A brilliant girl learns her father needs help, and fast. But not just any help. Desperate to save him, she comes up with a plan no one would ever expect: steal every dollar in America. She’s smart enough to pull it off… but can she do it before time runs out?

‘SPOILER ALERT’

Madeline Rose Philips, a young girl who loves to climb, almost loses her life. Her grappling hooks begin to break off during her 7th attempt to climb the water tower and she comes mere inches from slamming into the ground. Her mom, Mrs Molly Philips, calls at this moment, telling her to pick up her younger brother Maxwell, from daycare.

After the call, Molly, a security specialist for Harderbach finance, goes into her employer, Mr Brisbane’s office. There, she and Alan Hartman, a high ranking official at the bank, get an earful about getting his bank security system back online. You see, Molly works freelance and is certain that the system will not be ready for installation in time for the company soiree. Sadly, Mr Brisbane doesn’t take no for an answer and even gives them an unbelievable deadline to get the system up and running.

Before they can defend their points any further, he dismisses them, turning dramatically in his seat as he waits for them to leave.

Molly and her husband, Tom, own a Go-kart race track where bad Chad, an amateur racer, rides a faulty kart. It gets fixed by Gus who’s both a child mechanic and Chad’s younger brother. Too bad that his big brother treats him like he’s unqualified.

After Gus works his magic, Chad gets back in the running, only to have his kart give out minutes later. Apparently, Gus forgot to put some screws back in place and has the most guilty look on his face as smoke pours out of Chad’s kart.

Austin, a film enthusiast and computer genius, records Maddy as she enters the race track and chases after her, yelling and waving. Meanwhile, Chad tries to strangle Gus, but Maddy intervenes, telling him to pick on someone his size. She goes on to invite Gus and Austin to a barbecue at her place.

As it turns out, Chad got a job as a security guard intern at Molly’s bank.

Tom is the emcee at the track, but he takes a break to talk about a few things with his daughter. In turn, Maddy brings up climbing and how her dad had the best time doing it. He tries to discourage her from following in his footsteps but Maddy just says they can only stop her until she’s eighteen.

Later on, Austin and Gus come over for that barbecue they talked about and both boys ask Tom about girls. Maddy steps in with her little brother soon enough, distracting Gus so much that he burns his hand on the grill. To diffuse the situation, Tom shows them a scar on his back, the same one he got when he fell from one of his climbs.

That night, after Molly gets home, she and her husband share a small bowl of ice cream and then dance to some music. Amidst this beautiful moment, Tom suddenly loses his balance and drops to the floor like a log of wood.

Molly rushes to the hospital where the doctor explains that Tom is being affected by an injury from one of his climbs. Sadly, there’s nothing they can do. He then suggests that they visit a private facility in Denmark for an experimental surgery worth 250 thousand dollars, stating clearly that their insurance won’t cover it.

Upon hearing this, Maddy bursts into tears, begging her mom to pay for it. The helplessness spread round the room, so much so that Molly hugs her daughter like she’d lose her if she let go.

Later on, Maddy tells her friends about it, and they wallow together. At the same time, Mrs Philips is busy making some calls, scratch that, a lot of calls, but nothing comes out of any of them.

As a last resort, she approaches Mr Brisbane for a loan and he revels in the opportunity to shoot her down. He reminds her that she’s a freelance worker who hasn’t fulfilled the terms of her contract. In spite of this, Molly tries one last time to appeal to his humanity but Mr Brisbane claims that the bank has no heart. Bottom line, he’s quite mean and for no good reason.

Days later, Maddy pays her dad a visit just to tell him that her mom can’t come up with the money. In turn, he narrates how he fell twenty feet and was forced to go home. Despite how things turned out, Tom is happy that he got to know his daughter. This moment makes Maddy promise to get the money somehow.

That night, while her mom is sleeping on the couch, Maddy sneaks into the room and finds a documentary of  Harderbach financial building, the most secure bank ever. She steals the headset from her mom’s grasp, sits with her legs folded, and begins to absorb as much information about the bank as possible. She quickly discovers that it holds as much as twenty-five million dollars in cash and gold.

Later on, she brings up the idea to rob the bank to Gus and Austin, and of course, they tell her that she’s crazy. Maddy doesn’t think so.

She follows her mom to work the next day to check out the place and puts Gus in charge of finding the bank’s architect for either the floor plan or a 3d model. As for Austin, he’s to take care of the vicious rottweilers protecting the bank.

Maddy casually checks out her mom’s security system, taking multiple pictures of it as she shows unusual interest. Eventually, she wears down her friends and they agree to help her.

