Caper Crew

Just like the good guys have a Command Roster, when your Villain Protagonists are involved in a Caper (or your everyman protagonists in a Heist Episode), characters tend to fall into a number of roles. Unlike the Command Roster, however, some of the roles really depend on what kind of heist is going on, so the actual number of members and which jobs are included in the Badass Crew, are somewhat more variable than in the military example. Characters are also more likely to have more than one specialization, or some of the more specialized roles are farmed out to Satellite Characters who aren't really part of the main crew. Sometimes the crew will fall into a Five-Man Band if it has the right amount of members.

The roles in the Caper Crew tend to fall along the following lines:

The Bosses

• The Mastermind: The leader, who found the target, calls the shots, and thought up the plan. Usually the most experienced in the business as well, and very respected by their crew otherwise they wouldn't be able to keep all these amoral people in line. Compare The Chessmaster, The Captain, the Big Bad. May or may not have been the one to put the team together.
• The Partner-In-Crime: The leader's second-in-command, who assists The Mastermind in plan-making and usually almost equally as experienced. Depending on the nature of the crew, he might be the only one besides The Mastermind who actually knows what's going on. May overlap with other roles. Compare The Lancer, The Dragon, the Number Two.
• The Backer: The Client who is paying for everything. Sometimes he has a deadline or is fussy in some other way that influences the crew's actions. Usually only The Mastermind and his Partner interact much with him. There isn't always a backer though, sometimes the crew front the money themselves and fence it hoping to make back enough for a profit.

Tech Skill Roles

• The Hacker: The guy who hacks into computers and whatnot, very often a young kid who is a Playful Hacker or The Cracker. Sometimes he isn't a part of the team, but just someone who another character has ties with.
• The Gadget Guy: The Gadgeteer Genius who builds all the special stuff you need to break into the vault security or whatever it may be. In a smaller crew, he will often overlap with The Hacker, or the crew may simply outsource the job to someone else they know offscreen. Sometimes overlaps with The Fixer.
• The Coordinator: Basically Mission Control, and usually isn't a role so much as some other character will have this role on top of another, usually The Hacker or The Mastermind.

Thieving Skill Roles

• The Conman: The guy who usually does most of the conning, acting and people manipulating using confidence tricks. Sometimes they are referred to as a Grifter. May also act as The Mole if it's necessary.
• The Distraction: This role has a lot of versatility in how it is achieved, but it just comes down to distracting the dupes while their pals run off with their money (or whatever it is). May be a Femme Fatale seductress, or a really loud obnoxious guy, or even a bomb specialist. Sometimes overlaps with The Conman, or...
• The Roper: The bait, who tells the tale to The Mark and puts them into position to be conned. May be a female seductress or other form of Distraction.
• The Burglar: May be a Classy Cat-Burglar, Phantom Thief, or some other form of savvy-thief, they are the person who infiltrates and helps themselves to the goods. If someone's going to scale a brick wall, descend from the ceiling via a series of cables, or maneuver around a Laser Hallway, this is who it'll be.
• The Safe-Cracker: Popular in classic heist films, this is the specialist who breaks into the safe with all the goods. This character is becoming less common as technology develops and most locks are electronic, requiring the more tech-oriented roles instead.
• The Pickpocket: The guy who has the steadiest hands, performing any job that requires sleight-of-hand stealing of security cards and the like. May be merged with one of the other Thieving roles, but if not then they may be a former Street Urchin.

Labor-Oriented Roles

• The Driver: He drives the getaway vehicle, and is usually a Badass Driver. If things go belly up and the crew needs to get out ASAP, the driver is their one chance at avoiding being thrown into jail. A Chase Scene usually ensues.
• The Muscle: The Brute or The Big Guy, he's around to help with carrying heavy things, getting into fistfights, acting as a bodyguard, or being threatening and menacing.
• The Fixer: Also known as The Scrounger or The Acquirer, this guy comes up with whatever random thing the crew needs. He always knows a guy who knows a guy who has a cousin, and shows up with the right tool for the job, no matter how obscure or however vaguely established it is how he managed it.

Other Roles

• The New Kid: Basically an apprentice and New Meat. He's new and is learning from everyone. He probably has his own specialized skills, pulled some small jobs with another crew, but either way he isn't taken quite as seriously or respected as much as the other members of the crew. The current Mastermind might become his mentor.
• The Legendary Thief: Basically the Old Master of the mastermind, he's the go-to guy when the crew gets stuck. He's been around forever, knows everyone, and is the absolute best at that game. Usually retired and sipping cocktails on the beach whenever he is approached. Often pulled into the caper for One Last Job.
• The Inside Man: If The Conman isn't acting as The Mole, then the team may have one of these. A guy who works for the people being robbed, assisting the robbers with codes or secrets or whatever it is they need to get in. May be an actual member of the crew from the start, recruited later, or be no longer working for them anymore. The presence of at least one of these makes it an Inside Job.
• The Searcher: Basically the one who gets the ball rolling for the actual job. Unlike the Inside Man, and despite possessing some such capacities, they do not work for the mark. They infiltrate the target quarters ahead of the crew, often in disguise, identify its key areas and hot spots, and inform the crew of what is likely to await them as they go to pull off the job. May influence the Mastermind's plans. the mark may never ever see this particular member.
• The Fall Guy: On occasion, the team may have one of these, who sometimes falls under the Naïve Newcomer or New Meat category. This person is someone that the team finds useful but also expendable, and willingly gives up to the police in exchange for either their own immunity or to buy them some more time if the plan goes awry.
• The Wild Card: The Wild Card will be brought on by a more experienced member who will insist that they can help, even if the team does not need another member, and given a non-essential job like additional muscle or driver; or they will find out about the caper independently and insist on being let in using blackmail. They will at best be The Load, but more often will endanger the job due to youth, immaturity, stupidity, or extreme psychopathy.

Compare Command Roster, The Caper, Criminal Found Family. A subtrope of Badass Crew.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

• Lupin III and his gang are the epitome of the trope:
  • Lupin: The Mastermind + Coordinator of the group's activities, he's also their Gadget Guy, a master Con Artist, and an accomplished Pickpocket. See also: Master of Disguise.
  • Jigen: Lupin's right-hand man and lifelong Partner In Crime. Also serves as the Driver and the Muscle.
  • Goemon: The group's other Muscle, though he's an impossibly skilled swordsman rather than a thug. His skill and Absurdly Sharp Blade also make him a Safe-Cracker on occasion.
  • Fujiko: Lupin's on-again/off-again gal pal. Occasional Partner in Crime and a highly skilled Cat Burglar, but has been known to serve as the Distraction or their Inside Woman when the job requires it.

