He is released in 1962, and although tries to keep a steady job and be honest, he is fired during an economic downturn, and dreams of easy money get him back into 'the business'.
Later, in Montreal, he works as a construction worker on the Champlain Bridge, where he meets a Quebec resident, Jean-Paul Mercier, and they become friends.
While Jeanne and Mesrine are away to try and collect the ransom money, the man manages to crawl to the balcony, break the glass, and call for help.
They are subsequently captured in the Arizona desert, while at about the same time, Guido and Paul are murdered back in France by an unknown assailant.
Mesrine and Jean-Paul continue on with the robberies, and while having target practice in the woods one day, they are caught by two forest rangers, and forced to kill them and leave them.
Notation concludes that Jeanne was released after serving her sentence, and went back to France to live freely, while Jean-Paul split with Mesrine and was shot dead a year later while robbing a bank.
However, in March 1973, he is arrested after a successful heist, but as he is transferred to the courtroom, he requests to use the bathroom, and retrieves a pistol hidden in the toilet tank.
He brandishes the gun in the court, forces the guards to uncuff him, and takes a judge hostage temporarily, while his apprentice, Michel, awaits, and the duo escapes.
He then writes a book about his life, which angers his lawyer, who states that his biography places him in a difficult position, since he confesses to everything in public, but he rebuffs it.
He also meets François Besse, another convict and his solitary confinement neighbour, and hatches an escape plan; Besse smuggles pepper spray through a cookie box in prison (which can pass through the detectors since it is covered in aluminum foil), while Mesrine meets with his lawyer, who smuggles dual handguns in her briefcase.
After several other robberies, Mesrine fools the media, calling himself "a revolutionary", and professing to bring Palestinian armed forces to slay the French government.
A year later, in 1979, Mesrine is living a wealthy life and buys himself a 1974 BMW 528i, and contacts his old friend from prison, Charlie Bauer, and they also start a series of robberies.
Meanwhile, Mesrine kidnaps Jacques Tillier (whose name is changed to Dallier in the movie), who wrote an article about him that he doesn't like, and makes him strip naked, then beats him and shoots him, presuming him dead.
The website's critical consensus states:"It's undeniably uneven, but Vincent Cassel's electrifying performance makes Mesrine: Killer Instinct a gangster biopic worth seeking out".
[8] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".
Even if it's less focused than its predecessor, it's more fun" [10] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews"[11] In his review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote that Mesrine "makes for continuously riveting, visceral entertainment that evokes a Gallic Scarface without the drugs.