The Helicopter Heist Review: Capable of Providing Moments of High Expressive Level
The Helicopter Heist Review: Capable of Providing Moments of High Expressive Level - Filmyhype
Director: Daniél Espinosa
Date Created: 2024-11-22 15:35
3.5
The Helicopter Heist Review: The Helicopter Heist, aka Helikopterrånet, hits Netflix on November 22. The eight-episode series is based on true events, as in Jonas Bonnier’s novel of the same name. The series attempts to delve deeper into what happened on that fateful day at the country’s most secure cash depot and uncover how the robbery might have occurred. The Helicopter Heist episodes are finally available on Netflix, the new crime-thriller series announced by the platform as a spectacular experience. The work created by Ronnie Sandhal is based on the novel of the same name by Jonas Bonnier, which in turn is inspired by real events. Just as we will see in this review, The Helicopter Heist is built around the protagonists of the great robbery in Stockholm in September 2009. One of the most important thefts in European criminal history was organized by a gang of thieves to the detriment of a large and secure Swedish bank deposit, using a helicopter to enter directly onto the roof of the building without being hindered by the police.
The Helicopter Heist Review: The Story Plot
On the surface, this looks like your typical Netflix heist series, which has been going on for a while now. Most of them are fictional stories that are meant to be thrilling and exciting, but this one is different because it’s a true story of the most amazing heist in Swedish history from 2009. The author of this series took the entire true story of the heist and added details about the characters’ motivations, making the story in this series even more profound, complex, and realistic than the fictional ones. The series is told in 2 parts. The first half, 4 episodes, is the beginning of the idea of a robbery with a group of professional thieves who have personal problems and want a large sum of money. On the other side, the police receive a tip that there will be a big robbery, so they follow the trail to stop this group of thieves. The story in this period is like a fairly normal beginning with the motive of the main character, ‘Rami’, a former professional thief with a family who is pressured by society until he decides to come back to do it again for his family.
‘Michelle’, a former partner who is still in the gray circle, is the one who plans this. On the police side, there is ‘Leoni’, a policewoman who is in trouble and is being investigated for overstepping her duty. But she is given a case to investigate this group of thieves. The story in this period is quite slow and seems like normal fiction. There is only a short part that looks realistic with the planning process of the thieves who have to prepare everything, even testing the bomb on the rooftop of the building to try it with a realistic building. The steps of the police who are tracking down this group of criminals are fun for only a short time in some scenes until the story starts to get more intense in episode 4 when the group of thieves are ready to do it. After episode 4, the story moves forward with no more sluggishness. It is a realistic robbery scene that shows that no matter how meticulously the robber planned, the actual job will always have things that can lead to mistakes.
The series tells every detail of this mistake according to the report of the actual case. Although the robber who was later caught did not open up, the evidence and the timeline that the police investigated were connected, allowing us to see the details of all the mistakes the robber made, starting from the beginning before the robbery when everyone planned to disappear and blend in with the normal lives that they had prepared for all along, until the pilot who was the biggest flaw in the plan because he was not a criminal before, he needed money so he had to take this job, causing him to panic and leave many details that did not go according to the plan that the robber had planned. The series shows the problems that occurred in great detail, such as what he was thinking during the robbery and what happened to the flaws that he made mistakes that went against the plan without the robber knowing.
The Helicopter Heist Review and Analysis
From these premises begins a story built on two parallel and alternating narrative lines. On one side, the great organization of the robbery by our men, neither criminals nor gangsters, but simply “athletes” who want to achieve their goal. On the other, however, the attempt by the police to prevent the plan being put in place by the gang. How it will end you will discover episode after episode, but what is certain is that The Helicopter Heist is a series capable of staging an adrenaline-filled story that knows how to keep the viewer glued to the small screen. A crime story with police overtones that features no shortage of homages to Michael Mann’s cinema and Martin Scorsese’s gangsterism, such as the use of the protagonist’s off-screen voice-over that delves into his intentions and inner thoughts. In this, The Helicopter Heist is also a work that goes beyond simple entertainment, since it presents a psychological exploration of the moral dilemmas that drive the protagonists to act criminally.
