Insurance investigator Virginia Baker deems that the thief Robert MacDougal has robbed a Rembrandt painting. To retrieve the painting, she poses as an art thief, cooperating with him in criminal acts.
Following the theft of a highly-secured piece of artwork, an agent convinces her insurance agency employers to allow her to wriggle into the company of an aging but active master thief. Connery's burglar takes her on suspiciously and demands rigorous training before their first job together, stealing a highly-valued mask from a chichi party. Their deepening attraction and distrust could tear apart their partnership, but the promise of a bigger prize (some eight billion odd dollars) by Zeta-Jones keeps the game interesting. Only, who's playing with whom?—Lordship <[email protected]>
Always one step ahead of Virginia "Gin" Baker, the glamorous New York City insurance investigator, the master thief and matchless art connoisseur, Robert "Mac" MacDougal, reluctantly allows an alliance when Gin comes to him with a bold proposition. To win his trust, Gin poses as an experienced burglar who has set her eyes on a priceless Asian artefact; however, to accept her as his assistant, she, too, needs training. In the end, despite the burgeoning attraction between them, Gin and Mac need to stay focused on a multibillion-dollar grand prize; but, is there any honour among thieves?—Nick Riganas
A highly valuable painting is stolen and the chief suspect is Robert "Mac" MacDougal, a highly experienced and skilful art thief. The insurer of the painting sends on of its agents, Virginia "Gin" Baker, to investigate MacDougal. She goes undercover and gains his confidence, to the point that he trains her in his art.—grantss
Virginia "Gin" Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is an investigator for Waverly Insurance. Robert "Mac" MacDougal (Sean Connery) is an international art thief.A priceless Rembrandt painting is stolen from an office one night. The thief mails the stolen painting to a buyer in Kuala Lumpur, who says that he wants $40 million to deliver a pair of goggles.It is 15 days to the millennium.
Gin is sent to investigate Mac as the chief suspect. Mac was present at the auction when the owner of the Rembrandt purchased the painting at an auction house. Gin's boss Hector is not convinced as Mac is 60 years old and is wealthy. Mac does not need to steal Rembrandt's anymore.Gin starts following Hector, who confronts Gin at her hotel room in the middle of the night. Gin tries to entrap Mac with a proposition, claiming that she is a thief herself.
She promises that she will help him steal a priceless Chinese mask from the well-guarded Bedford Palace. Gin says that she has a buyer for the mask in Kuala Lumpur for $40 million.Mac makes Gin steal the security plans for Bedford Palace and also has pictures of her trailing and following him. Gin knows that Mac can get her arrested, if he wants. She has no option but to follow Mac's instructions.
They travel to Scotland and plan the complicated theft at Mac's hideout: an isolated castle. Mac wants to conduct the entire operation himself and wants Gin to give him the code to the case in which the mask has been kept. Gin refuses and says that she was the one who stole the Rembrandt. Gin explains how she conducted the robbery, but Mac shocks her by showing that he possesses the Rembrandt himself. Turns out Mac was watching Gin as she conducted the theft and stole the painting from the mail-room.Mac guesses that the Rembrandt was a down-payment for something that Gin wanted for a job in Malaysia.Thibadeaux (Ving Rhames) provides all the equipment that Mac needs for the heist.
While Mac is busy making final preparations, Gin contacts her boss, Hector Cruz (Will Patton), and informs him of Mac's whereabouts. Little does she know that the island is bugged, allowing Mac to eavesdrop on their conversation.
After they complete the theft (4 days before the millennium), Mac accuses Gin of planning to sell the mask to a buyer in Kuala Lumpur and then planning to turn Mac in to the authorities.Gin convinces him that her insurance agency job is a cover, and that she has planned an even bigger heist in Kuala Lumpur: $8 billion from the International Clearance Bank in the Petronas Towers.The International Clearance Bank is running a series of tests due to the millennial bug and is shutting down the mainframe for 30 seconds to run the tests. The shutdown for Kuala Lumpur is on New Year's night and Gin plans to use the 30 seconds to hack into the mainframe. She will then instruct the computer to transfer small amounts of money from each of its thousands of accounts into Gin and Mac's accounts, totaling $8 Billion.The $40 million was payment for the goggles with a retina scan of the Chairman of the bank, which will give them access to the mainframe vault.
Hector pulls Gin in and confronts her about her disappearance after the Belford Castle heist. Gin assures Hector that Mac is working on something big and within 24 hours Hector will have everything he needs to arrest Mac. Turns out Thibadeaux was the one who alerted Hector to Gin's location. Thibadeaux says that Gin and Mac are working together and Gin is not planning to get Mac arrested.
Despite the presence of Cruz and other security watching the building the theft takes place in the final seconds of the 2000 new millennium countdown. Gin pulls the plug on her laptop prematurely and sets off alarms.They narrowly escape the computer vault and are forced to cross the lights hung from the bottom of the bridge linking the two towers. Following a death-defying escape when the cable breaks, Gin and Mac make their way to a ventilation shaft, where Mac explains "plan B."Using a micro-parachute, they were going to escape down the shaft. Gin lost her parachute earlier in the escape, so Mac gives her his. He tells her to meet him the next morning at the Pudu train station.
Gin arrives at the station waiting for Mac. He shows up late with Cruz and the FBI. He explains that the FBI has been looking for Gin for some time. When he was caught, Mac made a deal to help the agency arrest Gin. Thibadeaux was working for FBI. He gives Mac one minute to talk to Gin before she is arrested.However, the aging thief has another plan: to let her go. Mac tells her that he returned the $7 Billion to the FBI, indicating that he kept $1 Billion from the heist for themselves.Mac slips Gin a gun and she holds Mac hostage, threatening to shoot him if the agents follow her. She boards a train and the FBI heads to the next station. After Hector leaves, Mac pays Thibadeaux $20 million for his help in letting Gin escape.Gin jumps trains mid-station and arrives back at Pudu. She tells Mac that she needs him for another job and they both board a train.