The moment she steps into the main lobby at the bank, she takes more pictures than she knows what to do with. Down the hall, Chad the intern, is in the control room practicing what it’d be like if he was a cop. His boss, Ferrell, then reminds him that everyone he can see through the cameras is not to be trusted.

Meanwhile, Mrs Phillips urges Maddy to keep up but she just keeps asking questions about the bank, the safe, and even about the motion sensor they cross on their way upstairs.

Back to Ferrell, he almost breaks his back proving that he’s more than capable of protecting the bank without Molly’s high tech security. He isn’t, but a man can dream.

Molly and Maddy continue their x as they come face to face with a new age camera, complete with a motion detector. To prove her point, she makes Maddy stay completely still and the camera just goes back into sleep mode.

They then run into Alan on the top floor and he apologizes for the loan falling through. To make things easier for Molly, he offers to take Maddy on a tour of the bank. How the stars have aligned.

Austin goes on to visit a rottweiler expert, lying that he got one for his birthday and would like to use it as a stunt dog. Gus also lies, but to the architect’s secretary. He claims that he has to write a paper on the Harderbach financial building, so the secretary tries to reach out to the architect. He wastes no time yelling at her, reminding her that she can’t go around giving kids floor plans.

Gus takes things further, lying that he got a “C” on his last essay and that his stepdad is abusive. To prove it, he shows the secretary the burn he got from the grill, pretending like his step dad did it. Of course, this works like a charm.

Back at the bank, Alan doesn’t hide anything from Maddy – from security room details to the keypads which keep outsiders, well, outside of important areas. She wonders who has the codes, Allan brags about having a code that works anywhere in the building. Worse off, he mindlessly types in “deniro” and Maddy memorizes it immediately.

Their next stop is Mr Brisbane’s office where Alan shows Maddy how to control all the cameras in the building from his boss’s desk. He then does a poor imitation of Robert De Niro, a famous actor born in the 1940s. Maddy has no idea who he is, so Alan just takes her to see the safe. Sadly, such a big man almost pisses himself when he comes across the rottweilers stationed by the entrance.

On the other hand, Austin is getting trained on how to train a rottweiler. He’s told that the dogs only respond to German commands and is asked to extend them respect. Unfortunately, Austin gives the wrong command. The rottweiler chases him until he goes over a mesh gate for safety.

As for Gus, his sob story works so well that the secretary steals him a small scale model of the Harderbach financial building and he accepts it on the condition that he will never tell anyone where he got it from.

Afterwards, the trio link up at Austin’s place where she updates them about a party coming up in two days. She wants them to rob the bank during the party. They all talk about how far preparations for the mission are going but both boys shoot each other quiet looks because they both like Maddy.

Anyway, they all head to the go-kart race track the next day to practice driving underneath the bank gate. Two from the trio hold up a plank while the third drives beneath it with a go-kart. Gus pulls this off without a hitch but Austin, well, let’s say the cart wins that battle. He makes up for it by hacking his way into three tickets for the party though.

That night, Gus sneaks into the go-kart track to upgrade one of the karts. He spends all night doing this and by morning the cart is running like a racehorse eager to cross the finish line. The only problem – Gus doesn’t know how to stop it. The poor guy eventually crashes into barrels of water before coming to a halt.

By 11am, the team pays Alan a visit, hoping to get him to say a phrase needed to get the alarms shut down. The plan is simple: they approach him with a fake script since he likes acting, and in said script, embed the words they need him to say.

Things start off incredible, with Austin playing the role of director, Maddy as the girl in trouble, and Mr Alan as a CIA assassin. Alan pulls Austin aside and rips off his toupee just to ask if he looks better with or without it. No one wants to see Allan’s bald head, so they encourage the toupee wholeheartedly.

After a good day’s work, an impressed Maddy pecks Austin’s cheek, oblivious to the fact that they both like her. Gus gets mad immediately and turns to leave. Maddy tries to figure out what happened, only for Gus to yell that she should do the heist with her boyfriend.

Angry, Maddy wonders if all boys are this stupid. She then yells back, informing both of them that she doesn’t want to go out with any of them. It’s Austin and Gus’s turn to get mad, so they abandon the heist, telling her that the idea sucks anyway.

For some peace, Maddy goes back to the water tower for a climb and then visits her dad for encouragement. There, she opens up about needing to climb a hundred feet for the upcoming heist, seeing as it’s how far Tom fell when he was climbing. She goes on to have an entire monologue about how wrong it’s supposed to be but how good it’ll be if her dad can actually feel better.

