GOING IN STYLE
*CUT TO THE CHASE*
NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
The film starts with Joe Harding (Michael Caine) going into the Williamsburg Savings Bank. He meets with an obnoxious teller who tells him there was a rate hike in a plan that he sold Joe. Moments later, the bank is being robbed by three masked criminals with machine guns. The leader forces everyone to lay down like a cat. When Joe cramps up, the leader lets him relax. Joe takes out his wallet to give to the man after saying how the bank screwed him, but he declines and lets Joe keep it. Joe notices a tattoo on the man's chest resembling Genghis Khan. The crooks get away with over $1 million.
Joe is at the park with his best friends Willie Sachs (Morgan Freeman) and Albert Gardner (Alan Arkin) for bingo, which their senile co-worker Milton (Christopher Lloyd) is moderating. The three friends work for Wechsler Steel. Their manager holds a meeting with all employees to announce that the company has been bought out, and jobs are being subsidized to Vietnam. To make matters worse, everyone's pensions get cut. Everyone is outraged.
After spending the rest of the day with Willie and Al, Joe goes home to find an eviction notice. This would leave him, his daughter Rachel (Maria Dizzia) and granddaughter Brooklyn (Joey King) without a home.
Willie is at the doctor and is told he needs a new kidney or things won't look good for him. He is also forced to maintain a long-distance relationship with his daughter Cary (Melanie Nicholls-King) and granddaughter Kanika (Ashley Aufderheide). They send him a shirt.
Al is a former jazz musician who is giving sax lessons to a boy named Ezra (Jeremy Shinder). Ezra is terrible, and both he and Al acknowledge that. However, Al is attracted to Ezra's grandmother Annie (Ann-Margret), and the feeling is mutual.
The three friends gather at a lodge with their co-workers for Willie's birthday. His friends give him a watch with Kanika's face on it. Joe discusses a plan to rob WSB, as it is they who bought out Wechsler and it's they who are responsible for cutting everyone's pensions. Willie and Al don't like the idea, but Joe reminds them that banks like WSB are hurting people across the country, and with the money, they can resolve their current dilemmas. By the end of the night, the three of them agree to go through with the plan.
The guys go to a grocery store for a practice robbery to steal ingredients for chicken cordon bleu. Al finds Annie working there and chats her up while Joe and Willie clumsily try to steal products. The two run out of the store with their stolen goods and are chased by Cindy, one of the store's security guards. Joe steals a lady's motor scooter and has Willie sit in the basket as they try to outrun Cindy. Willie throws flour in the air to throw Cindy off. They fail to beat the red light and stop before they crash into a bus. Al also gets caught, and the three are taken to the security office but are let go soon after.
Joe brings his friends to Murphy (Peter Serafinowicz), his former son-in-law who runs a marijuana dispensary. Joe convinces him to find someone who can help them pull off the heist. Murphy sends them to Jesus (John Ortiz), a man who runs a dog shelter. He makes the guys take hits from a joint to prove they're cool with him. When they bring up the plan, Joe makes it clear that the matter is urgent for those closest to him since he has 20 days left before he and his family get evicted. Jesus respects Joe's courage and agrees to help the guys.
Over the next two weeks, the guys work together with Jesus to go over the plan. They practice their quickness in getting away, how to use an inconspicuous getaway vehicle, establishing an alibi, and learning to shoot if necessary.
Before going through with the plan, Joe takes Brooklyn to school and tells her Murphy will be there to pick her up later. It's clear that their relationship is strained. Joe tells Murphy that if anything happens to him, he will no longer be able to cover for him.
The guys establish their alibi by volunteering at a carnival thrown by their lodge buddies. They leave at the right moment to move in on the bank. They disguise themselves as Frank Sinatra (Joe), Dean Martin (Willie), and Sammy Davis, Jr. (Al). A teller sets off the alarm, forcing the guys to move faster. Willie starts to feel dizzy because he can't breathe so well under his mask. A little girl named Lucy (Annabelle Chow) notices and tries to help by partially removing his mask, but she never sees his full face. She does notice Willie's watch with Kanika's face on it. Willie gets up and starts to head out, but the obnoxious teller from before pulls out a gun and shoots at the guys, but he's terrible and misses every shot. Al then approaches him and fires his gun, but it was loaded with blanks. The guys get away with over $2 million before heading back to the carnival.
The friends celebrate their success at a fancy restaurant. As they walk through the park, Willie collapses and is taken to the hospital.
FBI Agent Hamer (Matt Dillon) goes on the case to find the crooks that robbed the bank. He uses security footage from the robbery and also reviews footage from the grocery store after talking to the manager Keith (Kenan Thompson), who recognizes Al's walk in the bank footage matching his walk in the grocery store footage.
The guys are all found and brought in for questioning. They are able to stick to their alibis with others backing up the stories that they were at the carnival the whole time. Hamer then has them in a lineup when the bank footage shows Willie's mask being lifted and showing part of his face. Lucy is brought in to identify the men in a lineup. She recognizes Willie from his watch. Lucy tells Hamer that the suspect is not in the lineup. As she and her mother leave, they pass Kanika and her mother. The two girls share a smile.
Joe meets with Jesus in the diner. He brings Joe a puppy that he promised to give to Brooklyn if she did well in school. Jesus then repeats a statement Joe heard during the first robbery. Joe realizes Jesus was the leader of the robbers that spoke to him. The tattoo he had was just to send the police on a wild goose chase. Hamer enters the diner and steps down to pet the puppy, not seeing that some of the money is taped to the top of the puppy's cage.
Al donates a kidney to Willie. The guys leave a large share of the money with their coworkers and lodge buddies.
Al and Annie get married. Joe gives a moving speech at the reception. Everyone starts to dance. The three friends then stand on a footbridge and share a toast to their good fortune.
