The crime movie Legion of Thieves was released on Netflix on October 29, 2021, and while it's a prequel to Legion of the Living Dead, Legion of Thieves is definitely a sequel that doesn't require the previous one.
From the word of mouth point of view, the previous work is not outstanding, the sequel does not need the blessing of the previous work; from the plot point of view, the zombie element of the previous work only plays the role of the background of the story in this film, or an irrelevant background.
The title "Legion of Thieves" doesn't fit the tone of the film, and even sounds a lot like a bad movie. Unlike the previous showmanship thief movies, this is actually a film that embodies the romance of the Germans - the locksmith has spent his life waiting for someone who knows how to appreciate his unlockers.
01
Ring of the Nibelungen
As far away as Munich, Germany, a locksmith named Hans Wagner created a set of safes based on Richard Wagner's opera The Ring of the Nibelungen.
Born in Leipzig, Germany, Richard Wagner was a German composer during the Romantic period and an iconic figure on the German opera stage after Beethoven. His masterpiece The Ring of the Nibelungen is based on Norse mythology, and the entire creation began in 1848 and lasted for 26 years until it was completed in 1874.
The Ring of the Nibelungen is also known as the Nordic version of the "Lord of the Rings", in which the locksmith Wagner spent 30 years casting a set of safes — the Gold of the Rhine, the Valkyrie, Siegfried, and the Twilight of the Gods, whose names correspond to the four chapters of the opera.
02
Legion of Thieves
The protagonist of the film is not the locksmith Wagner, but Sebastian, a master of the safe cracker, because of Gwen's recruitment, he has the opportunity to crack the "Ring" series of the gods he worshipped most in his life.
Sebastian is not a criminal, but a mediocre bank teller, like the npc cover in Runaway Player. Unlocking is his only preference from childhood to adulthood, he is both good at unlocking and loving unlocking.
The "zombie" epidemic in the United States, 96 hours later the owners of the Wagner safe transferred them to a vault in Geneva to be destroyed, and the puzzles that Wagner had worked so hard to create will be destroyed, which is the last chance to solve the puzzles.
The challenge before Sebastian was to complete three international robberies in four days and then slip through.
Sebastian, in order to get rid of a decade of uneventful life, seized the last chance to crack the "Ring" series, he agreed to join, and since then the Legion of Thieves has been formed.
This gang of five includes Recruiter Wen, a globally wanted jewelry thief who specializes in stealing in any scenario.
Corina, a young and beautiful invincible hacker, is also responsible for the logistics of the operation, and the masterpiece is to relieve her brother's boredom and steal the unreleased "Pirates of the Caribbean 2".
Rowf, a highly skilled drift master who was responsible for picking up his teammates to evacuate, thought no one was more familiar with car engines than he was.
Brad, a real-life action tough guy, considers himself the leader of the misfits.
03
The gold of the Rhine
Due to the tight time and heavy tasks, they will break them one by one according to the difficulty of cracking, starting with the easiest "Rhine's Gold".
According to information collected by Corina over the past three years, the safe is located in a small bank in Paris, France, with 430 million password combinations.
With the cooperation of everyone, Sebastian and Gwen easily come to the giant safe, and while Gwen is waiting for him to show his skills, Sebastian talks about the plot of the opera.
"The dwarf Albertich stole the gold from the depths of the Rhine and made it into a ring, so powerful that the gods under the sun wanted it."
Sebastian believes that the three lock plates in front of him represent three Rhine maidens, and with the "Rhine Gold" singing segment played on his mobile phone, he finally begins to unlock the lock.
First warm up the fingers, then explain the historical background to the only audience on the scene, and then play the opera, the unlocking process can be described as a sense of ceremony.
It didn't take long for him to open the "Gold of the Rhine" and successfully abscond with the money.
04
valkyrie
Then there's the second easiest Valkyrie, a high-security bank in Prague, Czech Republic, with 235 billion password combinations.
The process of arriving at the safe adds even more twists and turns, and sebastian repeats it again according to the last unlocking ceremony — playing music, narrating opera, warming up his fingers.
"The first act of the story takes place on Earth, when the children of Odin, king of the gods, Siegmund and Sieglind siblings, meet by chance and fall in love. ...... They didn't know they were brother and sister. The second act of the story takes place over Earth, in a kingdom representing the temple of Valhalla, a plan of action planned by the gods. Odin sent his daughter Brunnhilde to kill Siegmund, but she was impressed by Sigmund's love for Sieglinde. Instead of killing Siegmund, she helped Sieglind. This infuriated Odin, who gave Brunnhilde the harshest punishment, stripped her of her immortal form, and drove her out of the Valhalla Temple. I believe these locks have to be broken in the order of the story."
In the process of unlocking the lock, Sebastian made a mistake once, and the Valkyrie, as a mechanical device, immediately detected his presence, and the three lock plates immediately contracted, and then popped out another lock plate. If he gets it wrong again, the safe will lock forever.
Eventually, with his sensitivity and familiarity with precision instruments, Sebastian turned on the Valkyrie.
Classical artists - featured of world classical music
05
Siegfried
Then there's Siegfried, a casino in St. Moritz, Switzerland, with seventy-two trillion combinations of passwords.
Siegfried is a locking bolt system with seven code discs, and more difficult than the previous two times was sebastian needing to unlock on a bumpy truck. Even so, the three-piece set of unlocking ceremonies can not be less.
"In the story, the hero Siegfried faces the darkest test to understand what true fear is. He killed the evil dragon Fafner, and then when the dwarf who raised him betrayed him, he killed the dwarf too. Then he found Brunnhilde and both of them fell in love. After all the pain and fear, there is a happy ending. ”
He stuck to the lock and asked the question in his heart—having a conversation with Siegfried—what your internal structure was like.
After Sebastian successfully cracked it, he returned from ecstasy to calm, "One of the thoughts I have been unable to get rid of is how sad it is that this amazing man, who has dedicated his life to this work, has never really appreciated or even understood his genius."
He had an epiphany that in order to understand a work, he had to interact with it, and he thought that until now Wagner's "Rings" series no one could understand... Sebastian finally understood the locksmith Wagner's dying choice—to lock himself in a safe he had cast, which was also his artistic legacy—a grave dedicated to himself.
At this point, the "Legion of Thieves" film completes all the unlocking tasks, and the last safe "Twilight of the Gods" is lost to the United States, where the previous work "Army of the Living Dead" took place.
In the final chapter, "Twilight of the Gods," Siegfried dies and Brunnhilde jumps into the fire where he was cremated.
In the film, the romance of the Germans is reflected in the two things of lock making and unlocking, so when expressing this romantic atmosphere, the director (who is also the male protagonist) adopts a more poetic approach, rather than a realistic way to show the mechanism, including the working principle of precision instruments, the characteristics of parts and so on. Many viewers criticized this, but this treatment is in line with the theme and tone of the film.
The process of casting a lock is like an artistic creation, and unlocking a lock is a process of appreciating art, and it is also about the relationship between the creator and the audience. No one appreciates the art and artist, the higher the attainment, the more lonely. This is also the reason why the locksmith Wagner finally buried himself with his own hands.
The relationship between the artist and the critic is like the relationship between the locksmith and the lock opener, and in fact, it is more appropriate to replace "Zhiyin" with "critic", which is not a profession, a title, but an identity about art appreciation.
As for the "artists" that no one appreciates, they can choose to keep creating, keep progressing, appreciate themselves, and wait for discovery.