Empire State 2013

In the early 1980s, Liam Hemsworth plays Chris Potamitis, a young man who lives with his parents and younger sister in Astoria, Queens. His immigrant father has spent a decade cleaning a shady Greek social club, only to be fired from that job, which adds strain to a family already trying to get by. Chris’s dream of entering the police academy is blocked by a past marijuana conviction, so he takes a low-wage job as a security guard with the Empire Armored Car Company. That workplace is marked by poor security, low morale, and sloppy record-keeping about money in transit. When his partner is killed during a robbery, the company compounds the tragedy by offering the family only $5,000 in compensation, a stark contrast to what they deserve. After a demotion to night watchman, Chris makes a desperate choice: he pockets one of the money bags and shares some of the cash with his partner’s widow.

One night he shows the money to his loud-mouthed best friend Eddie, Michael Angarano. Eddie, eager to prove himself and impress his peers, drags Spiro into the mix—Chris Diamantopoulos plays the gangster who schemes to pull off a larger score. Spiro stages a bold robbery, but the plan is foiled by Detective James Ransome, a seasoned NYPD investigator who confronts the crew with steady resolve. The ensuing gun battle leaves two robbers dead and sets off a chain of events that will draw in a widening circle of players.

On December 12, 1982, Eddie crawls into the Empire Armored Car Company through the roof in the middle of the night, presses Chris into opening the vault, and then knocks him out to steal a staggering $11 million in cash—the largest cash robbery in U.S. history at that time, surpassing the Lufthansa heist of 1978. Eddie gives $3 million of the loot to Chris, twisting loyalty into a dangerous bargaining chip that haunts the two men going forward.

The FBI turns its attention to the Five Families of organized crime as investigators assess the fallout, while Ransome decides to pursue the case more aggressively, intent on uncovering where Chris, Eddie, and the rest of the money have vanished. Eddie and his associates attempt to exchange $8 million of the loot for Colombian drugs, but the deal collapses in a chaotic confrontation. Spiro presses Chris to turn over the money, and Ransome arrests Eddie, pressing for the whereabouts of the missing cash—the truth remains elusive as Eddie is released and the hunt continues.

Back at home, Nancy Michaelides, Emma Roberts, learns that the money is hidden in a statue that Chris and Eddie had given to his mother, a detail that tightens the family’s already perilous grip on reality. The tension erupts when Eddie confronts Chris with a gun; Chris’s father intervenes and wounds Eddie as police arrive to arrest all three men. In the years that follow, Chris and Eddie are released from federal prison on October 10, 1991, but the fate of the vast fortune remains unrecovered, leaving a quiet ache in a story marked by risk, loyalty, and the high price of a daring, ill-fated scheme.