But beyond the aspect concerning the spiritual investigations that lead the characters to act according to immoral principles, it must be said that the entire narrative arc of The Helicopter Heist struggles to go beyond a certain basic schematism: controversial figures called to face a series of difficulties before the final objective, the police who have to investigate an attempted robbery in progress, and criminals driven to act due to economic pressures and the desire to free themselves from a difficult past. But despite this, the series directed by Daniel Espinosa somehow manages to unleash a solid narrative capable of providing moments of the highest expressive level, with its characters who, even if in the end they are not that memorable, are equipped with a depth necessary for the type of product that The Helicopter Heist wants to be. A simple entertaining crime series seasoned, without particular pretensions, with the right dose of psychological introspection. The Helicopter Heist is ready to enrich the Netflix program starting from November 22.
But the point that the series really excels in is the scene of breaking into the building from a helicopter using long-take filming. According to the robbers’ plan, this scene is supposed to end in 15 minutes in a chill manner. But when it comes to the actual work, many things do not go according to plan. The series uses long-take filming from the conversation in the helicopter and then the operation to break in using long continuous camera shots, showing every detail of the actual robbery process that the robbers have to change their plans on the spot when they encounter problems. But no matter what, they have to break in. During this time, the police already knew and surrounded the building. The series’ long take filming is very stressful at every point, from going down to the building, breaking the very durable safety glass, exploding the door of the security room, the conversation full of arguing and cursing among the robbers because they keep encountering things that go against the plan (some parts I think they improvised it), to communicating with the helicopter pilot who is flying above the building, anxiously trying to escape all the time because the fuel is running out.
It shows the suspense that is conveyed every second. There is also a long take from the robbers to the hostages inside the security room. They also used long talks to convey how shocked they were when a thief broke in and blew up the door to their workplace. The series made this long-take robbery scene extremely thrilling. The actors had to rehearse their lines like they were robbing, thinking that they were thieves, following the sequence until the step of taking the money and fleeing, which was more than 30 minutes long. I have to admit that this was the most realistic robbery scene I’ve ever seen in a movie or series. But after escaping, the story is still interesting. When showing how the criminals are trying to cover up the traces of their mistakes, it’s not just the pilot who made a mistake, but others left traces for the police to track down.
This is the time when the female police officer Leoni initially returned to oversee the entire investigation. This story is an in-depth investigation that the series is still intense, following every detail, and seeing every step, which is usually not detailed in general series. And even though they know who the pilot is, there must be more evidence to confirm, including having to arrest the entire gang of thieves at once so that the rest cannot escape. The series chooses to focus on the main character, Rami, in the first episode, bringing back his family drama to play again until the end when the audience must secretly root for him with his love for his family even while escaping. The story ends according to a real case that happened and has unexpected parts that are different from other fictional series.
The Helicopter Heist Review: The Last Words
Despite a narrative schematism that permeates the entire narrative arc, The Helicopter Heist presents itself as a good crime series capable of providing moments of high expressive level, with its characters who, even if in the end they are not memorable, manage to give particular depth to the entire story. A helicopter robbery series based on a true story of a major case in Swedish history, but with additional character backgrounds, the story becomes more detailed. The first 3 episodes may be a bit boring, but after episode 4, the story gets interesting with the realistic robbery scene where the group of thieves planned it in detail, but things went wrong on the job. This part was filmed with a 30-minute long take, showing the real pressure of the job in a way that no other series has ever done before. The series did an amazing job with this scene, until the escape and the police chase. The later part has deep and interesting steps. It ends with a heartbreaking drama and a final scene where the case is closed. There are also unexpected things at the end. I highly recommend this series. It is different and worth it.
Cast: Mahmut Suvakci, Ardalan Esmaili, Iskra Kostić, Dejan Milačić, Erik Svedberg-Zelman, Vic Carmen Sonne, Johanna Hedberg, Wim Elfwencrona
Director: Daniél Espinosa
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
