The Town (2010) on Netflix
Four friends from Charlestown, Boston, rob a bank and briefly take its manager, Claire Keesey, hostage. Doug MacRay gets close to her to learn what she has told the authorities.
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb7.5/10453,950 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes92%
Trailer
Plot summary
Doug MacRay, James Coughlin, Albert 'Gloansy' Magloan and Desmond Elden are friends from Charlestown, Boston, a neighborhood known for armed robbers. Their crew robs a bank, and against Doug's wishes James takes its manager, Claire Keesey, hostage before releasing her unharmed. When the four learn that Claire lives nearby, they need to know what she can tell the police and the FBI. Doug introduces himself to her without revealing who he is, and he asks her not to report a detail she remembers about one of the robbers. Claire and Doug grow close, and Doug keeps the relationship from the others. FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley works the case, and Doug visits his father, Stephen MacRay, in prison, where he speaks of leaving the city.
Cast
- Dennis McLaughlinas Rusty
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Town (2010)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's trailer claims Boston sees over 300 bank robberies a year concentrated in Charlestown, but FBI figures show only 23 reported bank robberies in all of Massachusetts in the first quarter of 2010, far fewer than Illinois's 49 or California's 136.
- Adrian Lyne's vision for the project was a three to three-and-a-half hour, Martin Scorsese-styled film with a budget of $90 million, which led to creative differences with the studio and his eventual departure.
- The film's first bank robbery was shot at a former MASSBank branch in Melrose, Massachusetts, renamed "Cambridge Merchants Bank" onscreen, but the exterior shown is actually a different building, Cambridge Savings Bank in Harvard Square.
- Ben Affleck said he wanted to direct a movie he "personally researched and understood," and brought in his high school classmate Aaron Stockard to co-write the script with him.
- A real heist in Hudson, New Hampshire, in which two guards were killed, is alluded to in the film: Agent Frawley tells his task force that Doug's father hijacked an armored car and executed both guards after one saw his face, an incident that led to regulations prohibiting the driver from leaving the cab.
- Charles Hogan got the idea for his novel, on which the film is based, in 1995. “It was just so remarkable that this one very small community was the focus for bank robbers,” he said, but he did not want to make all residents of the neighborhood look like criminals.
- The intersection of Tremont and Avery streets in Boston was temporarily renamed “The Town Take 2 Place” in a small ceremony attended by the actor Titus Welliver and Boston city officials.
