A famous thief in his younger years, 77 year old widower Brian Reader pulls together a band of misfit criminals to plot an unprecedented burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. The thieves, all in their 60s and 70s except for one, employ their old-school thieving skills to plan the heist over the Easter holiday weekend. Posing as gas repairmen, they enter the deposit, neutralise the alarms, and proceed to drill a hole into the wall of the safe. Two days later, they manage to escape with allegedly over £14 million worth of stolen jewels and money. When police are called to the scene and the investigation starts, the cracks between the misfit gang members begin to show as they row over how to share the goods and become increasingly distrustful of each other. Meanwhile, the crime has become public knowledge, and a frenzy of speculations begin. As details about the crime come to light, both the British public and the media are captivated, and the investigation is followed with bated breath around the United Kingdom. The gang badly fractures when trying to dispose of the stolen assets. Brian is excluded by the group and, not realising the true value of the haul, the gang makes several mistakes, culminating in all of them being arrested. The only gang member to escape justice is Brian's young protégé, who escapes the country. All of the gang are remanded to custody.
Filming
The main bulk of the scenes were filmed in and around Margate, Kent, including scenes at the Wig and Pen Pub, the Nayland Rock Hotel, Harbour Arm in Margate, outside the Turner Contemporary, and a scene at Margate railway station. Abbott's Cliff in Dover can also be spotted in the train scene where Brian Reader travels to Margate.
A cover of "The Man" originally by The Killers was released by British jazz-pop singer Jamie Cullum as the lead single from the King of Thieves soundtrack. Benjamin Wallfisch composed the music for the film. The score was released by Milan Records.
Critical reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval rating of 35% based on 80 reviews, with an average rating of 4.91/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "King of Thieves unites an incredible cast for a heist movie brimming with potential -- most of which, sadly, evaporates long before the end credits have started to roll." Metacritic gives it a score of 47 out 100 based on 16 critical reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The Guardian gave the film two stars, saying "We get one or two cool touches. Broadbent is interestingly cast against type as a nasty piece of work, and I liked Winstone laughing with incredulous joy as he clambers into the Aladdin's cave of the strongroom. But what a mess this is: not funny enough to be a comedy, not exciting enough to be a thriller, not interesting or convincing enough to have any documentary value."
