In 2018, the heist thriller den of thieves filmed in the all-time January movie canon, quickly gaining a passionate fan base, box office success, and the green light for a sequel. Seven years later, that sequel finally arrived in style, with tighter writing, tense heist sequences, and lovable characters.
Den of Thieves 2: Panther sees writer-director Christian Gudegast return for his second feature, alongside stars O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Gerard Butler as master criminal Donnie Wilson and dirty cop Nick O'Brien. While both films are heist thrillers, they feel distinct from each other: the former captures the dirty atmosphere of Los Angeles cops and criminals going head-to-head, while the Panther moves the action to Europe and often feels more like a globe-trotting spy thriller.
While den of thieves'the robbery was totally original, PantherThe big work is based on the infamous Antwerp heist of 2003, the largest known diamond heist in history. In the film, Gudegast and his team make the heist methodical, paying close attention to the robbers' process and gradually using both sound design and cross-cutting sequences to other related sequences to build up the tension to an almost unbearable point.
Of the film's many standout sequences, the most impressive is a daring car chase and shootout that takes place on a narrow, winding mountain road. The sequence is truly electrifying, and not just because Gudegast and his team broke new ground using modified electric vehicles. The sense of danger is palpable and the custom modifications they were able to make to the cars allowed the cameras to capture every bit of the action.
Polygon spoke with Gudegast via Zoom about PantherThe exciting electric car chase and how it all came about.
This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.
Polygon: I heard you lucked out on the Porsche side in terms of your tense car chase. Where did that idea come from? How did it all come about for you?
Cristian Gudegast: I'm a car fanatic and I race in rallies all the time. I'm just a car guy. The reason we chose the Porsche Taycan, why I wrote it that way, is that I wanted an electric car, according to my research. Many thieves, when they are on a long run (in other words, when they are driving a long distance with their loot), want to be as stealthy as possible. With an electric car, the sound is kept low – it's a much quieter ride. That's one factor.
Another factor was the behavior of the roads they traveled on. So I explored all avenues ahead of time and when I was designing the heist, I was with the robbers and we literally designed what they would have done physically. We went to the geographical place where they would actually go: they want to avoid roads with CCTV or what's called AMPR, automatic license plate readers. We found these paths and walked them. They were very winding mountain roads in the Maritime Alps, north of Nice. And that led to the border of Italy. We drove them, we filmed them and we recreated it.
So the whole thing was kind of reverse engineered. I looked at those roads, I looked at the cars: “This is the kind of car we want.” And then we approached Porsche and they came in instantly. In the first two minutes of the first call with all of Porsche's senior management, they joined in. They don't do commercials, they don't really advertise, but for some reason, they saw this as a phenomenal opportunity and were incredible partners.
They were there six months in advance. They redesigned and equipped all the cars for filming, something that had never been done before with an electric car. We built modules so the driver could be on the roof of the car, and they had to reconfigure all the controls and all the wiring went up to the roof. The driver is on the roof, so we could have the cameraman and all the actors in the car, and they could worry about pretending to be driving, acting, filming and dialogue.
Meanwhile, the driver was on the roof of the car and of course they were very, very dangerous roads, literally a three hundred foot drop, no joke. So the stunts were very complicated, very dangerous, very precarious. Of course, we rehearsed a lot. But Porsche wouldn't have done it without them. I mean, they were amazing. And they did it all on their own. They brought in all the lead engineers from North America and Germany, and they really made that sequence possible.
What have electric cars changed in the way you film a car chase sequence? I have to imagine the audio was a big factor.
We shot it in a way where we wanted to feel the speed: a lot of wide and low, because the wider the lens, you feel more speed, you feel more movement. The way we filmed in and around the car, we did it differently. We didn't want to have crews on the outside of the car, which often happens, where coverage is filmed from both sides: from crews outside the car door, looking through the front windows. We wanted to have the camera inside the car, be able to use it in hand and be right there in the action, right in front of the actor's face. And the platform allowed us to do that.
But actually, it was the sound you mentioned. It was really into the sound design. We had Porsche record all their material for us, from their electric Taycan engine, and we improved it here and there. We want to give a kind of buzz. It has a very specific type of electrical hum and we wanted to put it in the foreground. We love how it turned out. Stephen [Barden]my sound designer, he did an incredible job. It gave it a unique and specific sound that is unique to the car.
When you were making the decision, did it ever seem like a risk to you to pursue a chase with an electric car?
What were you worried about?
In the tunnel part of the chase shooting, the purpose of the tunnel is because the sound is incredible, due to the reverberation. But part of it is the engine. And so we were worried that we wouldn't have a real reverb from the engine. But then when we did it, we realized there was a little bit of reverb coming from the engine, believe it or not. It just amplified the humming sound. So we were able to improve that a little bit, sound design-wise, when we're in that tunnel. And then, of course, the shots. But the Audis ran on gasoline, so we had the benefit of the Audi engines and that reverb in that tunnel, which was cool.
Historically, electric cars have primarily been used as a joke in chase sequences, whether in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning either in comedies. Were you ever worried about the public perception of electric cars?
No, it didn't even take into account. We were just paying attention to how we were going to do it, working with Porsche and doing our thing.
Den of Thieves 2: Panther It is now showing in cinemas. den of thieves is streaming on Max and can be rented on Amazon Video, Fandango at Home, and other digital platforms.