I know for sure the FBI agent was going to hang around to keep investigating, leaving us to question whether or not the Logans were lucky enough to get away with the heist or not. As to your first question, I didn't quite understand why he gave it back either.

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What RK said. Plus, remember that when they pulled off the heist they first disabled the card machines so the NASCAR wouldn't know how much money was actually meant to be in the vault. That way when they returned a lot of money, NASCAR assume it's all been returned, are involved in insurance fraud so want the case to go away, and they're left with a crime with no victims, so why bother looking for the criminals?

@discostu004 said:

why did he "give back" a good chunk of that money rather than just keep it? also was the FBI agent in on it or wanting to "hang around" because she was gonna keep investigating (final scene)?

Remember, he got unjustly fired because he was a liability in accordance with the insurance company of his workplace.

So actually his plan was to rob the insurance company and not the nascar... so to do this he stole enough for nascar not to suffer, but for their insurance company to suffer... he took just enough for the insurance to cover the stolen part.

And notice his list he had on his fridge said, not to be greedy and know when to walk...

So the short answer, he was out for he insurance companies and not so much for his own wealth... well, to a degree at least.

@HAL 9010' said:

So the short answer, he was out for he insurance companies and not so much for his own wealth... well, to a degree at least.

Are you sure? I don't think this was the case, there was nothing to suggest he wanted to steal from the insurance company. He said he returned the money to not arouse suspicion and keep the investigation going, not because he didn't want to steal from the nascar event.

And he was totally out for himself, he wanted to be nearer his daughter and needed to be financial secure to do that.

@cpheonix said:

@HAL 9010' said:

So the short answer, he was out for he insurance companies and not so much for his own wealth... well, to a degree at least.

Are you sure? I don't think this was the case, there was nothing to suggest he wanted to steal from the insurance company. He said he returned the money to not arouse suspicion and keep the investigation going, not because he didn't want to steal from the nascar event.

And he was totally out for himself, he wanted to be nearer his daughter and needed to be financial secure to do that.

I am. The insurance was the reason he got fired (and so the whole reason he began planning a heist) and he even checked how much they would cover from what they stole ... and then He returned a good bulk of it, just enough so the insurance company was the only one to suffer in the end. And besides, returning part of the money did not reduce suspicion imo.... it did though make nascar less interested in following up on them (because in the end they did not really suffer), so that could be another reason... but it seemed to me that since the insurance companies unjustly fired him in the beginning and that his design made sure only they suffered in the end, is not coincidental

@HAL 9010' said:

I am. The insurance was the reason he got fired (and so the whole reason he began planning a heist) and he even checked how much they would cover from what they stole ... and then He returned a good bulk of it, just enough so the insurance company was the only one to suffer in the end. And besides, returning part of the money did not reduce suspicion imo.... it did though make nascar less interested in following up on them (because in the end they did not really suffer), so that could be another reason... but it seemed to me that since the insurance companies unjustly fired him in the beginning and that his design made sure only they suffered in the end, is not coincidental

I honestly can't recall him checking how much the insurance company would cover from what they stole. How did he do that, surely he would either have to ask the Speedway manager or check with the actual insurance company? And I don't remember any scene where he does that.

Also, it's not true that he was unjustly fired; he did have a bad leg which he didn't declare. If anything, the person at fault was a co-worker who "noticed" that he was walking funny and reported it.

To me, he didn't do this heist out of revenge on the insurance company, he did it because he had no job, needed the money and knew how to exploit the construction work. The insurance bit was just a plot device for the him to lose his job, so I believe it was coincidental.

@cpheonix said:

I honestly can't recall him checking how much the insurance company would cover from what they stole. How did he do that, surely he would either have to ask the Speedway manager or check with the actual insurance company? And I don't remember any scene where he does that.

Also, it's not true that he was unjustly fired; he did have a bad leg which he didn't declare. If anything, the person at fault was a co-worker who "noticed" that he was walking funny and reported it.

To me, he didn't do this heist out of revenge on the insurance company, he did it because he had no job, needed the money and knew how to exploit the construction work. The insurance bit was just a plot device for the him to lose his job, so I believe it was coincidental.

He is fired because of liability reasons involving the insurance for him working. His boss made it clear he had no choice and hated it.

Later as the investigators investigate, it is specifically mentioned that the NASCAR received the money from the insurance company that wasn't recovered. There is a scene for this information alone and then they cut to Logan looking all smart n sleek... so, indeed it is not spelled out but if we connect the dots it firstly makes our hero a hero and not a common criminal, and secondly it explains why he gave back the amount of money he did.

@HAL 9010' said:

Later as the investigators investigate, it is specifically mentioned that the NASCAR received the money from the insurance company that wasn't recovered. There is a scene for this information alone and then they cut to Logan looking all smart n sleek... so, indeed it is not spelled out but if we connect the dots it firstly makes our hero a hero and not a common criminal, and secondly it explains why he gave back the amount of money he did.

This scene I remember well and the manager of the speedway company specifically said there is no way of knowing how much money was stolen, and at no point was a figure mentioned of how much the insurance company paid out.

I've already mentioned that he gave the money back because he specifically said it's less likely the speedway company would pursue the criminals (as mentioned above, because there was no way of knowing exactly how much was taken). Indeed, this is what happened in the scene you mentioned, he said to the FBI to close the case because there was no point with the money returned. The manager did say the insurance company paid out but again, he didn't know how much because they couldn't put a figure on how much was stolen.

You mentioned in another post that Jimmy even checked how much the insurance company would cover from what they stole, but I can't recall this scene? In any case, I think we'll have to agree to disagree because to me there was no revenge on the insurance company motive from Jimmy; he just wanted the money to be near his daughter.

@cpheonix said:

@HAL 9010' said:

You mentioned in another post that Jimmy even checked how much the insurance company would cover from what they stole, but I can't recall this scene? In any case, I think we'll have to agree to disagree because to me there was no revenge on the insurance company motive from Jimmy; he just wanted the money to be near his daughter.

I just went through the script and I cannot fint it either, so I must remember wrong. I certainly got this from watching it, but I agree it is not spelled out and so it is on me...

When I was looking for the script I found this: http://www.the-editing-room.com/logan-lucky.html - it idoes not serve as a script, but it shows I am not alone in taking this away from it....

Quoted from the link: "We actually split off two bags of money, just enough so the Speedway's insurance would cover it, since they are the TRUE bastards I wanted revenge on!".. and there are a few other lines supporting this.

Cheers.

That's fair enough, understandable that things can be interpreted differently. It is what the discussion boards are all about :)