Told from the criminal viewpoint, a group plans and executes a robbery. The criminals are usually more rounded than the opposition, or at least more colorful. Usually contains at least one
A Team Montage or
Avengers Assemble sequence. May feature an
Eigen Plot.
The Caper is more action-oriented than
The Con. See also
Impossible Mission,
The Infiltration,
Armed Blag,
Train Job, and
Double Caper.
Examples:
- The Italian Job - both the new one and the proper one from 1969.
- Both versions of The Thomas Crown Affair.
- The FX character drama Thief revolves around this trope, as does the NBC actioner, Heist.
- Although Mission Impossible prided itself on its use of The Con, they weren't above pulling off an occasional Caper.
- The Justice League Unlimited episode "Task Force X" featured a makeshift criminal team executing a daring theft from the League's orbital headquarters.
- Movie example: Ocean's Eleven (original, remake, and remake sequels).
- Movie example: used in both straight and subverted forms in The Usual Suspects.
- Other film examples: Topkapi, Rififi, and The League of Gentlemen — all were direct inspiration for Mission Impossible.
- In an episode of Keroro Gunsou, Momoka, Natsumi, and Moa form the "Phantom Thief Troupe: More Peach Summer" to steal the painting "The Birth of Venus"... which turns out to be an embarassing portrait of Momoka as a baby, naked.
- Some of the subplots of the video game Thief enter into this trope; Garrett sometimes goes through elaborate plans over multiple game levels to enter secure locations.
- Firefly: "The Train Job," "Ariel," and "Trash."
- A lot of the filler arcs of Get Backers qualify as The Caper. Even though the titular characters only steal items to return then to their original owners, sometimes the definition of "original owner" can get really fuzzy (especially with Clayman).
- Strong Bad and The Cheat of Homestar Runner occasionally engage in capers. These ventures rarely turn out to be successful. On one notable occasion, Strong Bad gets mad at The Cheat for screwing up one of these capers but then later feels bad about it, which leads to him writing a song about how he's glad The Cheat is not dead.
- The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton.
- Mac Gyver episode "The Heist".
- A TV series, The Knights of Prosperity, originally titled Let's Rob Mick Jagger.
- Another short-lived TV series, Thieves.
- The movie Sneakers. Multiple times.
- The Bank Job
- The danish film-series Olsen-banden and its swedish and norwegian counterparts consists pretty much of nothing but this.
- The Stanley Kubrick film The Killing.
- The latest St. Trinians movie (and the older ones, too).
- Inside Man, in a roundabout fashion.
- Vabank (''Hit the bank'' in USA), as a revenge.
