WARNING: THIS DOCUMENTARY CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THE FOURTH SEASON
A NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY
This series was unexpected from the start.
Money Heist is a story of failure.
Because the series flopped.
"Okay, well, I'll see you around in other projects." And suddenly...
"Awesome, Netflix has bought it."
Suddenly, it was being watched abroad, even more so than in Spain.
That's when it suddenly started to really take off.
[shouting]
And you realize that a tsunami is about to hit.
The team, we couldn't believe it.
We realized that people had a bond with the series
that went beyond just entertainment.
[Pedro Alonso] The impact that it has had on people around the world
and their expectations of the series right now puts you to the test.
None of us realized until we had the chance to get out there.
Your life changes completely. Your reality changes.
Yes, there are changes. [laughs]
- "We have to come back with a bang." - [siren wailing]
Let them see what we can do, right? So we brought out the big guns.
[explosion]
And we did.
[fast-paced music playing]
[gun cocks]
[narrator speaking Spanish] Our story begins in 2017,
on a free Spanish TV channel: Antena 3.
You're on TV.
[narrator] We started off well with 4.5 million viewers.
Good.
[narrator] But...
[Jesús Colmenar] The first season did very well, especially at the start,
but viewership gradually declined in the second season.
It started to wane.
It dropped by half.
The audience kept getting smaller.
- [Miguel Herrán] It was plummeting. - Falling...
And suddenly...
- It dies. - ...it's over.
It ends... [snaps fingers] and it's over.
And we put the series in the back of our minds.
I cried a lot on the last day.
[sobbing] I feel as though I've killed her.
- It was hard. - I went through a real grieving process.
I cried over my character. It was hard to say goodbye.
[sniffles]
"It's the end of the road."
Yeah, it was pretty crazy.
And it was tough.
[narrator] And then Netflix comes along
and buys the Spanish series so the rest of the world can watch.
Netflix includes it in its international catalog.
Cool!
It goes to Netflix. But it's like no big deal.
I don't think we, Netflix or anyone expected anything.
In fact, it was launched without advertising.
It simply appears in the catalog.
[laughs] It was part of Netflix's basic catalog, and then...
[narrator] Suddenly, something starts to happen.
[Jaime Lorente] I hardly had any followers and then suddenly, I had 15,000.
Then 30,000, 50,000, 60,000.
I suddenly had half a million followers, 600,000, 700,000.
From many countries.
I'd look and then two hours later, another 2,000.
We all started getting more followers.
That's what tipped us off, "Wow, something's happening here."
- [explosion] - [narrator] A boom, to be precise.
[cheering]
Enormous banners in Saudi Arabia. I couldn't believe it.
In Brazil, in Mexico, in Colombia.
On the other side of the world.
We started to get photographs from the carnival in Rio.
All in Money Heist costumes.
Some crazy guy has a tattoo of Úrsula. [laughs]
- Where? - A full-leg tattoo, in color, this big.
"You what? What are you going on about? I mean, what is this?"
- [chattering] - [laughing]
[narrator] And it gets better.
We earned a worldwide rank of two,
competing against every series ever made.
My goodness! Not even the Americans would do this.
[narrator] Netflix's head honchos start talking about us in their meetings.
[speaking English] Casa de papel
or Money Heist as it was released in the US,
so successful for us all around the world.
[narrator] Stephen King, Benzema and Mbappé put the mask on.
Neymar too. He liked it so much that he ended up being a monk.
Oh, heavenly, Mr. Andrés.
I'm a fan.
- [narrator] After that... - A bit of suspense.
- ...can anything else happen? - [imitates drum roll]
[narrator] Yes, we win an Emmy.
"Money Heist."
[narrator] And a strange honor: we start to inspire robberies.
With red overalls, the famous Dalí mask and armed.
[narrator] Several of them.
A million-dollar gold heist.
[man] ...the characters from the series Money Heist.
It's been imitated, copied, using similar masks.
[narrator] But the most exciting thing occurs in the streets.
The red jumpsuits and the mask are paraded around America, Europe and Asia.
They're used in political protest marches
in Lebanon, Iraq, France and Chile.
And along with the revived "Bella Ciao,"
it travels the world for causes such as democracy,
- feminism or the environment. - [all] Now!
[singing in Spanish]
[singing in foreign languages]
[singing continuing]
[chanting]
AUGUST 2019
[Álvaro Morte] But when an NGO rescues a boat full of immigrants
and as soon as they are brought to safety, they start to sing "Bella Ciao"...
That's much more important than any of the rest.
[narrator] Then Netflix asks us, "Guys, can you carry out another robbery?"
What?
[laughs] Wow, wait a second.
I think we took two months to reply
because we wanted something...
with the maximum guarantee of not letting viewers down,
something that wouldn't disappoint all those people.
We have to get the gang together.
"I can't believe it, how cool!"
We're the Resistance, right?
[narrator] When we started filming again, we realized for the first time
how much our lives had changed.
This was fame.
[Alonso] When we got to Duomo Square, which was our first location,
it was already full of people.
We can see all of that.
[laughs] "What's going on? We have to film here?"