Comic Books

• The Flash: The Rogues have a tendency to group up like this, since they’re largely just a group of Badass Normal blue-collar crooks with fancy sci-fi tech up against heroes with a noteworthy Story-Breaker Power. As their line-up varies, each one tends to very which role they perform, especially as some are prone to Depending on the Writer. Notably, a ‘’lot’’ of them tend to play The Wild Card, which hasn’t exactly done them many favours.
  • Captain Cold/Leonard Snart: The Mastermind, The Gadget Guy, The Coordinator, and the Fixer. He's the Leader and the brains of the operation who also designed all his own weaponry, and typically viewed among them as The Smart Guy.
  • Heat Wave/Mick Rory: The Partner In Crime, The Distraction, The Muscle. Vitriolic Best Buds (though formerly rivals) with Snart, Heat Wave has one of the higher damage outputs among them and tends to divert attention his way during heists.
  • Golden Glider/Lisa Snart: ‘’Also’’ The Partner In Crime, The Distraction, The Gadget Guy (originally), and The Wild Card, and when she first debuted was The New Kid. Captain Cold's little sister, she joined the Rogues late in the game compared to the others and was noted for being a bit overly eager to do damage, but she also notably used to have new gadgets as the plot demanded.
  • Trickerst/James Jesse: The Gadget Guy, The Conman, The Distraction, The Burglar, The Legendary Thief, the Pickpocket, and some touches of The Wild Card. James Jesse was an incredibly skilled conman and thief with a variety of skills, who's gimmicky gadgets often made him appear less mentally capable than he really was; upon retiring from crime, he was commonly looked at as one of the greats.
    • Trickster II/Axel Walker: The New Kid, The Distraction, and somewhat the Wild Card, and later on The Fall Guy. Somewhat a Replacement Scrappy In-Universe and out, Axel only knew half of what he was doing and was considered more of an annoyance than anything.
  • Weather Wizard/Mark Mardon: The Distraction, The Muscle. Mardon's main usage in jobs is that his Weather Manipulation gimmick makes him one of the most effective at fighting the Flash, making him useful for keeping the Scarlet Speedster at-bay.
  • Captain Boomerang/Digger Harkness: The Distraction, The Burglar, The Conman, and the Wild Card. Digger's gimmick seems silly and he tends to come off as a Lethal Joke Character, but because of it he's very good at misdirecting and Obfuscating Stupidity. He's surprisingly effective at fighting the Flash on his own, but has in time became less associated with the Rogues due to his commitments to the Suicide Squad.
    • Captain Boomerang II/Owen Mercer: The New Kid. Unlike Axel, Owen was well-liked, especially as he was actually the original Boomerang's son rather than just a kid who stole his gear, not to mention Owen was one of the few with super-powers. He wasn't particularly into the whole deal, though, so his association was much briefer.
  • Pied Piper/Hartley Rathaway: The Gadget Guy, The Fixer, and thanks to retcons, he ‘’was’’ once The New Kid. Another who is regarded among them as The Smart Guy, Piper is a genuine Gadgeteer Genius, though he differs from the Rogues as, after Post Crisis, it was established he had actually been Just Like Robin Hood and his robberies were motivated by a desire to help the poor and redistribute wealth. He left crime to seek more legitimate ways to help the poor, and used his skills to assist the Flash rather than fight him.
  • Mirror Master/Sam Scudder: The Driver, The Safe-Cracker. Mirror Master's mirror tech allows for turning any reflective surface into a portal, allowing them to be the Rogues' go-to exit strategy, and oftentimes their entry point, too.
    • Mirror Master II/Evan McCulloch: The Driver, The Safe-Cracker, The Muscle, The Distraction. Unlike his predecessor, Evan found other ways to use the mirror dimension that their tech utilised, and the result allowed him to more-or-less become a Physical God, making him another good option for distracting the Flash from the actual robbery. Following the New 52 merging them into one character, Scudder now tends to fulfil these additional roles, too.
• Iron Man: In the Flash Back in Iron Man 2013 #10 (part 1 of "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark"), the Stark Seven who take on The Greys' Vegas casino are:
  • Howard Stark: The Mastermind, The Backer, The Gadget Guy.
  • Rollo: The Inside Man, The Acquisitioner, The Roper (convincing his fellow Greys that the con is on, but not where they think it is).
  • Jimmy Woo: The Hacker, The Burglar.
  • The Bear: The Burglar (via explosives rather than safecracking).
  • Thunderbolt Ross, Dum-Dum Dugan and Nessa the Kitten: The Distraction. (Thunderbolt and Dum-Dum would also have been The Muscle if this had gone wrong.)
  • And although not counted as one of the Seven, Maria Stark: The Driver (helicopter).
• Loki: Agent of Asgard: Loki's crew consists of:
  • Loki: The Master Mind, The Hacker, The Conman, The Pickpocket.
  • Thor: The Distraction, The Inside Man can be also The Muscle if needed.
  • Verity: The Coordinator, magic Hacker if it's seeing through illusions.
  • Sigurd The Ever-Glorious: The Muscle, The Inside Man, he can do The Burglar if needed.
  • Lorelei: The Burglar, The Roper, The Distraction.

