Thief (1981) - Ending

A lot of people mention that the ending music sounds similar to the end guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd, well there's a reason for that: Mann wanted to use "Comfortably Numb" for this scene but Pink Floyd declined, so he got Craig Safan to compose a similar piece that avoided copyright infringement issues. Mann must really like that song because he also used elements of it in the music for "Manhunter".

That slow-mo reload is just the coolest shit ever.

Thief is a masterpiece of cinema, there's no other way to describe it. The fact that it's flown under the radar is saddening because this should be held up as one of 80s cinema's greatest achievements.

RIP James Caan. One of the best ending of history of cinema.

Always awesome. I ran into James Caan in an elevator once, and complimented him for this performance...something he had no doubt heard a thousand times...

This is all the more gut-wrenching when you understand what he gave up to get to this moment.

Before Steven Seagal goes to bed, he checks the closet for Frank and his Colt.

5:18 what’s so great about that is not the slow-motion reload but the fact that Frank still probably as another round or two left but he’s smart enough to reload at the right moment instead of running out of bullets and having to reload mid-gun battle. It’s little details like that that make this film a masterpiece in every sense of the word!

The climax of this film is like an eight minute infomercial for the Colt 1911 45 acp.

This movie was way ahead of its time. It’s 1981 but Mann’s style and Tangerine Dream’s overall soundtrack, it felt like something from much later in the decade.

What's interesting about the way James Caan handles his 1911 in this scene is that this was, in the '80s, the most up-to-date "modern technique" taught with handguns -- the high thumb grip, modified Weaver stance, the room clearing techniques, this was all considered cutting edge at the time (even if some of it has been superseded in the decades since). Michael Mann sent James Caan to Arizona to learn all this from Jeff Cooper, who was one of the men who developed it. I've read that, although Cooper trained Caan for the film, he was reluctant, as this was pretty new stuff at the time, and not taught to many people outside law enforcement, and serious competitive shooters. Cooper, since he'd never had a career criminal come through any of his classes, felt it was unrealistic for a professional thief to have learned these techniques. I've even read that Cooper declined to teach Caan this stuff because he didn't want it associated with criminals, and his friend and associate Chuck Taylor took Caan aside and was the one who taught him, but Caan, in an interview, mentioned Cooper by name as the one he learned from, so I don't doubt that Cooper went ahead and did it, probably valuing the publicity, and thinking it would just be really cool to see the stuff he was teaching up there on the big screen. It did make for a really incredible ending scene for the movie.

What stands out to me is how ahead of the time this scene is when it comes to gun handling. James Caan moves like an actual SWAT officer as he holds the gun pointed downwards rather than up, uses a 2-hand grip constantly, performs tactical reloads and clears rooms very slowly and cautiously. This was unseen in movies back in 1981. I actually believe James Caan knows how to shoot guns and - most importantly - knows how to hold a gun in a manner that would help him survive against armed mobsters.

Killer climax to a killer film. James Caan is cool incarnate. Robert Prosky was pretty agile for an older gent. Gotta love Dennis Farina's bit as the shotgunner. Michael Mann is the man.

how divine were the songs of that era!

James Caan's greatest role and Michael Mann's greatest film.

We can all thank this film for inspiring the 80s

RIP James Caan and thank you, you were the man.

I remember seeing this in the theater when I was younger. It always spoke to me about the ways people use power to control you, and how true freedom always means being willing to burn it all down and walk away. Be careful who you give power to.

Maximum badass. Dennis Farina was actually a real-life cop, moonlighting as a consultant on the film & as Leo's bodyguard.

That's a custom Jim Hoag longslide 1911 by the way. Room clearing and pistol techniques taught by an instructor from Gunsite. Don't forget, Michael Mann is himself a certified Range Instructor.

That is a dangerous man… “When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose” - quote by Bob Dylan from his song “Like a Rolling Stone”

Never would think reloading a gun could be so badass!! 5:18

RIP with great respects, honor, & love to James Caan

Michael Mann is the greatest director of action scenes ever. You can see the beginnings of Miami Vice, Heat, Last of the Mohicans, Collateral all here.

Rest in peace James... Legend.

Check that mag change! James Caan is fucking awesome!!!

Great movie Great music Great ending

One of the details I love about this scene is the bad guy's wife totally not caring

RIP James Caan. You were the man.

Rest in Peace James Cann awesome movie you will be missed thank you for the Memories

This is nothing but a fucking masterpiece

Best sub scene, in my opinion, the moment Frank appears out of the front door, going after the "milk man". His determination is carved on his face. He's like, "you started this, but I am gonna finish it"!

A must watch movie for every one that loves action movie. This is how it is done.

