The opening con in The Sting is set in Joliet, Illinois.
The 1973 film begins in 1936, when small-time grifter Johnny Hooker and his partner Luther Coleman con a courier carrying money for crime boss Doyle Lonnegan. The opening sequence identifies Joliet as the setting before the story expands into a much larger revenge scheme.
After Luther is killed, Hooker joins veteran con artist Henry Gondorff to trick Lonnegan. Paul Newman plays Gondorff, while Robert Redford plays Hooker. The film uses a sequence of elaborate cons, period title cards, and ragtime music to create its stylized Depression-era atmosphere.
Joliet is sometimes confused with Chicago because much of the film's world is associated with Illinois and its criminal networks. The opening location is specifically Joliet, while the broader plot moves through other settings as the team builds its elaborate final sting.