Crooks (2024) follows a former safecracker who’s forced into a heist by old acquaintances, and a driver from a gang in Vienna, stumbling upon each other by fate and joining hands to flee several gangs that are after them for a valuable coin. The series is now available to stream on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Charly is a former safecracker who’s done time for the crimes that he’s left in his past. His happy and normal life with his wife Samira and son Jonas is shaken when he’s coerced into a heist by his old accomplices.
They lie to him about the contents of the loot and the coin they end up roping him into stealing, belongs to the Al-Walids, the gang that runs Berlin.
The heist goes awry and an important Al-Walid ends up dead. The head, Hassan, mobilizes his men to hunt those responsible for his brother’s death, until only Charly’s left.
Meanwhile, Charly joins Joseph, a driver working for a gang in Vienna, who comes with another man to take the coin from the thieves. Joseph soon learns, with Charly’s help, that the current head of his gang is now after his life.
The two work together to frame Red, the one who now leads the gang after the death of his elder brother Karli, the father of Joseph who never told him the truth until recently, while on his deathbed.
Red is hunted down by Hassan, but not before he gives Charly and Joseph a lot of trouble using his foolish son Rio and hired mercenaries.
Joseph and Charly manage to flee all of them and also Joseph’s old friend who turns on him to scurry favor from Red.
Hassan sends his cousin Tarek to Marseille, where Charly had sent Samira and Jonas, where his old friend Rami promises him to keep them safe but fails to deliver on his promise as Tarek and his Algerian gangster friends close in on the mother-son duo.
Rami sees in Charly a solution to his own problem with her that she’s torturing her over. He tells her about Charly and gets his family kidnapped by her men. They are taken hostage at her island villa.
Charly saves Joseph’s life and tells him to read the letter left to him by his father. He does and learns the truth about the coin and his father’s plan and feelings for him. He then helps Charly get his family back.
They head to Marseille, rescue Rami from the Algerians’ stronghold, and flee Hassan. Charly goes with Rami to Griselda’s villa. She tells him about the heist he has to execute to win his family their safety.
Charly comes up with a plan and gets Joseph’s help in executing it. He manages to get his family out but is captured.
Meanwhile, Hassan is also captured by her and the two captives have to decided whether to live together or die together, as Crooks (2024) comes to its conclusion.
Ending explained:
Hassan’s revenge
Hassan Al-Walid, the king of Berlin’s criminal underworld, heads off to Marseille, where Charly’s wife and son are hiding.
Hassan seeks revenge and in wanting so, he gets his hands on Stepan, the head of the coin heist, but Tarek already kills him before he can meet him since he would have told the truth.
Hassan reaches Red, the man who ordered Stepan and others to steal the coin, and kills him. He later learns that Tarek had tipped Stepan off so he stabs him to death for turning on his family.
He then heads off to get his revenge on Charly, who he thinks is responsible for his brother Karim’s death. He is instead set up by his Algerian associates, who hand him over to Griselda, the head of the Corsicans.
Hassan’s fate
He is forced into a duel until death with Charly, who’s similarly been chained after he managed to let his family escape. Hassan unleashes his anger on him.
Charly tries to reason and tell him he didn’t kill his brother, to no avail at first. However, Hassan does come to his senses eventually, and on Charly’s hints, he joins him in suddenly making a run for it and jumping off the villa, down the cliff, and into the ocean.
Before the credits roll on the first season of Crooks (2024), the two are shown to be supporting their respective kids at a football game in Berlin. Hassan is not seeking revenge on Charly anymore and the two look at each other with mutual respect.
Charly’s plan
Charly gets Joseph to have the key to Samira’s holding room at Griselda’s villa made. He provides the mold for the key.
Joseph, with the help of Nina, reaches the villa with the key inserted into a football. Samira and Jonas were earlier asked to get permission from Griselda to go play in the garden.
Jonas kicks the football out of the fence at the right time. Joseph gets the identical football with the key to their room’s door locked inside it and throws it near the garden, which is picked up by one of the guards.
Jonas and Samira retreat to their room and later break out of there. Meanwhile, Charly has to enter the villa because Samira and Jonas had some trouble opening the lock at first.
He meets them on their way out and into the garden. He shows them the exit and they make a run for it. Griselda and her guards learn that they’ve broken out and chase after them.
Charly does best to prevent some from going after them, as does Joseph, who ends up getting shot in the upper left abdomen. He tries to stay for Charly but Samira takes him with her and all of them are driven away by Nina.
Joseph’s fate
Joseph bleeds furiously but Samira uses her veterinary knowledge to stop the bleeding and get his condition to stability, with the help of Nina.
He’s taken to a doctor later and survives the ordeal. With Red killed by Hassan, and his son Rio killed by Nina, Joseph is left as the sole heir to his father Karli Bachofner’s entire estate.
He is in Tbilisi with Nina as he decides with a coin toss whether to go to the Russians or go home. The result of the toss is that they go to the Russians.
Nina calls Arkadij and sets up a face-to-face meeting with him to hand over the coin. He is the man responsible for her father’s death and she has been wanting her revenge.
Now that Joseph is with her, the two are likely going to meet the Russians to kill him. Meanwhile, Joseph’s path to a grand inheritance is clear.