Film

• The Anderson Tapes: Duke is the Mastermind. Pat Angelo is the Backer. Socks is The Muscle. Spencer is The Driver. "The Kid" is The Hacker. Tommy Haskins (the "bird dog") is arguably The Inside Man. "Pops" is a self-appointed Fall Guy.
• Grand Slam:
  • Professor James Anders: The Mastermind
  • Jean-Paul Audry: The Conman. A French playboy whose job it is to seduce the only woman with a key to the building holding the diamonds.
  • Agostino Rossi: The Gadget Guy. An Italian mechanical and electronics genius.
  • Gregg: The Safecracker
  • Eric Weiss: The Muscle. A German ex-military man.
  • Mark Milford: The Backer. Anders' childhood friend and now a mob boss, Milford puts Anders in touch with the rest of the crew and will fence the diamonds for him.
• Inception: Since the team is small, they have to double up on roles. Luckily, the logic of dreams makes this not too hard.
  • Cobb: The Mastermind and The Con Man since he's the one who plans out the entire inception and dictates when and how the group goes off-script. Also, he's the one who tricks Fischer into thinking he, Ariadne, and Arthur are actually part of his mind security and not the one's infiltrating his mind.
  • Arthur: The Partner in Crime, Coordinator, and The Searcher as Cobb's second in command and head of research for the team. Him actually missing that Fischer has had training to prevent a mind infiltration is an example of him failing at his role as The Searcher. Also has shades of The Muscle since he's the only one shown to do actual hand to hand combat with the mooks in the entire film.
  • Ariadne: The New Kid with hints of The Hacker given that she's the one who designs all of the dreams the team goes into and can thus relay any information about where hidden paths and back entrances are.
  • Eames: The Con Man, The Distraction, The Roper, and The Muscle. His expansive imagination allows him to do a lot, from copying and imitating real life people to fool the mark to conjuring up heavy duty weapons in order to deal with mooks.
  • Yusef: The Gadget Guy and The Driver as he is the one who gives the team the strong sedative to keep them under long enough to go into three dreams and is in charge of driving the van in the first dream.
  • Saito: The Backer who provides the team with the funds necessary to do their job. He buys out an entire airline in order to make sure the plan can happen.
• Sneakers: Bishop is the Mastermind, Crease is the Partner in Crime, Carl is the Burglar/Safe Cracker, the Hacker, and was presumably the New Kid a few years ago, Whistler is the Gadget Guy, and Mother is the Coordinator and the Driver.
• Ocean's Eleven (2001):
  • Danny Ocean: The Mastermind / The Distraction
  • Rusty Ryan: The Partner in Crime / The Coordinator
  • Reuben Tishkoff: The Backer
  • Livingston Dell: The Hacker
  • Basher Tarr: The Gadget Guy
  • Saul Bloom: The Conman (The Distraction in Thirteen)
  • The Amazing Yen: The Burglar, due to his acrobatic skill
  • Linus Caldwell: The Pickpocket / The New Kid
  • Virgil and Turk Malloy, "The Twins": The Driver / The Muscle
  • Frank Catton: The Inside Man
• In the sequels, we have:
  • Tess Ocean: The Distraction (Twelve)
  • Gaspar LeMarque: The Legendary Thief (Twelve)
  • Terry Benedict: The backer (Thirteen)
  • Twelve and Thirteen also has Ma and Pa (respectively) Caldwell appear as Distractions/Inside Persons, posing as authorities (in the latter case, that's his day job), much to Linus's chagrin.
  • Thirteen also has the Twins briefly taking on Livingston's role as The Hacker, after he is taken into custody.
  • Twelve and Thirteen also have Roman Nagel as The Acquisitioner and part-time Gadget Guy. In Twelve, he supplies them with a custom-built holo-projector, while in Thirteen, he not only installs the rigged card-shuffling machines after Livingston is arrested, but, in a deleted scene, actually shows Livingston how to rig them.
• The Thieves:
  • Popie: The Mastermind
  • Macau Park: The Mastermind/The Backer
  • Zampano: The Gadget Guy
  • Yenicall: The Burglar (Classy Cat-Burglar)
  • Pepsee and Julie: The Burglar (safecrackers)
  • Chewing Gum: The Con Man
  • Chen: The Distraction
  • Andrew and Jonny: The Muscle
• The Asphalt Jungle:
  • Doc: The Mastermind
  • Emmerich: The Backer
  • Louis: The Burglar
  • Dix: The Brute
  • Gus: The Driver
• The main cast of The Fast and the Furious evolves into an elite Caper Crew over the course of seven movies (although no two movies feature exactly the same crew), most prominently in the fifth and sixth movies. Everyone is The Driver at some point and almost everyone is capable of serving as The Muscle, with other roles sliding around as needed but mostly as follows:
  • Dom: The Mastermind
  • Brian, Letty: The Partner In Crime, The Muscle
  • Mia: The Coordinator
  • Roman: The Conman
  • Han: The Fixer, originally set to be The Roper.
  • Gisele: The Muscle, The Distraction
  • Tej: The Hacker, The Gadget Guy
  • Leo and Santos: The Burglar, the Conman, The Distraction
  • Hobbs: Becomes a Backer and Inside Man during Fast Five
• Rififi has Tony as The Mastermind as well as The Driver, Mario as The Partner In Crime, Jo as The Muscle (he's the one who hacks through the ceiling of the jewelry store), and César is The Burglar (he's the one who actually cuts through the safe).
• If you consider Now You See Me a Caper film, everyone (given the subject topic of the film) gets to be The Distraction, but overall — Daniel is the Con man, and supposedly The Mastermind (though it is later revealed the true Mastermind is Dylan, on top of being the Inside man and Legendary Thief), Henley and Meritt split both Roper and Partner in Crime duties, Jack is the Burglar, the Pickpocket, and the Muscle, Arthur is the Backer, and Thaddeus is the fall guy.
• American Animals:
  • Warren: the Mastermind. Recruits and plans the heist and serves as pointman during the heist.
  • Spencer: the Partner in Crime. Introduces the idea for the heist and serves as lookout.
  • Eric: the Specialist. Provides insight on security before the heist and serves as second pointman during the heist.
  • Chas: The Money. Finances some of the expenditures and serves as getaway driver during the heist.
• Vabank:
  • Kwinto, whose idea this was in the first place, is The Mastermind, and also The Legendary Thief (his exploits are taught about in the police academy) as The Safe-Cracker extraordinaire,
  • Dane, his old Partner In Crime, makes plans, researches the building's technical drawings, and doubles as The Gadget Guy and the technician in working out how to disable the alarm system,
  • Natalie is The Roper and the Distraction - an actress who plays a cute socialite to keep Kramer safely out of the way and provide him with the "alibi", crucial to the Frame-Up of him that the group has planned (which also, in a way, makes Kramer The Fall Guy, though the entire point of the exercise is actually to frame him),
  • Moks and Nuta, described by Dane as "zealous shoplifters", are The New Kids and also Drivers (their day job is at a car repair shop). Their task is tailing Kramer during the preparation phase, driving, fetching, and carrying.
• The Art of the Steal:
  • Nicky: The Mastermind and becomes the Fall Guy and the end of the movie
  • Crunch: The Driver and The Muscle and revealed to be the actual Mastermind at the end of the film
  • Uncle Paddy: The Fixer. He is the guy who knows everybody and can get anything. Also acts as The Conman (posing as an art expert in Warsaw) and The Fence (usually has a buyer waiting for the team's loot).
  • Guy: The Specialist. He is an expert forger who can create anything from a Matisse painting to a Guttenberg Bible.
  • Lola: The Distraction. Fills in whenever the crew needs a female role. But her primary role is to keep Nicky from cottoning to Crunch's real plan.
  • Francie: The New Guy. Crunch's 'apprentice', he gets dragged along and does whatever he's told (often badly). Useful because he has no record and the cops don't know him.
• The titular gang of The Bad Guys (2022):
  • Mr. Wolf — The Mastermind. He's the leader of the crew, the one who holds the heists together for plans. He also has the additional roles of the Pickpocket and the Driver.
  • Mr. Snake — The Safe-Cracker. Called a "Houdini with no arms", he's able to break into safes with ease.
  • Mr. Shark — The Distraction. Using his mastery of disguises, he draws others away from the major action, or uses his disguises to slink into said action.
  • Mr. Piranha — The Muscle. Despite being one of the smaller members of the team, he is short-fused and powerful, packing a strong punch.
  • Ms. Tarantula — The Hacker. She stays behind the scenes and uses her tech skills to shut off cameras and get into systems.
• The League of Gentlemen. Lt. Colonel Hyde spent the last few months before his forced retirement going through army files and selecting military men who've been cashiered for various crimes who have the skills he needs. Race (transport), Weaver (explosives), Lexy (radios), Myscroft (quartermaster). Stevens, Porthill and Rutland-Smith (gunmen) and Hyde as Co-ordinator.

