Two friends and convicts, one charismatic Joe (Bruce Willis), the other neurotic and hypochondriac Terry (Billy Bob Thornton), break out of Oregon State Penitentiary in a concrete mixing truck and start a bank robbing spree, hoping to fund a dream they share. Joe notices that the main gate of the prison takes time to open and shut. When it open let out a pickup truck, Joe commandeers the concrete mixer that was in the prison compound, laying concrete and drives towards the main gate. Terry jumps on the truck, more out of worry for Joe. Joe is the brawn and Terry is the brains of the operation. Right after breaking out of prison, Joe steals a car from a woman, and uses that to drive up to a bank. He uses a magic marker and puts it against the lone guard inside the bank to make it seem like a gun. Joe is shows to have a weakness for beautiful women. Exiting the bank, Joe steals another car for their getaway. Escaping the police, they enter the first open garage they can find. The house belongs to Cheri Woods (Azura Skye) whose father is out for the weekend and she was spending time with her boyfriend Phil (Anthony Burch). Joe tells Terry that his uncle owns a hotel in Acapulco, and his dream is to buy the hotel and convert it into a resort and nightclub. Terry likes the idea. Joe proposes to pay for it by robbing banks. The next morning, the duo wear Cheri's father's clothes and leave in Phil's car. Terry says that the biggest issue with robbing banks is that everybody is trying to hit the alarm and there are too many uncontrollable. He figures out a way to control their environment. They become known as the "Sleepover Bandits" because of the way they work: they kidnap the manager of a target bank the night before a planned robbery, then spend the night with the manager's family; early the next morning, they accompany the manager to the bank to get their money. They use dim-witted would-be special effects stunt man Harvey Pollard (Troy Garity) as their getaway driver and lookout. Harvey is Joe's cousin. Harvey wants to make a name for himself in fire based special effects, but he needs a perfect suit. Their first bank was the Oregon City Bank, and its manager Darill Miller (Brían F. O'Byrne). They enter his home and kidnap his family including wife Cloe (Stacey Travis) and 2 daughters Monica (Scout LaRue Willis) and Erika (Tallulah Belle Willis). The next morning the plan goes like clockwork and quickly becomes a template. The three successfully pull off a series of robberies that gets them recognition on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list and ultimately the reward for information leading to their capture is increased to $1 million. When a housewife, with a failing marriage, Kate (Cate Blanchett) decides to run away, she ends up in the hands of the criminals. Terry was out of gas in his car and was stranded on a bridge. When he came back with a can, the cops were already there. Frantic, he tries to flag down a driver, running into Kate. Kate is in depression, and it doesn't matter to her that Terry is a fugitive. She offers to drive Terry to his destination and won't allow him to leave her car as she does not want to be alone. Terry had no choice but to bring Kate to their hideout in the woods. At first, Joe is livid, but is charmed by Kate and allows her to stay. Terry reads Kate's situation perfectly, and Kate loves that Joe is well read and into poetry. Initially attracted to Joe and kisses him. She also participates in the upcoming heists as a regular member of the crew and goes with Joe for the 2-week hiding period after every heist. After the next heist, Harvey is driving Kate, and Joe and Terry are in another car. Harvey makes a mistake while driving due to which an oncoming truck rams into Joe's car. The whole thing is recorded in a camcorder by a bystander. In the chaos, Terry escapes with Kate, and Joe with Harvey, with a plan to meet at the rendezvous point. Terry reaches their early and leaves with Kate, without waiting for Joe. Terry and Kate end up in a motel, which has only a single room available. Kate ends up in bed with Terry and a confused love triangle begins. The gang regroups out of town of their next heist location, as planned. The guys ask Kate to choose, and she refuses to and prefers to keep things ambiguous. Meanwhile, the tapes of the recording are all over the media and now police believe that Joe and Terry have kidnapped Kate. On one heist Harvey leaves the lookout to chase a girl, and the gang is almost caught. Terry fires Harvey, who leaves the gang and meets his girl on the highway. The three of them go on the lam and manage to pull off a few more robberies, but after a while the two begin to fight over Kate, and she decides to leave them. The two criminals then decide to pull off one last job. The story is told in flashbacks, framed by the story of the pair's last robbery of the Alamo Bank, as told by Criminals at Large and its host Darren (Bobby Slayton), a fictional reality television show. Apparently, Joe and Terry reached out to Darren at his house, and narrated their life story and within 24 hours, they died in the shootout at Alamo Bank. The show tells the story of the last job to be a failure when Kate tips off the police and the two are caught in the act, robbing the bank. The two then begin to argue when Joe tells the police "You won't take us alive!" and the argument gets to the point where the two of them shoot each other dead. But at the end of the film the real story behind the last job is revealed: Harvey used some of his special effects to make it seem as though Terry and Joe were shooting each other. Harvey and his girlfriend then ran in dressed as paramedics and placed the stolen money, Terry, and Joe in body bags. In the ambulance, Harvey uses electronics to blow out his tires which sends the ambulance into a junkyard. Under his jumpsuit, Harvey was wearing a fire suit. He lights himself on fire and rigs a bomb to go off. Kate, Harvey, Harvey's girlfriend, Terry, and Joe flee the scene, leading officials to believe the bodies were burned. Reunited, Joe, Terry, Harvey and Kate make it to Mexico to live out their dream. The last scene shows Harvey getting married in Mexico and Kate kissing Joe and Terry passionately.
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