By 10am, she stops by Austin’s place and lies that she loves him. To sell it, she hands him half of a love necklace, and makes him promise not to tell Gus. By 2pm the same day, she heads over to see Gus and feeds him the same lie that she loves him. She hands him the other half of the love necklace, and you know the rest. Maddy did all of this just to get them both to promise to help with the mission.

Moving on, they gather at Austin’s place by 5pm where he shuts all the windows and presents a digital blueprint of the bank. Maddy takes point, informing the others that the party will be secluded to the bank lobby while security will be on the second floor, past Chad and Ferrell.

Austin’s supposed to hack into the bank’s access system from Brisbane’s office while Maddy and Gus head to the safe which is suspended a hundred feet above ground together. Gus is scared because it’s twice the size of the water tower.

Maddy gets home that evening and the Universe throws a screw in her plans. Her mom asks her to babysit Max for the night, explaining that she has to be at the hospital with her father.

Having no other choice, Maddy brings Max to the go-kart track that night. Of course, Austin and Gus immediately protest but Maddy not only gets them to accept it, she also gets them to think it’s a good idea.

By 8pm, the trio ride at full speed past the entrance, scaling under the blockade like its go-kart limbo. The guard hears sounds but before he takes a look, Maddy and co are long gone. Dude just returns to watching the Simpsons.

After getting into the building, they change into party attire; Maddy in a stunning red gown, Austin in a white tux, and Gus in a black one. They then slip into the lobby without suspicion.

The party is buzzing with people so self absorbed they don’t notice four kids sneaking into the back. There, Maddy gets her gear and promises to disable the sensors when she reaches the top. She’d prefer the others can just walk up the stairs but barely takes four steps before getting clocked by a camera. Luckily, no one in the control room sees it.

She carefully resumes her climbing and jumps into the second floor where she sees silhouettes of Chad and Ferrell playing pretend. The new sub plan is getting them out of the booth. Chad sees Austin and his little brother but gets knocked down before he can draw Ferrell’s attention to them.

A little later, Gus throws Maddy a present wrapped in his sock, but his feet stink so badly that Austin concludes he must have a medical problem. Maddy gets the gift, – a little toy car with its remote – and uses it to trip the sensors in the north staircase.

Suspicious, Ferrell offers to check it out and commands Chad not to leave the booth for any reason.

Maddy transmits this new development to the boys and also the fact that she plans to distract Chad herself. She promises to give them a signal when it’s time to go up the stairs.

Gus tries to warn her about his brother being a lunatic but Maddy already approached him so she doesn’t hear any of the warnings.

From here on, Maddy lies like telling the truth will get her killed; lies that she was bored at the party; lies that Gus idolizes Chad; and the big one, that the police chief wants to see him. Since Chad wants to be a cop, she paints this as an opportunity for him to show how serious he is about it. Poor Chad buys every single lie she tells.

On her way down, she winks at Gus and Austin and they take this as her signal to sneak upstairs. Chad sees Ferrell already talking to the chief of police so he dives behind the shrimp bar, giving Maddy a chance to escape too. But not before laughing at him. She still makes it onto the elevator in time though.

The crew waste no time changing their outfits back to black before making their way up to Mr Brisbane’s floor. The camera in the hallway is one of those with motion sensors, so they have to stop each time the camera catches them, and go when it deactivates, kinda like that red light green light game in the netflix series squid game.

They eventually make it to Brisbane’s door, and Maddy puts in “Deniro” as the password. It works just like the other times and Austin is logged into the mainframe within seconds. Maddy drops Max on the couch before she and Gus make their way through the lobby once again.

As they approach the base of the safe, Austin confirms the absence of any rottweilers and then shuts down the camera. Unfortunately, Max chooses now to act up, playing with the camera console like it’s one of his transformers. After a few minutes of struggling and almost blowing everyone’s cover, Austin gets the toddler to stop.

Back to the mission, Maddy and Gus sprint down the hallway until they reach another door, much thicker than the last one. Maddy types in the almighty code – deniro – and in no time, they find themselves crossing a sort of metal bridge. Ferrell returns the rottweilers to their cage mere moments after Gus and Maddy cross.

Their progress comes to a halt when they encounter a third door with no keypad. Gus even tries using the “open sesame” trick but this isn’t Aladdin, so it doesn’t work. Accidentally, Maddy swipes her hand across the lock and a holographic keypad pops up. She types in Deniro, and for the umpteenth time, it grants her access. Thank you Mr Alan!

Upon stepping in, Gus concludes that he’s going to get grounded for the rest of his life. Maddy just stares up at the 100 feet she’s supposed to climb and sarcastically thanks her mum for making it so difficult.

