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Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker and his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public.

Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists that confounded authorities and enchanted the public. Wrapped up in the pursuit are detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who becomes captivated with Forrest's commitment to his craft, and a woman (Sissy Spacek), who loves him in spite of his chosen profession.—Fox Searchlight Pictures

Crime, mostly robberies, is the only life Forrest Tucker has ever known. He is happy in this life and can't imagine doing anything else. Although he carries a gun when he commits his crimes, those crimes are of a non-violent nature on his part and always carried out with a smile on his face to reflect his true mood. That life has resulted in him being incarcerated several times leading to sixteen successful escapes from one correctional facility or prison after another. It's 1981, and Forrest, now seventy-four years old, has teamed up with similarly aged Teddy Green and John Waller to hold-up banks across the US south, Forrest the front man, Waller the lookout man, and Teddy the getaway driver. Outwardly, the hold-ups are unsophisticated, but they work largely on the premise that the bank tellers and managers with who Forrest deals will only remember him as being an unknown, harmless, friendly old man to who they in turn want to see no harm come, the robberies not even making the evening news. As such, no law enforcement officer will piece together the fact that a crime spree is actually happening. In the course of solely trying to evade the police after one of those hold-ups, Forrest meets widowed Jewel. He is eventually up front with her about what he does, and their friendship/burgeoning romance leads to Forrest, for the first time in a long time, wanting to take care of someone other than himself. She may thus factor into how he sees his long term life of crime. Meanwhile, Police Detective John Hunt has skated through his professional life without much effort or reward. He hitting the milestone of his fortieth birthday and learning after the fact that he and his adolescent son were actually in one of the banks when it was being held up leads to John wanting to make a name for himself, if only for himself and his family. So it becomes his mission after he does piece together that three old men have been robbing banks to apprehend them, whoever they are and however harmless Forrest may seem.—Huggo

He may not look it; however, Forrest Tucker is a lifelong criminal, an expert escape artist, and a master bank robber. Without a doubt, his impeccable sense of fashion, his unwavering belief to never resort to violence, being polite, and robbing just enough money, always with a big smile on his lips, are the key components of Tucker's infallible strategy. Then, after a successful robbery, Forrest has a chance encounter with Jewel, a lady in distress, and they form an innocent relationship. But, committed Forrest and his team have already caught the attention of Detective Hunt, who embarks on a mission to find the robbers and bring them in. Can Tucker renounce his former self and reform for the sake of kind-hearted Jewel?—Nick Riganas

At his advanced age, career criminal Forrest Tucker (Robert Redford), a wanted man for two years since his daring escape from San Quentin State Prison in 1979, has just robbed another bank. Tucker is not hurried, only has a mustache for disguise. After collecting the money, he calmly walks out of the bank and gets into his car. Tucker has access to the police radio frequencies and knows that they have the description of his car.

Tucker drives into an alley and changes into a different car as part of his Pre-planned escape strategy. But then the police identify the blue car which he changed into.

While evading police, the 74-year-old charmer passes Jewel, a woman on the side of the road with car trouble and stops to give the appearance of assisting. The ploy works as, moments later, the police drive by without noticing him. Since Tucker knows nothing about fixing cars, he is unable to help except the woman a tow.

Jewel (Sissy Spacek), who is grateful for his help, buys Tucker food at a diner. Jewel is also a senior citizen. Jewel says that her husband is dead, and she likes to drive around in her husband's truck to be close to him.

Despite introducing himself with a fake name, Tucker becomes drawn to Jewel to the point of revealing that he is a bank robber, although he then says it was a joke. Jewel says that has 3 horses named Wiley, Clementine and Dorothy Jean and she lives out in the countryside at a ranch. There is an obvious chemistry between Jewel and Tucker and they both love spending time with each other.

The two spend further time together on Jewel's farm where Tucker says he is childless as far as he knows. Tucker makes a plan to pay off the rest of Jewel's mortgage as a surprise but becomes frustrated after the bank tells him that this type of gift would require Jewel's signature, negating any surprise.

Tucker goes on to conduct a string of heists, often without having to draw his gun from under his coat. Dallas Police Detective John Hunt (Casey Affleck) compiles police sketches from witnesses who describe Tucker as charming and gentlemanly. He also learns that the perpetrator is an old man, with shaky hands, who wouldn't be able to fire the gun straight, even if he wanted to. Hunt just turned 40 and celebrated his birthday with his colleagues, investigating the Tucker case. Hunt is married to Maureen and has a daughter Abilene (Ari Elizabeth Johnson) and son Tyler (Teagan Johnson).

In one instance, Hunt was in the bank, conducting some routine transaction like ordering a new check book, when Tucker walked into the bank and ordered the manager (Gene Jones) to fill his bag with cash. Tucker was so calm and Non-Chalant, that nobody except the manager knew that the bank was being robbed. Tyler was in the bank with Hunt, while Abilene was waiting in the car outside and saw Tucker come out. Tucker takes the cash back home and hides it under a floor board, with the rest of the loot that he has accumulated over the years. This indicates that Tucker is not robbing banks for money, but only for the thrill of it. Teddy Green (Danny Glover) and Waller (Tom Waits) and Tucker's accomplices on occasion.

Hunt links Tucker to 93 robberies across 5 states in the last 2 years. The MO is the same, small bills, no fingerprints and a very friendly demeanor, which is why all the victims cooperate without making any fuss. Hunt then displays the sketches on the evening news, asking anyone with information to come forward. Shortly afterwards, Hunt's investigation is taken over by the FBI.

Tucker continues to see Jewel and their friendship blossoms as Jewel invites Tucker to her ranch.

A woman named Dorothy (Elisabeth Moss) comes forward stating that she is Tucker's daughter. Although he is no longer on the case, Hunt agrees to meet with her. Dorothy says that she was born while Tucker was in prison making Tucker unaware of her or his grandchild. Hunt is led to Tucker's former lawyers who says that Tucker has never pulled the trigger of his gun. According to his lawyer, police reports of Tucker firing during a standoff are false as it was simply his car's engine backfiring.

Tucker happens to recognize John Hunt who is on a night out with his wife Maureen (Tika Sumpter). Tucker tries to boost Hunt's confidence but becomes unnerved when Hunt calls him "Forrest", indicating that the recognition is mutual.

Later that evening, police attempt to capture Tucker as he arrives home. He flees, but again his car backfires, prompting police to shoot at him, striking him in the arm. He eludes them and makes his way to Jewels farm. As it's the early hours of the morning, he decides not to wake Jewel and instead takes one of her horses for a ride.

Tucker had never ridden a horse before, and this was on his list of things he wanted to do. While riding, several police vehicles come down the road and turn onto the farm's property. Tucker resigns himself to surrender and does. When Jewel visits him in prison, Tucker gives her a list of his sixteen previous escapes from reformatories and prisons, but line number seventeen is left blank. On Jewel's advice, he remains in San Quentin until the end of his sentence.

When Tucker is released from prison, Jewel is there to pick him up. She takes him to her farm and sets up a room for him, telling him he can stay as long as he likes. Sometime later, Tucker tells Jewel he is going out on an errand. He calls Detective Hunt from a street-side payphone, and after some brief banter, Tucker sounds distracted and when Hunt asks him if he is OK, Tucker says "I'm about to be.", then hangs up the phone and walks into a bank across the street. A title card states that "Tucker robbed four banks that day before eventually being caught. While he was being arrested, the police noted Tucker was smiling."