A group of armed robbers led by the mysterious Dalton Russel (Clive Owen) takes a bank and it's occupants hostage. They are all dressed in painter's uniform with face masks. The police arrive at the scene and Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington) and his partner Bill Mitchell (Chiwetel Ejiofor) are in charge.Detective Frazier feels that something is not right about the stand-off and not everything about it is what it seems. He is convinced that this is not a normal bank robbery.
Meanwhile, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), founder of the bank has a dark secret inside the bank that nobody must know about and attempts to bring it out while the stand-off is still on, without anybody's knowledge.
The police decide to storm the bank and bring the situation to an end, but the robbers have a devastatingly simple plan of escape- and a score to settle.
