One of the staples of film and television is the heist drama. We often follow a crew pulling a big job and the cops on their trail. The best of these is focused on the cat-and-mouse battle between the lead person on the crew and the lead investigator.
The new Apple TV series 12 12 12 certainly steers into this premise. The show is focused on a master thief (Jamie Dornan) and a dogged FBI agent (Anthony Mackie) as they square off on a new battle. The pilot, “I’m Robbing the House on Christmas Eve While the Family’s at Mass,” sets the stage for what’s to come. Let’s dive in. SPOILERS BELOW.
In the vault
We open with a man (Julius Feldmeier) squeezing his way out of a tight location. Turns out he’s able to control his body, and he’s in a bank vault. Now, he’s the inside man and ready to help pull off a job. But how did we get here? Who is he? What’s happening? That’s a story about to unfold.
Next, we get the premise that drives the title. We learn a good heist takes 12 months to plan. You have 12 hours to pull it off. And if the thief isn’t caught within 12 days, it’s not likely to happen. Hence the title—12 12 12. The series dives in and begins the exploration. Our first starting point is hour one of the job.
We move to a Christmas Mass. Paul (Dornan) is in worship with his brother, Bobby (Jack Kesey), but it’s a ruse. They are biding their time, waiting to commence. They’ve been hiding their true intent with an archeological dig under the church. And the man in the vault—Alberich—is their inside man. They had put out the word the job was happening on New Year's, but he’s moved it up to help get away clean. With the church cleared out, they head down to get the job started.
Planning Stages
We move back to month one of planning the job—January in France. Paul had previously pulled off a job in Newark, but things went poorly. He’s in France hiding out and biding his time. But now that it’s been a year and he hasn’t been caught, he is feeling freer. He’s also found love with Severine (Agathe Rousselle). They are happy and living a great life. He’s also got a great relationship with Severine’s father, Serge (Jose Garcia), who has been more like a father to him than his real father.
But things take a turn when he heads to buy a ring and ends up in a robbery. Worse still, the robbers seem to know who he is, knocking him out. When he wakes up, he sees Bobby. He’s not happy to see his brother. It’s clear things didn’t go well in Newark, and he’s not interested in maintaining that connection.
But Bobby has a problem. He owes people a lot of money, and he’s already burned through Paul’s share of their last score. Now, he’s pledged to Paul to help complete an ambitious job for Bazin (Jeanne Balibar). Paul isn’t willing to do it, not seeming to care what it might mean for Bobby. But when Bazin threatens Severine and their unborn child, he changes his position.
On the trail
We move back to Christmas Day and finally catch up with Agent Jack Strictland (Mackie), who is holed up in Switzerland. He’s been tracking Paul Galvin for a while. He missed his chance at Newark, where his partner was killed. He won’t miss his chance again, even if he’s not been welcomed with open arms.
He heads down to get coffee and connects with Lena (Sallie Harmsen), a detective also working the holiday. She is amused by some of what’s going on with Jack and shares that there is a local bank that has been having problems with its alarm. It’s due to the archeological dig setting off its alarms. But Jack thinks it could be more and pressures Lena to take him to the site.
While there, it appears all is normal. But Jack refuses to believe it. He follows the path down to the dig in the church and discovers a body and a tunnel to the bank. He also catches sight of Galvin, and a chase ensues. Up above, Lena spots some suspects too, chasing them in her car. Neither chase works out.
Lena races through downtown and ends up getting into an issue, flipping her car. Jack is able to keep chasing Paul and eventually chases him down an alley enclosed by a fence. But when he goes to slap on the cuffs, it’s not Paul but Serge.
I like the premise here. Giving it this unique time frame helps to blend the past and the present as we follow all phases of the job. It feels almost like the Dunkirk approach to making a heist drama. That combined with the cast makes this an engaging journey.
12 12 12 streams Fridays on Apple TV.
Add us as a preferred source on Google