Arthur Shaw is the main antagonist of the 2011 comedy film Tower Heist.
He was portrayed by Alan Alda, who also played Leo Green in Whispers in the Dark.
Personality[]
Shaw is initially portrayed as a friendly and charismatic Wall Street businessman who owns the luxury apartment complex known as The Tower. He shares a warm friendship with Kovaks, playing chess online with him and enjoys having conversation and making some jokes with the employees. But later in the movie, his true nature is revealed. In reality, he is a scheming con-artist who only cares about himself, ready to ruin people's lives to settle his financials problems and enjoys the former, having no remorse for it whatsoever. His politeness is indeed just an act to hide his cold nature. This coldness is revealed when Josh angrily tells him Lester attempted suicide, by feigning hypocritical concern. He is also arrogant, thinking he will be unpunished for his crimes and taunting Kovaks's gang when they are arrested. However, when Josh says he knows about his embezzlements, Shaw becomes desesperated and is reduced to plea a deal with the hero for not going to jail.
Biography[]
Arthur Shaw steals all pension funds of the tower's employees. Upon learning the FBI has discovered his embezzling scheme, he attempts to flee in a situation disguised as a kidnapping. However, this fails and he is arrested, being put on house arrest.
At first, Josh, the protagonist of the movie, is convinced Shaw wasn't involved, but when his friend Lester, the doorman of The Tower, almost threw himself under the NYC subway, he came to Shaw and crashed his favorite car, for which he was fired. The FBI holds Arthur Shaw for financial fraud, but the pension fund money is nowhere to be found. Josh begins to suspect that the millionaire is keeping his "stash" somewhere in the skyscraper and begins to devise a plan to return all of his savings to all of his employees.
Shaw wants to frame and pursue Josh along with Charlie and Enrique for destroying his car. However, the gang tricks the FBI by giving fake reports which postponed to Thanksgiving Shaw's trial. Josh then recruited the former thief Slide to seek revenge for his colleagues' losses. He recruits also the veteran financier Fitzhugh, the elevator operator Devreau and the guard Charlie. With all his team, he succeeds to break in Shaw's apartment but Slide then betrays the gang and decides to take all for himself only for Devreau to subdue him with her own gun. Devreau opens the safe only to find it empty, Slide demands Fitzhugh to give him his gun back so he can escape but In the brawl, a gunshot accidentally occurs and a bullet hits Shaw's favorite car, which was kept in the penthouse. It turns out that the Ferrari is made of solid gold and the stolen pensions have been used to invest in the gold that made up the Ferrari, according to Fitzhugh's calculations, is worth around $45 million. Then they decide to steal the car. In the car, Josh finds a ledger who contains all the embezzlements Shaw committed during all his life.
FBI agent Claire Danham, who found out everything, finds them all and puts them in jail. In the truck, Shaw, who is also in the truck for not reporting the safe to the FBI, taunts them, telling they are easily replaceable, and they will rot in jail. But when Josh reveals to him that he knows about the details of his ledger, Shaw begs him to not tell this to the police, in exchange for a bribe ten times the amount of the gold, only to fail. Josh, through his lawyer (the girl who works in the complex), provided they are all acquitted, gives them Shaw's notebook. With this proof, Denham will be able to put Shaw in prison for life, while Josh will only serve two years for being the mastermind. Shaw's last scene shows him going into his cell in horror, with prisoners shouting at him, implying he's going to be gang raped.
Trivia[]
- He is loosely based on Bernie Madoff.