| “ | It was sixty years ago. I was young and ambitious. I saw a short path to success, and I took it. I sold my soul, and I've been trying to buy it back ever since. | „ |
| ~ Case about doing business with the Nazis. |
Arthur Case is the main antagonist of the 2006 heist thriller film Inside Man.
He was portrayed by the late Christopher Plummer, who also portrayed Charles F. Muntz in Up, The Grand Duke of Owls in Rock-A-Doodle, General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Jonathan Whirley in Dragnet, Ralph Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby, 1 in 9, Barnaby in Babes in Toyland, Mr. Caruthers in The Clown at Midnight, King Herod in The Star, and Commodus in The Fall of the Roman Empire.
Biography[]
When Case hears of the robbery of his bank, because he's the chairman of the board of directors and founder of the bank as well, he puts fixer Madeleine White on his payroll and has her protect the safe deposit box contents in his bank. She uses the help of the mayor of New York City, who needs to return a favor to her anyway, to set up a meeting with the thief leader, Dalton Russell, and lets her enter the bank and look at the contents. She discovers that there are documents from Nazi Germany and then Russell reveals that Case found the bank with money he got from Nazis, for his work for them; he is therefore complicit in the Holocaust. White then informs Russell that Case will pay him lots of money and arrange a short prison sentence, because they haven't stolen anything or hurt or killed anyone.
When Frazier and the rest of the cops search the bank, they find that nothing has been stolen and nobody was killed and that it was all just an act. Later the mayor orders Frazier to let the case go, but Frazier refuses and continues his investigation and discovers that safe deposit box #392 had never appeared on records since the bank was founded in 1948 and gets a search warrant to open it. White later reveals to Frazier of Case's Nazi past and tries to talk Frazier out of his investigation, but he refuses. Then she meets Case again, who admits to his work with the Nazis, and reveals that the deposit box also contained diamonds and a ring belonging to a French-Jewish banker, who died along with his family in a concentration camp. Case remarks that he and the man had been friends and that he could have helped him, but "the Nazis paid too well".
Even though White accepts his offer for her silence, she says to him that the thieves have his Nazi documents and that he will have to pay them off sooner or later. Later Frazier discovers the ring with a note directing him to Case's safe deposit box. Frazier confronts Case, telling him he is going to pay for his crimes. Then Frazier meets White once again and gives her contact info for the Office of War Crimes Issues at the US State Department. It is implied that she will use this connection to make sure that Case is investigated and imprisoned.
Case is said in the 2019 sequel Inside Man: Most Wanted to have passed away while under house arrest awaiting trial for his war crimes.