“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” features the world’s first electric car chase.
When writer-director Christian Gudegast was thinking about the film’s sequel, he knew he needed to up the stakes, and what better way to do that than with an action-packed car chase and shootouts? It needed to feel fast and realistic.
In the sequel, Gerard Butler returns as Nick, a Los Angeles cop determined to find famous thief Donnie (O’Shea Jackson Jr.). Reports of an armed robbery in Antwerp, Belgium lead Nick to Europe where he tracks down Donnie. Once there, Nick reveals that he is leaving law enforcement to join Donnie in an elaborate diamond heist: breaking into the World Diamond Center and stealing the Pink Diamonds. Gunfights and stunts ensue, but the one character that holds it all together is the Porsche Taycan Turbo S.
The Taycan Turbo was the perfect vehicle to help Donnie, Nick and the team get in and out of the Diamond Center “undetected.” Although she was fast, she was also stealthy. The escape quickly escalates into a car chase through tunnels and along winding mountain roads where they are ambushed by other Mafia members who were planning to intercept the robbery.
Terry Stacy, who worked as cinematographer on the film, joined early and explained that Porsche provided the cars for the film. Once the deal was sealed, Gudegast wrote the car into the script.
says Stacey, speaking via Zoom diverse that the cars were ideal for carrying out a robbery; Stealthy and fast, but also very small. It still takes multiple vehicles and compositions to put a scene together and pull off an action sequence.
“It all started with advance work that included storyboarding, road scouting, and owning a go-kart,” Stacey says. “Two Porsches were changed to look like go-karts, and we had the stunt driver on the roof,” Stacey added. “The steering wheel, dashboard and even the throttle were moved to the roof so that the stunt driver could control the action. O’Shea and Gerard were in the car and the camera operator was in the back.
Stacey used a Sony Rialto with an extension system that allows the Sony Venice camera body to be detached. “This actual object can be mounted on the floor or ceiling, and the sensor and lens can capture images while driving and turning,” Stacy explains. Another car was equipped with a camera on the front, which captured photos of Butler and Jackson as they were “driving.” He adds: “We did not want a green screen, because there is a lot of external and internal movement.”
The entire sequence took a week to film.
The tunnel was sequenced in pieces. When the car spun – the drivers stepped in to do the actual spin, but when the car went into reverse, it was mounted on a ‘cookie stand’ (a giant platform on which the car is mounted and driven by another car). “We had a camera mounted on the side so you could see Gerard crouching down shooting as the Audis came by.”
While Gudegast wanted as much in-camera action as possible, visual effects were used when the windshield shatters and a piece gets into Donnie’s eye. “It added visually,” says Stacy.
When they finally emerge from the tunnel, and the chase continues on mountain roads, Stacey says: “We had one camera in the car where the stunt actor had to imitate himself going down the cliff, which was difficult. It was a wide shot that was computer-generated where you see the car It goes off the cliff, but Christian crashed it when we wanted to be with Nick or Donny, so we had a car and a camera on them, set up, and crossed paths with bad guys in Audis.”