Sean Connery masterminds a daring theft in The Great Train Robbery, a well-crafted caper comedy set in Victorian England.
As explained to us by Edward Pierce (Sean Connery), the year is 1855, and England is embroiled in the Crimean War against Russia. In order to pay its soldiers, twenty-five thousand pounds of gold are shipped east by train. However, the gold is kept in a bank before it's loaded onto the train, stored in two safes, each requiring two keys. Pierce, a gentleman thief who poses as a wealthy businessman, has his eye on the gold and a plan for getting it. He also has some help, thanks to his lady friend Miriam (Lesley-Anne Down) and Robert Agar (Donald Sutherland), a veteran pickpocket and safe cracker. Pierce's plan is to snag and duplicate the four keys, which requires a combination of sweet-talking, burglary, a honey trap, and a couple of extra accomplices. However, when one of said accomplices, Clean Willy (Wayne Sleep) gets nabbed, it puts the authorities on higher alert and the security measures are changed - meaning all their efforts to replicate the keys have been for nothing. Not wanting to admit defeat, Pierce decides on a daring new plan to swipe the gold from the train...while it's moving.