My Attempt At An Explanation

This post may be revised after another repeat viewing if I notice other details.

INTRODUCTION AND TEAM IDENTIFICATION

“Jakarta” (2000) is a suspense/comedy that is one of the most detailed and superbly written bank heist films of the 21st century. It begins with a huge coincidence as its premise – three separate teams of robbers decide to rob the same bank on the same day at the same time – but it then proceeds to systematically deconstruct that coincidence with a sharply intelligent screenplay. Those who have not yet seen it need to do so, especially if they like puzzle-solving films with great attention to detail.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

The first thing that needs to be identified are the “teams” and the characters that belong to each team. This requires some thought because each “team” has a betrayer who works for another team. Names are not referenced much during the film, so I will use generic descriptions for the characters.

TEAM 1 – Bank VP and Bank Girl
TEAM 2 – The Blonde Hair Guy (aka Blondie), Afro Hair Lady, and the Third Guy
TEAM 3 – Robber Brothers

These three teams are shown early in the film, but in reality there are only two teams at work. This becomes evident later on when one takes into consideration the betrayals and cloak and dagger scheming that’s at play.

TEAM A – Bank VP and Afro Hair Lady
TEAM B – Bank Girl, Blondie, and the Robber Brothers

One will notice that the Third Guy from TEAM 3 is not represented in either TEAM A or TEAM B. This is because he is the only character who is not a part of a betrayal scheme. Perhaps that was one major reason why he’s the first to get caught by the cops. Here’s a summary of the strategies for each team:

TEAM A – The Bank VP schemes with the Afro Hair Lady to rob money from the bank. He does this because he owes a lot of money to gangsters, but he actually plans to just take the money and leave the country. Afro Hair Lady recruits Blondie and the Third Guy to help her break into the vault, but does not plan to tell them that the Bank VP is in on it. In other words, the Bank VP and the Afro Hair Lady want to use these two guys to get the cash. The plan is to drill a hole into the vault and have Blondie climb into it at 9:09 a.m. The Bank VP will then promptly come into the vault at 9:09 a.m. and catch Blondie in the act. Afterward, the Bank VP plans to take Blondie out of the bank (under the cover that he is turning him into the cops with the cash as evidence), but will allow Blondie to escape in route. This will leave the Bank VP safely alone with the cash. He can then swiftly escape with Afro Hair Lady and leave Bank Girl behind, heartbroken. This plan never works because of TEAM B.

TEAM B – Two of the more important members are the Bank Girl (because she knows some of the details behind how the Bank VP intends to rob the vault) and Blondie (who manipulates TEAM 2 to TEAM B’s advantage). The Bank Girl is a sibling of the Robber Brothers, so her connection to them is certain, but how did Blondie get involved with these guys? It’s never explicitly referenced, but one can assume that the Robber Brothers have underworld connections (as seen in their discussions with the corpse recovery guy near the bridge) and got word of the heist when Afro Hair Lady was looking for suitable members for TEAM 2. In any case, TEAM B’s plan is to steal the cash and stage a fake kidnapping of the Bank VP. This is a very elaborate scheme that will be fleshed out in more detail throughout this post. Firstly, the cash will be stolen by a simple bag swap after the Bank VP’s plans are interrupted by the Robber Brothers (who will be dressed as cops when they enter the bank). This is one reason why they need to trick the other two members of TEAM 2 into helping Blondie drill a hole into the vault, because the Bank Girl will drop the cash down the hole for Blondie to retrieve later on. Secondly, the staging of the fake kidnapping is important because it will be used to fake their own deaths (the Bank VP will see them “die” with his own eyes), and a fake death is the ultimate way to cover your tracks.

With that information in mind, the viewer can figure out much of the film.

EXPLANATION OF SPECIFIC EVENTS – IN ORDER AS PRESENTED IN THE FILM

I now offer some explanations regarding specific events. This is not chronological, but instead presented in the same general order in which they appear in the film. I do this so that the reader knows exactly what scenes I’m referring to.

