How The Town (2010) Quietly Copied Set It Off (1996) – Two Bank Robbery Movies That Feel Strangely Familiar

 

 

 

 

Ben Affleck’s The Town is a slick Boston heist thriller, but it shares surprising similarities with the 1996 classic Set It Off. From the criminal falling for a bank worker to the deadly escape — did Hollywood borrow more than it admits?

 

 

When I watch crime movies, I’m always looking for fresh twists on old formulas. But sometimes you spot something that makes you pause the screen and say, “Wait… I’ve seen this before.”That happened to me recently when I rewatched Ben Affleck’s The Town (2010) back-to-back with F. Gary Gray’s Set It Off (1996). On the surface, they feel very different — one is a gritty white working-class Boston story starring Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner, the other is a powerful Black female-led heist film with Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, and Kimberly Elise. Yet the core emotional beats are remarkably similar.Here are the biggest overlaps that stood out to me:1. The Criminal Falls in Love with the Bank WorkerIn Set It Off, Stony (Jada Pinkett Smith) meets Keith Weston, a handsome bank manager, while she and her friends are casing banks. What starts as reconnaissance turns into genuine romance. Stony is living a desperate life, and Keith represents the stable, “legit” world she dreams of escaping into.In The Town, Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) meets Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), the bank manager his crew took hostage during a robbery. Doug begins “dating” her at first to make sure she doesn’t identify them… but real feelings develop. He hides his criminal life, just like Stony hides the truth from Keith.Both films use this romance to humanize the robber and create heartbreaking tension. Love becomes the thing that makes the protagonist want to leave the game — but it also becomes the thing that puts everyone in danger.

2. The Protagonist Wants Out, But the Crew Pulls Them Back InIn both movies, the main character is tired of the life. Doug wants one last big score so he can disappear and start fresh with Claire. Stony and her crew are robbing banks to escape poverty and build better lives for their families.The friends (or “family”) around them refuse to let go so easily. Loyalty, shared trauma, and the streets they grew up in become chains. In Set It Off, the group dynamic among the four women is tight and emotional. In The Town, the bond between Doug and Jem (Jeremy Renner) feels almost brotherly — until it turns toxic.3. The Final Escape… and the Friends Who Don’t Make ItThis is where the films hit the hardest. Both end with a desperate, high-stakes attempt to get away clean. Guns blaze, plans fall apart, and not everyone survives.In Set It Off, the women’s final robbery leads to a tragic shootout. Some die, some are captured, and the cost of trying to “set it off” and escape the system is devastatingly high.In The Town, the crew’s last job (the Fenway Park heist) turns into chaos. Doug survives and escapes to a new life, but his closest friends pay the ultimate price — exactly the outcome many viewers notice feels familiar.The emotional punch is the same: you can try to run from your past, but the people you love (and the choices you made together) often get left behind in blood.So… Did The Town Copy Set It Off?The Town is officially based on Chuck Hogan’s novel Prince of Thieves, and it draws heavily from real-life Charlestown bank robbers. But the structural and emotional similarities to Set It Off are too strong to ignore. Many film fans (especially on forums and social media) have pointed out that The Town feels like Set It Off with a different cast, setting, and gender swap.Is it outright plagiarism? Probably not. Heist movies have recycled tropes for decades — the “one last job,” the hostage-turned-lover, the loyal-but-doomed crew. But the specific combination here (romance with a bank insider + protagonist trying to escape while friends die) is striking.What Set It Off does better, in my opinion, is the raw social commentary. It shows four Black women pushed to the edge by a system that fails them at every turn — poverty, sexism, racism, loss. The Town is more about generational crime in a tight-knit white Boston neighborhood and personal redemption. Both are excellent, but Set It Off hits harder on the “why” behind the crimes.Final VerdictIf you loved The Town for its tense action, strong performances (especially Jeremy Renner), and that bittersweet ending, do yourself a favor and watch Set It Off. It came 14 years earlier and already nailed many of the same emotional beats with more heart and social depth.Have you seen both? Which one did you prefer, and did you notice the parallels? Drop your thoughts in the comments.And if you enjoy stories about loyalty, escape, and the heavy cost of choices — whether in 1990s Los Angeles or modern Boston — you might also like my book Fishers of MenGrab a copy here:https://www.amazon.com/Fishers-Men-Street-Secret-Societies/dp/B0CRQBNBQR/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=AUTHOR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.YUkvxHB3vKKvLzU_E3ReSGDDTioSaheyUWn6yH68s1K5EyVa2CiOQPyk74u_g5oRX0X46hz2n02TrrPUz6v3AUEmlhXJFzO6fjBAq8OKkBaXSX1pIC1Jwteh81JsrdlPCbEPHUTtDjOtuN7FLceKCIW5G961isNOjnFNlZyIb8bDvXxSM4UdcYleRrtd9WYeQl58TYKm5lZa_pZT-9GWGBOQnI0o-_yg0TiLEZhjdvE.ahsBXIJoZ4zVe44OQWK2z4BgHDlCJODBDgwusJtMrXo

What’s your favourite bank heist movie? Let me know — I’m always looking for my next watch (and next blog topic)!