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Caper Rationalization
- 331 statements
- 63 feature instances
- 41 referencing feature instances
| Caper Rationalization | type |
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| Caper Rationalization | label |
Caper Rationalization | |
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| Caper Rationalization | comment |
Caper Rationalization is how a caper story featuring a charismatic, likable, and funny group of thieves can avoid alienating the audience through unintentional lack of sympathy. After all, when you boil the story down to its essence, we have to admit that these so-called "heroes" we are cheering on are criminals, and they are in the process of robbing someone of something very valuable. Why are we rooting for them to succeed, again? Oh yeah! Because they're not just stealing to get rich... they're stealing because they have a good reason to steal. They are stealing their own or someone they know's property back from the target, who took it from them in some unjust way. Or the caper is actually a rescue attempt (or some variant thereof). Or the target did something bad to the characters to make it a revenge attempt. Or the target distastefully earned the wealth, likely taking it from others in some way, and the heroes are targeting jerkasses to give it back to those who deserve it (this is particularly likely if the target is a Morally Bankrupt Banker). Sometimes, the entire point of the caper is espionage or sabotage, which gives the heroic criminals a sort of patriotic "license to steal". Other times, the crew is a Tiger Team, and are breaking into a place to intentionally test its security. The Caper Rationalization can be more or less believable depending on the situation. The point is, it allows the audience to enjoy it without feeling guilty. Related to Justified Criminal and Karmic Thief. Compare Double Caper, where the rationalization of the second caper is generally "to fix the stuff we broke by doing the first caper". See also Asshole Victim, which can be used to "rationalize" a murder. Watch out, however, since the rationalization may be just a Motivational Lie... |
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Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to Jerkass: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to ManipulativeBitch: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to OceansThirteen: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to OceansTwelve: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
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Dropped link to TheCaper: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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OceansThirteen | |
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OceansTwelve | |
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ManipulativeBitch | |
| Caper Rationalization | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_13906bf7 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_13906bf7 | comment |
Sly Cooper and the Cooper Gang generally target criminals, generally for the challenge. In the first game, the primary goal is to steal back the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus from the Fiendish Five. The second game has the crew trying to steal the body parts of cybernetic Big Bad Clockwerk of the first game from members of the Klaww Gang so that they can't be used for bad things (or worse yet, to revive Clockwerk). The third game has Sly trying to break into his family vault and reclaim his family legacy. |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_13906bf7 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_13906bf7 | featureConfidence |
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| Sly Cooper (Franchise) | hasFeature |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_1492f7d8 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1492f7d8 | comment |
The Parole Officer features the Caper Crew breaking into a bank to steal a security tape that will both exonerate the protagonist and indict the bent copper who strangled a human being. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1492f7d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1492f7d8 | featureConfidence |
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| The Parole Officer | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_1492f7d8 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1bb6d4b5 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1bb6d4b5 | comment |
Get Backers consists of professional "retrieval experts" who "get back what shouldn't be gone." It's all in the name. Otherwise, it works a lot like The Caper, at least until the plot thickens. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1bb6d4b5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1bb6d4b5 | featureConfidence |
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| Get Backers (Manga) | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_1bb6d4b5 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1c1885de | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1c1885de | comment |
The criminal protagonist of the Raffles stories justifies his lifestyle thusly: "The distribution of wealth is very wrong to begin with". He also normally finds specific justifications for the particular crimes he commits. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1c1885de | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_1c1885de | featureConfidence |
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| Raffles | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_1c1885de | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_25c952a | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_25c952a | comment |