Literature

• In Donald E Westlake's Dortmunder novels Dortmunder is the Mastermind, Kelp is the Partner In Crime, Murch is the Driver, and Tiny Bulcher is the Muscle.
• Mistborn has a fairly odd crew. Kelsier is the Mastermind, Yeden is the Backer, Dockson is the Coordinator and Partner in Crime, Breeze is a master Conman, Ham is the Muscle, and Renoux, Marsh, and Vin are all the Inside Men, and Vin doubles as the New Kid. Clubs is sort of a Concealer (he uses his copper Allomancy to hide the others' Allomantic signatures), Spook uses his Super-Senses to be a Lookout, and Sazed functions as a Driver from time to time, although he's really the team Badass Bookworm. Also, Kelsier doubles as the Distraction, a second Muscle, and the Burglar, as does Vin.
• Heist Society and its sequel Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter does this. The roles are generally the same - we have Katarina as the Mastermind, Hale as The Partner in Crime, Simon fills all the Tech Roles, Gabrielle is the combination of The Distraction (very much so) and The Burglar/Pickpocket, we have the Bagshaw brothers as The Muscle, Nick is the New Kid/Pickpocket and The Mole in Heist Society and dear old Uncle Eddie as The Legendary Thief.
• The Dresden Files 15th book Skin Game has Nicodemus attempting to rob Hades' vault. Nicodemus is the Mastermind, Deirdre is the Partner In Crime, Harry both the Distraction and the Burglar (he's the Ice Gate specialist), Goodman Grey is the Inside Man (as a shapeshifter, he is a copy replacement of the man they needed on the inside), Anna is the Burglar, Hannah is both the Muscle and the Burglar (her fire magic gets them past the reinforced doors, and she's the Fire Gate specialist), and Binder (via his army of goons) and the Genoskwa are the Muscles. Mab, Marcone, and even Hades himself are the Backers. Grey, the Genoskwa and Hannah turn out to be Inside Men as well- Harry buys Grey's services before Nick could, while Hannah and the Genoskwa are far from just hired specialists- they're the new bearers of Lasciel and Ursiel.
• Six of Crows:
  • Kaz is the Mastermind, the Pickpocket, and the Conman.
  • Inej is Partner in Crime, the Hacker (in a world before computers, her spying fulfills a similar purpose), and the Burglar. Kaz also makes her act as Acquisitioner of odd items that eventually prove useful.
  • Jesper is a second Partner in Crime and Muscle Man, being the crew's gunslinger.
  • Nina is hired on as a Muscle Man (due to her skills as a heartrender), but doubles as the seductive Roper and the Conwoman as the heist wears on.
  • Matthias, despite being the most physically muscular, acts mainly as The Inside Man because it's the most secure location in his homeland that they're breaking into.
  • Wylan is the Gadget Guy (demolitions), the New Kid, and a partial Inside Man (he's been to The Ice Court before and speaks limited Fjerdan). He's mainly brought as a hostage, though.
• In River of Teeth, Houndstooth assembles a gang of which one half is chosen by him and the other by the federal agent who gave him the job. This includes himself as the leader and coordinator, Hero Shackleby as the Demolitions Expert and Master Poisoner, Regina Archambault — better known as Archie — as a pickpocket and conwoman, Adelia Reyes as a contract killer and Houndstooth's former employee Cal Hotchkiss as a kind of inside man whom they can use to purchase the explosives Hero needs for their bombs without drawing too much attention. Though, as Houndstooth himself points out, it's not a caper but an operation. All aboveboard.
• The Star Wars Legends book Scoundrels features this kind of set-up. Han is the Mastermind, Chewie is the Partner in Crime, twins Bink and Tavia are the Burglar and the Hacker (respectively), stage magician Zerba is the Gadget Guy and Pickpocket, and Lando is the Con Artist. Dozer was brought on as Con Artist but gets relegated to Driver when Lando shows up (a little to his disappointment). Winter and Rachele assist in the Hacker and Coordinator roles, and Kell is the New Kid and explosives specialist. The Backer is a rich guy whose family estate was ruined by gangsters but it turns out that he's actually Boba Fett in disguise, who's basically using the entire rest of the crew as a Distraction to get his mark.
• The Supervillainy Saga book Tales of Supervillainy: Cindy's Seven: Cindy attempts to assemble one of these to rob the richest dragon on Earth but members keep quitting, joining, or splitting off to do their own thing instead of focusing on her plan.
• Swindle does this with some variation because the characters are all eleven-year-old kids. Griffin is the Mastermind, his best friend Logan is the Partner in Crime, and Melissa is the Hacker. Logan, who is an actor, plays the part of the Conman, and bully Darren is the Muscle. Pitch, who loves to climb takes the role of the Burglar. Since the main security of the comic shop they plan to rob is a vicious Doberman, instead of a Safe Cracker, they recruit "Animal Whisperer" Savannah to deal with it.