[man] They surrounded us as if it were a soccer stadium.
[Morte] They stayed deathly silent, which was wonderful.
[man speaks Italian]
[Alonso speaking Spanish] I said to myself, "Okay, concentrate.
No eye contact until you finish."
When we were coming to the end of the sequence,
I said to Álvaro, "Hey, Álvaro, let's go say hi to everyone."
Shall we quickly say hi to everyone?
And we took three or four steps,
and as we approached them, suddenly, they were coming from all sides...
[imitates clamoring crowd]
Grazie mille. We must get back.
We weren't able to finish filming.
[narrator] We had to stop filming. A catastrophe.
We ended up hiding out in a building.
There was no way we could continue.
Not from any angle, the reflection in the window...
It's packed. There are 4,000 people in the square right now.
- Seriously, we're laughing, but... - Jesús!
But it's a nightmare.
We can't film.
[Alonso] But we still find it funny.
[laughs] This is going to turn tragic.
[narrator] And it did. It was difficult getting to the car.
People started running after us.
[laughing]
If I get out, there will be a scene. Watch out!
[laughing]
We were like The Beatles. [laughs]
[narrator] And at the next location, which should have been peaceful...
I don't like to have to tell you this.
[narrator] ...the biggest thing was waiting.
[singing "Bella Ciao"]
[man] Cut!
[Alonso] I think there was a point when we'd gone in there,
we saved it, we made the sequence work.
And Álvaro said...
"Pedro, maybe it'd be cool to say thanks to these people." [laughs]
I said, "Álvaro, no. [laughs]
Look what happened at the Duomo, we could die."
I'm fucking with you.
[Morte] And we had the idea of standing on a bench.
[crowd applauding, cheering]
And someone jumped over the barrier. [laughs]
[speaking English] Thank you so much for your support.
Wow! Oh, no!
- [clamoring] - [shouting]
[speaking Spanish] We started to see people running
like there was no tomorrow.
[speaking English] We just want to thank you, all of you, for being here.
- Thank you so much. - [cheering]
[Morte] All of a sudden, my face is all over the world.
This is insane.
It's very worrying because you stop being anonymous.
It's extraordinary.
[Alonso] It would take its toll on all of us.
[Herrán] Cars with tinted windows, escorted by bodyguards when abroad.
It has suddenly taken on a much, much wider dimension.
Everyone who sees you on the street says, "You're awesome."
Then you get home and some people say, "I am awesome."
I went from being totally anonymous
to suddenly having to ask to be allowed in the VIP lounge
because people wouldn't stop asking for photos with me. No.
Unless you really keep yourself in check, you become an asshole.
A real asshole.
[narrator] This much popularity translates into data.
Today, Money Heist is one of Netflix's most-watched productions,
including films, and has many fans in America...
...across the world with a small baby...
[narrator] ...as well as in France...
[speaks French]
[narrator] Italy...
[speaks Italian]
[narrator] Argentina, Chile...
[speaks Spanish]
[narrator] Brazil and Portugal.
[speaks foreign language]
[narrator] It's also a huge success in North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey.
[speaks foreign language]
[narrator] And overall,
it's one of the most-watched shows around the world.
This is a worldwide phenomenon.
The nicest thing about it is that it came from the viewers.
This was on another level.
It came about spontaneously.
I think there's a kind of "love attack."
We realized that people had a connection with the series
that went beyond pure entertainment.
It was almost a philosophical connection.
It's a bit overwhelming.
It's hard to believe, but that's how it is.
It was reaffirming for us, like,
"We weren't crazy, we were doing something cool."
[narrator] The craziness begins in the very first episode
of the first season.
It was a national series,
but we had our sights set on the world.
[Lorente] I remember there was less money before,
but there was the same energy.
From the very start,
our idea was to make an international series.
We went all out. Everyone was crazy about it.
[man shouting]
[all] We've done it!
[cheering]
So, for some time, my intention had been, "This is the time to do it.
Let's do something..."
It was very ambitious.
[narrator] Although of course, in some respects,
Netflix's arrival has changed our lives.
Before when we had to go to the Philippines, we went,
but through a computer.
That sea didn't exist.
In fact, we hadn't even left Madrid.
Now, if we want a private island, it's ours.
We'll do a global show.
[narrator] If we want a Thai Buddhist temple, it's ours.
- Elephant included. - [trumpets]
We'll do a super series.
[narrator] We want a military helicopter?
Get that fucking helicopter down now!
- [narrator] It's ours! - All out.
[narrator] And if we want a money shower to bring downtown Madrid to a standstill,
we'll do that, too.
All this seems pretty good, right? Well, it isn't.
- [screaming] - The day we closed off downtown Madrid,
we discovered that big film sets can become...
More bills!
...absolute hell.
More bills!
- Bills! - [whirring]
The machine isn't working. What the hell's going on?
The damn fan is jammed, man.
The bills only fall on one side.
It's the wind. We can't control it.
The fan isn't spinning.
It was sheer despair. Just imagine Jesús,
the director, who was going crazy.
It's not working. It doesn't look real.
