Masterminds (2016)
Directed by Jared Hess
No — Masterminds is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Masterminds is a 2016 crime comedy based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery, directed by Jared Hess and stocked with performers who know their way around a punchline.
Consciousness Markers
The ensemble includes Leslie Jones as FBI Agent Scanlon and a handful of minority performers, but the leads are white and the diversity is incidental rather than a stated priority.
Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon occupy major comedic roles, but the film uses them for broad farce rather than any feminist argument or critique.
Leslie Jones plays an FBI agent and Njema Williams appears briefly, but race is never a subject of the film's comedy or commentary.
The plot concerns robbing an armored car company, but the film treats the heist as slapstick mischief rather than a critique of corporate greed or capitalism.
This is a scattershot comedy with no preachy or didactic impulses; it aims only to amuse.
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or subtext appear anywhere in the film.
No environmental or climate themes are present in this Southern heist comedy.
No body-positivity themes or messaging appear in the film.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are depicted or discussed.
The film adapts the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery for comedic effect but makes no attempt to reframe or revise history for ideological purposes.
Why it received this score
Masterminds is a 2016 crime comedy based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo robbery, directed by Jared Hess and stocked with performers who know their way around a punchline. It wants to be a lark, and it occasionally becomes one. The critical reception was mixed, the box office was modest, and the film's cultural afterlife has been quiet. This is not a movie that arrives bearing a thesis. It arrives bearing Zach Galifianakis in a night guard uniform and a plan involving too much cash and too little sense.
The ensemble includes Leslie Jones as FBI Agent Scanlon and a handful of minority performers, but the film treats this as casting, not as a statement. Race is not a subject of the comedy. It sits in the background and stays there. Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon have major roles, yet the movie uses them for broad farce and slapstick. Their presence does not attach itself to any argument about gender. The heist targets an armored car company, which could support a critique of corporate greed, but the film frames theft as mischief. There is no class anger here, no systemic indictment, just a lot of running and yelling.
There is no LGBTQ subtext, no climate crusade, no body-positivity message, no neurodivergence thread, and no attempt to revise the historical record for ideological comfort. The film has no sermon to deliver. Its instructional impulse is close to zero. We are left with a scattershot comedy, a talented cast, and a strange true story that never becomes more than a premise. As a cultural artifact, it is a thin vintage: low tannin, faint fruit, no finish. The sommelier sets down the glass and reaches for the next bottle.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
A night guard at an armored car company in the Southern U.S. organizes one of the biggest bank heists in American history.
Questions about Masterminds
Is Masterminds woke?
No — Masterminds is not woke, scoring 6 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Masterminds have any woke elements?
Very few. None of the 10 markers reaches 30, the level where a marker counts as present; the highest is Representation Casting at 22.
How does Masterminds compare to other 2016 movies?
It ranks #202 of the 285 films from 2016 we've scored; their average is 16. The wokest is 13th (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.