Live-Action TV

• Leverage has a Grifter (Conman and Distraction), Hitter (Muscle and Driver), a Thief (Pickpocket and Burglar), a Hacker (Hacker and Gadget Guy), and The Mastermind who doubles as The Backer. Nate doesn't seem to really have any more money than anyone else — he does the "paying for everything" thing, but it almost seems like the client-of-the-week is Leverage's Backer (as they're the ones who set the overall mission constraints). Also, Nate and Hardison generally share the Coordinator role, and Hardison is probably more likely to be the Distraction than anyone but Sophie.
  • An episode has them face off against a nearly-identical crew, minus a Grifter. Naturally, each role ends up facing off against their counterpart.
  • In another episode, their enemy knows everything about them (it was the guy who originally put the crew together), so they double-down on almost all roles: two Hitters (including a former enemy), two Grifters (one of them being Nate's ex-wife), two Thieves (Parker's Gentleman Thief mentor), two Hackers (including a former enemy), but only one Mastermind.
  • They also switch Grifters for a few episodes, while the actress who plays the original Grifter is pregnant.
• Human Target: Ames (acting as The New Kid and The Burglar) gets roped into one of these; her job is to snake her way through the air ducts & disable the security system. Chance goes in too, taking the place of "Mr. Chicago" — who he later discovers is the "cleaner." It's his job to kill everybody involved with the heist so the Mastermind doesn't have to pay them anything.
• Hustle
  • Original crew: Mickey is the Mastermind, Stacey is the Distraction, Ash is the Hacker, the Gadget Guy, and the Safe Cracker, and the Driver. Danny is the New Kid. Albert and Stacey take turns acting as the Partner in Crime; everyone except Ash takes turns as the Conman.
  • Second crew: With Mickey gone, Danny takes over as Mastermind. Billy becomes the new New Kid. The roles of other characters are unchanged.
  • Third crew: Mickey is back as the Mastermind, Emma is the new Distraction and is also the Pickpocket. She and Sean are both New Kids, although Emma quickly rises to take Stacey's role as Partner in Crime. Ash and Albert's roles remain unchanged.
• Mission: Impossible's cast always fit into one or more of these roles. In the classic crew, Jim was the Mastermind/Coordinator, Rollin was the Conman/Pickpocket, Barney was the Gadget Guy/Burglar, Cinnamon was the Roper/Distraction, and Willy was the Muscle/Driver.
• In "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang", the senior leadership of Deep Space Nine decides to steal $1 million from the hotel count room.
  • The Mastermind - the whole crew contributes in theory. Truthfully, when the Retired Thief joins, it becomes his plan.
  • The Partner In Crime - since the whole crew is involved, they all fit. Miles O'Brien and Dr. Bashir stand out since they were there when the mob arrived.
  • The Backer - Vic, who's risking both his own "life" (his memories of the crew, since this is a hologram with safeties on, they won't lose anything), and supplying the High Roller distraction with his nest egg.
  • The Coordinator - the lack of this role is noticeable when the plan goes badly.
  • The pickpocket - Rather inverted with Bashir; he slips Ipecac into a martini.
  • The Distraction - most of the crew do this job, in different ways.
    • Vic is hanging out with the High Roller, they're distracting the casino customers.
    • Kira is hanging out with Mickey-eyes, the new boss.
    • Cassidy is "drunk" and telling the guard that...
    • Miles has stolen her chips, but he says he's innocent.
  • The Burglar - Nog is a safecracker, using his Ferengi hearing to listen to the tumblers.
  • The muscle - Odo is the one who will carry out a suitcase full of $1 million, and make it look easy.
  • The Retired Thief - they need one more person to do the role of High Roller, but no one seems interested. An earlier conversation convinces Sisko to join them, and he takes over from there.
• In the Doctor Who episode "Time Heist", the Doctor and Clara are part of a Caper Crew breaking into the biggest bank in the universe. The Mastermind who recruited them is a mysterious figure called the Architect (who's actually the Doctor, operating through pre-prepared messages, but they wiped their minds to get past the bank's telepathic security, so he doesn't know that) who is also the Coordinator and probably the Gadget Guy; the Doctor is the Partner in Crime (claiming that being in charge is his special ability); Psi, a Cyborg with a computerized brain, is the Hacker and also serves as the Distraction at one point; Saibra, a Humanshifter, is the Con Woman; and Clara is the New Kid. The Backer is the future self of the bank's owner, trying to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, and is therefore also the Inside Woman.
• In The A-Team Hannibal is the Mastermind, B.A. is the Muscle and Gadget Guy, Face is the Con-Artist and Fixer, and Murdock is the Wild Card. The role of the Driver is split between B.A. (when they need to drive a ground vehicle), and Murdock (when they have to fly an airplane or helicopter.) In the final season, they pick up a second Gadget Guy in Frankie Santana.
• On The 100, some of the characters briefly form one of these in Season 2. Monty is the Hacker, Miller is the Muscle, Maya is the Inside Man, and Jasper actually refers to himself as the Mastermind. Harper bemoans that the only role she gets to play is lookout.
• Money Heist:
  • For his first plan to rob the Spanish Royal Mint, the people the Professor (Mastermind) recruited for his heist team have defined specializations: Berlin and Tokyo are thieves, Rio is a hacker, Nairobi is a forger, Moscow is a machinery expert, Denver is a Wild Card brought by Moscow, and Oslo and Helsinki are muscles. Berlin also acts as the Partner-In-Crime.
  • In the Bank of Spain heist, Lisbon and Palermo replace Berlin as joint Partners-In-Crime, alongside several additions: Stockholm as the New Kid, Bogotá as both a Safe-Cracker and machinery expert (replacing Moscow in the latter role), Marseille as the Coordinator, and Manila as an Inside Man (although she's directly part of the crew rather than mainly an employee or regular costumer of the Bank). There's also an assisting squad of unnamed people from Pakistan serving as Fixers. Two more people, Benjamín and Matías, join midway through the heist as another machinery expert and New Kid, respectively.
• The second major arc in the first season of Andor revolves around Cassian being recruited into a mission where he helps a ragtag group from the nascent Rebellion steal a large cash deposit from the vault in an Imperial garrison. Some of the members play multiple roles or blend them together, but the lineup ultimately maps very well onto a classic caper crew. The roster goes like this:
  • Luthen is a combination of the Backer and the Mastermind, having set the whole operation in motion, picked the target, and funding/supplying the crew. He leans more towards the Backer, as he takes no direct role in the heist and only Vel and Cassian (who Luthen recruited at the last minute), are known to have any interaction with him.
  • Vel is the Mastermind as far as everyone else is concerned, being the leader of the Rebel crew and needing to command and manage them all on the ground.
  • Taramyn is the Partner In Crime who acts as Vel's Number Two. He also plays an important role in training the group, since they have to infiltrate the garrison by posing as soldiers and Taramyn is the only one with military experience in the Empire, so he teaches them how to pass as soldiers long enough to gain access to the garrison's vault.
  • Lieutenant Gorn, the garrison's second highest ranking officer, is the Inside Man. He has fed invaluable information to the crew and uses his authority and influence to make both the vault and the garrison's Commandant as vulnerable to them as possible. He also gives the infiltrators an excuse to be there because he claims to have ordered them to come from another base to provide extra security.
  • Skeen and Cinta are the muscle, although in different ways. Skeen is the more typical sort, being the tallest member of the crew, a former prisoner with multiple tattoos who threatens the Imperial grunts that were guarding the vault, and is a potential triggerman if needed. Cinta looks like the last person you'd expect to be muscle, being an attractive, quiet woman who acts as an emergency medic in the days leading up the heist, but as Skeen tells Cassian, she is stone cold and fearless, which she proves by shooting an Imperial officer who was holding a member of the crew at gun point during the first stage of the plan. She is entrusted to keep the Commandant's family hostage (and kill them, if the Commandant doesn't cooperate in opening the vault for the Rebels), and then to slip away and escape separately from the rest of the group.
    • Skeen ultimately also has elements of the Wild Card, as he tries to turn on the crew after the heist and take off with the money. He also turned out to be less than competent as a gunman, as he contributes to Taramyn's death during a shootout with garrison's soldiers by failing to provide adequate cover fire for Taramyn when Taramyn tries to make a run for their ship.
  • Nemik is the Hacker and Gadget Guy. After the group forces the garrison's Commandant to open the vault, Nemik hacks and releases physical restraints keeping the cash in place. He also devises a gadget that blocks Imperial communications while the Rebels are able to use their own, and he operates a navigation device that lets them make their getaway flying directly through what is essentially a huge meteor shower, something that would be suicidal without guidance. He also has elements of the New Kid, as he's the youngest member, a Naïve Newcomer, and has several moments showing his inexperience or other members looking out for him.
  • Lastly Cassian is something of a potential Jack of All Trades, because he's an experienced conman/burglar and is capable in a firefight, but his main role is the Driver, as he's an Ace Pilot and the only one who can be trusted to fly their makeshift getaway vehicle. Several other members are also obviously worried that he's going to be the Wild Card or even someone who's undercover trying to bust them, but this is averted.

