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The Rewatchables ·

Den of Thieves

year 2018decade 10sdirector Christian Gudegastgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Chris Ryan
All 15 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 22:57

The Benihana scene

The movie is centered on about five rewatchable scenes that bleed into each other, and the last hour and fifteen minutes is one action piece divided into three; one first pick is everything from the Hofbrau introduction through Nick and the LASD clique bracing Donnie in the hotel room.

The case for the opening donut-shop robbery is the eeriness of LA at three or four in the morning once you leave Hollywood for Hawthorne and the side towns off the 10 and the 5, when the traffic is gone and the streets are empty, even if wetting down the streets is a liberty.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:22:55

"We're cop killers now"

The nominees are the cop-killers line, Nick telling his ex-wife's new boyfriend to give him a hug and save a fortune on therapy, and Merriman's family-here, popping-off speech from Benihana, performed standing up; dates would have worked better than family, though 50's wife is at the table.

The film

Den of Thieves (2018)

Directed by Christian Gudegast · Action crime

Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Gerard Butler Nick O’Brien
Pablo Schreiber Ray Merrimen
O’Shea Jackson Jr. Donnie Wilson
50 Cent Enson Levoux
Maurice Compte Benny Borracho Magalon
Brian Van Holt Murph Connors
Evan Jones Bo Bosco Ostroman
Mo McRae Gus Henderson
Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau Tony Zapata
Dawn Olivieri Debbie O’Brien
Eric Braeden Ziggy Zerhusen
Lewis Tan Federal Reserve Police Lobby Guard #1
Jermaine Rivers Officer Jackson
Jay Dobyns Rolph Wolfgang
Alix Lapri Maloa
Nick Loeb Rudd

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

1:04:33

Casting What-Ifs

Sylvester Stallone and The Rock were attached during the film's long development; Sam Worthington was attached at var...

Sylvester Stallone and The Rock were attached during the film's long development; Sam Worthington was attached at various points

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:04:33Read transcript
  • The script floated around for a long time with little record of who nearly played whom; Sylvester Stallone was attached at one point, twenty-five years too late, and on the Skyscraper set The Rock told Pablo Schreiber he was supposed to do the movie ten years earlier, when he would have been a lead rather than the 50 Cent part, since villain Rock still does not exist.
  • Sam Worthington was also attached at various points; the casting is otherwise considered largely right, with every role from Butler, Pablo, O'Shea and 50 to Maurice Conti (as transcribed), Evan Jones and Mo McCray called perfect, apart from the Dave Chappelle part one host misses.
  • The film had a long, circuitous development of ten or fifteen years, at one point at Relativity, with various names attached; it benefits from not being the Heat setup of two famous stars, since Schreiber and Butler let you lose yourself in the movie.
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1:07:16

Half-Assed Internet Research

DeSean Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marcedes Lewis and six other future NFL players went to Long Beach Poly; Butler ...

DeSean Jackson, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Marcedes Lewis and six other future NFL players went to Long Beach Poly; Butler gained 20 to 30 pounds, ate a real donut across 20 takes and took up smoking; Pablo Schreiber used his prior weapons training; Big Nick is loosely based on technical advisor Jay Dobyns

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:16Read transcript
  • Going beyond Wikipedia, the research is who else went to Long Beach Poly: Deshaun Jackson (as transcribed), Juju Smith-Schuster, Mercedes Lewis and six other future NFL players, while nobody famous went to South Torrance.
  • Long Beach is called the most underrated part of California, right on the water and no different from Orange County or Manhattan Beach, and big things are predicted for it; whether Jake in Training Day went to the same school is wondered.
  • Butler gained twenty to thirty pounds for the role, ate the real donut on every one of twenty takes, and picked up smoking; Pablo Schreiber used weapons training he had received.
  • Big Nick is loosely based on Jay Dobbins (as transcribed), a technical advisor on set, whose Slashfilm interview described police work as a nasty, grimy, scab of a life rather than Miami Vice, which the film tried to honor in its details even though the story is fantastical.
  • More is wanted on whether the Fed really destroys money and whether it could be taken right before shredding, a device Logan Lucky also uses; a giant feature on it is requested.
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1:14:23

