Thieves' Gambit

The next morning, Ross delivers the vase to her mother, who is disguised as a landscaper. Her mother inspects the vase and slips on the diamond bracelet. Rhiannon praises Ross’s work but shows little concern for her safety or exhaustion. As they drive off, Ross suggests attending school in Europe to expand their contacts there and disrupt the operations of a rival thief family, the Boscharts, but her mother dismisses the idea. Ross secretly checks her phone and reads her acceptance letter to a competitive gymnastics summer camp. She agrees to attend and plans her escape while completing the post-job routine with Rhiannon.

Ross logs into the family’s secure “black box” email account (used only for high-security contacts and contracts) and opens the Gambit invitation. Ross is shocked that the message is addressed specifically to her: It is an invitation to participate in a competition with other young thieves called the “Thieves’ Gambit.”

At the Quest family home in the Bahamas, Ross distractedly struggles through agility training. Her aunt and trainer, Jaya, confronts her about her lack of focus. Ross asks about the Thieves’ Gambit, and Jaya explains it is a deadly competition run by a powerful organization where the winner receives a single wish. Ross lies and says she deleted the email. Jaya questions why Ross has not asked Rhiannon about the Gambit.

Rhiannon enters and argues with Jaya until Jaya storms off, prompting Ross to reflect on her lack of siblings, as her father was a sperm donor who died before she was born. Ross asks about attending gymnastics camp at Louisiana State University. Rhiannon forbids Ross from going, insisting she must never leave home without her before assigning her a short job on nearby Paradise Island. Ross pretends to agree, planning to use the job as an opportunity to run away.

That evening in a hotel room, Ross presents her mother with a heist plan for a yacht but deliberately omits a hidden emergency exit she intends to use. They take a small boat to the yacht and begin transferring crates of treasure. While her mother moves the last bag, Ross activates her escape plan, locates the hidden door, and readies a raft.

A gunshot stops her. She sees her mother trapped and cornered, unaware of the secret exit. Ross abandons her escape to help, but armed men spot her and force her to jump into the water. Ross watches the yacht speed away with her captured mother.

Drifting in an emergency raft, Ross calls Rhiannon’s phone. The lead captor answers and demands a $1 billion ransom within one month. Ross returns to the Quest home and spends the day with Auntie Jaya calling contacts for assistance, but no one will help.

Seeing no other way to raise the money, Ross emails the Gambit organizers to accept their invitation and receives a plane ticket. She leaves a cryptic note for her aunt about making a wish and drives to the airport.

Ross arrives at the closed Andros Town International Airport that opens specifically for her. Staff usher her onto a private jet without security checks. Onboard, she sees two other teenage competitors already unconscious. A flight attendant offers her a glass of water.

Ross deduces the water is drugged to preserve anonymity and test her compliance. With no alternative, she drinks it, loses consciousness, and the plane takes off.

Ross wakes in a locked, velvet-lined room, her backpack nowhere in sight. She picks multiple locks and solves a keypad riddle to escape into a museum basement waiting room. There she finds her rival, Noelia Boschart, who escaped faster. Seven more teenage thieves emerge: Mylo Michaelson, Adra Laghari, Taiyō Itō, Kyung-soon Shin, Yeriel Antuñez, Lucus Taylor, and Devroe Kenzie.

An organizer known as the Count enters. She explains that three unseen contestants have already failed and been removed. The Thieves’ Gambit has three phases, and competitors can be eliminated at any time for poor performance or injury. Killing outside official phases is banned, but lethal force during a job is permitted when necessary. The Count adds that the winner must serve a one-year contract. Phase One begins: Steal one of fifteen specified items from the museum above them by 10 o’clock that night. Only eight of the nine competitors will advance.

At the Museum of Historical Fashions, Ross scouts all 15 targets and determines seven are decoys, leaving eight viable items for nine competitors. Auntie Jaya calls and urges Ross to consider an alliance. Devroe approaches Ross and proposes they team up, noting she had the second-fastest escape time.

Ross declines. A memory of a childhood betrayal by Noelia reinforces her family’s rule to work alone.

After the museum closes, Ross hides in an air vent above her primary target, an opera mask, and studies the guards’ patrol patterns. As she prepares to move, Devroe and Kyung-soon enter the gallery, revealing their alliance.

Devroe spots Ross, teases her, and takes the mask for himself. Humiliated, Ross pulls herself back into the vent and pivots to her backup plan.

Ross moves to her next target, the Empress’s Ring, in a gallery guarded by a laser grid. She sees Noelia enter, already holding Marie Antoinette’s shoes. Ross overhears Noelia through an earpiece and realizes Noelia and Adra plan to steal an extra item to block Ross from getting one.

Furious, Ross drops from the vent, snatches the ring, and weaves through the laser grid. After a guard passes, Ross uses a gesture from a shared childhood memory to taunt Noelia, who draws a blade and prepares to fight for the ring.

Noelia attacks, and they fight amid the laser beams. Ross uses her meteor bracelet to disarm Noelia and keep the ring. To break the stalemate, Ross kicks one of Noelia’s stolen shoes across the room, forcing Noelia to retrieve her own prize.

Ross sprints toward an exit, but Adra ambushes her and holds a blade to her throat.