Prime Video has added 2025’s best heist action thriller movie

The film is a sequel to a modern cult classic.

This is because the follow-up was recently added to Prime Video.

For those not aware of the Den of Thieves franchise, the original was set in Los Angeles and followed a crew of thieves - led by Ray Merrimen (Pablo Schreiber), merry men, get it? - planning to rob a Federal Reserve bank and steal millions in old bills.

As the bills are about to be shredded, they will be untraceable.

Merrimen's previous robbery left four dead, and because of this, Detective Nick 'Big Nick' O'Brien (Gerard Butler) is assigned to investigate and catch the criminals.

Described as a "gangster cop" by his colleagues, Big Nick isn't afraid to abuse his authority to get the result he wants.

His methods to catch Merrimen involve kidnapping his getaway driver, Donnie Wilson (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), in an effort to scare him into informing on the crew of thieves.

Because of this, Donnie finds himself caught between the cops and the criminals.

Den of Thieves earned mixed reviews upon release, with many critics slamming it as being derivative of previous heist flicks, which is true.

That said, if you are going to crib from what came before, you might as well crib from the best. And that's exactly what Den of Thieves' writer-director Christian Gudegast did, updating and blending Michael Mann's Heat and Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven with impressive panache.

In 2018's Den of Thieves, the performances were strong (particularly Butler as his darkly funny, dirtbag cop), the shootouts were hard-hitting, and the central heist was ingenious.

And perhaps because of a dearth of adult-focused action thrillers in the wake of the franchise and superhero boom of its era, Den of Thieves found an audience, grossing $80 million in cinemas on a reported $30 million budget.

Not only this, but it developed a nice little cult following in the years since its release.

As such, we got a bigger and bolder sequel seven years later, which transposed the action to Europe.

The follow-up takes place in the aftermath of the twist ending of the original. It turns out Donnie was the real mastermind behind the Federal Reserve bank theft - playing Big Nick and Merrimen against each other to escape with the loot himself.

Merrimen was fatally shot after attempting to flee from Big Nick, with the latter nevertheless frustrated that Donnie got away scot-free.

It turns out the authorities in the US aren't even looking for Donnie because the money stolen was already going to be shredded, and the Federal Reserve is reluctant to admit it was robbed.

As such, Big Nick - still reeling from a bitter divorce - follows Donnie to Europe. There, the latter has joined the Panther Crew and is planning to execute another heist at the World Diamond Center in Nice, France.

Eventually, tracking down Donnie and holding him up at gunpoint, Big Nick does not arrest the thief. Instead, he asks to join the diamond robbery.

This is a brilliant twist on the original's formula for several reasons.

One, it enables Den of Thieves to break free from its influences and become its own separate beast.

Two, Butler and Jackson Jr. are both exceptionally charismatic performers, so getting them to share the screen more frequently is very welcome.

In fact, a 15-minute sequence in the sequel, where Big Nick and Donnie share a night on the town together - indulging in drink and more illicit substances, getting into trouble and then talking about how their childhoods shaped them - is maybe the high-point of the entire Den of Thieves franchise. It is unexpected, incredibly funny but also oddly emotional.

However, while as a viewer, you want to believe in the Big Nick and Donnie bromance, their alliance is uneasy, due to their past history, but also the pressures of their upcoming heist.

The latter is a complicated affair. Not only is the building they plan to rob seemingly burglary-proof, but the Calabrian mafia and a rival gang of thieves called The Tigers wind up becoming entangled in the job.

Pantera's plot is even more convoluted than the original Den of Thieves' ultimately far-fetched story. Yet, it's hard to care when the returning Gudegast does such a great job establishing his two central characters and taking the time to show all the meticulous work they must carry out in order to pull off the impossible.

By the time the central heist is carried out - which takes up nearly the entire last hour of the 144-minute movie - it is genuinely thrilling. This is partly because of the visceralness of the action and stunts, but also because the viewer has been primed to understand everything that is happening, even without words.

Further helping the success of Pantera is the international supporting cast, which includes two cast members of the hit Italian mafia series Gomorrah (Fortunato Cerlino and Salvatore Esposito).

And while the ending of Den of Thieves 2 is satisfying by itself, its tease for coming films in the franchise is tantalising.

May we suggest Den of 3ves as a title, and that it doesn't take another seven years to come to fruition.

How to watch Den of Thieves 2: Pantera

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Both Den of Thieves and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera are streaming in the UK and Ireland on Prime Video.