Vier gegen die Bank ("Four Against the Bank") is a 2016 German heist comedy film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. It is notable for being Petersen's first film since 2006's Poseidon, his first German-language film since Das Boot all the way back in 1981, his first German-produced film since 1984's The Neverending Story, and the last film he directed before his passing. The film is based on the book The Nixon Recession Caper by Ralph Maloney, and it is a remake of Petersen's own 1976 Made-for-TV Movie of the same name.
Chris Hoffman (Til Schweiger) is a sports club owner and former professional boxer, Max (Matthias Schweighöfer) is an ambitious advertising executive, and Peter (Jan Josef Liefers) is an actor who's long past his prime. Over the years, they have placed their life savings in the same bank, only to find out that their accounts have suddenly been emptied one day. Heinrich Schumacher (Thomas Heinze), the CEO of the bank, did this to get rid of a bumbling employee he finds too honest and not productive enough, Tobias Blümel (Michael Herbig). Chris, Max and Peter elaborate a heist to rob the bank in retaliation, with the help of Tobias.
The film also stars Antje Traue as anti-bank robbery unit cop Elisabeth Zollner and Alexandra Maria Lara as Peter's wife Freddie.
This film provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Chris keeps confusing the name of Peter's Police Procedural role (Jürgen Podolski) with that of Polish-German Association Football player Lukas Podolski.
- Actor Allusion:
- Chris threatening to cut Tobias' balls while he's tied to a chair, with a plunging gesture with the knife and saying "Say goodbye to your balls!". Minus "Nazi (balls)", it's verbatim what Til Schweiger's character Hugo Stiglitz said to Gestapo Major Dieter Hellstrom before shooting his crotch in Inglourious Basterds.
- Jan Josef Liefers has a recurring role in the German Police Procedural Tatort, as professor Karl-Friedrich Boerne. His character in this film (Peter) is an actor who played in a similar (fictional) police series.
- The Alibi: Tobias goes to the Olympic stadium of Berlin to attend the visit of The Pope during the heist... and shows up naked before the Holy Father, so everyone in the stadium and watching TV will have seen what he did.
- All Men Are Perverts: Chris can get really handsy with the women who train at his sports club, and Tobias blubbers really indecent things when trying to woo a female client at the bank (and draws nude women privately and masturbates over them). Schumacher fancies himself as quite The Casanova too, but Elisabeth Zollner wants none of it.
- Animal Chick Magnet: Freddie advises Max to take the pose with a cat for his profile photo on the dating app so the chances to hook Zollner will be greater. It works.
- Bank Robbery: Four men planning to rob the bank that screwed them.
- Big "NO!": Before knowing each other, Chris, Max and Peter all scream an extensive "NOOOO!" at the same time (via montage and Eat the Camera) when they find out the bank emptied their accounts.
- Brandishment Bluff:
- The hobo the team hires to evaluate the times it takes to the cops to reach the bank during their recon phase uses a chocolate bar as a "gun".
- Averted with the guns Peter finds for the heist proper. He tells the others he found blank-firing guns, but it turns out the bullets are real ones as Max finds out when accidentally firing a shot at the bank's ceiling. Peter didn't manage to find blanks before the heist and lied to them.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Chris is an impulsive ex-boxer, but when his Love Interest Susanne is around him, he softens a great deal.
- Camping a Crapper: During the heist, Peter (disguised as an older man) threatens bank manager Ralf in the toilets to obtain the safe's code, while the guy is sitting on the can. Ralf literally craps out of fear.
- The Caper: A crew of four men planning to rob the bank that screwed them.
- Caper Rationalization: Each one of the four men has a good reason to rob the bank, particularly Chris, Max and Peter as their life saving evaporated from one day to the next. Peter also fears for his family's future.
- Crazy-Prepared: Elisabeth Zollner knew there would be a robbery attempt as soon as the team's hobo bait made his show to attract the police a few days before, so she had the banknotes marked, much to the team's surprise.
- Creature of Habit: Ralf, one of the bank's managers, always arrives at the bank at the same hour every morning and goes to the toilets first. The team uses this in their plan.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Upon believing that Tobias emptied his account, Max lets some odd torture/death threats out, such as "shave his butt with Scotch".
