MovieChat Forums > The First Great Train Robbery (1979) Discussion > The plan was really dumb.

The plan was really dumb.

posted 13 years ago by TheManInOil
2 replies | jump to latest

Instead of the elaborate scheme they executed, they could simply have loaded a casket with the lead in it and given the guard the 4 keys. He could have switched the gold with the lead. Then they unload the casket at Folkstone and away they go. Having the guard in on it renders all the machinations they indulged rather pointless. Hell, why even use a casket? He could have just put the gold into their luggage.

On top of that, it seems rather obvious that as soon as the gold was found to be missing, the natural assumption would be that it must have been moved to the casket - thus placing the guard under suspicion, and if things happened fast enough, getting the criminals caught.

"I'll book you. I'll book you on something. I'll find something in the book to book you on."

[–] spamdumpj 13 years ago

It is laid out much better in the book, and the robbery was not discovered until the safes had gone to France, at which point there was a great deal of argument about where the gold went and whose fault it was. The original plan did not involve the guard at all. The guard was added after someone else reported a robbery on the train. Originally, the plan would be just to get Agar on the train, have him open the safes and replace the gold with lead, then throw the gold off.

In the actual case, it appears it went much like you laid it out. The guard opened the safe and switched the gold.

[–] 13 years ago

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