All of the major players in The Bank Job have sympathetic motivations for robbing the bank. Martine plans the heist on the behalf of MI-5, who want to retrieve a incriminating photograph from the bank. Martine herself agrees to the plan to escape conviction on a drug smuggling charge. Terry and his employees are in it for the money, but mostly to support their own families. It's also implied that many of the deposit box owners in the bank are rather shady, since many of them have never publicly claimed or identified what had been stolen. | |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_25c952a | featureConfidence |
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| The Bank Job | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_25c952a | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_298cc8de | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_298cc8de | comment |
In Catch That Kid, the motivation of the heist is to get enough money to pay for an expensive surgery for the main protagonist's ailing father. It's also helped that the bank manager is a Bad Boss who refused to give the mother a loan because the security system she's installing isn't done yet. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_298cc8de | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_298cc8de | featureConfidence |
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| Catch That Kid | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_298cc8de | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2b29e1a8 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2b29e1a8 | comment |
The immoral deeds of the Four Hoursemen in Now You See Me are sold as sympathetic to the audience by making the characters act Just Like Robin Hood when they steal money from a bank vault and give it to the less privileged, while the victims of their crimes are pictured as bad people who had it coming. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2b29e1a8 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_2c7d0f6f | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c7d0f6f | comment |
Season 3 of The Penumbra Podcast's Juno Steel storyline. It's easy to root for the Aurinko Crime Family, given that they're trying to steal the Curemother Prime from corrupt pharmaceutical executives and mass-produce it for free in order to save billions of people from crippling medical debt. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c7d0f6f | featureApplicability |
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Caper Rationalization / int_2c7d0f6f | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c96ae0e | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c96ae0e | comment |
Happens quite often in Hustle, though sometimes the main characters pull jobs just to take the other guy's money. They always choose an Asshole Victim as their mark as a matter of principle (and they are easy to con), reasoning that they are only robbing people who deserve it. The typical victim is either an outright unscrupulous criminal themselves, or someone who is managing to effectively rob people by pushing the boundaries of legality. However, they never go after violent criminals whenever they can avoid it, purely out of fear of what would happen to them if they were found out or caught. Quite often they do it to help avenge an innocent or a friend who fell victim to the mark's villainy. That said, in a general sense, they are clearly in it for the money and the thrill, and are pretty up front about the fact, especially with each other. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c96ae0e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_2c96ae0e | featureConfidence |
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| Hustle | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_2c96ae0e | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_34b7ce64 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_34b7ce64 | comment |
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency has this as a plot point. No, not that there's a caper, but that there's a rationalization. Richard unthinkingly leaves a voice message on his girlfriend Susan's answering machine where he offers to take her on a trip, only to realize immediately afterward that he'll have to cancel due to work commitments. As he's done this multiple times and it's straining their relationship considerably, he opts to scale a wall, break into her apartment through a window, and swipe the tape before she can hear the message, to spare her feelings at being ditched again. The reason this is significant is that Richard is acting irrationally, endangering his life and breaking the law over a minor matter. He's not actually acting of his own accord; a spirit has possessed him and is pushing him to do this in order to determine whether he is the sort of person who will go to extreme lengths to undo a past mistake, and thus a suitable subject to help fulfill the ghost's mission. To an outside observer it's obvious that this is stupid, but Richard insists he is being logical. In the end Richard stops himself at the last moment and puts the tape back, at which point the ghost abandons him as a lost cause. | |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_34b7ce64 | featureConfidence |
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Caper Rationalization / int_34b7ce64 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3501cc23 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3501cc23 | comment |
Gentleman Bastard: Locke Lamora is a priest of the Crooked Warden, the Nameless 13th God of the Twelve, who (despite being an outcast god) has a simple commandment. His priests and thieves steal so that "The rich remember"... that they are not gods, and are not so far above the common man as to be invulnerable. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_3501cc23 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_35e05f2a | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_35e05f2a | comment |
