7. Charlie Croker (The Italian Job)
Paramount PicturesOne of the greatest British films ever made, the elaborate caper at the center of this film involves the theft of a large amount of gold from the Italian authorities in the middle of the city of Turin during a big football game between the Italians and the British. The legendary Michael Caine plays the man with the plan, Charlie Croker. The plan, possibility the first ever heist involving computer hacking: Croker's team would infect the computers that control the traffic in the city, grinding it to a halt and allowing them to swoop in and hijack the trucks. So far, so good, but the plan itself became the stuff of cinema history when it came to the escape: loading the gold into several modified Mini Coopers and taking off in an amazing car chase throughout Turin, zipping through drainage pipes and flying across rooftops to evade the Italian police by getting across the border to Switzerland. Croker and his gang humiliate the Italian police, meeting up again outside the city and getting away in a coach. Unfortunately for them, their celebration undoes them, the coach driver swerving just a little too far on the narrow Swiss Alps road. The result is the most famous literal cliffhanger in film history, with the gold balancing over the cliff edge. Croker's final words ", don't worry lads, I've got an idea," lead us to think that he probably did, but we'll never know.