Fast and Furious creator Rob Cohen cooks up perfect storm in Hurricane Heist
Story of tech-savvy robbers who scheme to steal US$600 million in used banknotes from a shredding plant amid a storm has a message about man-made climate change, its Trump-hating director says
This year the US Federal Reserve will shred an estimated 5.6 billion damaged, out-of-date or just plain shabby banknotes worth a combined US$175 billion and send them to be incinerated.
Money gets trashed regularly and mostly no one notices – but what if a historically powerful hurricane and a gang of sophisticated thieves happened to be headed right towards where it’s kept?
That’s the premise of The Hurricane Heist, the latest release from veteran director Rob Cohen, the creator of the megabucks Fast and Furious franchise.
“A shoot-out is no longer just a shoot-out, a chase is no longer just a chase. Any of the tropes of action films suddenly have to reinterpreted by taking place in 140mph [225km/h] winds and driving rain,” the 68-year-old says.
“It just seemed like, what a delicious challenge to be able to create a hurricane itself, but to create an action film within it.”
The Hurricane Heist stars Toby Kebbell ( Kong: Skull Island ) as Will Rutledge, a government meteorologist tracking Hurricane Tammy – the fiercest storm in US history – as it heads for coastal Alabama.
As the locals evacuate, the US mint in the fictional town of Gulfport race against time to shred US$600 million in old bills before Tammy hits – but a gang of tech-savvy robbers have other ideas.