In RWBY, Team RWBY and JN_R both go with the idea of stealing an aircraft to get to Atlas as they absolutely, positively need to get there so they can get to the next Relic before the bad guys do. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_35e05f2a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_35e05f2a | featureConfidence |
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| RWBY (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_35e05f2a | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3790ae45 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3790ae45 | comment |
In Double Homework, the protagonist, Henry, Tamara, and the girls in the summer school class break into Dennis’s apartment, looking for a storage device of some kind that information on their summer school program. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3790ae45 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_3790ae45 | featureConfidence |
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| Double Homework (Visual Novel) | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_3790ae45 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3b442d5c | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3b442d5c | comment |
The third game has Sly trying to break into his family vault and reclaim his family legacy. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3b442d5c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3b442d5c | featureConfidence |
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| Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_3b442d5c | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3d987bd1 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3d987bd1 | comment |
In Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer, a group of people who have been swindled by a con man band together to steal from him exactly the same amount that he took from them. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_3d987bd1 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_3d987bd1 | featureConfidence |
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| Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less | hasFeature |
Caper Rationalization / int_3d987bd1 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_467773a6 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_467773a6 | comment |
In Rogue One, the titular team is specifically given the mission of obtaining the Death Star plans by any means necessary. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_467773a6 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_467773a6 | featureConfidence |
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Caper Rationalization / int_467773a6 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_4f147fad | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_4f147fad | comment |
Magic Kaito: Kaitou Kid is a Phantom Thief who steals jewels. However, he's only looking for one jewel in particular to protect it from a secret organization who killed his father. Any other jewels he steals along the way that aren't it, he either discards to be found or returns himself. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_4f147fad | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_4f147fad | featureConfidence |
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| Magic Kaito (Manga) | hasFeature |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_5079f984 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_5079f984 | comment |
In Inside Man, the point of the bank job was to expose war crimes committed by one of the bank's account holders. And the money. But they very explicitly only stole from the war criminal, not touching a dime of the bank's money. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_5079f984 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_5079f984 | featureConfidence |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_584365d4 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_584365d4 | comment |
The title character of Melody breaks into Steve’s dorm room and messes up all his social media accounts, and MC distracts Steve long enough for her to escape. Subverted, as Melody is stealing back her own guitar, not taking something that doesn’t belong to her. | |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_584365d4 | featureConfidence |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_599d9bdc | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_599d9bdc | comment |
In There Was No Secret Evil Fighting Organization, the chronically bored esper Sago orchestrates fake magical monsters so that similarly bored teenagers can have adventures defeating them. He acknowledges that he's deluding the kids in all kinds of ways (they don't know their lives aren't really in danger, after all) but justifies it on the basis that he would want exactly the same thing if he were in their position. Even if he did find out the monsters were a sham, the happy memories and friendships he would've forged during the time would've ultimately made it Worth It. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_599d9bdc | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_663b2cb6 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_663b2cb6 | comment |
The main characters in Kelly's Heroes are stealing gold from the Nazis, who are automatically probably the least sympathetic potential targets possible. Further justification comes from no one but the main characters even being aware that the gold is there to be stolen. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_663b2cb6 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_6af25b59 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6af25b59 | comment |