- Derailed Train of Thought: When Chris, Max and Peter threaten Tobias and tie him to a chair, Peter forgets about his vanished life savings for a moment to just listen to Tobias, who's talking about how great an actor he [Peter] was in Bullet & Podolski. Max gets annoyed and has to remind Peter of the reason they're threatening Tobias.
- Destination Defenestration: Tobias throws himself (still tied to a chair) out the window of his apartment when Chris, Max and Peter are about to torture him. Fortunately, he lands on a balcony not far below, no worse for wear.
- Dumb Muscle: Chris is a boxer and the strongest guy in the team, but far from being the brightest. Considering how bruised he's been in his boxing career (including a big punch to the head a few days before the heist), chronic traumatic encephalopathy
might be involved. - Eiffel Tower Effect: At some point in the middle of the film, there's a shot on the Fernsehturm, one of Berlin's most recognizable landmarks and its tallest structure. It's also featured in the poster's background.
- Fair Cop: Several characters note the attractiveness of anti-bank robbery unit inspector Elisabeth Zollner. Schumacher even unsuccessfully tries to woo her.
- Frame-Up:
- Schumacher frames Tobias for the "mistake" that caused the bank accounts to be emptied.
- Chris, Max, Peter and Tobias end up framing Schumacher for the robbery. His own initial meddling in the bank accounts is uncovered along the way.
- Genre Savvy: Tobias used what he learned when watching Peter's police procedural TV show to help the team commit the robbery then to help throw Elisabeth off their trail.
- Happy Ending: Schumacher gets framed for the bank robbery, his scheme that caused the bank accounts to be emptied is uncovered, and the three accounts' owners see their money restored to them.
- Impaled Palm: When Chris, Max and Peter are at the bar after finding out all three of them have been screwed by the bank, Max takes a fork and plants it in Chris' hand without looking while uttering threats against Tobias.
- Inside Job: Tobias helps robbing the bank himself was once employed by.
- Model Planning: The team modelizes their plan with toys before the heist. Tobias complains that he doesn't have a doll for his role in the heist proper, which as it turns out consists in making his own alibi far from the bank.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: Schumacher wants to get rid of Tobias because Tobias makes business conservatively in his clients' best interests instead of seeking to maximize profits for the bank (at the clients' expense). And to that end he doesn't hesitate to deliberately empty the bank accounts of several people and blames it on Tobias.
- Not-So-Final Confession: Upon thinking he'll die cut in pieces by Chris as the trio thinks he caused the bank accounts to be emptied, Tobias confesses that he once stole a bottle from a vendor machine and makes nude drawings of Heidi, an attractive female colleague of his.
- Out-Gambitted: Zollner's trap to catch the bank robbers is undoubtedly clever and the robbers were amateurish in pulling off the heist, but they find a way to throw her off their trail and make Schumacher look guilty, thanks to a bit of help from their significant others (Freddie for her advices on dating apps, and Susanne when it's found out she's Heinrich Schumacher's wife and lets Chris go when finding him at her mansion).
- Out of Job, into the Plot:
- Max gets fired from the advertising agency he worked for.
- Peter quits the subpar acting jobs he's been reduced to.
- Tobias gets framed for the bank accounts fuckup, and gets fired from the bank.
- Paper Tiger: Max pretends he's been practicing karate for twelve years when his bosses call the security to take him out... and he's unable to even react when a single security guy lifts him and takes him out.
- Pretty Boy: Max is a handsome 34 year old blond guy, and therefore he's used as bait to date Elisabeth Zollner and throw her offtrail. It also helps that he's not among Zollner's suspects.
- Promoted Fanboy: In-Universe. Tobias is a big fan of the Police Procedural series Peter played in, Bullet & Podolski, and he loves it that he's helping the main actor of it to commit a bank robbery.
- Pursue the Dream Job: Chris wants to use the money to open a top notch boxing club and Max wants to open his own advertising agency.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A not-really-bright (possibly brain-damaged) boxer, an arrogant young publicist, a washed up TV series actor and a bumbling (and pervert) bank employee team up to rob a bank.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Schumacher gives one to Tobias, not only about how he doesn't generate big profits for the bank, but also about how he's a loser in general.