Pinball

• Heist!: The protagonists are a group of criminals who work to undermine Mr. Big's power through various capers. They're all identified by their roles in the game's introduction: Maggie Machado is the mastermind, Katherine "Kat" Burgess is a Classy Cat-Burglar, Willie Burnett is The Driver, Franklin Cooper cracks into safes, Leonid "Leo" Myshkin is the Demolitions Expert, and Liz Sterling hacks into Mr. Big's computer system.

Podcasts

• Plumbing the Death Star: With all of Christmas stolen and put in one of the Grinch's bank vaults, Duscher, Zammit, and Jackson are left to assemble a team of Christmas characters to pull off "A Christmas Heist", with Santa Claus himself backing them. The team they assemble is as follows:
  • The Gadget Guy: Kevin McCallister of Home Alone fame already has experience using make-shift tech to ruin his enemies from his childhood adventures, but with the funding of Santa Claus, McCallister is ready to get back into the game. Duscher also has a suggestion in the limo driver from Die Hard with a Vengeance. Why? Because his car has a phone in it.
    Jackson: No, Kevin McCallister is still the clear winner.
    Zammit: But Jackson, he can drive, and make—a phone call.
  • The Conman: With enough stealth expertise to sneak into Santa's sack and more passion for the mission than any other operative, Buddy from Elf is more than prepared to lie his way into the bank security and get gunned down if it means saving his favorite holiday.
  • The Pickpocket: Malcom McDowell from the derivatively named Home Alone: The Holiday Heist uses his genius-level intellect to assist in the actual stealing of Christmas.
  • The Burglar: Catwoman, having been featured in the Christmas-set Batman Returns, gets in on the caper and is the one to open the vault containing Christmas in it, although her involvement brings a big problem for the crew: Batman. Still, that downside doesn't make her worse than Duscher's suggestion, the very alcoholic, very diseased Bad Santa.
  • The Driver: In a win for Duscher, the others' suggestions of The Polar Express and Tim Allen prove too chaotic to work into the plan, so the team agrees to bring in the limo driver from Die Hard with a Vengeance as their getaway driver.
  • The Muscle: Die Hard's John McClane^note fresh off his 2008 run for President serves as the main source of firepower in the heist. He gives Catwoman the time she needs to get into the vault and knowing him, probably blows the entire building down with C4.
  • The Reserve: When the heist goes wrong and all seems lost, the three Masterminds have little choice, but to call in their most dangerous pick, the only Christmas character with no sense of morality to slow it down and no reluctance to take a human life. Worse than that, it has parasitic abilities that allow it to cause "ego death" by overriding anyone it touches and controlling them, most often to force its victim to kill him or her self. It has no name, but it did once possess an inanimate object, one with a name befitting a monster with a heart cold as the abyss: Frosty the Snowman.
  • The Fall Guy: With one role left to fill for the heist, Zammit puts forward Bad Santa as a fall guy before offering an infallible option: the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition to being able to distract crowds with His miracles^note unless they're twenty feet away, in which case He can't do miracles, the King of Kings would also put any police coming to arrest Him in a moral dilemma.
    Jackson: They'd be like "Ah, I don't really want to arrest Jesus."
    Duscher: "Last time this happened, we looked like the biggest jerks."
• The Penumbra Podcast: As of season 3, the Aurinko Crime Family qualifies as this. Buddy's the Mastermind, Vespa's the Partner in Crime, Jet's the Driver, Rita's the Hacker, Peter's basically every thieving role, and Juno's the New Kid.

Tabletop Games

• In Burgle Bros. the characters are an elite crew trying to pull off a heist without getting caught. Together, they must explore the building (represented by a grid of initially face-down tiles for each floor), avoid the alarms, sneak past the guards, find and crack all the safes, and get to the roof to escape.
• Shadowrun is built around the Player Characters performing capers known as "shadowruns" in an Urban Fantasy Cyberpunk setting, which means that most character archetypes will usually fit into one or more of the caper roles. Most capers has an NPC Backer who is also a Mysterious Employer, known as a "Mister Johnson" in the Shadows, and an NPC Mastermind known as a "Fixer" who gathers the crew and puts them in contact with the Johnson (and is also The Fixer and responsible for vetting the Johnson to minimize the risk of the Johnson being a Treacherous Quest Giver). The player characters' roles will depend upon their characters' builds and archetypes: Street Samurai are usually The Muscle (and may moonlight as The Driver, The Burglar or The Distraction), Deckers will almost inevitably be The Hacker and The Mission Coordinator and usually The Safe-Cracker, Riggers will usually be The Driver, The Coordinator or The Searcher (and provide The Muscle in the form of drones), The Face will fill any of the social roles, especially The Conman, The Roper or The Searcher (and makes sure the Johnson and the Fixer play ball with the team), and finally Mages and Adepts can fill practically any of the roles depending on which spells, spirits or adept powers they have access to.

