Den of Thieves is a 2018 American heist action thriller film co-written, directed and produced by Christian Gudegast. The film stars Gerard Butler, 50 Cent, Pablo Schreiber, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Evan Jones, Dawn Olivieri, Mo McRae, and Max Holloway. It follows an elite group of County Sheriff Deputies who look to stop a crew of thieves that plan to rob the Federal Reserve in Los Angeles.
| Den of Thieves | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Christian Gudegast |
| Written by | Christian Gudegast |
| Story by |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Terry Stacey |
| Edited by | Joel Cox |
| Music by | Cliff Martinez |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | STXfilms |
Release date |
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Running time | 140 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30 million[2] |
| Box office | $15.3 million[1] |
The film was released in the United States on January 19, 2018 and received mixed reviews from critics.[3]
Plot
Los Angeles, 2018 - An armored truck makes a stop at a coffee shop. Within moments, a team of robbers led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber) attacks and tries to break into the truck. The guards attempt to defend themselves and stand their ground, leading the robbers to kill them. Police officers arrive on the scene and engage in a shootout with the robbers. Eventually, Merrimen and his crew make off with the empty Armored truck, but he reprimands Donnie (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.) for killing the first guard.
In the morning, Detective Nick "Big Nick" O'Brien (Gerard Butler) goes to investigate the crime scene. Nick and F.B.I. Agent Lobbin Bob Golightly get into a sarcastic argument. He has been investigating Merrimen and his crew for a while, whereas Merrimen holds a grudge with Nick for killing one of his guys. Nick finds Donnie at the bar he works at and makes friendly chat before later cornering Donnie in his car and knocking him out. Nick brings Donnie to a house where his gang of officers interrogate Donnie over Merrimen and his plans. Donnie explains that he only got in with Merrimen and his crew because he's a great getaway driver and Merrimen was impressed with his skills. Through a flashback, we learn that Merrimen is planning to rob the Federal Reserve on Friday of that week, with the intention of taking roughly $30 million in unmarked bills that would otherwise get shredded.
Ray Merrimen has Donnie gain access into the Federal Reserve by having him get hired as a Chinese food delivery guy. In the ceiling of the bathroom, he stashes an extra bag of food, and a delivery uniform, 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, particularly strippers. She angrily packs up her things and takes their daughters with her. Despite Nick's pleas to hear him out, Debbie hurls obscenities at Nick and hits him. She later has a lawyer go to his job and serve him divorce papers.
Nick spots Donnie at a restaurant with Merrimen and his crew, which makes them suspicious when Nick calls Donnie out. At their hideout, Merrimen has his right-hand man Levi (Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson) hit Donnie and interrogate him to make sure he hasn't been talking to Nick about their plans. Donnie assures him that he hasn't told him anything about the robbery. Nick goes to a strip club and goes home with a stripper. In the morning, Merrimen finds him but does nothing, having found him because he set the stripper on Nick to get info on him.
Later on, Levi's daughter has a date come over to pick her up for a school dance. Levi pulls the guy aside to introduce him to Merrimen and the rest of their crew to intimidate him and make sure he does nothing to hurt Levi's daughter, or else the boy will utterly regret it. When he leaves, Merrimen and the guys have a laugh. Meanwhile, Nick drunkenly crashes a small get-together between Debbie and some of her friends. He gets aggressive with one of the men before he is told to leave. Outside of work, however, Nick makes an effort to see his daughter.
The day of the heist comes. Merrimen and his crew invade a commercial bank branch and take hostages. Nick and his guys are outside as the chaos unfolds. The Chief of Police calls and speaks to the bank's branch manager on behalf of Merrimen. To prove they are serious, Merrimen has one of his guys take a hostage to a back room and shoot her. Merrimen tells the manager to tell the chief that they want their large sum of money and a chopper. The thieves then blow the vault open and escape through a hole in the floor before Nick and his guys come in. They also find that the hostage they supposedly shot is still alive, but terrified. The thieves needed commercial bank cash, so they could do a cash drop-off at the federal reserve: the only way to get inside the federal reserve building.