The opening is simple, showing TEAM 2 as they drill underground as well as the Robber Brothers’ purchase of a gun. It is revealed later on that the gun is fake and will be used to stage the deaths of Blondie and the Robber Brothers at the warehouse so that the Bank VP can see them “die.”

The phone conversation near the beginning is one of many moments that show the genius editing of this film. At first it seems like the Bank VP is talking with the Bank Girl, but later it’s revealed that the Bank VP is talking with Afro Hair Lady and the Bank Girl is talking with the Robber Brothers. Two separate conversations with similar questions/answers. Fun stuff.

After the Bank VP catches Blondie in the vault, he slips the gun in the Bank Girl’s drawer. The reason for this is likely to prevent any questions if someone found it on him. (However, the Bank Girl takes the fake gun and uses it later on.) The Bank Girl then pretends to call the “cops” but she’s really calling a Chinese food takeout joint (revealed later on). This is intended to prevent the real cops from showing up too soon, which would certainly expose the Robber Brothers as fake policemen.

The Robber Brothers show up at the bank and foil the Bank VP’s plan. Notice that someone says, “Cops are that fast?” The Robber Brothers are indeed fast because Bank Girl told them when the Bank VP was planning to take the money, which allows them to have perfect timing.

The Afro Hair Lady and the Third Guy emerge from the sewer but their car (and the three dead bodies within it) was stolen by someone from TEAM B (likely the Robber Brothers before they showed up at the bank) in the early morning hours while TEAM 2 was busy drilling under the vault. In order to fake their deaths, TEAM B will need the dead bodies to burn. Later on in the film it is revealed that the Robber Brothers obtained the dead bodies from a man who sells the bodies of suicide victims who fall to their death from a certain bridge. The Robber Brothers lended those bodies to Blondie for a short while so that he could fool the other TEAM 2 members (Afro Hair Lady and the Third Guy) into believing that they need the dead bodies and counterfeit money to fake their deaths after the bank heist. This is essential because it rationalizes the use of counterfeit money (red bag) near the vault, which is important for the Bank Girl to use later on.

After the Robber Brothers successfully use their police cover to kidnap the Bank VP, they make an intriguing statement: “I didn’t expect other rogues.” This is an obvious reference to Blondie. However, they did expect Blondie to be at the bank because he is a part of TEAM B. So why on earth would they say this? Because the Bank VP is in the same room. They say it to fool him into thinking that Blondie was a rogue thief that interrupted their kidnapping scheme. This makes Blondie’s “assassination” more convincing to the Bank VP, who witnesses his “death.”

The Robber Brothers send a severed ear and nose to the Bank VP’s father. The body parts came from one of the corpses that will later be burned in the warehouse to “clinch” their fake deaths. Notice that the Bank Girl delivered these packages because the Robber Brothers told her to do so in a previous phone conversation (she isn’t shown in that scene, but it is easily inferred). Also notice that the Robber Brothers specifically ask the Bank VP’s father to use the Bank Girl to deliver the ransom. It’s all a part of their plan.

The scenes involving the Bank VP’s father serve more than to simply add filler for the kidnap scenes. He takes a very hard stance on denying the robbery with the cops because “no one would give leave their money with a bank that gets robbed.” He’s so adamant that one could assume that he planned to fund the losses with his own private cash! Bank Girl likely knew this through her romantic relationship with the Bank VP, and TEAM B likely took that into consideration while planning their heist and fake kidnapping; knowing full well that the Bank VP’s father would never contact the police to help him. That’s a big advantage for them.

Bank Girl uses a roller bag to deliver the ransom to the Robber Brothers, but the cash is fake because the Bank VP escapes with it (as planned by TEAM B) and gets arrested for using counterfeit money. It is revealed later on that Blonde deliberately took the counterfeit money (red bag) into the vault with him (more on this below). After Blondie gets “arrested” by the Bank VP, Bank Girl tosses the blue bag of real cash down the vault hole for Blondie to retrieve later (after faking his death).

