What is the best movie like Sneakers?

For the closest modern feeling, watch Ocean's Eleven (2001). For the con artist ancestor with the same Robert Redford charm, watch The Sting (1973). For the tech thriller side, watch WarGames, written by the same team.

Is Sneakers based on a true story?

No. It is an original screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, and Walter Parkes, the same writers behind WarGames, inspired by real cryptography and the early hacker culture rather than a specific event.

What should I watch after Sneakers for the first time?

Start with Ocean's Eleven or Mission: Impossible, which are easy to find and just as fun, then go back to Rififi and Topkapi to see where the modern heist was invented.

Are these heist movies or hacker movies?

Sneakers is both, and the list splits three ways. Pure capers are The Sting, Ocean's Eleven, Topkapi, and The Italian Job. Tech and hacker thrillers are WarGames, Hackers, and Mission: Impossible. The Anderson Tapes is the surveillance heist hybrid. Pick the lane you liked best in Sneakers.

Movies Like Sneakers: 12 Clever Capers and Hacker Thrillers With a Great Crew

By Raj · July 7, 2026

Sneakers works because of the crew. A team of security experts, each a specialist and a misfit, gets blackmailed into stealing a black box that can break any code, and the joy is watching clever people outthink everyone around them. The twelve films below share that pleasure, from con artists to hackers to the deep cut heists that invented the whole form. Start with The Sting and Ocean's Eleven for the fun, then go back to Jules Dassin to see where the mechanics came from. Watch one alone, with your full attention, then tell one person how clever it was.

The Sting (1973)

Start here. Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who also leads Sneakers, run a long con on a mob boss, and the film is a magic trick that keeps pulling cards out of its sleeve. It won Best Picture and Roger Ebert loved its craft.

If Sneakers' pleasure is a team of experts enjoying being cleverer than the mark, this is the warm, playful ancestor of that whole feeling.

WarGames (1983)

Written by the same team that later wrote Sneakers, this is the smart, warm hacker thriller of its era. A teenager nearly starts World War Three by dialing into the wrong computer. It shares Sneakers' core idea, that the scariest power in the world is a box that can crack any system, and the people who understand it are outsiders nobody takes seriously.

Rififi (1955)

Jules Dassin's French heist contains the wordless half hour robbery that every caper since has copied, done in near total silence. It is a deep cut most people have never seen, and it should be first on your list after Sneakers if you love the mechanics of a break in. This is the source code for the entire genre.

Topkapi (1964)

Dassin again, this time in color and in a playful mood, with a jewel heist and the famous moment of a thief lowered on a wire toward a pressure sensitive floor. Mission: Impossible lifted that shot wholesale. It is the fun, ensemble side of the caper, and another deep cut that signals you actually know the form.

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Steven Soderbergh's remake is the modern gold standard for the team of specialists caper, all charm, timing, and cleverness. Everyone has a role and a personality, and the fun is the hangout as much as the heist. It is the closest film in spirit to Sneakers, the one to watch if you just want more of that exact good time.

The Italian Job (1969)

Michael Caine, a fleet of Mini Coopers, and a gang pulling one big gold job mostly for the joy of it. It is pure caper, built on timing and personality and one of the great cliffhanger endings. If you like that Sneakers never takes itself too seriously, this is two hours of that same wink.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Brian De Palma turned the old team show into a paranoid tech caper, and the silent CIA vault drop is one of the great heist set pieces ever filmed. It is Sneakers with a bigger budget and more sweat on the brow, the same mix of gadgets, betrayal, and a crew that has to trust each other while nobody quite can.

The Anderson Tapes (1971)

Sidney Lumet directs Sean Connery as an ex con planning to rob an entire apartment building, while every agency in the city happens to be recording him for unrelated reasons. It is a heist wired for surveillance, and it is the clearest bridge to what Sneakers is really about, listening and being listened to. A deep cut worth hunting down.

Inside Man (2006)

Spike Lee's bank robbery is a chess match between a very smart thief, played by Clive Owen, and a very smart detective, played by Denzel Washington. It is talky, tense, and clever, and it keeps you a step behind the plan the whole way. For the viewer who loves that Sneakers is really about outthinking the other side.

The Score (2001)

Robert De Niro and Edward Norton as thieves, with Marlon Brando in his last role, and the craft of one real professional job at the center. It is the quiet, grown up end of the genre, less flash and more process. If you like the parts of Sneakers where the crew is just doing the careful work, this is that mood stretched to a full film.

Hackers (1995)

The cult one, all neon, rollerblades, and impossible screens, but it captured the nineties idea of hacking as a subculture with its own rules and outsiders. It is a deep cut for fun and a time capsule of the exact world Sneakers made cool three years earlier. Watch it with affection, not for realism.

Sneakers (1992)

Our pick, in case you have not seen it or want to revisit it. Phil Alden Robinson hands Robert Redford a crew of security experts, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, River Phoenix, and David Strathairn as the blind Whistler, all blackmailed into stealing a black box that can crack any code, with Ben Kingsley as the old friend gone wrong. It is warm, funny, and smart, the best hangout heist of its decade.

If you are doing a double feature, Strathairn also turns up in The Firm. If any of the films above pulled you in, they all lead back here.

Sneakers' pleasure is the crew and the cleverness, and that runs back to The Sting and Jules Dassin's Rififi and Topkapi.
For the closest modern match, watch Ocean's Eleven.
For the deep cuts that signal real taste, start with Rififi, Topkapi, and The Anderson Tapes.
For the tech and surveillance side, watch WarGames and Mission: Impossible.
Whatever you pick, watch it alone with your full attention, then talk it over with one person.

The whole idea

Watch one movie this week. Talk about it Friday.

We pick one film. You watch it alone, on your own time. Friday at 7:30pm PT you get ten minutes on Zoom with one other person who watched it too. No club, no homework, no small talk.

See this week's pick $5

Common questions

What is the best movie like Sneakers?: For the closest modern feeling, watch Ocean's Eleven (2001). For the con artist ancestor with the same Robert Redford charm, watch The Sting (1973). For the tech thriller side, watch WarGames, written by the same team.
Is Sneakers based on a true story?: No. It is an original screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, and Walter Parkes, the same writers behind WarGames, inspired by real cryptography and the early hacker culture rather than a specific event.
What should I watch after Sneakers for the first time?: Start with Ocean's Eleven or Mission: Impossible, which are easy to find and just as fun, then go back to Rififi and Topkapi to see where the modern heist was invented.
Are these heist movies or hacker movies?: Sneakers is both, and the list splits three ways. Pure capers are The Sting, Ocean's Eleven, Topkapi, and The Italian Job. Tech and hacker thrillers are WarGames, Hackers, and Mission: Impossible. The Anderson Tapes is the surveillance heist hybrid. Pick the lane you liked best in Sneakers.