We’ve got a brand-new, action-packed, heist movie to watch this weekend, Netflix fans! Army of Thieves just debuted on the streaming service today and it’s bound to attract an audience of all ages. The new movie serves as a prequel to Army of the Dead, but don’t worry — if zombies aren’t your thing, you won’t be seeing much of them in Army of Thieves.
The new action film, directed by and starring Matthias Schweighöfer, takes place just as the zombie outbreak is starting in America. It follows our protagonist Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert (Schweighöfer), a budding safecracker living in Germany.
Sebastian is obsessed with the legend of the late Hans Wagner, who built impressive and intricate safes. When a woman named Gwendoline (Nathalie Emmanuel) approaches Sebastian with a job to crack them, it’s an offer he cannot refuse.
Spoilers ahead for Army of Thieves.
If you watched Army of the Dead, you might be confused going into Army of Thieves. That’s because we were first introduced to Sebastian by the name Ludwig Dieter in Army of the Dead. In the prequel, he doesn’t go by Dieter. I personally had to look up the cast list just to make sure we were following the same safecracker!
Well, we do find out in Army of Thieves how he gets the name Ludwig Dieter and why he decides to go by it.
Ludwig Dieter’s real name is actually Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert, as we learn in Army of Thieves. Throughout the film, Gwendoline teases that his full name is too hard to say. And as they bond in one scene, Sebastian opens up about his childhood.
Sebastian had always been obsessed with safecracking, which alienated him a bit from his peers growing up. While kids were outside playing, he’d sit in his room trying to crack codes. While doing so, he also wrote a comic book with the main character’s name being Ludwig Dieter.
This name served as a kind of alter ego for Sebastian, and Gwendoline remembers it.
By the end of Army of Thieves, only Sebastian is able to get away from the government after getting caught. He finds fake passports Gwendoline had made for them to flee, with his name listed as Ludwig Dieter.
For an action movie, Army of Thieves really does tug at the heartstrings!
In the final moments, we get a flash-forward to the events of Army of the Dead. We see Sebastian, now going as Ludwig Dieter, working as a safecracker in California. He meets with Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) and Maria Cruz (Ana de la Reguera), and of course, accepts the zombie heist job.
Unfortunately, Dieter does die in Army of the Dead, along with almost every other character. His death is so much sadder knowing his background, and now we wish we could find out what happened to Gwendoline!
The interesting thing, however, is that we might not be seeing the last of Dieter. The next movie in the Army of the Dead universe just got the title Planet of the Dead, and while talking about the project Zack Snyder teased Dieter could still be alive! The filmmaker said, per Bloody Disgusting:
"“The real adventure would be to see what happened to [Dieter] when that safe door closed. Did he get killed by Zeus or not? What happened? We don’t see him die on camera, and there’s still some time left. I won’t tell you what happens in Army of the Dead 2 – aka Planet of the Dead – but let’s just say that there’s a chance Dieter survives. And there’s a chance that brush with death would have caused him to want to find a jailed Gwendoline.”"
Army of Thieves is now streaming on Netflix!
New movies on Netflix November 2021. dark. Next
