Fast forward to their various funerals and Veronica (Viola Davis) widow of the gang leader is passed a safety deposit key. The box it opens contains her husband's notebook, filled with detailed plans for past jobs and also the next one.
Wanting nothing more to do with the criminal life Viola tries to sell on the plans but events conspire against her and she must take on the next job. She turns to her fellow widows Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) to pull it off.
You want a hard-nosed heist movie that's not a jokey affair filled with absurd overcomplicated nonsense? Steve McQueen's reworking of the classic ITV series delivers this in heaps.
Tons happens. The three women have to step up and learn quickly but it's not the training/rehearsal montages typical of the genre. This is people on the edge of real failure while dealing with grief and the problems their dead spouses left them. Given these spouses were criminals and not all nice guys these are real problems.
It's got twists, turns and reversals aplenty and none of them are of the fake kind you'd find in something like "Now you see me". These are betrayals, violence and real world setback not the "Aha, look how clever this is" cinematic tricks.
The three leads are excellent and there's a star heavy supporting cast.
If you like your heist/crime movies you've probably seen this already. If you've somehow missed Widows catch it now, it's simply fantastic 9/10.