James Caan went to a place in Arizona called American Pistol Institute to learn proper gun handling and room clearing from a retired Marine Corps Lt Colonel. This type of proper firearms training was unheard of at the time as most actors just wanted to look cool when handling a gun on screen. Caan later used the tactics he learned in Alien Nation, Eraser, and The Way of The Gun.

5:18 that is the best reload I’ve seen in a movie ever.

Great build up tension, especially with the cinematography and camera angles. It was obvious James Caan received training in his tactical movements and use of his pistol, something in all Mann films depict. Gotta love the music too, sounds similar to Pink Floyd.

RIP James Caan (1940-2022)

Love that reload!

RIP James Caan no one ever handled a gun better in a movie

I'll take an old Michael Mann film over any of the crap Hollyweird tries to push on us now.

poor guy didn't get to enjoy his glass of milk.

Love the Way James Slices the Pie Clearing Rooms and then uses Double Taps with his Colt to Finish Leo.. The Best !

One of my favorites and a underrated movie. This ending is so badass

One of my favorite movies underrated for sure

R.I.P JAMES CAAN 7/6/2022

this is amazing movie blew me away

Mann and Caan don't agree about the ending. Mann says Frank goes nowhere, Caan says he gets everything back. Although Mann made the movie, I go with Caan after rewatching it. Frank's not going to cower somewhere thinking about what he has lost, he's on his way to reclaim everything that belongs to him.

This is Mann's masterpiece, not Heat, Manhunter or Mohicans, this.

Kind of shocked that Robert Prosky was 50 here. He looks like he's in his 60's. Great Actor though.

By far one of the most satisfying ending in the history of cinema. Knowing that the Tangerine Dream Soundtrack (this is the only song not from them, from Craig Safan) was and the second place at the Razzie for the worst score make me think about what they drank before hearing the pieces.

James Caan was a fantastic actor. From El Dorado with the Duke to Sonny in The Godfather with Brando to Freebie and the Bean with Arkin to Misery with Bates and he even played in a romance with Marsha Mason in Chapter Two and let's not forget Rollerball. He played many genres very skillfully. He can't be replaced, especially with the quality of so called "actors' of today. RIP sir.

One of the most Satisfying movie endings of all time. Mann's debut set the tone for the rest of his TV and movie work. Plus I believe this is James Caan favourite of his own movies and he is simply outstanding especially in this final sequence. This ending is right up there with Heat and Collateral Mann's other seminal movies that followed in the 90's and 00's.

As much as I love this ending to this masterpiece, I still would have loved to have seen a cut of the original ending where he met up with Tuesday and his Son a few months later.

RIP to a great one

if your gonna go all the way.. GO ALL THE WAY..badass

Caan walking off into the night hits different now...

Great film! Rest In Peace Mr. Caan.

only idiots can talk badly about this film, this is one of the best films of the 80s, Mann does not care about the plot logic, like all the films of Mann this is a perfect combination of image and music, some great critics have talked about this film as a visionary and nocturnal film, where what matters and the sparkling light of the thermal lance, the end is a hyperrealism killing (the best are Thief, Taxi Driver and Manhunter of Mann himself, also in Manhunter perfect combination of music and image, and some frames cut during the final shooting, while in Taxi Driver the shootings are genially accelerated) Mann remembers the violent poetics of JP Melville and I said everything!

Man here I am after finding this movie again one of the best actors James Caan is the man takes no prisoners in this movie. Don’t ever think you can bring a man down who already has pride and heart. Caan told them from the start he doesn’t need anything or anybody.

RIP James Caan 🙏🏼

Mann is a genius. He is singlehandedly responsible for so much of the "80s aesthetic" which fascinates milennials and Gen-z

That old man was gangsta! 2 shots to the chest and he was still trying to shoot Frank! But you can't beat that one hitter quitter to the dome. Micheal Mann is the Man! One of my favorite flicks!

R.I.P. james caan

The sound of that M1911 is a thing of beauty.

RIP Jimmy

This is Chicago's best crime movie. The best ever made...just a BAD M...F...ng flick.

R.I.P James. You will be missed.

If you don't have this DVD or Blu Ray you're insane!

I always wondered why the mob boss didn't have more guards at his home. Probably thought he didn't need them.

I absolutely love this ending and the scenes preceding it. Its left for the viewer to decide whether he survived or not. Either or: I regard this is his grand graduation, he reached self-actualization throughout the film and displayed his full potential here and proved why he has earned the spot of being a legend for years to come...ascending to the status of infamy. Chirped alive in murmurs traded in dark hallways that are shielded from the screaming winds and fleeting graffiti on the side of subways cars... A true legend, like Earp, James, Dillinger and the like...now and his presence will loom down the backs of anyone who whispers tall tales about his mythological status like ice

RIP to a real one

how did i never hear about this movie until 2020? my friends should be ashamed of themselves along with me too. this ending was amazing...just a damn good movie overall.

