David Ghantt works as a simple armored car guard in North Carolina in the 1990s. He falls for his co-worker Kelly, who tricks him into helping steal millions from the Loomis Fargo vault. Her crook friend Steve runs the plan and then leaves David stuck in Mexico with the blame. Hit men, FBI agents, and wild chases pile on while this crew of small-town crooks makes one dumb mistake after another. The movie is a broad slapstick comedy built on greed, a fake crush, and pure bad luck, loosely based on a real vault robbery that took about seventeen million dollars.
The story stays on personal greed, a fake romance, and friends who turn on each other rather than any activist message. David wants love and a better life while Kelly uses him for the job and later starts to feel guilt. Steve wants the cash and will hire a killer to keep it. The laughs come from how badly everyone plans, how little they think ahead, and the double crosses among rural Southern crooks. It is a silly true crime farce about people who try to get rich quick and fail in loud, clumsy ways with no identity politics story arcs.
Community feedback
Was our 2% Woke rating accurate?
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Masterminds.
Woke representation / casting
Not present. Casting and character demographics match the real 1997 Southern heist participants exactly, with no audience-visible forced diversity, race/gender swaps, or identity signaling in principal or key supporting roles.
0%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. All dialogue serves comedic misunderstandings, heist logistics, and character quirks with zero political statements, activist rhetoric, or social-justice content.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
Not present. The plot engine is personal greed, romantic manipulation, and slapstick failure in a 1990s rural setting, with no identity politics, gender subversions, or representation arcs driving character or narrative choices.
0%
Western institutional / cultural critique
Not present. Greed and criminal incompetence are mocked through broad humor but without any modern activist framing of capitalism, patriarchy, family structures, or Western norms as flawed systems.
0%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The adaptation adds comedic embellishments to the real Loomis Fargo robbery but introduces no ideological reinterpretations of historical figures or events.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. No backlash or complaints exist claiming the title pushes woke, activist, identity-political, or left-wing messaging; all discussion stayed on comedy quality.
0%
Creator track record context
The main creative team has low woke scores and no clear pattern of activist projects. Director Jared Hess is known for oddball comedies that stay mostly out of politics. The writers and producers are comedy professionals without a public push for DEI or social justice tied to this film.
9%
Production
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