Recasting Couch

Nobody; the cast is perfect

Nobody; the cast is perfect

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:23Read transcript
  • The new category, from a listener, is to recast one part; two would recast nothing because the movie is perfect, one would put Dave Chappelle in the Mo McCray part, with Kate McKinnon as a joke; asked which part they would play, the answers are Borracho and Murph, and Jamie Foxx is rejected as too old.
  • The film missed spots to stunt cast: the disgruntled wife could have been someone more famous like a 2019 Catherine Keener or Jessica Alba, and Gus could have been funnier with Chappelle, a take the other two vote down.
  • Gus could have been dialed up with Dave Chappelle or Jamie Foxx for three jokes, but the others say the film cannot have humor because it is built as Big Nick versus Ray Merriman, two alpha gorillas on a collision course, signaled by the on-screen names and matching back-shot introductions.
  • Mo McCray's best moment, pulling Big Nick away from the women at Benihana while giving them a salacious look, shows the crew is as dirty as Nick; the Chappelle wish is compared to Laker fans preferring Derek Fisher to Chris Paul.
  • For 50 Cent's part, Ray Lewis or Ed Reed are imagined as stunt casting, Idris Elba is too famous and old, and swapping Mo McCray and 50 would make a worse movie because the cop needs to be the slimy, skinnier one.
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1:18:53

Picking Nits

The Federal Reserve lets a delivery guy up to the offices; Merriman's crew would have killed Donnie or cut ties befor...

The Federal Reserve lets a delivery guy up to the offices; Merriman's crew would have killed Donnie or cut ties before the heist; 50 Cent worries more about the prom date than his own death; the crew never tries to drive out of the stalled traffic; the cops would not start a shootout among civilians; Nick should have expected the big gun; Nick running after all the smoking and donuts; the women complaining about the old food; Nick checking the Hofbrau for Donnie afterward; Nick blowing Donnie's cover at Benihana; the Chinese food stinking in the ceiling

In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:18:53Read transcript
  • Less secure workplaces than the Federal Reserve still make you meet the delivery guy in the lobby rather than letting him up to the offices.
  • The biggest nitpick is that Schreiber's crew would kill Donnie or cut ties right after Benihana; the counter is that they need him connected so the cops go to the fake location on Friday, with the plan presumably to kill him afterward.
  • 50 Cent cares more about intimidating his daughter's prom date than about his own life; the defense is that the robbers are shown as happy family men in deliberate contrast with Nick, a menace to everyone who is not a cop.
  • The crew never tries to drive out of the stalled traffic, which bothers one host every time, and the cops probably would not open fire with a hundred civilians sitting there, though they did not expect all of what happened.
  • Minor nits: Butler had been at the gun range with Merriman yet is surprised by the big rifle, and a man who smokes, eats donuts and stays up until six every night is unlikely to run more than fifty feet in the athletic chase, adrenaline or not.
  • One host has no nits because the movie is perfect; the earlier confusion over why the women complained about the old food is resolved by realizing Donnie knew the robbers were tapping the restaurant's phone calls and needed them to believe everything.
  • Butler checking the Hofbrau for Donnie days after the heist, as if a man who broke out of handcuffs would go back to work, is odd; the Hofbrau itself is an amazing bit, a German soccer bar populated only by federal employees, cops and bank robbers.
  • Earlier Benihana nits: Nick blows Donnie's cover right away, and a crew that killed four cops would have the city locked down rather than played out, though the cops have no evidence and want to kill rather than arrest.
  • Chinese food sitting in the ceiling for a week and a half would have stunk up the men's room; packing it in an ice chest inside the bag is proposed and rejected because the bag would have been noticed on the first delivery.
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1:25:20

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Why is the other man at the double date Irish? What position did Merriman play? What do Big Nick's next five years lo...

Why is the other man at the double date Irish? What position did Merriman play? What do Big Nick's next five years look like? Is Den of Thieves 2 set overseas? How did the crew set up a murder tent between Benihana and the garage?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:25:20Read transcript
  • Why the other man at the double date is Irish is unanswerable; the guess is he is one of Butler's real-life friends, probably Scottish.
  • Merriman's football position is debated between outside and inside linebacker, settled by his number 55 and Mike Singletary.
  • Big Nick's next five years are all downhill: family court, internal affairs reviews after fifty people died on the highway, and visitation hearings in Pasadena; the scene of him crying in the car after seeing his daughter divides the table, one calling it an easy aged-worst candidate while the others like it.
  • The sequel is guessed to be overseas with the diamonds, Nick vacationing in London, over-served on the plane and recruiting the air marshal to get Donnie, who must outsmart the locals too.
  • How Merriman's crew had plastic, acid and a full murder tent ready in the garage between Benihana and getting home is asked and answered with the Jeff Chow tent joke.
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