There’s something cathartic to me about how he essentially throws his entire life away

"I think I can make you something, but 2000 degrees, portable equipment. It will be a son-of-a-bitch to use!"

Who’s here after hearing the news about his passing?

"You got to get to where nothin' means nothin'." ~Frank

The greatest ending to a film ever and it will never be beaten.

R.i.p jimmy caan

Michael Mann makes methodical enjoyable.

Love this movie. James Cann is an awesome actor. The sound track is by Tangerine Dream, never heard them before the movie, now I own the cd.

4:19 You can see the vase in the cabinet rocking from the impact of Leo hitting the floor even though he's not in shot. Nice attention to continuity.

Modern cinema underestimates how impactful something small and grounded can feel as a pose to what climaxes are today with big cgi explosions or overly emotional performances. In the last minutes of the movie there is very little dialogue, just pure violence and rage expressed through visual storytelling that has been building up throughout the whole movie. Such an amazing film that was so ahead of its time.

The end of Sicario was like this. He ignored the cook.

A true masterpiece RIP James cann

RIP James Caan today.

He tied everything together in the card that represented his life and through a rigorous series of attempts to change him that he unyielding resisted - he came out on top. His process of individuation is complete! Even if he is half dead and has no material worth left... haunt the streets Frank you mean, stubborn bastard and if you cross anyone who is hustling you: swallow them whole so you can puke their guts out onto their casket as it lowers down!

Allein die Musik hätte schon einen Oscar verdient

Classic Film, classic Music. Guitar amazing🎸👍

MANN and CANN team up for a Crime saga masterpiece

Excellent quality. I first saw this film in 1981 and has always been in my personal favourites top 10. I finally see where he shoots Robert Prosky the final time (Between his eyebrows) which has bugged me for decades. Thanks.

So long....James Caan !....tu aurais mérité un Oscar pour ce film !