When we cut, the bills got stuck underneath.
You know this won't end well, don't you?
[narrator] For each unsuccessful take, they have to pick them up...
- [whirring] - and do it again.
Pick them up... and do it again.
- And then, somebody has a great idea. - [whirring]
Vacuum up the bills.
But hang on a minute.
Is that as clever as it seems?
You're tearing up the bills. This has a turbine that shreds them.
I told you to blow them into piles, not to vacuum them up.
My God.
[narrator] Three million euros shredded into confetti.
Good thing they were fake.
We finally get the hang of the fan.
The bills fly.
Not even God could stop us.
Well, He could.
We didn't know what to do.
We had goodness knows how many hundreds of extras there.
This is special extras, you know? [laughs]
[Cristina López Ferraz] The desperation starts to get complicated.
[narrator] It has started to rain and our money has become soggy paper.
No one can get it to fly now.
And there's another problem.
We have to dry the floor.
Get to work.
[narrator] So, we set up some gazebos to act as umbrellas.
What we were using to collect up the bills
is now a dryer.
- What made them fly... - [whirring]
a dehumidifier.
And cinematographers and art directors
became pavement dryers.
Well, it's an effective method.
A bit rough, but it's effective.
[narrator] Great dedication that wasn't very effective.
In the end, the floor was filmed wet.
- I see blue sky. - It's blue, but...
[narrator] And suddenly...
the sun comes out. No, that's not good.
Everything is wrong.
[man] Cut! Cut!
[narrator] When you've filmed it all while overcast,
then it suddenly looks like summer...
We're struggling with the sky. It's a sunny day in March.
[narrator] ...it's a problem.
So that at least the sun won't be in shot.
[narrator] In the end, tensions rise.
I'm finding solutions for you. You should come up with some, too.
Other than not filming, canceling the shoot and going home.
Some kind of solution.
This has been building up.
I set the camera height. They change it.
And with the pressure...
Am I director of photography?
...it all comes out.
What am I director of photography for?
[narrator] And sometimes it's just...
- José. My walkie-talkie isn't working. - [narrator] ...one of those days.
Here we go again. Fucking up this shot and that one.
There's a guy with a yellow sleeve. Yellow isn't allowed, man.
The batteries.
This doesn't happen in Narcos, 13 Reasons Why or Stranger Things.
You'll take the rap anyway.
[narrator] Come on, take it easy. Things can't get any worse.
Or maybe they can.
They haven't put up the green screen.
No.
[narrator] The giant screens should be green,
so we can add the image of the Professor.
They haven't requested extradition.
It should be completely green.
If it's not all green, it has to be black.
[narrator] But with so many interruptions, the deadline passed,
and they're playing advertisements.
Obviously, it was total desperation then.
They can't do a green screen for some reason.
Me too, man. I don't know if you want to wait five minutes.
They're going to give us more time.
They're giving us at least 40 minutes more
- of green screen. - Good.
[narrator] Hooray, we did it.
The hard way, suffering.
- Thank you very much to all of you. - [cheering]
[narrator] But in the end, millions of euros rained down on Madrid that day.
Yes, this is a series with lots of money.
Nine hundred and eighty-four million euros.
[narrator] Shooting.
Great songs.
♪ Ti amo... ♪
[narrator] And tons of gold.
But no, that's not why you love us.
The big question is: why do you love us then?
- Why has Money Heist been such a success? - [man exclaims]
People have fallen in love with the characters.
You haven't fallen in love, have you?
I'll get to know them.
The kindness and wickedness in each of them.
- What is their past? - The stupidity of another.
- Why are they here? - When they make mistakes.
[pants] Sorry.
That's what makes the viewer feel things.
Any viewer could think, "I'm like Denver."
[laughs]
"I could be the Professor."
You're going into the lion's den?
Each one has their own qualities and you can empathize with them.
You don't connect with a spectacular robbery,
nor with the Professor's intelligence, even if you admire it,
you connect with the fact that he's scared.
Even if all this works out, I...
I'm going to be screwed.
When you get hooked on or addicted to a series,
you get addicted to the characters.
After a marathon session, you think, "I know these people.
They're in my living room with me."
[Álex Pina] So, if the characters are emotionally more powerful and richer,
the viewer definitely becomes more addicted.
[narrator] And how do you achieve that? The first key:
What we are, Latinos or Germans?
[narrator] We're Latinos.
There's passion here.
WE HAVE PASSION
The thing that sets the series apart is that it has heart.
[inhales] For a long time, there was a unwritten rule
that action films were inane and superficial
and very dramatic or emotional films were boring.
So what we did was mix those two concepts.
[shouts]
[sobs]
- I love you! - Me too!
[narrator] That's why our heist story is very romantic.
This is a love story. One of those beautiful love stories.
[narrator] And we obsess about that.
No matter what it takes, we want unbridled passion.
Like with this kiss. Candid, right?
Well, it took some time to get it right.
Maybe the director looking on, just inches from their lips, didn't help.
You want us to make out.
- A little bit. - Yeah.
[narrator] They try again.
But it still isn't working.
