Synopsis

Billionaire Thomas Crown steals a priceless Monet from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art simply for the thrill of the challenge. Insurance investigator Catherine Banning quickly becomes convinced that Crown is responsible and begins pursuing him. Their cat-and-mouse game grows more complicated as mutual attraction develops, forcing Catherine to choose between professional duty and her feelings for the sophisticated thief.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name, but it changes the central crime from a bank robbery to the theft of a Monet.

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art declined the production's request to film inside the real museum, so the crew recreated its galleries on a soundstage.

• Faye Dunaway, who played the investigator in the 1968 film, appears in the remake as Thomas Crown's psychiatrist.

• "The Windmills of Your Mind," the Oscar-winning song from the original film, returns in the ballroom sequence and during the closing credits.

• The painting displayed in Crown's study is Rene Magritte's "The Son of Man." Its bowler-hatted figure and concealed face echo Crown's carefully constructed public identity.

• The museum's unusual heat is an intentional plot device that defeats thermal cameras. The idea was adapted from a similar concept in McTiernan's earlier film "Predator."

• Rene Russo improvised the line "You're not boring, I'll give you that."

• The elaborate finale uses a procession of bowler-hatted men carrying identical briefcases, creating a visual reference to Magritte while allowing Crown to confuse the police.