Roger of Headhunters is an art burglar specifically to shower his wife with luxuries. | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6af25b59 | featureApplicability |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_6af25b59 | featureConfidence |
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Caper Rationalization / int_6af25b59 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6c3b0503 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6c3b0503 | comment |
The second game has the crew trying to steal the body parts of cybernetic Big Bad Clockwerk of the first game from members of the Klaww Gang so that they can't be used for bad things (or worse yet, to revive Clockwerk). | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6c3b0503 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6c3b0503 | featureConfidence |
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Caper Rationalization / int_6c3b0503 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6e1d5f36 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6e1d5f36 | comment |
In the Farscape episode "Liars, Guns and Money", the bank robbery planned and executed by the Moya crew is so they can buy D'Argo's son, who is about to be sold into slavery; however, just to keep the few morally-upstanding members of the crew from getting troubled, the bank Stark chose to rob is actually used exclusively by criminals to hide their ill-gotten gains. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_6e1d5f36 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6f04b075 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_6f04b075 | comment |
The remake The Italian Job (2003) has the crew pulling a caper against the guy who double-crossed them, murdered their original leader, and took the gold from their original caper. And even in their original caper, the gold they stole was from the mafia and not from any legitimate institution or person. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_6f04b075 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_73eb4b7e | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_73eb4b7e | comment |
In Reflections on the River, Zheng (the protagonist) is demanding the most valuable jewel in the kingdom, and kidnaps a prince or princess to use as leverage. The way Zheng tells it, however, the jewel was never rightfully the property of the kingdom in the first place — it was created by Zheng in order to help the king and queen have a healthy child, but the royals then broke their word by keeping it. It's a bit more complicated than that, however: firstly, it was actually Zheng's mother who created the jewel; and secondly, the child wasn't healthy (unbeknownst to Zheng) and may need the jewel kept close to stay alive. Exactly who gets the jewel (and what it's used for) depend on player choice. | |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_74f1eb4c | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_74f1eb4c | comment |
The team in Sneakers is hired to steal an encryption device from a mathematician. Their employers claim to be NSA agents, and say that the mathematician is being funded by Russia. Actually, he's being funded by the NSA, and the employers work for the Mafia. (Communism was just a red herring.) | |
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Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7668653a | comment |
Kasumi Goto's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, in which you break into Donovan Hock's vault in order to retrieve the graybox belonging to Kasumi's now-dead boyfriend (who was murdered by Hock, naturally enough). | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_7668653a | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7668653b | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7668653b | comment |
Being herself, Kasumi gets up to a fair amount of this in Mass Effect 3, notably by "obtaining" vital material needed for the Crucible project, while commenting how one would be surprised how many credits are just left laying around by the people she's obtained the material from. She also plans to rob a casino in the Citadel DLC, noting as she does so that the owner is a scumbag and that she'll happily donate the proceeds to a refugee fund. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_7668653b | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7988cb68 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7988cb68 | comment |
Mass Effect: Kasumi Goto's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, in which you break into Donovan Hock's vault in order to retrieve the graybox belonging to Kasumi's now-dead boyfriend (who was murdered by Hock, naturally enough). Being herself, Kasumi gets up to a fair amount of this in Mass Effect 3, notably by "obtaining" vital material needed for the Crucible project, while commenting how one would be surprised how many credits are just left laying around by the people she's obtained the material from. She also plans to rob a casino in the Citadel DLC, noting as she does so that the owner is a scumbag and that she'll happily donate the proceeds to a refugee fund. |
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| Caper Rationalization / int_7d8c61a2 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_7d8c61a2 | comment |
In Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Agent's goal in Belsavis is to break into a vault filled with the secrets of the Nebulous Evil Organization that serves as the main villains of the storyline with the help of a group of criminals imprisoned on the planet, whom they motivate by promising their freedom after all's said and done. Of course, it's up to you to decide whether or not to follow up on your promise or to simply kill them once you're done. Chapter XII of the Knights of the Fallen Empire storyline has the player performing a heist on Arcann's treasury ship in order to gain funds for their Alliance. Afterwards, you can decide whether to spend the funds on helping the people of Zakuul, the Alliance or have Gault make more money for you. |
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Caper Rationalization / int_7d8c61a2 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_88d78a10 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_88d78a10 | comment |
Star Wars: Scoundrels: Avrak Villachor tried to take over Eanjer's father's shipping business, and when Eanjer's father refused, settled for simply killing him and taking everything in his safe, including 163 million credits. Eanjer hires Han and the team to get it back, since Villachor has way too many cops and officials in his pocket to go after legally. The 163 million is in credit tabs that are keyed to Eanjer; without his authorization, hacking them open yields only a tiny fraction of their value (still a significant sum), and he needs them back before Villachor succeeds in doing so. It's all a con; the real Eanjer died with his father, and Boba Fett stole his identity and set up the whole caper to collect the bounty on Villachor's Black Sun guest, Qazadi, and then nab Han himself afterward. The team has to settle for that tiny fraction when this comes to light. | |
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Caper Rationalization / int_88d78a10 | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_88ded223 | type |
Caper Rationalization | |
| Caper Rationalization / int_88ded223 | comment |
Kurosagi: The protagonist is a professional swindler, but because he only targets other swindlers while helping some of their victims recover their losses (though not without a personal profit for himself), he's seen as an Anti-Hero. | |
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In the original Ocean's 11, the team members have various reasons for wanting the money, ranging from putting a deprived son through college to financial liberation from a very rich mother. | |
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In Fast Five, Dom and Brian recruit their various allies from the previous movies to pull off One Last Job and obtain enough money to be set for life. This is especially important as Mia (Brian's wife, Dom's sister) has become pregnant, and the three of them are living on the run from the law. In addition, their target is every bit an Asshole Victim, a Brazilian crimelord who rules his domain with violence. | |
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In The Twelve Chairs, Vorobyaninov is trying to return what is technically his heirloom: diamonds that were hidden from the Soviet authorities in a chair. The Little Golden Calf, the undercover millionaire Koreiko made his fortune by large-scale fraud, sabotage, and indirect murder, and comes off as a less sympathetic criminal than the protagonist, the Lovable Rogue Ostap Bender. When Bender does get his one million rubles in the last third of the book, the writers conveniently never stress its illegal history, instead treating it as somewhat of a lucky find. | |
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The car thieves in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), in contrast to the 1974 original, are stealing cars for a crime boss not on commission, but because the protagonist's younger brother owes said boss a lot of money and will be killed if they can't deliver the goods. The heroes come out even better by the end, as once the villain has been dealt with, they give the cops a tip as to where they can find and recover the stolen vehicles. | |
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Dennis Stanton, a recurring character in Murder, She Wrote, started as a Gentleman Thief who was partly motivated by revenge. His wife had died of a rare disease and their insurance company refused to pay for a treatment that could have saved her. When he became a thief, he made a point of only stealing from people who could afford it, not stealing anything with sentimental value, and only stealing valuables that were insured by the company that refused his wife's treatment. | |
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The Anderson Tapes has Anderson invoking this trope over the theft he's planning. It's actually a favor to the victims, who over-insure property. The cops have somebody to chase, the newspapers have something to write about. The list goes on. Then he subverts it by saying he's just in it for the money. | |
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The hero in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is coerced at gunpoint into stealing the money, so as to not lose any sympathy with the audience when he goes through the ordeal at the Hellhole Prison. (The actual thief is shot dead by police.) | |
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An episode of A.N.T. Farm had aspiring artist Fletcher meet his inspiration, who was now down on his luck. Fletcher gave the man one of his paintings, only to discover later that he was selling it as his own. The A.N.T.s decided to steal it back to prevent this, which Fletcher did... only he replaced it with an exact copy of the same painting! | |
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In Tower Heist the target is a corrupt businessman who stole retirement funds from the staff of the luxury apartment building he lives in, and the heist is set in motion by the building manager who feels guilty for investing the money with him. | |
