After nearly being caught during a burglary, master safe-cracker Nick Wells considers retiring to live with his girlfriend Diane and run his Montréal jazz club as a legitimate businessman.

Jack has infiltrated the Customs House by posing as a mentally challenged janitor, and Nick finds access to the basement through the sewers beneath.

After seeing a pressurized beer keg burst open in the street, Nick concocts a plan to defeat the Customs House's impregnable safe.

Advised by Burt that the job may be too risky, Nick confronts Max, who confesses that he is deeply in debt to a mob boss but is secretly selling the sceptre for $30 million.

The Customs House adds additional closed-circuit television cameras and infrared detectors to the basement after realizing the sceptre's true value as a French national treasure, forcing the thieves to move up their timetable.

Bypassing the infrared sensors, Nick fills the safe with water from the basement sprinkler system and inserts a depth charge, blowing off the door.

Later, Max smiles as he watches a news broadcast reporting a massive manhunt to find Jack, the prime suspect, whose accomplice has "vanished without a trace," while Nick reunites with Diane at Montréal-Mirabel International Airport.

Oz downplayed the conflict after the film's release, taking unspoken note of the reported tension between himself and Brando on the movie's Montreal set: He's a very sweet, gracious -- childlike in some ways -- very, very humane, very complex person.

[18] Peter Travers, film critic for Rolling Stone, pointed out that when "two Don Corleones team up", he expected "the kind of movie that makes people say, 'I'd pay to see these guys just read from the phone book'".

Angela Bassett won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Nick's girlfriend, Diane.