The True Story Behind Netflix’s How to Rob a Bank

Netflix’s latest documentary, How to Rob a Bank, centers on the lives of a group of robbers who did just that – rob banks. The documentary features real-life accounts from the robbers themselves, the journalists who covered the story, and the authorities who investigated the robberies. With details being spilled left, right, and center, the documentary is a gripping watch, especially with the knowledge that it is, in fact, a true story thrown into the mix.

Directed by Seth Porges and Stephen Morse, How to Rob a Bank documents a string of bank robberies that occurred in Seattle in the 1990s. With the robbers being slick enough to outsmart the authorities time and time again, they astonishingly accumulated over $2.3 million through at least 17 confirmed bank robberies. With the leader of the group, Scott Scurlock, dubbed ‘Hollywood,’ Scurlock and his accomplices were referred to as the ‘Hollywood Bandits.’

Who Was Scott Scurlock?

Scott Scurlock was the mastermind behind the string of bank robberies covered in How to Rob a Bank. However, the documentary provides viewers with Scurlock’s backstory, taking audiences to his pre-bank robber days. He is introduced as a free-spirited, daring, eccentric individual who lived in a tree house. Those who appear in the documentary as Scurlock’s family, friends, and acquaintances describe him as a gentle soul, with a treehouse that was open to all his friends. He is also described as being quite intellectual and bright, on the way to pre-med before the plan fell through.

However, Scurlock’s rebellious streak manifested in his early days. Despite being brought up in a straight-laced household, where his father was a minister and his mother was a teaching assistant, Scurlock stole a car to go to the beach in his teenage years and was kicked out of The Evergreen State College where he was caught making crystal meth.

The excerpts from Scurlock’s diary which are voiced in the documentary make it clear that Scurlock was a complex character, with a constant duality warring inside him. Despite his easy, carefree lifestyle in the forest and the need for him to make better choices, money was still a major consideration for him. His enterprise in making crystal meth earned him millions, and when that was shut down with the death of ‘Captain Pat,’ Scurlock moved into bank robberies for easy money.

What Inspired the Robberies?

The need for money, combined with certain movies that Scurlock watched, laid the foundation for the string of robberies. Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves’ Point Break (1991) and Robert De Niro and Al Pacino’s Heat (1995) are specifically mentioned in the documentary as sources of inspiration. Scurlock even had one of his accomplices wear a Ronald Reagan mask, similar to the one worn by Swayze in Point Break, on one of the heists, with Heat being used to predict how the police might respond to their robberies.

Scurlock, together with his accomplices Steve Meyers and Mark Biggins, crafted some of the most elaborate disguises. Going beyond mere masks, they fashioned intricate facial prosthetics and wore heavy makeup to hide their true selves. These complex disguises earned them the name ‘Hollywood Bandits,’ with Scurlock being referred to as ‘Hollywood.’

How to Rob a Bank also depicts the amount of research that went into robbing the banks. Scurlock, able to obtain employee manuals, studied them extensively, noting particulars about the vaults and protocols for tellers. Together with his accomplices, he carried out surveillance of the banks, noting when the armored vehicles delivered cash and the times at which the police patrols did their rounds. Code words were created and lingo was adopted, with a procedure also set in place to scan each money bill after the robbery to make sure it was not marked. Inspired and well-read, the Hollywood Bandits managed to, time and time again, complete their missions and evade the police successfully.

What Happened to Scott Scurlock and His Accomplices?

Scott Scurlock and his accomplices had a successful run from 1992 to 1996. During this time, Scurlock donated some of the money he stole to charities that he thought were worthy causes. However, the interviews in the documentary also established that Scott selectively gave money to friends, with the consideration that he could later call on them for favors. Although investigators on Scurlock’s case were left confused and dumbfounded owing to the Hollywood Bandits’ cleverness for four years, they managed to outsmart the robbers in November 1996, just after the group’s biggest heist.

The Hollywood Bandits’ last robbery was the one they executed at Seafirst Bank, stealing more than $1 million. The group could not get rid of the electronic tracers that the FBI had embedded within the money bills and this ultimately led to their capture. Having tracked down the getaway vehicle, a shootout between the police and Scurlock and his accomplices ensued. Meyers and Biggins were wounded by gunshots and Scurlock, who was driving the getaway vehicle, ran.

Scott Scurlock was ultimately found hiding out in a camper, where, when surrounded by the police, he shot and killed himself. Meyers and Biggins were arrested and subsequently sentenced to 21 years and 3 months in prison. Meyers was released in 2013 and Biggins in 2015. Reflecting on their days as the Hollywood Bandits in the documentary, Biggins comments, “Once you cross the Rubicon and start living that life you have to lie to everybody about everything, everybody you care about, everybody you meet.” Since their release, both Meyers and Biggins have gone to live quiet lives, away from the crime that had dominated their younger days.

How to Rob a Bank, a documentary chronicling the true story of the rise and fall of Scott Scurlock and his accomplices, the Hollywood Bandits, is as eye-opening as it is thrilling. Of course, the primary focus is the tense story of a bank robber, but it also depicts the tale of a man who was lost, confused and conflicted regarding his purpose in life. Eager to make something of himself, he turned down a dangerously wrong path, one that ultimately led to his demise. Stream on Netflix.