Synopsis for
Going in Style (1979) More at IMDbPro »

Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney), and Willie (Lee Strasberg) are three senior citizens who share a small apartment in Brooklyn, New York City. They are three retirees who live off monthly social security checks and spend their summer days sitting on a bench in a nearby park, reading newspapers, feeding pigeons, and fending off obnoxious children.

It is a dull life, and finally Joe is driven to suggest something radical to break the monotony. After making their monthly visit to their bank to cash and/or deposit their social security checks, out of the blue Joe asks them: "why not go on a stick-up?" Al and Willie are reluctant to think about such a brash plan. None of them has a criminal history (though Joe claims he "did some stealing during the war"), but just planning the bank robbery fills them with optimism.

Al surreptitiously borrows some pistols from the collection of his nephew, Pete (Charles Hallahan) who lives just a few miles away with his wife and three obnoxious children, and whom are having money problems themselves. Pete tells Al that he wants to open up his own furniture store, but the stress of paying for their mortgage as well as utility bills is getting to all of them. Al decides to himself that the bank robbery will help his nephew out financially.

Al steals three pistols from Pete's gun collection, but cannot remember what kind of bullets that are to be used, so he takes all of them. Al, Joe, and Willie spend most of the day trying to fit which bullets go into their guns. After, loading a few of them, they take a trip by subway into Manhattan to look for a bank to rob and they decide on the First National Bank in the lower part of Manhattan.

A few days later, the three guys execute their bank robbery. After dressing up in old plaid suits, they travel by train into Manhattan, then take a taxi from a street corner to the bank itself. Disguised with novelty Groucho Marx-style glasses, the trio pulls off their heist by walking in and Joe fires a warning shot into their air when the bank tellers do not take their threat to rob the bank seriously. The getaway is successfully, but clumsily carried out as they take the same taxi outside the bank to another street corner. The three then hurry to the nearest subway metro station where they are forced to throw the stolen cash into a backup suitcase to make sure no tracking devices are on the cash, (where a few witnesses see them spill some of the cash to the ground) and they catch the next train for home. Upon arriving back at their apartment, the count the money and it adds up to the tune of $35,900.

Unfortunately, the excitement is too much for Willie, who suffers a fatal heart attack the same day when they go to the park as usual to celebrate their success. A few days later, at Willie's funeral, Joe and Al decide to give the bulk of the money to Pete and his family (worth about $25,000) without telling him where it's from. With $10,000 to live on, and aware that their days might be numbered, Al and Joe decide to splurge with the rest on a whirlwind excursion to Las Vegas which they pack up and leave all on that very same day.

Al and Joe fly to Vegas, check into a fancy hotel, and decide to go gambling in the hotel's casino. Al plays some craps, while Joe also sets his sights on blackjack. Expecting to lose about half of the money, they instead find beginners luck and win even more money, totaling over $71,000. Al wants to keep on gambling because of their winning streak, but when Joe notices several angry and hostile-looking casino pit bosses staring at them over their winnings, he forces Al to stop and leave the casino. Worried that the mobster pit bosses will come after them for winning a large amount of their money, Joe forces Al to pack up and they check out of their hotel and catch the first red eye flight back to New York without spending the night.

The next morning, Joe and Al arrive back at their apartment (none of them having slept for the past 24 hours since Willie's funeral). Exhausted, but happy at their new winnings, they both fall asleep. Later that afternoon, Joe wakes up and turns on the radio for the afternoon news where he hears that the eccentric bank robbery has become a colorful story for the media and the police announce that are closing in on the "careless amateur criminals". Joe tries to wake up Al to inform them they might be in trouble, but a closer inspection reveals that Al apparently died in his sleep, leaving Joe by himself.

Worried that the police really might be closing in on them, Joe travels to Pete's house that evening where he confides in him about the bank robbery and about them winning a lot of dirty money in Las Vegas which that, totaling with the bank robbery loot totals over $107,000. Joe also tells Pete about Al's death and that the police might be closing in on him. He tells the emotionally devastated Pete to hide all the cash in a safety deposit box in the bank and not to confide in anyone, not even his wife or friends, about the bank robbery or about Joe and Al's trip to Vegas for the police would think that the $71,000 Vegas winnings is stolen money too. Pete reluctantly agrees to help cover for Joe and hide the money.

Joe arrives back alone at his apartment and finds himself sad and alone. The next morning, Joe wakes up, dresses, eats breakfast, washes and dries the dishes, puts on a suit and tie to go to Al's funeral. Joe looks around the apartment knowing that it might be the last time he sees the place. Out on the street, Joe is immediately arrested by several policemen who move in. Joe is put in a police car and driven away while several officers storm the apartment, apparently to tear it apart to look for the stolen bank loot. At the local police station, a stubborn Joe confesses to the bank robbery, but refuses to tell the authorities, including a persistent FBI agent, where he has hidden the money.

In the final scene, a few weeks later, Pete arrives at the state prison to visit Joe where he tries to persuade him to tell the authorities about where he hid the stolen bank loot. But the stubborn Joe tells Pete not to bother. Joe explains that it no longer matters to him if he remains in prison for the rest of his life. For several years, Joe already felt like he was in prison with living a dull life. Joe explains that he no longer has to cook and clean for himself in prison. He gets three square meals a day, and generally is getting "treated like a king around here." Joe tells Pete not to visit him again to avoid being suspected in his bank robbery plan, and to "enjoy his inheritance" of living off the bank robbery and Vegas money. As Joe is being escorted back to his cell by a guard, he looks mischievously at Pete and says: "besides... no tin-horn joint like this could ever hold me!"