Bei-rute force
Without a doubt, La Casa de Papel (Money Heist) tops the list of the most popular heist drama pieces in the entertainment industry today.
On the other hand, Beirut holds the first spot when it comes to the world’s biggest bank heists, according to Guinness World Records. So, do the two have any correlation?
While the show’s creator previously said that the story wasn’t based on any specific real heist, Netflix has decided to spark people’s curiosity by listing 7 real-life robberies that could have inspired the blockbuster.
In a YouTube video, Netflix explored Beirut’s British Bank of the Middle East heist as a candidate on that list.
Being one of the most successful robberies in history, the intriguing 1976 Beirut heist might have been worth studying for a show like Money Heist.
“As a bank robber on the professor’s crew, sometimes, you need a lot of patience. But at other times, you just need a lot of explosions.”
While most of the other heists on Netflix’s list involved patience, cunning, and long periods of planning before their delicate execution, the Beirut bank heist simply relied on brute force and lots of explosions.
As the video points out, the interesting fact that the culprits escaped with their plunder, never again to be found after all those explosions, makes some unrealistic events in La Casa de Papel seem more plausible.
On a side note, considering that one of the actors of the show was born in Beirut and that the Lebanese capital holds a record among bank heists, isn’t it time for the show to have a “Beirut” on its team?
If that ever happens, it would be interesting to have the mysterious Beirut heist as the character’s backstory… I’m copyrighting this, just in case.
In the meantime, you can watch Netflix’s video below; the Beirut part starts at 6:23.
