Den of Thieves (released in some countries as Criminal Squad) is a 2018 American heist film written, directed, and produced by Christian Gudegast and starring Gerard Butler, Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Max Holloway. In the film, an elite group of County Sheriff Deputies look to stop a gang of thieves planning to rob the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles.
The film was released in the United States on January 19, 2018, distributed by STXfilms, received mixed reviews and grossed $80 million worldwide. A sequel is currently in development.
Video Den of Thieves (film)
Plot
Los Angeles, 2018: A team of robbers led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) make a violent armed attack and hijack an armored truck. A security guard who drops his coffee and reaches for his gun instigates the shootout. Police officers arrive on the scene and engage in a shootout with the robbers. Eventually, Merrimen and his crew escape with the empty armored truck, but he reprimands Bosco (Evan Jones) for killing the first guard. In the morning, Detective Nick "Big Nick" O'Brien (Gerard Butler) investigates the crime scene. He has been monitoring Merrimen and his crew for a while. Suspecting a local bartender named Donnie (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) for involvement, Nick finds him at the bar and kidnaps him for interrogation. In a flashback, Merrimen is planning to rob the Federal Reserve on Friday of that week by covertly removing about $30 million in old bills which are scheduled to be shredded after their serial numbers are deleted from computer records.
Merrimen has Donnie gain access into the Federal Reserve by posing as a Chinese food deliveryman. In the ceiling of a Federal Reserve bathroom, he stashes an extra bag of food for the day of the big heist. At home, Nick's wife Debbie (Dawn Olivieri) discovers that Nick has been going behind her back seeing other women. Incensed, she leaves with their daughters and files for divorce. Nick spots Donnie and says hello at a restaurant with Merrimen, his crew and their stripper girlfriends. At their hideout, Merrimen has one of his crew, Levi (50 Cent), roughly interrogate Donnie. Donnie convinces him that he hasn't told anything about the robbery. Later on, Levi's daughter has a date arrive to pick her up for a school dance. Levi pulls the boy aside to introduce him to Merrimen and the rest of their crew to intimidate him into being on his best behavior with Levi's daughter.
Meanwhile, Nick drunkenly crashes a small get-together at the home of Debbie's sister. He obnoxiously signs the divorce papers, and gets belligerent with Debbie's new boyfriend, before he is told to leave. Nick then goes to a strip club and finds Merrimen's stripper girlfriend, hires her for the night to find out where the heist is going to happen. He is unaware the stripper was told by Merrimen to give him misleading information about the heist. The next morning, Nick makes a desperate unscheduled effort to see his daughter at her school.
The day of the heist comes. Merrimen and his crew invade a commercial bank and take hostages. Nick's team is outside as the chaos unfolds. The L.A.P.D. negotiator calls and speaks to the bank's manager on behalf of Merrimen. To discourage further time-wasting communications, Merrimen has one of the crew take a hostage to a back room, where he apparently shoots her. The police negotiator then agrees not to communicate again until the robbers' demands (money and helicopter) are about to arrive in over an hour's time. The thieves then blow the vault open and escape through a hole in the floor before Nick's team come in. They also find that the shooting of the hostage was staged. The thieves needed commercial bank cash so they could make a cash drop-off at the Federal Reserve, the only way to get inside the Federal Reserve building.
Donnie is hidden inside a cash dolly delivered to the Federal Reserve building by Merrimen, and he slips out during a falsely tripped alarm to collect the targeted old bills that have been earmarked for shredding, and he stashes them in bags and throws them in with the refuse. After escaping the cash count-rooms through the air ducts, Donnie retrieves the bag of food from the bathroom ceiling. Appalled by the cold, old food, the unsuspecting Federal Reserve employee who orders Chinese food daily tries to get security to stop him, but Donnie is gone. The cash is dispatched from the Federal Reserve building in a garbage truck that removes shredded bills. Nick's team catches up to Donnie and seizes him, beating him until he tells them where Merrimen is going.
Merrimen, Bosco, and Levi try to make their escape with the money bags from the waste truck. They hit a traffic jam and are blocked. Nick's team spots them and attempt to shoot them as the robbers try to escape. A shootout occurs initiated by Merrimen killing one of Nick's men. Levi and Bosco are eventually shot dead, but Merrimen gets away. Nick chases and shoots Merrimen through a fence, wounding him. Nick hops the fence to catch him, but Merrimen refuses to go out quietly. He raises an empty gun to Nick, forcing Nick to shoot him. As Merrimen lies on the ground dying, Nick kneels by him. He reminds Nick that he kept his word about him not going to jail again and dies peacefully. When Nick inspects Merrimen's SUV, he only finds bags with shredded paper. He also finds that Donnie has escaped custody.