At the same time, Mr Alan is giving some girl a tour of the building, so he shows her to Mr Brisbane’s office where an oblivious Austin sits in the arm chair. He quickly drags Max under the table and they stay there as Mr Allan and his lady friend continue to discuss.

Back in the safe room, Maddy is searching for a way to get to the top, and fate pushes Gus to step on the eye of the figure in the center of the room. As a result, glass walls rise from the ground, showing off numbers representing the safety deposit boxes lining the walls.

Maddy randomly taps a bunch of these numbers and the corresponding boxes emerge. This gives Maddy an idea. She goes on to instruct Gus on which boxes to retract and the ones to open.

While this is going on, Mr Brisbane’s secretary catches Mr Alan with his lady friend and they all walk out together, guilt evident on their faces.

Like some sort of staircase, Maddy makes Gus open one safety deposit box after the other. Afraid that she’s going to hurt herself, he begs Austin to find a way to bring the safe to them. Maddy then yells that she loves Gus, making him lose all his willpower and give in to her every command. Sadly, even a genius like Austin can’t find a way to manipulate the safe.

In the bank lobby, Mr Brisbane is busy giving a toast to his generous board of directors, only for the alarm to go off. Apparently, Maddy had tripped it just by standing upright in the safe room. Confused, Ferrell and Chad search all the cameras while the system, like a snarky Siri, literally begs them to do anything about the alarm.

Soon, word gets to Austin and he cues up the recording of Mr Alan that they made earlier. In it, he encourages Maddy to turn off the alarms, but in this case, Ferrell thinks he’s being spoken to. Having no choice but to obey his superior, they turn off the alarm. This doesn’t satisfy Ferrell’s suspicions, so he leaves to check things out himself.

Meanwhile, Maddy attaches her grappling hooks to the spaces between the walls and begins her ascent to the safe, all while a negative Gus reminds her of the risks of getting caught. Soon enough, her gear gets stuck and she remembers a similar story her dad told her. He had to free climb the rest of the way, so Maddy plans to do the same. With this in mind, she lets go of her gear and uses her hands instead. As usual, Gus makes it clear that he’s against this.

One wussy speech later and Maddy had made it to the second stage of her climb – the jungle bars leading to the safe itself. With a hundred feet below her, she struggles to swing from bar to bar and makes the mistake of looking down. She becomes scared but swings her way forwards anyway. After a while, she lets go, falls onto the structure right below and slips. On her way down, Maddy swings her hands in search of something to hold on to. As luck would have it, she’s saved by the keypad section of the safe.

She tries her best to hold on, but this sets off a two minute timer, giving her that long to put in the password. She struggles to pull herself up, types in Deniro, but for the first time ever, it fails. Austin can’t hack it either, so they conclude that the password must be something Molly chose.

Running out of time, Maddy racks her brain for possible passwords. She starts by inputting her brother’s name, but “access denied” is all she hears back. Her dad’s name produces the same result, leaving her to remember the time her mom claimed to think about her ever so often. With this, she types in “Madeline” and the door slides open.

After a small celebration, Maddy loads three duffel bags full of cash and throws them down to Gus. Things move fast after this, with her making her way down and crossing the threshold with Gus, only to be given five seconds to input an exit code. She doesn’t make it in time, so all the doors begin to shut in order.

Together, Maddy and Gus run like crazy, but the alarms go off again. This time, Mr Brisbane signals Mr Alan. Ferrell calls for help at his end  and then does a dramatic dance before asking Chad to release the dogs.

The second door is now inches away from closing, so Gus and Maddy have to dive through to make it in time. Thank the stars, they succeed.

Meanwhile, the self absorbed guests at the party now have something else to worry about – the intruder. Mr Brisbane is left trying to maintain decorum as they evacuate the guests.

The trio link up once again, with Maddy taking her little brother from Austin. Soon, two uninvited rottweilers join them. Everyone looks to Austin to handle the situation, but the computer genius just makes a run for it. The dogs chase them even as they split, with one of them catching up with Gus. It refuses to let go of his duffle bag, and in no time, rips it open. Cold cash pours out with each step Gus takes and eventually, all three kids get cornered by the dogs.

Austin recalls the little training he got and then screams the German word “Ausfahrt”. Both dogs mellow down immediately, but that’s the least of their problems. Ferrell shows up at this point, slow clapping and shutting them down every time they try to explain. Chad also joins the party, but to their surprise, he turns against Ferrell and electrocutes him.

Sadly, Chad is stupid enough to electrocute himself too.