- Red Baron: When his boxing career was at its apex, Chris' moniker was "The Iron Fist".
- Running Gag:
- The Accidental Misnaming when Chris keeps confusing the name of Peter's Police Procedural role (Jürgen Podolski) with that of Lukas Podolski.
- Chris mocking Max's blondness, such as nicknaming him "Goldilocks", which tends to result in a fight.
- Saw It in a Movie Once: When the team is planning the heist, Tobias brings up that they have to find tools, an escape vehicle, masks and weapons. He then says that he saw it in Peter's Police Procedural series. That's also how he learned to short-circuit cars to steal them.
- Self-Made Man: While he certainly did prestigious studies thanks to his family's wealth and obtained his job via his father's connections, Max has insisted on not asking a single euro to his father and worked quite hard to save money outside the family's circle to be free from them.
- Setting Update: Whereas the original made-for-television film was set in Munich, the 2016 remake is set in Berlinnote . Not to mention the 40 years gap (1976 to 2016), with cellphones, the Internet, dating apps, no more Cold War and Iron Curtain and so on.
- Shout-Out:
- Outside the Running Gag with soccer player Lukas Podolski, Podolski from Bullet & Podolski sounds close to Klaus Borowski from Tatort.
- The film makes some vocal references to Jerry Maguire and Rocky.
- Also, some references to Die Hard: when Peter threatens Ralf in the toilets, he says "Yippee-Ki-Yay!", and when he opens the safe, the "Ode to Joy" is heard much like what happened when the Nakatomi Plaza's safe is opened.
- Show Within a Show: Bullet & Podolski, a Tatort-like Police Procedural in which Peter had the main role. Tobias is a big fan.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: The team finds out that Elisabeth Zollner is single and has a profile on a dating app, and Max is the only one she doesn't suspect and he's a Pretty Boy, so they use Max as bait to date her and egg her on the fact that maybe Schumacher could be guilty and throw her offtrail. Freddie helps Max by making his dating app profile, notably having him take the pose with a cat and pretend he volunteers at a kitchen soup. It works like a charm.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Schumacher Really Gets Around, and his attractive female employees such as Heidi are no exception. That's how he's able to tell some Loving Details to Tobias to humiliate him further while looking at his nude drawings — Tobias didn't draw Heidi's boobs pointy enough, and she's not fully shaved down there, she has a "landing strip".
- Something We Forgot: After the heist, Chris, Max and Peter burn their escape car... and suddenly realize that they left the bags containing the banknotes inside.
- Standard Snippet: When Peter opens the bank's safe, Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" is heard (as a Shout-Out to Die Hard).
- Stealing from Thieves: Three out of four of the protagonists rob the bank because it emptied their bank accounts out of the blue.
- Swallow the Key: During the heist, Chris swallows the key of the handcuffs he used to neutralize the bank's guards.
- Sympathetic Adulterer: Chris' girlfriend Susanne actually has a husband and cheats on him. Her husband has cheated on her with over two digits women beforehand, so one can't really blame her. It turns out she's the wife of Heinrich Schumacher.
- Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist: Elisabeth Zollner, the anti-bank robbery unit inspector who's on the trail of Chris, Peter and Tobias. Max is the only one she doesn't suspect.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Max and Chris don't really get along, the former comes from a rich family and went through prestigious studies while the latter is a Dumb Muscle Lower-Class Lout.
- Violence is the Only Option: Chris' mindset, as the Dumb Muscle of the team.
- White-Dwarf Starlet: Peter is a washed up actor who was once famous for starring in the police procedural series Bullet & Podolski. He has trouble accepting subpar acting gigs since his prime faded away.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: Chris, Max and Peter disguise themselves with fake beards and wigs during the heist. The experienced Zollner knows right away that they used disguises when she starts her investigation.
- Women Are Wiser: Freddie is of great help when making Max's fake dating app profile to lure Elisabeth Zollner, being a woman herself and knowing what's attractive beyond beauty. She advises Max to take the pose with a cat for his profile photo and pretend he works at a kitchen soup, to appeal more to Zollner. It works.