That kiss was kind of...
It matched the scene, kind of maternal.
But it has to be passionate.
- The last kiss you ever share. - Okay.
- Understand? - Yes.
[narrator] And they try.
But it's no use.
It's really hard because, on the one hand, I'm trying to...
be like...
- the mother. - Sure.
- You have to keep acting like heroes. - Okay.
But it's the goodbye kiss.
[narrator] But when it comes to passion, if you put affection and effort into it...
- Stop filming. - ...it happens.
♪ I love you ♪
♪ You love me... ♪
Cut!
[narrator] There's another important factor in this series:
keeping the viewer on edge.
The fun is in here, for fuck's sake.
[narrator] Anything can happen here.
We try to be unpredictable.
WE ARE UNPREDICTABLE
We try to do the unexpected,
and it's been that way since we came up with these guys:
- the characters. - [laughing]
We wanted profiles that haven't been seen before.
For example: our leader.
Oh, the Professor!
- [narrator] Very clever, yes. - What an amazing man.
[narrator] Leader of a criminal gang, yes.
But deep down, he's a loser.
It's that personality that makes him talk differently to other robbers we know.
It surprises us.
What are you wearing?
[Pina] Our professor, the gang leader,
was shaped to be almost like a nerd.
He wants to be distanced from society.
[Pina] He's a sociopath in many ways,
a shy man with problems interacting with some women.
I've had relationships.
Several.
Turning those characters around
is stimulating for the viewers,
because it's so surprising.
That such an ordinary person...
Well, let's see if I'm of some use at least.
...could create something so big.
We must be able to stay in control.
The more difficult it is to shape the character to do that,
the more stimulating it is.
[narrator] There is one character
who encapsulates all our ability to be unexpected.
I really feel like telling you everything.
[narrator] Tokyo is able to blow up any kind of situation.
She's our Sputnik, fuel for any script.
[Tokyo] I can be a good girl for a long time,
but little by little, my naughty side starts to come out.
Combining regular places with unexpected twists,
is a formula that, nowadays,
works really well.
[laughs] Tokyo, Tokyo.
So mature for some things, yet so childish for others.
She's a very impulsive person.
Didn't you say "no matter what"?
She tries to control herself, but it's beyond her nature.
I'm not surprised he dumped me.[sobs]
[narrator] Here's a fact you don't know about Tokyo.
- I'm Tokyo. - [narrator] She was the first city.
That wasn't my name at the start.
Why is Tokyo called Tokyo? I was going to tell her.
She doesn't know.
I was really surprised...
when I saw that my character's name was Tokyo.
I remember Álex Pina was wearing a T-shirt
that said "Tokyo" on it.
I loved it.
"It's a great name. The main character has to be called Tokyo."
That's how I ended up being called Tokyo.
Within 15 minutes, I said, "Berlin, Moscow, Denver."
- Denver? - It was really quick.
Tokyo, Berlin, Moscow.
Denver, Moscow. What's this? Why are we called that?
I think my friends with cities for names kick ass.
- [crying] - [narrator] We are emotional.
[sobbing]
[narrator] Which brings us to the next key:
this series is full of empathy.
EMPATHY
So much so that we have grown to love the bad guy.
Why did he put you in charge?
Because of my people skills.
Berlin was the most hostile character.
But he was also mysterious at the start, "Who is this man?"
[narrator] A special man.
If I have a coffee right now, I'll go crazy.
[narrator] Despicable most of the time...
Dance.
[narrator] ...but admirable sometimes.
I've spent my life being a bit of an asshole,
- but today I feel like dying with dignity. - [sobs, shouts]
It's incredible how a character with such pejorative traits is loved.
He's always in the top three in the polls.
People need to get their heads checked. [laughing]
Because...
I'm sure he's not the character you'd want your daughter to marry.
You bastard! You son of a bitch.
- [gun cocks] - [gasps]
It's like holding a mirror up to society. You know, seriously,
"Your favorite character in Money Heist is this guy."
- [gags] - Let's see if you have any balls.
[yells]
That dominant side to him,
his leadership,
repulses us,
but it gives us a certain sense of safety.
You and I are the Resistance.
[Pina] If television is inoffensive and not dark, it's boring
because less things happen, basically.
The audience wants things to happen
and there's nothing better than a villain who also provokes feelings of empathy.
For a moment, I thought it would be really good to feel...
how my friend is feeling.
[narrator] But these characters are risky,
and in Berlin's case,
that caused problems even before the series was released.
Fear.
Someone said to me,
"This character doesn't belong in our time,
you should take him out of the series."
He's contemptible.
I said I had no intention of taking him out of the series.
What kind of shit is in your head?
He's a misogynist, a narcissist and a psychopath in many ways,
but we could have a character like that in the series
and the audience could freely decide whose side they're on, right?
[narrator] The next characteristic of this series:
nothing and no one is sacred.
Everyone walks on thin ice.
WE HAVE NO MERCY
[speaks English] Ticky boom. Ticky boom. Ticky boom. Ticky boom.
[speaking Spanish] Gentlemen, you have to live to the very end.
What kind of a kiss was that?