Maddy and the others throw the money down the trash chute and then slide down after it. The only problem is that they can’t find Max. Maddy’s heart skips a beat or three as she frantically takes trash bags apart in search of her brother. Seconds later, he comes sliding down the chute, happy as a pig in the mud.

Things continue to move quickly as the team unwrap their go-kart. While Gus unwraps his, his love necklace falls out and Austin asks about it. Gus tries to tell him about his relationship with Maddy, only for Austin to reveal the other half of the necklace. Both boys discover at this moment that they’ve been played, so they abandon Maddy with her brother and all the money.

Mindlessly, they drive into traffic, and Austin realizes that he’s low on gas. To make things worse, the cops begin to chase them, but they don’t slow down. Austin has to jump onto Gus’s kart when his gas eventually runs out, only stealing a glance as it gets crushed by the cops. Gus uses their size to their advantage, turning curbs and corners like an unhinged racer.

A police helicopter hovers above them in a flash, but Gus sees it as being in the spotlight. What a positive dude! With two cops still on their tail, Gus activates the upgrade he made to his kart and they bolt across the road like no man’s business. They come face to face with the copter but still don’t stop.

Once again, the size of the kart helps them escape as they slide beneath the helicopter. Feeling lucky, Gus pulls the same trick and slides under an incoming truck, cutting off the cops while he’s at it.

Left wondering if Maddy made it, Gus and Austin’s consciences don’t let them rest, so they go back to check on her. Meanwhile, Maddy actually makes it out. She’s still counting down the blocks to her complete freedom when two cop cars show up out of nowhere. She makes a U-turn without hesitation, only for Gus and Austin to join in the fleeing. Scared that they’re going to get caught, Austin wonders what they’re supposed to do.

In turn, Gus just yells at Maddy to make sure she doesn’t fall behind, and in a few seconds, he releases a bunch of jacks onto the street. These jacks puncture holes in the tires of the cop cars, giving the kids a chance to get away.

Back at the bank, there’s so much confusion. Molly leaves her husband at the hospital and shows up in a hurry, linking up with Mr Alan as she gets updated on the robbery. She’s told about the Go-karts, the 250 thousand, and eventually, about the  grappling hooks. Molly connects the dots faster than you can say whodunit!

Mr Alan has an outburst right then and there, nearly screaming Brisbane’s head off. One of their biggest supporters, Mr Francois, then refers to Brisbane as a knucklehead for holding a party when Molly warned him about the security system.

As for maddy and her team, they head to the hospital to meet her father, who moves only his head as he questions his daughter about how she got the cash. She doesn’t answer, mostly because she’s trying to get him to Denmark immediately. It’s all pointless, seeing as her mom shows up alongside Alan and other security officers from the bank.

Molly looks into her daughter’s eyes and can see all the pain she’s carrying in them. To protect her daughter, she claims to have run an undisclosed operation – as is her right – to test the security system. She claims to have hired the three kids as consultants to prove that the system isn’t ready.

Mr Alan backs her up without hesitation and sighs of relief go round the room as nervousness turns into smiling. Outside, the media can’t have enough. All of them report the robbery of Harderbach finance by three kids, running with the story Molly had put out. They even report about Mr Philips’ health condition, hiding Maddy’s identity while they’re at it.

The next morning, her mom tracks her down to the couch to tell her how wrong what she did was. She then promises to be more present in her life.

You see, news had spread about the heist, so Gus and Austin come running that morning to invite Molly and Maddy to stop by the track. A really long line is what they see when they arrive, followed by cheering from everyone present.

It turns out that everyone showed up to support Maddy’s dad and a lot of them pay much more than they need to for a ticket. At the end of the day, Maddy and her friends run the numbers under her mom’s supervision. Sadly, they’re still a long way from getting the 250 thousand.

Like an angel, Mr Alan walks through the door, wielding a check for the consultant who tested the bank’s security system. Overjoyed, Maddy runs into his embrace. Alan announces that Mr Brisbane has been fired, adding that Molly can now take out a personal loan for any amount necessary to complete her husband’s health fees. Alan must be a teddy the way everyone’s hugging him.

After he makes his exit, Maddy and the others make it rain cash.

Three months later, the go-kart track is as vibrant as ever, and just before the first race, Maddy does a little introduction for her dad. He’s much healthier now, so he takes a moment to thank his kid and they hug it out in the presence of everyone.

Maddy may have done the wrong thing for the right reason but there’s a lesson here. History favors the bold, and if that isn’t you, then you have your work cut out for you.

Catch That Kid 2004.