The Russian mob..........NYC...............antiques in museum...............too many Petrovich's.......Ripleys believe it or not...................................a lot of knowledge.............trivial stuff...............

Plot[edit]

Set in New York City, veteran thief Keith Ripley (Morgan Freeman) recruits younger crook Gabriel Martin (Antonio Banderas) to help him pull off one final job in order to repay his debt to the Russian mob, who had killed his previous partner, Victor Korolenko, over the debt before they could complete the plan. Martin is unsure of Ripley, but Ripley's goddaughter, Alexandra Korolenko (Radha Mitchell), who is also Victor's daughter, convinces him otherwise, although Ripley does not like that the two are getting close. Ripley tells Martin the plan, that they are going to steal from a Russian museum that has been smuggling Russian treasures into the country and bribing the NYPD with large donations and expensive equipment. The two infiltrate a party at the museum posing as cops, with Ripley as Lt. Weber (Robert Forster), a cop who has a particular vendetta against Ripley, to gather information about their vault.
The Russian mob, led by Nicky Petrovitch (Rade Šerbedžija), grow impatient with Ripley and kidnap Alexandra, telling them they must steal two Fabergé eggs from the Russian Museum in order to get her back, or she dies. When the duo get into the vaults of the museum with the eggs, Martin reveals he is an undercover cop from Miami planted by Weber to catch Ripley, leaves Ripley locked in the vault and informs Weber, while taking the eggs to the Russian mobster to free Alexandra. After Alexandra is released Martin is forced to meet with Nicky who reveals that the eggs they have stolen are made of wood (like the Karelian Birch egg). Meanwhile, Weber and his squad enter the museum, but are detained by the security guards due to Martin telling the guards he was a cop as he escaped.
Martin reports in to the police the next morning after the police have picked up Nicky, only to learn that the man they have in custody is not the man Martin met, and that the man he met was actually Victor Korolenko, who had faked his death with Ripley's help. It is then revealed that Ripley had escaped, letting the museum know cops were on the way and that they had cleaned out the vault of all the smuggled items (which had included the eggs) before the police could inspect it, meaning there was no evidence that anything had been stolen and that Martin's testimony would be worthless as his actions have been kept off the book to prevent Ripley from finding out and that Martin's involvement with Alex compromises him, and Ripley had to be let go.
Ripley later calls Martin from a tarmac ready to leave with Victor to meet with a buyer for the eggs, letting him know that they knew Martin was a cop from the beginning. Martin later meets up with Alex, who remained in New York, and who confesses that her feelings for him are real. Martin decides to become a thief.