[narrator] Nairobi, how we loved Nairobi.
Thank you. Thank you.
I've never had a boss like you, Miss Nairobi.
Today is my last day.
It's tough.
It's the end of an era for me.
Yeah.
They say when you die, your whole life flashes before you,
and this is a bit like that, but with the character.
I like to think that Nairobi wishes her son a life with more opportunities
than the one she could have given him
and a more peaceful one.
[man] Let's say goodbye to our colleague Alba Flores.
[cheering]
[Alba Flores] I've been working with some of the team for many years now.
And...
I want to thank you all for everything you've taught me.
[sobbing] I've grown here as an actress,
more than I ever imagined I would
and as a person too. And...
And you're a fucking great team.
Fucking great.
I hope I get to film 16,000 times more with you.
Uh...
[laughs]
- [man and woman shout] - [whistles]
I'm going to miss you all.
It's over, and I have nothing on the horizon.
It's a really liberating feeling.
Because... well, I need a rest.
[narrator] That brings us to another essential characteristic:
black humor.
BLACK HUMOR
PIN.
- One, two, three, four. - [laughing]
[narrator] Yes, you can laugh at a hostage who's being held at gunpoint.
- Your name. - Arturo.
- Arturo what? - Arturo Román.
Arturo Román. All right. Arturito.
He represents the meanness within all of us.
I'll kill you, bastard.
He's just so deplorable, you feel like adopting him.[laughs]
You couldn't be more pitiful.
You recognize certain base passions of the viewers themselves in Arturo.
And that's why you can't stand him. But in reality...
He's the most human.
And it makes us really mad when our shame is pointed out to us.
[narrator] Speaking of shame,
Arturo has had quite a few embarrassing moments.
He's walking along with Helsinki... [laughing]
[woman moaning]
through the vaults, and they hear a woman moaning.
- Is that your lady? - [moaning]
He says, "No, it's not my lady."
Mónica isn't the loud type. It must be one of your colleagues.
Then he goes in, and it is her.
[moaning]
Don't stop!
[Denver] Fuck! What the hell are you doing here?
Everything he does is really crazy, risky and surprising,
that makes it funny.
I'm the... [laughs] punching bag.
If someone who is morally wretched is also socially awkward,
you warm to them.
He's abominable, but you love to hate him.
You know, men take care of men. [laughs]
[narrator] Now that we're on intimate terms,
we're going to tell you a secret.
Right, listen up, everyone.
[narrator] We're obsessed...
with veracity.
VERACITY
- Now! - [narrator] For that reason,
we would face many of the same problems that our robbers face
if we robbed the Bank of Spain.
[Palermo] The vault.
[narrator] Starting with the real gold vault.
Just like in the series, it floods if there's a robbery.
There's a lot of information that states that there is a system...
Forty-five kilometers of reinforced pipes underground.
...that involves channeling two streams
that would flood the vault should anyone decide to rob the bank.
It's a great work of engineering. It's a marvel.
[narrator] So, to get the gold out...
But we won't open that door.
...we had to invent something...
Tube!
...that would work in real life.
An interconnecting antechamber.
[narrator] That's why we called in a naval engineer to help us design it.
He gave us a lesson, and we videoed it.
Better than taking notes.
Something like this.
Get them to bring dinner in, please.
[narrator] But once the ingots are out...
Sweet gold!
...we have to melt them.
We could do that because in the foundry...
I'll show you the beauty we've set up.
...there are real furnaces.
They are identical to this one, but a bit more glamorous.
That's cinema for you.
This is the Christian Lay jewelry workshop in Jerez de los Caballeros
in Extremadura, Spain.
This informative video created by the series' documentation service
instructed cast and crew on how to melt down gold the traditional way.
"Can I record it?" And he said, "Yes, no problem at all."
[woman] To make a homemade version of this machinery, what would I need?
[narrator] They explained the whole process.
Add the solid material, take out the liquid and pour it out.
Mind you, we didn't use real gold.
We used brass, which is a bit cheaper.
So beautiful!
[narrator] That's when we started asking them strange questions.
If you were robbing the Bank of Spain
and you had to turn the gold into nuggets, how would you do it?
Bearing in mind the equipment must fit into a military truck.
He starts pouring, he adds pressurized water... [imitates water flowing]
[woman] And then...
He says, "That's how you'd do it."
We do it all with bubbles. [imitates bubbles popping]
[Sara Solomando] He takes it out, and we drained the water off,
and there were brass nuggets.
Nuggets.
Like gold nuggets.
Like grains of rice.
I filmed it and sent it to the script team.
"We've got it, we know how we can do it now."
This is the good stuff, Governor.
[narrator] During filming, we had professionals doing the melting down,
just in case.
- Manuel Manceras, Sr. - I'm Manuel Manceras, Jr.
[narrator] And here they are as extras,
learning to be robbers.
[laughs] We wouldn't mind really, with things as they are,
but not for the moment.
How does it look, Doctor?
[narrator] Here's another obsession with realism.
In this sequence, Arturo gets a genuine stitch.
They shoot Arturito in the series.