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Leverage is all about this, because the heroes help the helpless. Interestingly, when they face off against another crew, they end up getting the mastermind to turn over a painting to its rightful owners. When asked if he likes feeling like a good guy, he points out that they're still thieves and are just fooling themselves. The first season finale, at least for Nate, is almost exclusively to screw his former employer, an insurance company, for refusing to pay for his son's experimental surgery, resulting in the boy's death. In the fourth season finale, though, the rationalization is revenge for killing Nate's father. In the series finale, the rationalization is that global law enforcement is refusing to prosecute the culprits behind the 2008 financial crisis; they caught so many big names in global finance in the act of robbing the world blind that arresting them would destroy the global economy. |
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Doctor Who Subverted very quickly in "Planet of the Dead", in which Lady Christina de Souza claims to have robbed a museum because her father lost the family fortune — then admits it was just for the thrill. The Doctor claims to disapprove...then admits he stole the TARDIS from his own people so he could go have adventures. Played with in "Time Heist", in which the Doctor, Clara and their two allies for this adventure learn that they agreed to break into the galaxy's biggest bank, and then had their memories of planning the heist wiped to get past the telepathic security. They assume that there must be a caper rationalisation, even if they don't remember it, because otherwise they wouldn't have agreed. It eventually turns out that it's not a robbery, it's a rescue mission backed by the bank's owner in the future. |
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In Money Heist, the protagonists justify the heist because they aren't actually stealing from anyone, they're just printing new money, which the central bank does all the time anyway. This actually applies in universe as well, because a key part of the plan is to win over the sympathy of the public. | |
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In the first game, the primary goal is to steal back the pages of the Thievius Raccoonus from the Fiendish Five. | |
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Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure has protagonist Raphael aka Phantom R stealing paintings from museums and returning them the next day. This is because his father forged said paintings, and thus Raphael made it a point that he'd only steal the forgeries to replace them with the originals, or find artworks that would lead him to his father. | |
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The Stainless Steel Rat has endless rationalizations on how the main character's crimes actually help society. Most of them turn out to be true. Most of what they do in the book, though, is usually for the best. When he finally figures out Angelina's backstory, he understands her rationalization - to look beautiful. Born unattractive, she began to steal and kill to pay for plastic surgeries. However, even now that she's a knockout, she continues stealing and killing, upping the stakes. He understands that, while she managed to make herself beautiful on the outside, she's still ugly on the inside (or, at least, she made herself that way). The Special Corps psychologists manage to fix her a bit, enough to reduce her sociopathic tendencies to a manageable level, and she becomes a good wife to Jim and a good mother to their twin sons. |
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight: It's revealed in issue 10 that in order to fund her big Slayer Organization, Buffy robbed a Swiss bank account, rationalizing that due to the bank's insurance, it was a "victimless crime". Willow is not convinced, pointing out that her actions just support the government's fears of Slayers acting above the law. | |
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In Ocean's Eleven, only one of the characters is in it for revenge, and Danny is there to win his wife back. The others are in it mostly for the money. Still, Terry Benedict, the guy they're robbing, is himself a fairly shady individual. | |
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Garrett, from Thief, typically steals from corrupt noblemen, cruel fanatic cults, or other villains. Though there's a mission in Thief II: The Metal Age ("Shipping/Receiving") where he robs a couple of ordinary merchants. Part of this is simple pragmatism: poor people don't have that much money on them to steal, so it's more time-efficient to go after the noblemen and the church. Garrett makes no excuses for his thievery in any case; he needs money, he's good at stealing things, and that's all there is to it. | |
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How to Steal a Million: The sculpture being stolen is a forgery, and by stealing it before the museum can have it authenticated, the museum (and its insurance company) won't even be on the hook for its supposed value. | |
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Ant-Man: Hank Pym organizes the operation because he has long feared his "Pym Particle" Sizeshifter formula being abused, and wants to stop Darren Cross from replicating it and selling Yellowjacket combat suits for terror attacks. (A scene would have shown Cross demonstrating positive uses for the tech as well, but it was cut because it would have made Pym look somewhat unsympathetic.) Scott Lang is primarily involved because he wants to redeem himself after his last heist landed him in jail and left him unable to be a good father to his daughter. That last heist is also rationalized, as Scott's employer was defrauding their customers and he lost his job for blowing the whistle, so he broke in and sent the money back to those customers. | |
