This scene perfectly encapsulates the tone of the entirety of Gregor Jordan's film. There is a great narrative contained in this five minute sequence; there are moments of tension, moments of character exploration, and moments of humour. There is a death, but also an escape; two escapes really; and most intriguingly, the criminals get away with a bank robbery that we must believe goes un-solved.
The sequence opens with a wideshot of Jimmy approaching the camera. We are in the suburbs; there are dogs barking. This is a drasticly different setting than the last time we saw Jimmy, as he was escaping Pando's gang in the scrub, presumably near Little Bay or a similar deserted beach. We can see the effect the previous night has had on Jimmy, he is tired, his clothes are torn and dirty; we can almost smell his exhaustion.
The camera now cuts between midshots of Jimmy and then his two accomplices and their kids, and Jimmy's sister. "Well, look what the fuckin' cat dragged in, ey" illustrates that the two other robbers are not all that concerned, but the close-ups of Jimmy's sister shows her anxiety over Jimmy's safety. This is exactly the sort of trouble she didn't want Jimmy getting into, a fact we know is compounded by her feelings of familial responsibility since their brother passed away.
The story jumps forward; the characters are in the car on the way to the robbery. Jimmy is in the backseat getting dressed; in the front seats are the two other criminals, telling yarns over the monotony of the hand-held police radio. These two look calm, the are smoking and laughing, one almost forgets that they are about to undertake an armed robbery, and could instead mistake this for a trip to the pub on a Friday afternoon. The look on Jimmy's face hides nothing however. He is terrified, especially by the implications of the stories being told in the front seat. The differences between Jimmy and these two fellons are palpable; yes Jimmy has got himself mixed up in some less-than legal business, at his essence, he is a good person. These two, while they may be charming to Australian audiences, are not so admirable. Their language is crass, they are loud and obnoxious, and have obviously done all this before.
Their arrival at the bank is marked by a mid-shot of the security guard. The camera slowly pans out, accompanied by quiet but dramatic music. The pans out accelerates and there is a stylstic pan and zoom to the blue Commodore our protaganists are driving; this camera sequence is accentuated by a staccato note from a trumpet, or other horn instrument. We hear "alrighty then before the camera has made it to the car, so we know the robbery is about to happen. Then Jimmy asks "what if we see any cops?".
The camera cuts, and we are in the backseat with Jimmy; the camera pans to the leader, who sits in the passanger seat for his answer which boils down to a nonchalent "shoot 'em"; we see Heath's horrified reaction. As we will find out, this is a fairly timely question. The reality of the situation is inescapable and the tension is all the while built through the gradual crescendo in the music.
There is a cut and we see the car lunge forward from its stationary spot twenty or thirty metres before the bank. As the brakes screech, the music has hit it's most dramatic, and the two robbers, run from the car and pacify the security guard, who, as a close-up demonstrates, is caught by surprise and is essentially helpless. Jimmy and his accomplice drag the guard inside the bank and throw him on the floor and then turn, in sync with the camera's turn, to the customers queued up inside the bank. They looked surprised by not at that frightened, until Jimmy shoots out one of the security cameras (which parallels the story told to him on the car trip to the bank). As the customers drop to the ground, the camera cuts and is now located at Jimmy's head hight, just to their left hand side, and the two men turn to look just to the camera's right. The music, which had ceased for a few moments, as Jimmy shot the gun, now moves into a theme not unlike a piece of music from a Star Wars film. While Jimmy maintains control of the crowd, the other criminal leaps over the counter and forces the clerks to empty their registers, and then holds the manager at gunpoint to lead him out the back to the safe.
We cut back to Jimmy as one of the customers starts to get up. Jimmy yells out a warning, to no avail. He then strikes the man in the torso with the butt of his rifle. In a continuation of another story line, Jimmy pulls a $100 bill out of the man's shirt pocket, and the note has a doodle, which was drawn by one of Pando's gang earlier in the film.
We cut back to see Jimmy's accomplice attempt to jump back over the counter, only to trip and land on his head, knocking himself out. The audience cannot help but laugh. This is an effective break of the tension, and typical of Australian films, not letting themselves get too serious. One cannot help but think of how many other things could have gone wrong. The silence in the room and the movement of the camera parallels the uncertainty of Jimmy and the customers in the bank. For a moment, nobody knows what to do. Jimmy cautiously tries to gain the attention of his friend, but to no avail. the music has cut out, and all we hear is the shuffling of the customers as Jimmy starts to panic.
Despite the ridiculous situation he is in, Jimmy thinks clearly; he grabs the gun and the money off his mate, and tries to drag him to safety, but he is too heavy. He is again at a loss.
The camera cuts to outside of the bank, so we hear nothing and our view is obscured. We see Jimmy trying to get the attention of the getaway driver without bringing too much attention to himself. After a frustratingly long length of time, one that feels like an eternity for the viewer (we really worry about Jimmy by this point in the film), the driver acknowledges Jimmy, but doesn't understand what is happening. Jimmy has to run outside, as some customers start to get up.
The driver is in disbelief when Jimmy relates what has happened, and again, Jimmy acts the more experienced and yells to startle the driver into action. As they run back into the bank, Jimmy shoots out the other camera, and the viewer cannot help but think that the footage will end up on 'Funniest Home Video' or some other candid camera highlights reel on TV that night. The two fellons finally drag their friend out of the bank and into the car. As they do, we hear a gunshot. Jimmy, who leads the camera's gaze, looks back quickly. The camera moves to look out of the rear window, but as it does, the rear window is shattered by a bullet. The leader of the gang, who was knocked out, is awake and starts shooting blindly at the cops, hitting one in the shoulder. We see a close-up of a tyre as it is shot out; how will Jimmy escape now?
He climbs into the driver's seat and tries to drive but we see another tyre shot and the tyres now disintegrate as Jimmy tries to accelerate away. Once again we cannot help but laugh for a moment at the ridiculous situation the men are in. Non-digetic rock music begins as a gunfight ensues. The one cop left shooting runs out of bullets, which provokes Jimmy and his accomplice to regain their composure and coreograph a quick get away.
The camera cuts to be several metres in front of the car; we can't see the cops, just the two men jumping out of the getaway car, and that the driver has been shot and is lying face down on the asphalt; we must presume he is dead. There is a brief transcendence into slow-motion as Jimmy realises what has happened, but the sound of a bullet ricocheting disrupts this moment, and Jimmy starts running again.
The camera cuts, and we are now away from the bank robbery, but as we quickly find out, not all that far away. We see a businessman on his phone, he is literally twiddling his thumbs, oblivious to what has just gone on down the road, and what is about to happen to him. The camera cuts and we see the criminals approaching this man, we see his face as he realises what is happening. But the leader approaches a woman loading groceries into her car, but is stopped by Jimmy, who has seen the man with the sports car; the man jumps inside his car and locks it, and when Jimmy can't get in, he smashes through the window, again with the butt of his gun, and pulls the innocent bystander out of his car.
Jimmy and his accomplice get in and drive off.
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