Synopsis

A masked gang takes control of a Manhattan bank and holds its occupants hostage, turning the robbery into a tense standoff with police. Detective Keith Frazier leads the negotiations while facing professional and personal pressures. As the hours pass, the crime proves more carefully planned than it first appears, drawing a powerful fixer and the bank's secretive founder into the confrontation.

Factoids & Trivia

• Screenwriter Russell Gewirtz spent five years developing the premise. The completed screenplay was his first original feature script.

• The story was influenced by Dog Day Afternoon (1975), another New York-set hostage drama centered on a bank robbery.

• Principal photography took place in New York City from June 27 to August 4, 2005, over 43 shooting days.

• The fictional Manhattan Trust Bank was represented by the former bank at 20 Exchange Place in Lower Manhattan. By the time of filming, the location had been converted into a cigar bar.

• Interior bank sets were built at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn. Inside Man was the second film shot at the then-new 15-acre facility, following The Producers (2005).

• The interrogation sequences were largely improvised, giving those scenes a looser and more spontaneous rhythm than the carefully controlled robbery scenes.

• The opening credits use the Hindi song "Chaiyya Chaiyya," composed by A.R. Rahman and previously featured in the 1998 film Dil Se..

• The violent video-game sequence involving a boy and a PSP was added after the original screenplay was completed. The fictional game was created specifically for the film.

• The New York premiere took place at the Ziegfeld Theatre on March 20, 2006, which was also Spike Lee's 49th birthday.

• With worldwide earnings of approximately $184.4 million, the film became Spike Lee's highest-grossing feature.