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In Hudson Hawk, Eddie doesn't even want to return to his catburglering ways, but is blackmailed into it. Also, when he fakes his arrest to avoid completing the third job, the villains go ahead without his help, resulting in innocent guards being killed compared to Eddie's non-lethal plans. | |
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Firefly: "Ariel": Simon plans a heist on a hospital, stealing medicines that the crew can sell for profit on the black market. The rationalization is twofold: one, that Simon's real goal is to get his sister River into an imaging suite so he can find out what the Alliance did to her at the Academy, and two, it's pointed out that as it's an Alliance hospital on a core world, they'll be restocked almost immediately, while the black market caters to people who otherwise wouldn't be able to get treatment. The point is emphasized by the contrast to the earlier episode "The Train Job", in which the trope is initially averted — the plucky heroes are quite blasé about the fact that they are committing crime for no reason other than their own pecuniary gain — but then subverted when they then return the stolen goods when they discover them to be medicine that is sorely needed on a poor planet. And again in "Trash", where the group unites with Saffron to steal from an Alliance officer who designed chemical and biological weapons and then looted the places where he used them. Surprise, surprise, it turns out that whole story may have been a Motivational Lie on Saffron's part. |
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In the Family Guy episode where Joe's daughter is born, he borrows money from a loan shark to pay the hospital bill, but when he can't pay back the loan shark, Peter convinces Joe to help him steal from his father in-law, Carter Pewterschmith, who is having a party with his millionaire friends who will leave a vast fortune stashed in Carter's safe. When Peter, Quagmire, and Cleveland make it into the vault, Joe tells Peter to grab the amount needed to pay the loan shark, but Peter decides to grab as much as he can as payback for Carter treating him like crap. Lois manages to tell Joe to not take the money because her father will hunt him down, and put him in prison if he goes through it, Peter is more hesitant, but puts the money back when Meg yells at him. At the end, Carter doesn't find out about the attempted robbery, and Joe paid back the loan shark with money Lois got from her father. When Peter asks how she convinced him to help Joe, she tells him she lied and said the money was for a divorce lawyer. Peter thinks she's joking, but becomes worried when she silently gets up from the dinner table. | |
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National Treasure, all the way. Ben Gates would never even conceive of stealing the Declaration of Independence if he didn't have the noble cause of keeping all that treasure and the Declaration itself out of the hands of the bad guys. He also doesn't like the term "Treasure hunter", preferring instead "Treasure protector". Makes sense, considering he doesn't want the treasure for its monetary value and doesn't plan to keep it. | |
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Sherlock Holmes does this repeatedly. As noted above, "A Scandal in Bohemia" revolves around retrieving a compromising photo their client is afraid might be used against him, "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" retrieving letters from a blackmailer and failing to report or investigate his entirely justified murder, and in "the Bruce-Partington Plans" they break into a spy's apartment (admitting as much to the police officer with them, though he doesn't raise a fuss considering the diplomatic implications). | |
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This is the basic idea of Burn Notice. Each episode, somebody down on their luck, usually an honest citizen, will come to Michael with a seemingly insoluble problem — frequently something vital that's been stolen from them or some criminal that's pursuing them. Michael (renegade spy), Sam (combat expert), and Fiona (reformed terrorist) will then solve their problem through the application of massive amounts of crime. | |
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Mission: Impossible used the espionage or dealing with organized crime rationalizations. A bit of a twist on the trope since nearly all their cases were black-ops work for the government. | |
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Lupin III would often steal from the obscenely rich (in one case claiming he was doing the victim a favor because the insurance payout would be greater than the value of the object stolen), or from dictators and criminals far worse than himself. | |
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Inception: Saito gives a theoretical Caper Rationalization (breaking up a monopoly) toward the beginning of the movie, though the movie never shows whether it is true or not. On the other hand, DiCaprio's character is motivated by his desire to be able to return to his children, which Saito promises to arrange if he can pull off the titular Inception. Almost everyone else appears to be in it for the money. Except, maybe, Ariadne. She seems to just like being in dreams. | |
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In The Hobbit, Bilbo is employed as a thief to help return the gold to the dwarves after it was taken by the dragon Smaug. | |
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