Video Games

• Covert Action requires the Player Character to uncover criminal plans — that is, who participates and what exactly they are supposed to do — and upon collecting full incriminating information either arrest them or blackmail into cooperation. Roles other than Mastermind vary depending on which of 13 basic plots is used — there are Inside Contact, Middleman, Courier, Driver, Mercenary, Kidnapper, Researcher, Alarm Specialist, Thief, Assassin and so on.
• The City of Heroes Summer event mission "Casino Heist", being based on The Caper, lets the players take on the roles of the Caper Crew: the hacker (Hacker), thief (Burglar), grifter (Conman/Distraction), and hitter (Muscle/Distraction).
• The Sly Cooper series has most of the primary skills handled by the three main members of the Cooper Gang. Sly handles the thieving-related skills. Bentley is the resident tech specialist while Murray is the driver and the muscle. The third game expands the team with members who possess more specialized talents while the fourth game brings it back to just the main three with Carmelita along with the ride and era-specific ancestors of Sly.
• The Cast of Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine are a stereotypical Caper Crew, to the point that they are addressed almost exclusively by their job titles.
• PAYDAY 2 has five main classes, though all playable characters can qualify as the Muscle since most heists usually involve massive firefights. The Mastermind's role is to support his teammates and control hostages and cops, the Enforcer is even more of the Muscle whose role is to be a heavy-duty damage dealer, the Technician focuses on using gadgets and explosives, the Ghost focuses on infiltration and stealth and the Fugitive is a generalist who simply focuses on close-range combat. Outside of that, Bain serves as the group's primary handler while Twitch is the designated getaway driver.
• In Grand Theft Auto V, one of the things you do while planning heists is hiring crew members for specific roles (at least one gunman, a driver, and a hacker). Crew members vary in skill, with more competent ones demanding higher cuts. Instrumental to each heist are Michael de Santa, who masterminds each caper; Trevor Phillips, who provides muscle as well as being an aircraft pilot; Franklin Clinton, a gifted driver in his own right; and Lester Crest, who assists with the logistics of each heist. Inevitably, however, all the playable characters will play the role of a gunman sooner or later.
• Geralt must assemble one in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt DLC Hearts of Stone in order to rob an auction house. The two roles he must recruit for are a safecracker (either a lockpick or a Demolitions Expert) and a burglar (an elven acrobat). Geralt's role is as the Mastermind's second-in-command.
• The cast of Persona 5 form one as the Phantom Thieves of Hearts. Joker is the Mastermind and the Fixer, Mona swaps between the Partner In Crime and the Burglar, Skull is the Muscle, Panther is the Conman, Fox is the Gadget Guy (albeit a supernatural version), Queen is the Coordinator and the Driver, Oracle is the Hacker, Noir is the Inside Man, Crow is a combination of the New Kid and the Mark, and Violet is a more straightforward version of the New Kid. Their Personae collectively function as the Legendary Thieves, as they are all famous historical, mythical, or fictional entities who lend their skills to their summoners and inspire them to become thieves.
• In the Dead Money DLC of Fallout: New Vegas, the player character is forced to form a crew with various other prisoners of Father Elijah. Christine's main asset is her tech-savvy as a member of Brotherhood of Steel, Dog/God is a Nightkin who is useful for his strength while Dean is deemed a useless extra by Elijah (but provides both helpful advice and perks for the player in surviving the Sierra Madre).
• In Path of Exile, the Ring is a Thieves' Guild with a full set of operators. Kurai, the Administrator, oversees the operations of the group for the leader. Whakano, the barber, provides intel and is also The Fixer, who provides extra contracts needed to perform a job. Adiyah, the Wayfinder, gets people to the job site by opening portals to the location. You have a roster of 9 rogues who will join you on a job, each of them with a different set of skills, like lockpicking, trap disarmament, brute force, and counter-thaumaturgy. You, the player character, are the Muscle, who clears the way both in and out by killing everything in your way. Finally, Faustus is the Fence, who sells the stolen goods back to the clients.
• The Clue! has you assembling a crew for heists from people you meet in the underworld of 1953 London.
• Love of Magic: The Fixers, a group of thieves that get brought in for the attack on the bank vaults holding Cult backup bodies. They're actually allied with one faction of the Cult and betray Katie and her team, killing Keith.
  • Alexander Fitzroy is the Mastermind, leading the crew. He's an enchanter. He's actually Friedrich de Vinzgau, a necromancer.
  • Robin de Barre is the Conman and the Distraction, a ceremonial magician. She's actually a necromancer as well.
  • Ian Duncan is the Safe-Cracker, an Esoteric Magician whose abilities include breaking security systems. He's actually a sorcerer, and doesn't realize he's allied with the Cult.
  • Jerry Boyle is the Muscle, a half-orc who grew up with Ian.

Visual Novels

• In Code:Realize, the group falls into this, most prominently seen during the train heist to kidnap the Twilight leader in Chapter 6. Due to the small number of members in the group, they can double for multiple roles.
  • Lupin is the Mastermind and Con Artist, who found out about the travel route by infiltrating Twilight and planned out the heist.
  • Impey is the Driver and Gadget Guy, whose inventions such as the Ornithopter was crucial in planning their escape.
  • Van Helsing is the Muscle, who as a One-Man Army was able to lure in and take down as many Twilight soldiers as possible to leave their leader defenseless.
  • Victor as the Science Hero uses his inventions and smoke bombs as the Distraction to help backup Van Helsing.
  • Saint-Germain is the Backer, whose mansion is the hideout for the group. Due to his wide range of knowledge and skills, he can easily jump into other roles such as the Driver or the Muscle.
  • Cardia is the New Kid but was trained by the others in various skills such as lockpicking, infiltrating and fighting to act as any other role as needed.

The Heist: Monaco have the following infamous group that has no name:

• Lee: The Mastermind and also the main character, in another words you.
• Rye: The Partner In Crime and childhood friend of Lee.
• Eris Huang: A Demolitions Expert and The Gadget Gal.
• Ansel Crane: The Coordinator (before he betrayed the crew)
• The Hacker: These replace Ansel as The Coordinator alongside Lee.
  • Anton Edison: The Teen Genius is the son of a notorious thief.
  • Samira Yazdi: A retired hacktivist who becomes a housewife.
• The Muscle: These characters will be The Inside Man in the story:
  • Mervin Kalani: An amateur wrestler.
  • Lena Ortiz: Former member of the Royal Marines.
• The Thief:
  • Niles Edison: The legendary thief, pickpocket and Anton's father.
  • Sybil: A mysterious thief who's only just started working the scene.
• The Driver:
  • Fabien Ahmad: A banned F1 driver.
  • Tillie Marshall: A former X-Games driver
• The Grifter (or Conman)
  • Peter Graves: A method actor who dreams of joining Hollywood.
  • Miranda Moreau: She can act as Femme Fatale along with female Lee.

• Queen of Thieves follows the Gilded Poppy, an infamous group of thieves.
  • Nikolai Stirling, the Mastermind, leads the team and plans all of their heists.
  • Vivienne Tang, the Seductress, is a Classy Cat-Burglar and Femme Fatale.
  • Remy Chevalier, the Conman, is a charmer and skilled manipulator. He and Vivienne share roles like the Mole, the Roper, and the Distraction, using their social skills and seductive wiles to manipulate targets.
  • Zoe Banks, the Hacker, performs all manner of technological wizardry, much of it through smartphone or tablet.
  • Jett Slater, the Explosives, is the team's Demolitions Expert and takes point whenever something needs blowing up.
  • Leon Kwan, the Driver, drives and pilots various getaway vehicles, demonstrating his skills via evading a pursuing police car in the prologue. He also acts as the Muscle when it's needed.
  • The heroine of the VN is the New Kid, recruited during the prologue based on her broad artistic knowledge and skills.