[gunshot]
[laughs] So a surgeon comes in.
Ah!
A surgeon came so that an actor wouldn't have to do it.
Now, you stitch him up.
- Who, me? - He gave him a real stitch.
- [winces, grunts] - Shh! Shh! Easy now, easy.
We were all...
I'm going to be sick.
...laughing our asses off, we couldn't believe it.
[laughing] And obviously, when he wiped off the makeup,
"What's this?" He'd given him a stitch.
Son of a bitch.
[narrator] But we still haven't mentioned
one of the most important ingredients of this success:
our symbols.
THE SYMBOLS
Money Heist has an anthem, a shield and a color.
[Migue Amoedo] The color red isassociated with agitation,
- [rings] - with passion.
It puts you on alert
when combined with the idea of 100 people locked up in one place.
Like a pressure cooker.
[narrator] And for that pressure cooker to work,
we need two teams to work together:
photography and art.
The artwork in this series is spectacular.
Because it was made with care.
[Abdón Alcañiz] We want everything to be very dark, with tertiary colors,
so that the characters' skin
and the jumpsuit, our color, our symbol, will stand out.
We go with red.
And in the end, that gives you an iconography of your own.
That is Money Heist's great value.
[narrator] And that iconography is linked to an anthem.
You know how our anthem goes, right?
We know that as soon as we go...
[hums]
[sings in Spanish]
♪ Bella ciao, bella ciao ♪
[laughs] Everyone's with you, I mean...
[singing "Bella Ciao"]
[singing continuing]
♪ Oh, bella ciao, bella ciao Bella ciao ciao ciao ♪
[narrator] This song, which was used as an anthem by Italian anti-fascists
during World War II,
is being heard once again all over the world 75 years later.
Although we had a hard job finding it.
[Javier Gómez Santander] We were stuck. We didn't know how to get started.
I did something that I tend to do: play the "Bella Ciao" song.
Because it motivates me.
As I was listening, I thought, "This is the song!"
I went and told my colleagues...
"This is the song."
"We have to start this scene with 'Bella Ciao'."
It was awesome because the series talked of resistance
and suddenly, it was the Italian partisan resistance.
[Gómez Santander] It's the first contact with soil, with freedom...
Soil!
...with the way out,
and the partisan song will be playing because we're partisans.
[shouts]
We did it, guys!
It has the feel of an anthem, an epic feel.
The notes, the tempo, the lyrics.
It has that patriotic, anthem-like vibe to it.
[singing]
[Gómez Santander] Then Berlin and the Professor start singing it.
[singing in Spanish]
♪ Oh, bella ciao, bella ciao Bella ciao ciao... ♪
Then it takes on a new dimension in the series.
You start to love "Bella Ciao."
[singing]
I can't remember any other sequence with such utter silence on set.
It takes on a mythological dimension when you realize
that it is emotional territory, sacred territory, for the characters.
It was...
[singing]
...mystical almost, the song in that sequence.
[Colmenar] All that iconography has been one of the reasons,
if not the most important one, behind its international success.
If you do it in normal clothes, without the masks or "Bella Ciao,"
I'm quite convinced it wouldn't have the same impact.
What are you dressing up as?
Those three elements have created a new universe of symbols...
An iconographic image.
...that people are using as a pop culture symbol.
I think people need symbols.
[Koldo Serra] And it's very easy to recreate and repeat.
And people can adapt it to their own needs.
People dress up for different reasons in different places.
But there is always this kind of underlying fight against the system,
which people love.
What does all this mean? It means...
that it's universal, it's an icon.
Each person can use the red jumpsuit, the Dalí mask and "Bella Ciao"
for their own fight.
Those people are going to see us as their damn heroes.
[narrator] Do you know what else is needed to make this series?
Making our lives impossible,
Money Heist's actors, directors,
writers, technicians and producers
all live life on the edge.
LIVING LIFE ON THE EDGE
Starting with the actors.
See that ship?
We've entered international waters.
[narrator] We told you it was the North Atlantic, that it was cold.
- [shouting] - The gang was escaping, right?
Well, it was a lie. That ship was torture for the cast.
It's so hot.
[narrator] We were in Thailand, in the sun with temperatures above 40ºC,
with really high humidity.
I nearly fainted.
[narrator] The Professor almost fainted.
I nearly got sunstroke.
[narrator] Several people fan him because he mustn't sweat,
- or it'll show in the sequence. - [chattering]
[man] Yeah, give him air.
[narrator] Although by the looks of his shirt, it's a bit late for that.
It was hot as hell.
So hot.
We all just wanted to die. It was so hot!
[Herrán] The crew were all in T-shirts and tank tops,
and we all had sweatshirts and coats on.
- [Esther Acebo] Jumper, scarf, wool hat. - [cheering]
It was 44ºC, and the sun was blazing down.
[narrator] Darko Peric plays the role of the tough Helsinki.
- But here... - [man] Cut!
...what with the coat, the sun and the rocking of the ship...
[chattering]
...he's on the verge of fainting.
Some ended up rehearsing shirtless and slightly disgruntled, shall we say.