Donnie is sneaked inside a cash dolly into the Federal Reserve building by Merrimen, to get the targeted cash: old bills that have been earmarked for shredding: completely untraceable. And he stashes it in bags. After escaping the cash count-rooms through the air ducts, Donnie retrives the uniform and 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 will leave the Federal Reserve building in the same waste management truck that comes to pick up the bags of shredded bills. Nick and his guys catch up to him and capture him, beating him until he tells them where Merrimen is going.
Merrimen and two other guys in the crew try to make their escape. They hit a traffic jam and are blocked. Nick and his guys spot them and get out of their cars with guns as Merrimen and his guys try to escape. After warning other drivers, the police start to shoot at Merrimen and his gang. Levi and the other men are shot dead, but Merrimen keeps running. Nick chases after him and shoots him through a fence, wounding Merrimen. Nick hops the fence to catch him, but Merrimen refuses to go out quietly. Although he tries to fight back, Nick shoots Merrimen four times in the chest. As Merrimen lies on the floor dying. Nick kneels by him. He reminds Nick that he kept to his word and told him he wasn't cuffing up to where Nick that yeah, he was right. Merrimen peacefully dies. When Nick goes to inspect Merrimen's van, he finds bags with shredded money. 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, we see that Donnie had always planned for everything to go his way, including teaming up with Merrimen, switching out the cash bags with the shredded bills, and then escaping and getting away with the money for himself. The realization hits Nick.
Donnie is now 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 if he works at the diamond shop. The man says yes, and Donnie gives the man a beer on the house. [4]
Cast
- Gerard Butler as Nick "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.
- O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Donnie, a Black-British 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.
- 50 Cent as Levi Enson, 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.
- Pablo Schreiber as Ray Merrimen, 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.
- Evan Jones as Bosco, one of the robbers who works directly with Merrimen and Enson
- Cooper Andrews as Mack, one of the robber’s crew members. He doesnt 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 Actor
- Mo McRae as Gus Henderson, a sheriff under working Big Nick
- Meadow Williams as Holly
- Brian Van Holt as Murph
- Max Holloway as Bas, one of the robbers and Bosco’s brother.[5]
- Jay Dobyns as Wolfgang
- Alix Lapri as Maloa
Production
On June 14, 2016, it was reported that Gerard Butler would star in the heist thriller film Den of Thieves for STX Entertainment.[6]
Filming began on January 30, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.[7][8]
Release
Box office
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.[9] 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.[2]
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 42% based on 53 reviews, and an average rating of 4.7/10. 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."[10] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.[2]
Exclaim! scored the film a 5 out of 10, saying "Den of Thieves is just too bone-headed to deliver the twists it attempts."[12]
References
- ^ a b "Den of Thieves (2018)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 21, 2018.
- ^ a b c D'Alessandro, Anthony (January 19, 2018). "'Den Of Thieves' & '12 Strong' Draw Close To $1M On Thursday Night, But 'Jumanji' Will Win The Weekend". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 19, 2018. Cite error: The named reference "opening" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Jeff Giles (January 18, 2018). "12 Strong is a Little Flimsy". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ Spencer Perry, "Den of Thieves Trailer: Gerard Butler Squares Off Against 50 Cent," ComingSoon.net, October 25, 2017.
- ^ "Holloway lands movie role next to Gerard Butler, 50 Cent". Bloody Elbow. 2017-02-08. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
- ^ Kit, Borys (June 14, 2016). "Gerard Butler Action Thriller 'Den of Thieves' Lands at STX (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
- ^ "Den of Thieves, Starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent, Starts Filming". ComingSoon.net. January 30, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- ^ "Filming Is Underway On Action Thriller 'Den Of Thieves' Starring Gerard Butler And Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson For STX Entertainment & Diamond Film Productions". PRNewswire. January 30, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
- ^ Faughnder, Ryan (January 17, 2018). "Afghanistan war film '12 Strong' to battle 'Jumanji' reboot for top box-office spot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
- ^ "Den of Thieves (2018)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ "Den of Thieves reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 20, 2018.
- ^ "Den of Thieves review". Exclaim!. January 18, 2018. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
