Coin Heist is a film that narrates a story of a group of teenagers who are trying to save their school by stealing from the U.S Mint. In that, they created a unique coin they are trying to secretly produce during the night to raise money for the school, so that they can still have activities that are being cancelled due to the lack of funding. In addition, the school is not just facing lack of activities but a complete shutdown.
This film is an interesting account of changing times and the digitalisation of our world. Thus, this film presents an adventure by teenagers who use digital technology to break into the company and use facilities, and one of the teenagers is a hacker who breaks through the security system, creates fake ID cards, etc.
While in the past teenager adventure films would project treasure hunts such as in a worldwide popular The Goonies (1985) where children are also trying to save their home from closure, new generations seem to enjoy digitalised versions of similar adventures.
However, while Coin Heist is also unrealistic just like The Goonies, at the same time it does feel more real than the quest by The Goonies for in the current world where people primarily pay attention to themselves and their own problems, it is not entirely unlikely that a group of teenagers would pass unnoticed if they appeared in the factory. It is possible that people would simply assume they are the new workforce.
However, the Coin Heist also has a social element to the story. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the father of one of main teenage characters that the school is nearing bankruptcy because he made wrong decisions in investing the school money. While it is made clear that the father only had best intentions he is still imprisoned and his son suffers stigma because of it. This then nudges him to join the quest to misuse U.S. Mint and produce the coin to save the school.
All in all, not a ‘must see’ film, but interesting enough when you need something light that does not require major concentration.
Thank you for reading.