SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Hoping to cut a deal, a professional bank robber agrees to return all the money he stole in exchange for a reduced sentence. But when two FBI agents set him up for murder, he must now go on the run to clear his name and bring them to justice.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Honest Thief Plot Summary and Synopsis
Sneaking around Boston for years, Tom Dolan, a former US Marine and demolitions expert, has become a master thief, earning the nickname the “In-and-Out Bandit” for his slick ways when it comes to stealing large amounts of money which he never spends as Tom is in it for the thrill the robberies give him. He turns over a new leaf when he meets and falls in love with Annie Wilkins, a psychology graduate student working at a storage unit facility.
Into their relationship, Tom attempts to turn himself in to the FBI in exchange for a short sentence so he can put his criminal past behind him. FBI Agent Sam Baker brushes him off, having received several false confessions in the past, and sends subordinates John Nivens and Ramon Hall to interview him.
Tom directs them to the storage unit where his money is hidden, but Nivens convinces Hall to steal the money and keep it for themselves. Nivens and Hall confront Tom at gunpoint at his hotel where he reveals that he has two-thirds of the money hidden elsewhere as a bargaining chip, but Baker unexpectedly arrives; Nivens murders Baker, and Tom is forced to flee with Annie when she also arrives at the hotel.
Tom tells Annie everything and orders her to flee, fearing for her safety. However, she returns to the storage unit to get security camera evidence that shows Nivens and Hall stealing the money. Nivens and Hall show up and Nivens knocks Annie unconscious, but an increasingly reluctant Hall tricks him into thinking she is dead and takes the evidence, unbeknownst to Nivens. Tom finds Annie and races her to the hospital.
He then escapes from police pursuit, defeats Baker’s partner Sean Meyers in a fistfight, and tells him what really happened before escaping. Nivens goes to the hospital to kill Annie, but can’t get near her because Meyers is sitting in her room. Subsequently, Meyers realizes that Tom is telling the truth after seeing that Nivens’ story doesn’t add up and returning Hall’s gun to him which Tom had given to Meyers, unloaded, as proof during their fight.
Tom ambushes Hall in his home and convinces him to give up the security footage and the location of the safe house where the money was kept. Hall warns Tom that Annie’s life is in danger and Tom gets Annie out of the hospital and takes her to a safe place before destroying Nivens’ house. Tom then sends Annie to give Meyers the security footage and lead him to the rest of the money in another storage unit as a show of good faith. Nivens flees to the safe house and meets up with Hall, where Tom confronts them.
When Nivens discovers Hall turned over the security footage, he murders him in a rage, wounds Tom, and escapes. Anticipating his actions, Tom plants a dud bomb in Nivens’ car, forcing him to call in a bomb squad to disarm it. Meyers has Nivens arrested and recovers the stolen money from his car. After Nivens is gone, it’s revealed that Tom had the remorseful Hall keep a hidden voice recorder on his body which had caught Nivens confessing to Baker’s murder as well as Nivens murdering Hall.
Meyers receives the voice recorder, exonerating Tom for the murder of Baker. With his name cleared of the murder charges, Tom turns himself in, and Meyers promises to try to get a lighter sentence for Tom.
Honest Thief Ending
Meyers expresses his respect for Tom’s actions in both taking down Nivens and turning himself in for Annie, suggesting that in other circumstances, Tom would make a good FBI agent.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).