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The Rewatchables

The Re-‘Den of Thieves’ LIVE With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan

98 min episode · 2 min read

Episode

98 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Career Growth, Leadership, Design & UX

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Crime versus Heist Genre: Den of Thieves operates as both crime film examining LA criminal culture and heist movie detailing mechanics of robbing the Federal Reserve through elaborate tunneling, combining character-driven storytelling with technical precision that keeps viewers engaged across its 98-minute runtime through multiple rewatches.
  • Cable Television Impact: The film earned $85 million on $30 million budget but gained cultural momentum through nine months of constant Showtime rotation in 2018-2019, representing final era when cable guide browsing created secondary film success before streaming thumbnails replaced channel surfing as discovery method.
  • Gerard Butler Career Pivot: Butler gained 25 pounds for Big Nick role, establishing second career phase as grizzled action lead after romantic comedy period, with performance featuring hungover detective eating crime scene donuts and drinking milk from carton defining his post-300 trajectory in law enforcement thrillers.
  • Structural Three-Act Design: Film divides into distinct segments—setup until cop killer declaration, extended middle section building tension, and final 66 minutes of pure action including savings loan robbery, Federal Reserve heist, and Alameda Corridor shootout that functions as standalone rewatchable content.
  • Usual Suspects Plot Twist: Donnie the bartender serves as actual mastermind throughout, with his seeming vulnerability masking complete environmental control and heist planning, revealed only in final Keyser Soze-style shot that recontextualizes entire narrative and establishes sequel setup in international setting.

What It Covers

Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan revisit the 2018 heist film Den of Thieves in a live recording, analyzing Gerard Butler's performance, Pablo Schreiber's role, the movie's Heat influences, and previewing the upcoming sequel Pantera.

Key Questions Answered

  • Crime versus Heist Genre: Den of Thieves operates as both crime film examining LA criminal culture and heist movie detailing mechanics of robbing the Federal Reserve through elaborate tunneling, combining character-driven storytelling with technical precision that keeps viewers engaged across its 98-minute runtime through multiple rewatches.
  • Cable Television Impact: The film earned $85 million on $30 million budget but gained cultural momentum through nine months of constant Showtime rotation in 2018-2019, representing final era when cable guide browsing created secondary film success before streaming thumbnails replaced channel surfing as discovery method.
  • Gerard Butler Career Pivot: Butler gained 25 pounds for Big Nick role, establishing second career phase as grizzled action lead after romantic comedy period, with performance featuring hungover detective eating crime scene donuts and drinking milk from carton defining his post-300 trajectory in law enforcement thrillers.
  • Structural Three-Act Design: Film divides into distinct segments—setup until cop killer declaration, extended middle section building tension, and final 66 minutes of pure action including savings loan robbery, Federal Reserve heist, and Alameda Corridor shootout that functions as standalone rewatchable content.
  • Usual Suspects Plot Twist: Donnie the bartender serves as actual mastermind throughout, with his seeming vulnerability masking complete environmental control and heist planning, revealed only in final Keyser Soze-style shot that recontextualizes entire narrative and establishes sequel setup in international setting.

Notable Moment

The Benihana confrontation scene layers multiple tensions as Big Nick and Ray Merriman engage in high school football rivalry trash talk while families watch, with South Torrance versus Long Beach Poly insults escalating until Merriman stands declaring he has family present, nearly triggering violence over decades-old athletic competition.

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Episode Transcript

What's up everybody? Chris Vernon here and welcome to a new season of the NBA and the mismatch. And huge welcome as well to my new co host Dave Jacoby. I can't wait to link with you twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday, right here on the mismatch to break down everything that's happening in the league. Who's playing well, who we loved, who we loathed, trade rumors, team dysfunction, we've got you covered right here. So follow us, subscribe, and hit us with those five star ratings on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. And also don't forget to follow us on social media. That's at ringer NBA, and check out the full mismatch episodes with the two handsomest podcasters in the history of podcasting right on the Ringer NBA YouTube channel. This podcast is sponsored by PayPal. Let's talk holiday shopping. Make the most of your money with PayPal. They give you the flexibility to pay in four. No fees. No interest. So whether it's the must have toy or a tiered cheese board, PayPal helps you make the most of your money this holiday, subject to approval. Learn more at paypal.com/payin for PayPal Inc n mls91045seven. This episode is brought to you by United Airlines. Here's something worth watching, the award winning United Airlines app. On every trip, you can flip through time saving travel hacks, like a personalized airport map with door to gate directions, binge watch real time flight updates, like a live calendar boarding, even if your home screen's locked, and watch it automatically move you from a middle seat to an aisle or a window if one opens up on your flight. Get it before your next trip @united.comslashapp. The Rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. You can find all the new episodes that we do on this feed on our Ringer Movies YouTube channel. Has a lot of the old episodes as well, some fun clips, the big picture with Sean Fantas and Amanda Dobbins, and, some of the extra movie stuff that we've been doing. You can subscribe, and you'll get all of it by subscribing to Ringer movies. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel as well, the Bill Simmons YouTube channel. Speaking of me, you can send us any suggestions, ideas, whatever you want for the rewatchables because I think we're gonna do a mailbag pretty soon. So I have a good batch of stuff already. But if you wanna send anything else along the way, you can send it to the rewatchables thirty three at Gmail dot com. What you're about to listen to, we taped a couple weeks ago. We love the movie, Dan of Thieves. We'd already done on the rewatchables a few years ago. We decided to do it again. We were trying to actually experiment with something in the, in the LA Spotify office. We had a smaller crowd, and we were just, we're just in the experimenting …

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  • previewing the upcoming sequel Pantera
  • Butler gained 25 pounds for Big Nick role, establishing second career phase as grizzled action lead after romantic comedy period, with performance featuring hungover detective eating crime scene donuts and drinking milk from carton defining his post-300 trajectory in law enforcement thrillers.
  • Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan revisit the 2018 heist film Den of Thieves in a live recording, analyzing Gerard Butler's performance, Pablo Schreiber's role, the movie's Heat influences, and previewing the upcoming sequel Pantera.
  • the movie's Heat influences

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