closing down. Entering the bank, Bernard encounters the mild-mannered employee Danny (Michael Aaron Milligan), his manager Mark (John O'Brien), the elderly Ms. Waxman (Fay DeWitt) and Cynthia (Courtney Compton). Bernard insists that he is seen to before the other customers, and intimidated, Cynthia allows Danny to show him to his safety deposit box before her. Shortly afterwards a group of bank thieves including Paul (Torrance Coombs), Washington (Mykel Shannon Jenkins), Biggs (Nick Principe), AJ (Mark Kelly), Rick (Ken Lyle), Tracey (Kristina Klebe) and Ally (Camilla Jackson) arrive to rob the bank. While Rick stays in the van in order to keep look out, the rest of the group storm the bank and take Mark, Ms Waxman and Cynthia hostage. Hearing the commotion, Danny leaves Bernard, who then removes several human eyeballs from his safety deposit box.

Arriving upstairs, Danny is also taken hostage, while recognizing his long estranged brother Paul as one of the robbers. AJ and Ally take the hostages to a back room and keep guard, however during a momentary lack of concentration from the robbers, Danny is able to text 911 and summon Detective Pascal (Victoria Pratt) to the scene, along with a few rookie cops. Pascal questions Paul at the front door who convinces her the text was not sent from the bank, however Pascal remains suspicious and quickly takes a photo of him to send to her station for identification. While leaving, Pascal finds Rick snorting cocaine in the van, prompting Rick to try and escape into the bank. Realizing he is not going to make it, he pulls his gun, only for Pascal to shoot him twice in the chest, severely injuring him. Paul, Washington and Biggs open fire on the officers and manage to drag the injured Rick inside of the bank. Shortly afterwards a number of patrol cars show up, including Pascal's boss Franklin (Robert Craighead). Meanwhile, Tracey goes into the vault to collect the money and look for the missing civilian, Bernard. After not being able to find him, Tracey gathers money and items of value in a large bag. As she is about to return to the group, Bernard attacks her, stabbing her multiple times and gouging out her eyes.

Paul quickly goes looking for Tracey and finds her corpse in the vault. He alerts the others that Tracey has been murdered, presumably by the missing civilian who is believed to be making his way around through the vents. He enters back into the lobby area with the bag of money. Ms. Waxman pleads with the robbers to allow her to use the restroom, and reluctantly Ally agrees. While waiting outside, Ally becomes impatient and enters the bathroom, only to find Ms. Waxman dead with her eyes gouged out. She is soon attacked by Bernard who stabs her to death. Biggs leaves the group to locate a hidden elevator within the bank which will allow the group to escape through the banks basement and out a back door. Realizing Rick will not survive much longer, Paul attempts to bargain with Pascal and demands a medic for Rick and a school bus for the groups escape. Soon afterward, a group of United States Department of Defense officers, including Smith (Cris D'Annunzio) and Sinclair (John J. York) arrive on the scene who convince Pascal and Franklin that they have been chasing Paul all over the country as he has been making large scale robberies. Smith enters the bank as the demanded medic, however says he is unable to treat Ricks wounds. Angered, the robbers keep Smith hostage and allow Cynthia to leave with the injured Rick. While watching Smith alone in the back room, AJ encounters Bernard. However, officers believe Bernard to be a civilian and shoot AJ dead when he raises his gun to him. Bernard then murders Smith, and soon after Biggs by hitting him in the back with an axe.

Sinclair decides to storm the bank with his men, along with Pascal. Upon entering the bank there is a gun-fight with Washington and Mark being murdered. Sinclair encounters Paul and it is revealed Sinclair and his men are part of drug cartel and are also planning on robbing the bank, having been beat to their objective by Paul and his gang. Sinclair shoots Paul dead before Pascal is shot in the neck. Pascal survives her injuries and shoots Sinclair's remaining men, while Sinclair escapes with the bag of money into the bank. Danny takes Pascals gun as she dies from her wounds and chases Sinclair into the basement through the elevator located by Biggs earlier. The men fight one another, with Danny eventually overpowering Sinclair and killing him. As Danny leaves with the money, Bernard attacks him and repeatedly stabs him before gouging out his eyes and putting them in his jar with the others. As the movie ends, Bernard can be seen escaping out of the back of the bank with the money and his jar of eyeballs.

Cast

Release

The films was released on June 17, 2016 in the United States.

Reception

The film received has been critically panned with a 3.4/10 on IMDb and a 0% out of 8 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave the film one star stating the "movie feels like it ran out of money on day two, and everybody but the people in front of the camera knew it." Owen Gleiberman of Variety praised Henry Rollins portrayal of the serial killer as "the only reason to see this slipshod indie bank-hostage thriller."