Nick later goes to Donnie's bar and sees pictures of him with some of the crew members from the heist. Through flashbacks, it is revealed Donnie masterminded the heist to keep all of the stolen cash for himself in a second garbage truck. The realization hits Nick. After the passage of some time, Donnie is seen in London working at another bar. His crew is nearby having drinks and enjoying the spoils of their victory. A man (Michael Bisping) from a shop across the street comes in. Donnie serves him and asks whether he works at the diamond exchange next door. The man says yes, and Donnie gives the man a beer on the house.
Maps Den of Thieves (film)
Cast
- Gerard Butler as Nicholas "Big Nick" O'Brien, Debbie's ex-husband and a gritty and corrupt LA sheriff who is hellbent on bringing down Merrimen's crew, who plan on robbing the Federal Reserve Bank in Downtown Los Angeles. Due to his requirements to gain weight in short period of time for his role, Mister Butler had to not only eat between takes, but during as well. Over ninety percent of his screen time he can be seen chewing bits of rice, jerky and skittles.
- Pablo Schreiber as Ray Merrimen, a Marine veteran, the crew's leader and schemer, one of the robbers who set out in the first scheme in robbing the Federal Reserve Bank of Downtown Los Angeles.
- O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Donnie Wilson, a bartender and one of the robbers who set out in the first scheme in robbing the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles. He is the skilled driver of the group.
- Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson as Levi Enson Levoux, one of the robbers who set out in the first scheme in robbing the Federal Reserve Bank of downtown Los Angeles. He has a young daughter and a wife.
- Evan Jones as Bo Bosco Ostroman, one of the robbers who works directly with Merrimen and Enson
- Cooper Andrews as Mack, one of the robber's crew members. He doesn't directly take part in the robberies but does behind-the-scene stuff.
- Maurice Compte as Benny 'Borracho' Megalob
- Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau as Tony Z Zapata
- Dawn Olivieri as Debbie O'Brien, Nick O'Brien's ex-wife who leaves him after discovering he had cheated on her
- Lewis Tan as Secret Service Lobby Guard #1
- Jermaine Rivers as Fed Receiving Guard Jackson who stops Ray Merrimen and Levoux as they enter and exit the Federal Reserve facility.
- Mo McRae as Gus Henderson, a sheriff working under Big Nick
- Meadow Williams as Holly
- Brian Van Holt as Murph Connors
- Max Holloway as Bas, one of the robbers and Donnie's friend.
- Jay Dobyns as Wolfgang
- Alix Lapri as Maloa
- Matthew Cornwell as Joseph, a bank manager
- Eric Braeden as Ziggy Zerhusen
Production
The film was in development for roughly fourteen years, where director Christian Gudegast and a writing partner had a blind deal with New Line Cinema in 2003. The project was also later supposed to be distributed by the now-defunct Relativity Media at one point as well. Jay Dobyns, who played the character of Wolfgang, was a former Special Agent and undercover operative with the BATFE and served as a consultant for this film.
Filming locations
Production began in January of 2017. Director of photography, Terry Stacey, shot the movie using the Arri Alexa XT Plus digital motion picture camera. Although set in Los Angeles, California, Den of Thieves was primarily filmed in and around Atlanta, Georgia. Aerial shots of Los Angeles included the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the Federal Correctional Institution, Terminal Island and the skyline of Downtown Los Angeles.
Reception
Box office
Den of Thieves grossed $44.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $35.0 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $79.9 million, against a production budget of $30 million.
In the United States and Canada, Den of Thieves was released on January 19, 2018 alongside 12 Strong and Forever My Girl, as well as the wide expansions of Phantom Thread, I, Tonya and Call Me by Your Name, and was projected to gross $7-10 million from 2,432 theaters in its opening weekend. It ended up performing above projections, debuting to $15.3 million and finishing third at the box office behind holdover Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and 12 Strong. It dropped 43% to $8.6 million in its second week and another 47% to $4.6 million in its third.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 41% based on 107 reviews, and an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Den of Thieves pays energetic homage to classic heist thrillers of the past; unfortunately, it never comes close to living up to its obvious inspirations." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 49 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Exclaim! scored the film a 5 out of 10, saying "Den of Thieves is just too bone-headed to deliver the twists it attempts."
Sequel
In February 2018, it was announced a sequel was in development with Gudegast signed on to return to write and direct. Additionally, Butler, and Jackson Jr. were in talks to reprise their roles.
References
External links
- Official website
- Den of Thieves on IMDb
- Den of Thieves on Box Office Mojo
- DEN OF THIEVES (2018) at the TCM Movie Database
- Den of Thieves on YouTube | Final Trailer | Now Playing Xu?t b?n 25 thg 12, 2017
Source of article : Wikipedia
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