Den Of Thieves 2’s Heists Are All Based On Real-Life Robberies [Exclusive]

Note: The rest of this interview contains spoilers for “Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” so proceed accordingly.

I’d love to hear more about Big Nick’s arc, specifically. There’s a nice reveal that happens at the end with Nick turning these people into the police, but he’s at such a low point that it feels believable that he could have actually legitimately flipped. So tell me about the change that you wanted the audience to experience with this character in this movie versus what we saw in the first one.

So that’s, again, speaking to what we just talked about. It’s like where is Nick in his life when he goes on this journey? Maybe he went over there with one intention: “I’m going to bring Donnie down. This motherf***er pisses me off. He got away with it.” And then he gets there and he meets the local law enforcement guys, doesn’t get along with them. They treat him like s***. And he’s at a foreign place and then suddenly he sees somebody that he knows, even though it’s Donnie, it’s a familiar face. It’s like if you’re traveling somewhere in part of the world and you see somebody [and you’re] like, “Oh my God, what’s up man?” and there’s an instant connection there, and he’s experiencing all these emotions. It’s like a roller coaster, this constant up and down. We wanted to play with that throughout the film to feel which way is he going to go? and to understand the journey, the emotional roller coaster, that he’s on.

But at the end of the day, it’s like, “Man, I’m a cop. I can’t do this.” But then at the same time, he is like, “This is pretty fun.” And the technical advisor and consultant, my friend who worked with us on “Den 1,” Jay, we talked to him a lot about Nick’s character in “Den 2.” And Jay was an undercover cop for years and years, and there’s that push-pull, right? You get into a world, you’re all gung ho and rah-rah, and “I’m going to bring these guys down,” and then you get to know them and you actually kind of like them. And then by the time it’s time to bring them down, you feel like s***. They almost become a surrogate family for him. Now he’s destroying that. It’s like, “My family life at home’s screwed up. Now I have this new family and now I’m bringing them down too.” And he feels terrible. It’s like, “Who am I? What am I doing?” It’s a little bit of an identity crisis.

There are so many great heist movies that tap into that. I’m thinking of “Point Break,” and the “Fast and Furious” movies do this as well. So in terms of cinematic references, there are obviously a million heist movies out there. So did you watch any of those in preparation for this, either for aspects that you wanted to pay homage to or for things that you knew that you didn’t want to do?

I saw 10 minutes of the first “Fast and Furious” and didn’t see any of the other ones. None of them. It was really, “Ronin” was a big influence. “Gomorrah,” “Suburra,” and then a lot of the old French New Wave like Melville and “Le Cercle Rouge” and “Rififi” and “Borsalino” and all those great movies. I mean, I’ve seen most of the old school classics. A lot of the new stuff I haven’t really seen that much of, to be honest. But it’s really about, you do the research, you go into the world, and you do your own thing. You try to be unique and original to yourself. You’re not really trying to … I mean, obviously as artists, we all have influences, of course, but there wasn’t anything really specific that we were [going for], homage-wise. More the energy and vibe of certain films. “Ronin” was a big one, again, an American character in Europe and sort of a blend between American and European cinema, right? But there was no specific homage, no.

Were you ever worried at any point, because it’s been several years since the first movie, that another modern heist film would come along and have a very similar plot point or something like that. Do you ever worry about that as a filmmaker at all?

I mean, you always kind of do, you know what I mean? I’ve had things in the past as a writer where you write a script, a spec, and it’s great, and then suddenly you realize there’s a very, very similar one coming out. I had that once years ago, I worked on a project called “The Company,” and then when we were just about to set it up and go make it, that movie “The Recruit” came out with Colin Farrell and Al Pacino. And honestly, it was essentially the same movie. So that killed our movie. They beat us to the punch by a few months. So yes, of course you kind of think about that, but you’ve got to just put your best foot forward, do your thing, and hope for the best, right? Solana Token Creator