Trama

A veteran thief recruits a younger crook to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mob.

In New York, experienced art thief Keith Ripley invites Gabriel Martin, the bold thief from Miami, to team up with him. He plans the heist of two valuable mysterious antique Faberge eggs, located in a safe, of the well-protected Russian Romanov jewelry. Each egg is worth $20 million on the black market, and Ripley needs his cut to free himself from his debt to a powerful mobster known as Nicky. The reluctant Gabriel agrees to participate after having a one-night stand with Ripley's goddaughter Alexandra Karolin. Meanwhile, the persistent Lieutenant Weber, who has unsuccessfully tried to put Ripley in jail for 20 years, figures out how to anticipate the criminal's movements in order to catch him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In New York, veteran thief Keith Ripley (Morgan Freeman) was taking subway ride when a younger man named Martin conducted a heist and Ripley was impressed with his getaway. Martin was following 2 jewelers (from the shop of Romanovs) into the subway, where he robs them of a briefcase and a sachet of diamonds that one of them was carrying in his coat. As the subway cops spot him, Martin throws the suitcase cash in the car, causing a stampede. He then exits the moving subway car and climbs to the roof. He changes his vest and puts on a cap, and jumps on to the next platform, just as the train arrives.

Lt Weber of the NYPD is in charge of art theft. He analyzes the CCTV footage and finds it amusing that Ripley was on the same subway carriage that the robbery took place on.

Ripley apprehends Martin when he tries to sell the diamonds. Ripley helps Martin sell the diamonds for a fair price, but as they come out, Ripley is caught and threatened by the Russian mafia. They take the money that Martin got for the diamonds as interest on what Ripley owes them. Ripley recruits Gabriel Martin (Antonio Banderas) to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mafia. Ripley says that he has been following Martin ever since he entered New York from Miami. Ripley knows that Martin goes for bigger scores and Martin says that he did the subway job for the thrill of it.

Ripley had killed his previous partner, Victor Korolenko (Rade Serbedzija), before they could complete the plan. Ripley's plan was to steal 2 Faberge eggs worth $20 million each. Between 1885 and 1916, Faberge produced 50 such Easter Eggs for the Empress and her daughter-in-law, the Czarina Alexandra. Most are on display at the Kremlin. The rest are in private collections, in museums or lost. The Romanovs (who are the Russian mafia) own 2 of these eggs and nobody knows that they exist.

Apparently, Victor was about to squeal to the Lt Weber, which would have meant jail for Ripley, so Ripley killed him. Lt Weber says that there are no witnesses to Victor's murder even though the murder took place at a time when the bathhouse was full of patrons. Lt Weber knows that diamonds in the subway heist came from Romanovs and believes that Ripley is planning to take down the Russian Mafia in a big way.

Martin is unsure of Ripley, but Ripley's goddaughter, Alexandra Korolenko (Radha Mitchell), who is Victor's daughter, convinces him otherwise, although Ripley does not like that the two are getting close. Ripley tells Martin the plan, that they are going to steal from a Russian museum (owned by the Romanovs) that has been smuggling Russian treasures into the country and bribing the NYPD with large donations and expensive equipment, so that they are left alone to their business.

The two infiltrate a party at the museum (The Romanov were hosting a party to honor the NYPD) posing as cops, to gather information about their vault (where the eggs are stored). Lt. Weber (Robert Forster) a detective from NYPD, has a vendetta against Ripley and has been trying to catch him for the last 22 years of his career, but never has enough evidence against Ripley. Victor was going to be his witness, before Ripley shot him.

According to Alexandra, the Russian mafia killed Victor, because they wanted Ripley to settle his debts. According to Ripley, Victor was in debt of Russian mafia led by Nicky (Rade Serbedzija). But Nicky was ready to forgive the debt if Victor helped steal the eggs. Victor refused, as he wanted to protect Alex. So he went to the NYPD, for witness protection and was killed by the Russians instead.

The Russian mob, led by Nicky Petrovitch, grow impatient and kidnap Alexandra, telling Ripley he must steal two Fabergé eggs from the Russian Museum in order to get her back. Nicky also tells them that the eggs belong to him, as they were crafted by his great grandfather, and stolen by the Kremlin. With Alex involved, now Martin is determined to help steal the eggs.

When the duo gets into the vaults of the museum with the eggs, Martin reveals he is an undercover cop from Miami planted by Weber to catch Ripley, leaves Ripley locked in the vault and informs Weber, while taking the eggs to the Russian mobster to free Alexandra. After Alexandra is released, Martin is forced to meet with Nicky who reveals that the eggs they have stolen are made of wood. Meanwhile, Weber and his squad enter the museum, but are detained by the security guards due to Martin telling the guards he was a cop as he escaped.

Martin reports into the police the next morning after the police have picked up Nicky, only to learn that the man they have in custody is not the man Martin met (earlier when he met Nicky with Ripley, when he had kidnapped Alex), and that the man he met was actually Victor Korolenko, who had faked his death with Ripley's help.

It is then revealed that Ripley had made a deal with Romanov's and had cleaned out the vault of all the smuggled items (which had included the eggs) before the police could inspect it, meaning there was no evidence that anything had been stolen and that Martin's testimony would be worthless as his actions have been kept off the book to prevent Ripley from finding out and that Martin's involvement with Alex compromises him, and Ripley had to be let go (Alex appeared as his lawyer at his bail hearing)

Ripley later calls Martin from a tarmac ready to leave with Victor to meet with a buyer for the eggs, letting him know that they knew Martin was a cop from the beginning. Martin later meets up with Alex, who remained in New York, and who confesses that her feelings for him are real. Martin decides to become a thief.