Rest In Peace James Caan

From David A. Wood: I was fortunate enough to have seen "Thief" on Cable TV's Showtime Movie Network on the morning of May 2, 1982. My verdict upon the film still stands to this very day in that Michael Mann's film, which I believe was his first theatrical film, is a gloriously beautiful film! I am not going to waste the reader's time in detailing the movie's entire plot; at least, I will try to keep discussion of the plot down to a minimum. Rather, I am just going to discuss two of the most important attributes of the movie "Thief." That is, the film's soundtrack and cinematography..Now, on with the discussion! "Thief's" elegantly gritty cinematography alone, which is the inspiration for many 1980s urban-oriented films/early MTV music videos, is alone worth the price of admission. Another reason someone should see "Thief" is because of the eerily entrancing, synthesizer score by the German musical group Tangerine Dream. I still love the way the synthesizer induced soundtrack hypnotically sets the movie's mood all throughout its running time. The soundtrack itself is almost another character as it is made to comment on the following scenes: James Caan's safecracker character Frank happily conversing with his former prison buddy/criminal mentor (Willie Nelson); Frank allowing himself to be figuratively seduced in a Faustian-style into joining "the corporation" in order to gain his longstanding dream of affluent respectability by one of "the corporation's" top executives (a chillingly avuncular Robert Prosky); Frank completing and/or planning his various "jobs;" Frank being violently disciplined by corrupt Chicago Police Dept.detectives; and last, but not definitely least, the movie's seductively thrilling climax, where Frank flamboyantly breaks away from "the corporation." Incidentally, in case no one already knew it, the corporation within the movie happens to be Chicago's longstanding American Mafia Family, an organized criminal entity notoriously known as "The Outfit." Additionally, the ecstatically enjoyable combination of cinematography and music highlights another scene early in the movie, where Frank is on his way to a date at a Chicago nightclub.The "date" in question is of the romantic variety, and it is.with his new fiancee, a woman with an equally dubious past (well played by character actress Tuesday Weld). Please allow me to set up the scene, which is tastefully accompanied by music, as Frank's snarky 1981 Cadillac Eldorado briskly glides through the rain-soaked streets of Chicago as a Blues Music band, fronted by none other than the legendary Chicago Blues musician Willie Dixon, expertly entertains the various patrons, including Frank's highly perturbed girlfriend. Once Frank is inside the nightclub. he and his fiancee heatedly, but briefly, argue over Frank's regrettable tardiness in making the date after he belatedly enters the nightclub. The couple, while in the middle of their lover's quarrel, quickly leaves the nightclub in Frank's late model Eldorado as it narrowly avoids hitting onlookers milling outside the nightclub. Mind you, this entire scene (from Frank' cruising to the nightclub to he and his fiancee's rather unpleasant departure from said nightclub) is taking place while Willie Dixon's band is rhythmically chugging along in a "get-down"musical style. All in all, an impressive early scene that allows the movie to desirably proceed with its story of upward mobility acquisition via criminal means. Another aspect that makes "Thief" a sublime movie is its cinematography. It is indeed a thing of beauty to watch in cinematographic fashion as James Caan's Frank character casually go about his criminal business as he briskly strides through Life. Whether it is Frank elegantly strutting to his car, which is suitably parked in a strategically lit alley, after pulling off a safecracking assignment early in the film. Or, Frank's aforementioned Cadillac, another sign of late 20th Century American affluence that the criminally ambitious Frank obsessively seeks, ominously glides through the muddy pathway that leads into parking area of an electrician who can supply Frank with a torching implement to be used in what Frank assumes his going to be his final safecracking "job." The thrilling, nighttime surveillance chase enacted by the corrupt Chicago Police Dept.detectives who made it their primary mission to apprehend Frank, who is enroute to what he assumes to be his biggest and final heist, not because Frank is about to commit a major criminal act, but simply because he refused to regularly pay them off with secretly illegal installments. Going back to the movie's soundtrack, the music accompanying the nocturnal surveillance of Frank by "Chicago's Finest" sounds exactly like a soaring synthesizer version of Calvary horns blaring just before a mass charge into enemy territory. Then there is the final heist itself, which is shown with all the intricate detail of workmanship that is invariably a trademark of director Michael Mann's films, showing the sparks of an acetylene torch breaching the safe, the extraction of the breached vault's desired contents, and the exhausted, but eminently contented Frank sitting back briefly staring into space after the completion of a job well done. Then there is the brutally exciting climactic scene, where Frank violently "resigns" from "the corporation." Before I discuss the film's climax, I will briefly describe the scene which prefigures the climax, Frank, while in an epic fit of nihilism, casually destroys all of the trappings of upward mobility that were once so dear to him by way of utterly shocking, but excitingly filmed explosions/immolation. That is, Frank spectacularly detonates both his expensive home in the Chicago suburbs and well-established, yet trendy Downtown Bar, and then torches his expansive automobile dealership, which he operated as his "front job," to before he moves onto the final and most terrifying step of his "resignation plan." Finally, there is the nail-biting climax itself, which is, frighteningly enough, a beautifully filmed sequence that shows Frank brutally cutting his ties with "The Outfit" once for all by way of a home invasion that inevitably results in a terrifying "shoot-out." The home in question belonged to Frank's immediate "corporate supervisor," Leo (the Robert Prosky character). Leo viciously tried to remind Frank of his "corporate obligations," that is, after Frank naively tried to resign his safecracker post, by both orchestrating the murder of Frank's criminal partner (Jim Belushi) and profanely threatening both Frank and his newfound family (wife and illegally adopted infant son) with dire harm should Frank ever attempt to disavow his "corporate responsibilities." A scene of "Thief" where the corpse of Frank's genial, but wholly unfortunate, criminal partner, Barry, being laboriously dumped in a huge container of acid in order to conveniently dissolve the tragically departed Barry's remains eerily shot in slow motion sums up the chilling nature of what can be the potential outcome of any personal involvement within organized crime. Getting back to the climax, Frank surreptitiously enters Leo's equally expensive home, locates Leo, and fatally shoots him down. Then Frank hurriedly heads outside to engage in a spectacularly and subtly staged firefight with the remainder of Leo's "work crew," who all had to have been busily waiting, on Leo's orders naturally, for Frank to crazily make his vengeful appearance/violent attempt at individual empowerment. In a suitably lit and expertly filmed, nocturnal scene, all while the Tangerine Dream soundtrack is reaching its apotheosis, Frank flamboyantly "hands in his resignation from the corporation" by violently dispatching the remainder of Leo's henchmen, via semi-automatic pistol fire, during an enthralling firefight while miraculously incurring no more than a buckshot-incurred,shoulder wound. The last shot, and this is an example of sublime cinematography, shows Frank slowly walking away from the scene of the carnage implying that his human individuality has been suitably restored. However, the downside of Frank's successful attempt at personal empowerment has got to be that Frank now having the entirety of "the corporation" ruthlessly bearing down on him in a state of lethally unforgivable vengeance ; "the corporation" being Chicago's American Mafia Family, forever ominously known as "The Outfit."

My favourite film a true classic

One of the best movies ever made ✨️ 🙌 ❤️

This is one of my all time favorites. The soundtrack by Tangerine Dream is superb!!

R.I.P …You will be missed , Sunny the Thief… One of the best Gangster’s in film 🎥 goes down in the gangsters 🍾 Hall of fame. May the force be with you…… 💯💯💯💯💯

That 1911 just adds so much personality to his character.

one of the best films ever. awesome soundtrack

The Song Kinda Reminds Me Of Combfterbly Numb