At one point the film shows the bank employees as they scramble to deal with their customers. This is an important scene because one of the tellers mentions that the Bank VP has the key to the vault, which is apparently closed and locked. Since the Bank Girl dropped the cash (blue bag) down the vault hole, so she must have closed and locked the vault in order to prevent the other bank employees from entering. This gives Blondie adequate time to retrieve the money.

When the Bank Girl arrives at the warehouse with the roller bag, she uses a gun to “save” the Bank VP. This was all according to TEAM B’s plan. They knew that the Bank VP acquired a fake gun and would slip Bank Girl the gun after catching Blondie in the vault. Remember that everyone at the warehouse is a part of TEAM B with the exception of the Bank VP, so they just need to stage their own deaths properly while allowing him to escape with the counterfeit cash. Notice that the Bank VP grabs the gun from Bank Girl, tosses it aside, and takes the Robber Brothers gun and uses it to “kill” them. This is ironic because the Bank VP knowingly throws away his own fake gun but unknowingly uses a different fake gun to “kill” his kidnappers. One of the many intelligent moments of comic irony in this well-crafted film.

The warehouse scene continues as one of the Robber Brothers gasps his “last breath” and throws a knife into the back of Bank Girl. This was, of course, planned beforehand by TEAM B and explains why she put on that wooden square contraption in the bathroom and also explains why the one Robber Brother kept practicing his knife throws. Why do this? Well, there’s the obvious reason that she needs to fake her death so that she can split the cash with the other TEAM B members. However, there’s another reason: she wants to test the Bank VP’s love for her. At one point the Robber Brothers told Bank Girl that if the Bank VP figured out that she was still alive, they’d let her leave with him and the real money. It’s uncertain as to how this would play out, but maybe the Brothers had the utmost confidence that the Bank VP was a jerk (he was knowingly cheating on his wife) and simply wanted to tell her what she desired to hear at the time. If so, they were certainly correct. The Bank VP could have easily observed that she was alive with a little effort (checking her pulse or perhaps the wound area), but he obviously didn’t care that much. After he leaves with the counterfeit cash, TEAM B brings in the corpses and burns the warehouse.

The viewer will observe that there are some men in black who hid outside of the warehouse. It’s never really explained who they are, but they greet the Bank VP after he exits the warehouse, so one can assume that it is his father’s men who arrived briefly before the Bank Girl (his men didn’t know the address to the warehouse until the phone conversation with the Bank VP’s father). The Bank VP himself obviously decided to steal the ransom payment after leaving the warehouse (which he thinks is his father’s money but is instead counterfeit) because his own plan to rob his father’s bank failed when he was “kidnapped.”

At this point the film replays all of these events with different perspectives or adds in conversations and events that change the interpretation of what has some before. It must be pointed out that the scriptwriting is remarkably clever in how it accomplishes this. Many of these events have already been explained above, but a few more interesting observations that should be made.

We see another clever phone conversation. This time, however, it shows three parties at the same time (Bank VP, Bank Girl, and Afro Hair Lady) but edits their questions and responses in such a way that the Bank VPs answers could be applied to either woman.

The guns are exposed as fake in a surprising and funny moment that immediately makes one question who really “died” during the first half of the film. From this point forward the viewer’s brain will be working overtime.

While waiting underneath the vault, Blondie tells his TEAM 2 members that he knows when the alarm system will be turned off. Of course, he knows this because Bank Girl is on TEAM B and she’s responsible for turning off the system. When Blondie climbs into the vault he asks for the fake bills, but the Third Guy says that it’s not according to plan because they’re supposed to blow up the cash as part of their fake deaths in the sewer. Blondie insists because he knows that the Bank VP will be coming into the vault soon to catch him, so he needs to make sure that the counterfeit cash (red bag) is in the vault for the Bank Girl to use later on.

The film has a classic ending that is both hilarious and extremely ironic. Just think of the major coincidence that the entire film was based on – three separate teams of robbers decide to rob the same bank on the same day at the same time – and how it was deconstructed by a series of carefully planned, intentional events. Now we’re given a true coincidence: TEAM A and TEAM B select the same day and same time for their flight departure. Very ironic and damn funny.

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