Directed by Mehnaz Huda, the Showtime original Heist 88 is a fictional recreation of the 1988 bank robbery in Chicago, which gained notoriety in the history of bank robberies. Played by Courtney B. Vance, Jeremy Horne is a fictional representation of Armand Devon Moore, who was a criminal mastermind behind the 1988 bank robbery. The filmmaker took some creative liberties to add some dramatic elements to the story and the actual event was very different from what was depicted in the film.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Film?
Heist 88 follows Jeremy Horne, a convicted felon serving his probationary period. He arrived in the city of Chicago with a plan for a bigger crime. With a tracking monitor attached to his ankle, he was not entirely free from the authorities’ surveillance, but even though he was constantly reminded by the police to surrender himself within 21 days, he wasn’t the least bit bothered about it. We see Jeremy hatching a new plan to commit another heist, but he desperately needs some reliable allies who could pull off the robbery. Although in this film, Jeremy is portrayed as a man who cares about the Black community, we never see him actually doing anything other than plotting to get rich and flaunting his expensive watches and luxurious cars.
Despite having a shell company and a luxurious life, his penchant for crime did not abate. Moreover, at his brother’s funeral, he found his nephew Marshall, who came to talk to him, asking for help with his financial problems. Marshall was in debt, and now the moneylenders were after him. In order to exploit the situation, Jeremy jumped at the chance. He met Marshall’s friends, who worked as low-level bank employees at the National Bank of Chicago. Targeting their financial inability to provide well for their respective families, Jeremy tried to incite them to rob a bank to steal $80 million.
After years of working low-wage jobs without earning anything useful for their family, Marshall’s friends, LaDonna, Rick, and Danny, decided to take part in the heist. It was much easier for them to carry out the mission because, in 1988, bank programs and transactions were not fully computerized. There were some phone calls through which the transactions used to be confirmed. Using this situation to his advantage, Jeremy called the bank, posing as the head of three major companies with accounts at the Bank of Chicago, which was subsequently confirmed by LaDonna and Danny. Jeremy succeeded in robbing the bank of approximately eighty million dollars. The entire heist was carried out smoothly, leaving no evidence behind, but ultimately, something spoiled Jeremy’s plan of leaving Chicago with the stolen money.
Who Was Armand Moore?
Armand D. Moore, like Jeremy Horne, gained notoriety as a criminal mastermind. Born in Memphis, Armand was the son of a preacher who had a knack for convincing and tricking people with no criminal background into committing crimes. He was already a notorious criminal on account of his crimes in Detroit in 1981-82.
Armand was involved in issuing fake letters of credit in order to withdraw money from charter jet firms through a fake Chicago bank. He was later convicted of the crime, but after his release from prison, he planned to rob the First Bank of Chicago. Hiring some low-level employees, he carried out the task, but unfortunately for him, he and his accomplices were caught after the theft. As Armand and his accomplices had already started buying luxury goods, including luxury cars, the authorities, after learning about the bank robbery, caught up with them and arrested them for theft. Moore was charged with bank robbery and had to spent thirty years in prison (including the extended sentence for trying to escape prison). The man had also penned his autobiography, titled The Heist that Shook the Nation: 1 in 70 Million, for those who want to get in-depth information about Moore’s past life and his life spent in federal prisons.
How Is The Film’s Ending Different From A Real-Life Event?
Although Jeremy Horne was a fictional representation of Moore, and their behavioral similarities included a similar propensity for crime and a tendency to spend a lot of money on luxury goods, the final climax of the film is very different from what happened in real life. In the film, we saw that Danny, one of Jeremy’s associates, who wanted to return home to be by the side of his wife who was in labor, betrayed Jeremy at the end. He noticed Jeremy’s ankle monitor, which made him doubt whether Jeremy was a reliable guy. So he contacted the authorities directly and gave them full details of the plan.
The authorities, who already wanted to put Jeremy behind bars, helped Danny. They advise him to continue the play and allow Jeremy to execute the plan, which will allow them to re-imprison Jeremy for a long time. However, after Jeremy and his team succeed in their mission, they head to the airport to leave the city of Chicago. Danny, meanwhile, calls the police from the airport under the pretense of calling his wife, and they soon arrive to arrest Jeremy Horne. Although this part was added purely for fictional and dramatic purposes, in real life, after being arrested, Armand Moore tried to prove his innocence in the matter and claimed that he had been tricked into it.
Armand Moore was a very greedy and criminal-minded man who was desperate to become immensely rich. To him, money was probably more valuable than anything else. Maybe he was from a family background that didn’t have the means, because of which he might have wanted to earn a lot of money to do good for his community. But his intentions were never made clear, not in the film or the information we know about Moore. We don’t know anything about the reasons behind his entry into the world of crime. Even Heist 88 didn’t look at it in detail, so Armand Moore, the man behind the infamous bank robbery of 1988, raises many questions in our minds that remain almost unanswered.
Where Is Armand Moore Now?
Armand Moore is now a free man who lives a luxurious life, probably somewhere in Arizona, as mentioned in his Facebook profile. But currently, he is really infuriated that the makers of Heist 88 didn’t bother to pay him anything before making a movie about his life’s story. Armand, being a selfish man always hungry for power and fame, doesn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to churn money from a heist movie centered around his grand adventures. Unfortunately for Moore, the makers of Heist 88 not only ignored his constant complaints but also didn’t bother to consult him before altering the true events that had actually happened. However, the film did help him grasp some attention, which is perhaps going to help him increase his popularity on social media websites, making him feel like a celebrity for a week or two.