I said, "Couldn't we have filmed this in January in Valencia?"
[trills lips]
I looked like a crab, man. Red and sweating,
half dead and with a rapid heartbeat.
That day was really tough.
[narrator] What about the script? Does that live on the edge, too?
Yes, it does. While most series this size are written out fully
and then filmed,
in Money Heist, we write alongside filming.
WRITING WHILE FILMING
And that gets many people wound up.
[laughs] No one knows how it'll end, not even the screenwriters.
You don't have a clue what you're doing, and it's like, "Well..."
We try to keep very close, with the shortest time possible
because a lot happens watching the series in post-production.
You don't know where they're taking the script.
We think that you have to keep your ear to the ground,
to sense where the train is coming from.
So, the closer the train is, the more information you have.
- You watch a sequence and say... - Don't move!
You see something marvelous and it allows you...
I was terrified.
...to change course,
which you can't do if everything has already been filmed.
Sometimes it's hard to understand because we undergo a lot of stress.
I was scared shitless, thinking, "What are we doing?"
But it's better for the series.
Well, yes, to be honest. [laughs]
[narrator] How do they write so close to filming? They write on the fly.
Take for example, the pig sequence.
[chattering]
[Professor] Any volunteers?
I think the sequence falls apart here. I'd add a bit of comedy.
What if Marseille says...?
Not me. I can't.
What if we make him an animal rights activist?
People are one thing, animals are another.
I love animals.
And Denver says, "You're a hit man and an animal rights activist?"
You're a soldier. You kill people. What's the problem? I don't get it.
[laughs] "I have principles."
I have my principles.
I'm against animal cruelty.
[laughs]
Can I believe in what I want, or are you going to tell me?
Can I believe in what I want, or will you tell me what to believe?
"I've been to war. Animals are better than people."
"When I was in the war..."
I was in a war...
with a dog at my side.
These people annoy Bogotá.
And Bogotábackchats.
- The vegan criminal! - Yeah.
[laughing]
The animal rights killer.
I won't cut open a pig.
[narrator] And the actors get the script at the last minute.
They meet with the director to rehearse before filming.
Cut the fucking pig open, you're a hit man.
You're pissing me off.
Open the fucking pig. You're a hit man!
[shouting]
[Marsella] Stay away from me.
And he goes, and he puts a scalpel right here.
Push me again and I will slit you open.
- Push me again and I will slit you open - [laughing]
from top to bottom.
[narrator] Then on set, movements are included.
Open the fucking pig, you're a hit man!
Stop, he moves backwards, and you kind of grab him.
- Okay. - So he doesn't get away, you bring him in.
[narrator] One more time.
- I won't cut open the pig. - You're a fucking hit man.
Open the fucking pig, you're fucking nuts.
Like this? Excuse me.
From top to bottom.
[narrator] Some sequences are written so close to filming
that there's no time to get together to explain the action.
We need to see her struggle because...
[narrator] But that's what phones are for.
I'm Nairobi, and this is Gandía's hand.
So, it's like this. He pushes her forward like this...
She bangs into the door, so he now knows where to aim.
[both grunt]
[imitates gunfire] He shoots.
[grunts]
He makes a circle. It doesn't fall through.
He bangs it through.
Then he pushes Nairobi's head through that hole.
[exclaims]
[shouts]
Then it's: hand, hand. He ties her up with carabiners and ropes.
[man] And she's tied down.
[grunts]
- Cut. - [woman] Cut.
[shouting]
[narrator] But if there's a time when living on the edge is painful...
- [man] Action! - ...it's in the moment of truth.
[man] We're ready for filming.
[narrator] The filming.
[chattering]
[narrator] We wanted this sequence at sunset,
and we only had one day left in Thailand.
That's a big one, isn't it?
There's never been a bigger one.
[narrator] We only had one shot, and we had to get it right.
Silence now, please. Total concentration.
[narrator] Nothing can go wrong.
- [woman] Set... - And action.
[narrator] But we got off on the wrong foot.
- [Colmenar] Let's start again. - [woman] We've got all of his part, okay?
[Colmenar] Come on, we have to be quick. Twenty minutes of sunlight left.
[sighs]
- [narrator] Second attempt. - Action.
[narrator] But this time, an engine can be heard.
Cut.
- We have to go again because of the van. - The bike.
- [narrator] The sun is setting. - Come on, concentrate.
[narrator] The director keeps looking at it,
nervously.
Okay. And action!
- Cut. - [narrator] Got it.
[Colmenar] Perfect. Let's go.
[narrator] But we still have to do the final tracking shot.
So, we hurry off with all our gear.
There's no margin for error, the sun has already set.
Come on, let's do it!
- [woman] Shh! - Silence!
[narrator] It has to be right first time.
And... action!
[narrator] And when it's almost dark...
- Cut! - ...we've got it.
[cheering]
[speaks English] We're fucking back! Fucking back!
[narrator] All we have to do now is check the results on the monitor...
- [gasping] - [woman] Look at this.
...and breathe a sigh of relief.
[sighs]
[speaking Spanish] Always on the edge.
Don't film this, please.
