Corrected entry: The entire premise of the movie rests on the fact that the leader of the gang of "robbers" sole purpose in invading the bank is to gain possession of papers from Christopher Plummer's private safe deposit box. These papers, we learn, reveal his past ties to the Nazis and have been hidden in a safe deposit box which has not appeared in bank records since the building was built. (1) How did the gang become aware of the existence of the papers at all, and (2) how could they have possibly learned where to look for them?
Tailkinker
19th Sep 2006
Correction: Films are not required to spell out every plot detail, and there are no actual holes here, just unanswered questions. The simple answer is that there are real-life organisations devoted to tracking down ex-Nazis and those who profited from dealings with them (who have proven successful in bringing a number of individuals to justice). Case's presence in Europe at the right time and subsequent wealth would be a matter of public record, and would undoubtedly have been enough to raise some degree of suspicion with whatever group ultimately hired Russell's team to 'rob' the bank. The most likely course of events is that they infiltrated somebody into Case's company, who then looked for evidence of his misdeeds. Upon finding the anomaly of an unlisted safety deposit box in Case's own bank (which, frankly, is not the most intelligent place that Case could have chosen), they informed the organisation about this; they deemed it worthy of investigation and, with no other options, took the drastic step of faking a robbery in order to access it.
Tailkinker ★