Den of Thieves 2: Pantera There’s no mid-engine sports car from De Tomaso in there. Too bad. But there is a Porsche Taycan Turbo, and that’s a plus. Actually there were five Taycans.

This is the sequel to 2018’s Den of Thieves and brings back stars Gerard Butler and O’Shea Jackson, Jr. to answer any questions about character motivations and plot holes left by that first film. And then new questions about character motivation and new plot holes arise. Like the first one, it’s all about a robbery. And like the first, it’s as much about male bonding and the battle between good and evil as it is about stealing things. There’s a lot of gunplay, a lot of words not commonly used here, clenched jaws, Marlboros and stubble.

It’s not entirely clear whether the “Pantera” part of the title refers to the criminals or the cops. And this messy ambivalence might be the point.

The Taycan looks great. Shot like it was a Playboy centerfold. Better than shiny glamor shots at the mall. It is the getaway vehicle after the big diamond robbery and does things that Porsche Taycans cannot do.

Porsche provided production with five Taycans to represent the sole car. All were factory development vehicles for the Turbo S model and were shipped to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, where the film’s climactic chase sequence was filmed. All five were never intended to be sold to the public.

The first Taycan was a standard and unmodified Turbo S, which was used to portray the escape machine in “hero shots”. These are the shots where the vehicle is immaculate and stunning. It’s the car you see with the actors outside.

A second Taycan Turbo S was used as a “pod car”. This is a modified vehicle with a driving cabin attached to the roof (like the one at the top of this story). A stunt driver in the aerial gondola controls the vehicle while the actors in the cockpit express emotions, react and do all sorts of action stuff.

“All driving control components, including the instrument cluster, ignition, sport response dial, shift/gear selector, steering wheel, accelerator, brake and stunt drift brake, were relocated to the roof of the car and mounted in the driving console. “explains Porsche spokesman Jarred Hopkins. “The steering was converted to hydraulic as there was not enough space to move the steering column to the roof of the pod.”

According to the film’s producers, this was the first time an all-electric car was equipped with a remote-controlled gondola for filming. However, driving pods have become common tools for pursuing car chases. At least common for productions that can afford it.

A third Taycan was gutted and used as a “biscuit rig” vehicle. Essentially, all of the things that identify a Taycan as a Taycan – the body, the interior and most of the sheet metal – are mounted on a mobile camera platform that acts as the Taycan’s chassis. So in a sense it was a Taycan powered by an internal combustion engine. This allows cameras to look into the Taycan and capture the actors working inside.

The fourth and fifth Taycans were stunt cars modified by Porsche to do lots of silly things. “The changes were a mix of software and mechanics,” says Hopkins. “One of the more daunting requirements was that the car should be able to reverse at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour, which required significant software overrides. Associated with this was a hydraulic handbrake, which was used liberally and to dramatic effect!”

Movie car mechanics can work wonders, but the Taycan is one of the most technologically complex vehicles in the world. Therefore, Porsche made most of the modifications to the stunt cars themselves. And during filming, Porsche was on site with its own staff. Porsche also states that the cars were charged in Tenerife using Porsche’s consumer charging stations.

Porsche lists the consumer wall chargers on its website for a modest (very modest for Porsche) $1670. This is, after all, the company that charges $6,220 for the Black Leather/Race-Tex interior with Shark Blue stitching option for its GT3.

For anyone who likes action films, Den of Thieves 2 is a solid offering. Director Gudegast also wrote the script and knows how to move a camera effectively. Gerard Butler is Scottish but plays a Los Angeles cop well, and O’Shea Jackson Jr. has a real Hawthorne authenticity. Most of the action takes place in France rather than the Southern California of the original (although the film was largely shot in Atlanta).

In an interview at the Porsche Experience Center in California, both actors admitted that their daily drivers are Range Rovers. And both deny ever throwing anything while filming the action scenes.

As for the film itself, the plot is too torturous and drawn out. The twist ending isn’t a big surprise. The characters often seem like archetypes rather than people. And diamonds seem to be a bit of an outdated commodity, as gem-quality diamonds are created in laboratories. Plus, the raid itself is terribly dangerous. Wouldn’t it have been easier to do a smash-and-grab at Zales in Culver City?

That being said, though, it’s fun to watch athletic stunt performers do athletic things before they die a gruesome death on screen.

As heist movies go, this one is a step below the 2011 films Quick fivebut superior to all subsequent ones Fast and Furious Films. The gold standard remains Michael Mann’s 1995 classic heat.

By the way, Den of Thieves 2 The director is the son of actor Eric Braeden. And Braeden’s long resume also includes a villainous role as Bruno von Sickle in this 1977 car culture phenomenon. Herbie goes to Monte Carlo. And in this Disney film, there were at least two De Tomaso Panteras among the racing cars. You see, things come to pass.

You might also like this