Web Animation

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits they may be, but Lackadaisy's trio of booze-runners manages to just scrape by.
  • The Leader and senior booze-runner is Rocky, flighty and prone to exploiting his two New Meat compatriots for labor, but nonetheless a canny improvisor and The Scrounger, good for finding what his fellows need just when they need it, especially weapons.
  • The muscle and team gunner is his babyfaced young cousin Freckle, The Drag-Along who can become The Berserker when given a gun.
  • The Getaway Driver is Ivy, a self-taught driver and amateur Wrench Wench who's inexperience actually serves her, since when she Drives Like Crazy it throws their pursuers for a loop.

Webcomics

• In Kill Six Billion Demons, Allison assembles a Caper Crew of devils to help her rob Mammon's Dragon Hoard.
  • Allison herself is the Backer, as she gains the permission from Himself to gather the crew, and the crew operate for her interests. Unusual in that she takes part in the robbery as well.
  • Duutholmel is the Mastermind, he uses his connections among devils to assemble the crew and he's their de facto leader.
  • 1-11 is the Gadget Guy, a skilled mechanic.
  • Xand and Nxor are the Conmen, pretending together to be a higher-ranked devil than they are, with Nxor doubling as The Muscle according to their backstory.
  • Suuz the Acrobat is the Burglar, who relies on their acrobatic skills.
  • Cat Master is the Muscle, bearing the title "Professional Obstacle Remover".
  • Charon is The Searcher, having already dug tunnels into the outer layers of Mammon's lair.
  • Cio is the Legendary Thief, as the new identity of the Ebon Devil Yabalchoath, the only devil to ever succeed in robbing Mammon's hoard before.
  • Finally, Lucky Felicia is The Safe-Cracker, being a Master of Unlocking who is vital to open the door to the inner Vault. Specifically, the door requires a Human Sacrifice to enter, and Allison isn't expendable...
• Homestuck's first intermission is a caper story involving the vicious Midnight Crew breaking into the mansion of their rival gang, the Felt, to rob the contents of the giant vault in the house, with the additional side mission to kill every single Felt member.
  • Spades Slick is the Mastermind, the leader of the Midnight Crew, and the one who came up with the caper in the first place. Notably, he's also keeping tabs on which Felt members have they already killed, and consults with a map of Felt Mansion at one point.
  • Diamonds Droog is the Partner in Crime, Slick's second in command who mostly concerns himself with killing the Felt's members instead of the actual heist.
  • Hearts Boxcars is supposedly the Burglar as the crew's safe-cracker. Parodied in that his "safe-cracking method" turns out to be simply ripping off the safe's door with his bare hands; in reality, he's the Muscle and spends more time getting into fights with the Felt than any actual safe-cracking.
  • Clubs Deuce is a combination of the Gadget Guy and the Distraction, who carries out his part in the operation using a large multitude of bombs.
• Legostar Galactica's Robin Cunningham has assembled crews for various jobs on multiple occasions.
  • In "Fulcrum", the team is a five-person group who are modeled directly on the Leverage team.
    • Robin is the Mastermind.
    • Skip is the Hacker, as well as the Backer because it's his sister they're rescuing.
    • Johnny is the Distraction, annoyingly flirting with the security guard so Robin and Jeff can do their thing.
    • Colleen is the Muscle, clobbering the guard while Johnny has her distracted.
    • Jeff is the Burglar, putting that good ninja stealth and acrobatics to good use.
  • "Cunningham's Eleven" has a larger crew put together to bust Bob, Marty, Belinda, and Shauna out of Kalybus's prison.
    • Robin is the Mastermind again.
    • Admiral Graves is the Partner in Crime, deferring to Robin's greater heist experience in general, as well as the roper, drawing Kalybus (actually just Kalybus's Changeling minion pretending to be Kalybus) into a direct confrontation.
    • Skip is the Hacker again.
    • Jeff is the Burglar again, this time using his stealth skills to hide Skip from detection.
    • Ha'at is the Conman, using her disguise skills to get among the guards and take them down from behind and also spring the trap laid for Admiral Graves without putting Graves in the trap.
    • Stan and Mitch are the Muscle, taking out Kalybus's reinforcement guards left and right.
    • Johnny and 46 are Distractions of the bomb-laying variety.
    • And Red and Cindy are the Fall Guys; the whole plan hinges on them getting Captured on Purpose and taken to the cells, so they can escape and then liberate the targets from their cell.

Western Animation

• The regulars become a Caper Crew (with limited success) in the Chowder episode "The Heist". The roles are:
  • Mung - The Mastermind
  • Schnitzel - The Muscle
  • Gazpacho - The Driver
  • Truffles - The Burglar (operates the jackhammer they use to break in)
  • Chowder - The New Kid (acts as lookout)
• Louie's Eleven from the DuckTales (2017) episode of the same name. Some of them, like Huey and Gyro, appear to be unaware that they're part of a scheme. The 11, as they appear on Louie’s board:
  • 1. The Brains - Louie (Me)
  • 2 - 4. The Talent(?) - Panchito Pistoles, Uncle Donald, Jose Carioca
  • 5. The Specialist - Dewey
  • 6. The "Forger" - Huey
  • 7. Tech Guru - Gyro Gearloose
  • 8. The Inside Woman - Jane
  • 9. The Diversion - Harpy
  • 10. The Tactician - Webby Vanderquack
  • 11. The Muscle - Manny the Headless Man-Horse
• The Insurgent Generals from Wander over Yonder's Heist Episode "The Big Job", with team leader General Outrage, The Smart Guy hacker Brainz, additional hands Wild Card and Clipper, and Sylvia, aka "Smash 'n' Sass", as the muscle. They're joined by Wander, who largely serves the New Kid role and is tasked with guarding the door, at which he fails spectacularly.
• Carmen Sandiego: In the 2019 reboot, the following people take up the following roles:
  • Carmen Sandiego - The Mastermind
  • Player - The Hacker
  • Ivy - The Gadgeteer Genius/Distraction
  • Zack - The Driver/Distraction
  • Shadowsan - The Legendary Thief
• Stinky puts one together in Moominvalley, on Moominmamma's suggestion for how to return a stolen painting, consisting of:
  • Stinky himself as the Coordinator. Once the crew is assembled he admits he doesn't have a plan, since that's not his thing. He does name Moominmamma as the boss, but the end result is a crew without a Mastermind, with predictable results.
  • Snork as the Gadget Guy.
  • Snorkmaiden as the Distraction, referred to by Stinky as a "honey trap".
  • Little My is recruited for her small size and agility, and best fits the Burglar role.
  • Moominpappa as the explosives guy, which ends up being fireworks used for another Distraction.
  • Sniff comes in as the secondary Burglar for being good at running backwards.
  • And Moomin himself as the Inside Man, though that happened kind of by accident.

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