10 Smartest Villain Plans In Movies

Inside Man opens with a criminal called Dalton Russell claiming he pulled off the perfect bank robbery. Now, every facet of Russell's plan is meticulously thought out. Forcing the hostages in the bank to dress the same way as the robbers so the police can't tell them apart is genius. He also sends recordings of Albanian chatter through the police radio waves so the detective on the case, Frazier, will waste hours to translate and decipher the messages, unaware it has nothing to do with the robbery.

But the masterstroke is the finale. Once the police have the bank surrounded, it looks like Russell is done. Instead of trying to escape, Russell takes a bag of priceless diamonds and seals himself inside the supply room behind a fake wall. One week later, he exits through the fake wall and walks out the front door.

What makes Russell's success all the more satisfying is the fact that he bumps into Detective Frazier just before he leaves the bank. Frazier was in the presence of the man he was assigned to arrest and he let him walk out, oblivious of his true identity.