It's always on the edge. That's when interesting things happen.
It's like shooting a three-pointer, the buzzer sounds, you shoot...
[exclaims]
and it goes in, the energy rush is awesome.
And I film for those moments really. [laughs]
[narrator] Filming on the edge gets us great results,
when things work out right, because at times...
- how can I put it? - Shit.
[narrator] Now for one of our most unfortunate days.
Welcome to Pinewood Studios, in the United Kingdom.
- [chattering] - It's amazing, man.
[narrator] Here, they have the best tank for underwater filming.
Well, that bathtub is pretty cool.
[narrator] What could go wrong?
Nothing will go wrong.
- It was absolutely crazy. - It was crazy.
It was a learning curve...
- All sort of stuff happened. - ...full of mistakes. [laughs]
But I had a great time.[laughs]
[narrator] Step one: we bring the entire set from Madrid
and set it up over the water.
There!
[narrator] Because the best way to simulate the vault being flooded...
[whirring]
...is to submerge it.
Instead of pumping water into the vault...
Seven thousand five hundred liters a minute.
...what we did was submerge the entire set in a swimming pool.
Therefore, the effect, with a camera tied down on the inside,
was that the water emerged from below
and started to rise.
[alarm sounding]
The next day: catastrophe.
[narrator] It turns out that the ingots became unglued and began to float.
You learn from these things.
[narrator] We have to do some screwing and drilling and that involves all of us.
[whirring]
Everyone, including the director of photography.
Didn't you want a global show?
We're going to do a global show.
All out. A global show all the way.
[narrator] Well, here you have it.
Photography? He's not too hot on photography,
but he's damn good at putting in screws and drilling ingots.
[narrator] But when we'd finished, we discovered this...
The shelves are rusting.
We're trying out different liquids to remove the rust.
We're using phosphoric acid,
but when you use phosphoric acid,
white marks start to appear.
So now we're learning how to remove the white marks.
I'll dive into the lake, see if I can get anything done today.
Is it me, or is there some tension in the air?
[narrator] You can say that again because what's coming next is even worse.
The ingots have shrunk.
We made the ingots from foam so they'd weigh less,
the weight made them difficult to get on set.
The pressure of the water...
has done this to our gold ingots.
What happened? Pressure, once again.
They'd never been two and a half meters underwater.
[laughing]
We wanted to die. It wasn't gold. They were raisins.
We'd been working on them for months.
These things happen.
[Serra] Everything that happened was like one catastrophe after another.
[Hovik Keuchkerian] It was probably the most tense moment
with the most pressure and responsibility involved for all of us
because things weren't working out.
Working underwater was giving us problems.
[narrator] But despite all this...
[speaking English] Three, two, one.
- ...we filmed. - Action!
[narrator] Down below, Alba, Hovik and Jaime are taking the gold.
From above, the directors are giving them orders
through an underwater loudspeaker.
[woman speaks English] Wait for action before you go, okay? Thank you.
[narrator] However...
[Serra] In Spain, they didn't realize, "Everything's brilliant."
But then you'd say, "Look at that. Christ, take a look at that."
"Look at that, the ingot is bent." "Christ, you're right."
[narrator] Every ingot had to be digitally touched up in every shot.
One after the other.
[man] We basically painted almost all the ingots one by one.
We had to fix over one thousand ingots.
It was a crazy amount of shots.
But the end result looks great and it's worth the trouble.
[laughs] Well, I think the digital effects team will remember us
Let's say we lost a lot of sleep during that process. [laughs]
[Serra] It was no mean feat, but the material is fantastic.
I believe those images are what make all the difference.
[Amoedo] It's a kind of summary of how we make Money Heist.
[Serra] It was quite a commitment. They could have left it out,
avoided it or scripted it differently, so hats off to them.
Money Heist is not only challenging for us writers,
but also for the show's directors who often shoot in extreme conditions.
It always has to be pushed to the brink.
Now!
You have to be permanently terrified.
Cut!
I get up every morning feeling terrified before filming. Always.
[Pina] Each shot is everything to us when we're filming.
So that the viewers enjoy it.
- We've got it! - [woman] We've got it!
We've finished. Zero casualties.
[narrator] Now you know us a little bit better.
[speaks English] Are you ready, world?
[narrator] This is who we are.
So that it sweats a bit.
[narrator] A strange group of robbers...
[speaks English] What is this?
...living the greatest adventure of their lives
thanks to you.
- Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. - [cheering]
People stop me in the street.
[Lorente] Fans support this series and send me so many nice things.
[Úrsula Corberó] "Tokyo, Money Heist."
Thanking me for how happy they've been at home watching the series.
It's quite amazing.
[Pina] We've played to the utmost
and to the extreme with many genres.
I think it shows in the series.
[Gómez Santander] It's thrilling to see people taking your work
and making it their own.
Really exciting.
[Esther Martínez Lobato] It shows that the amount of stories are infinite
and that people really want to hear them.
[Morte] It has given me so much.
[Enrique Arce] It has given me another career, another life.
[Lorente] That's what I'm most grateful for.
[man] It's been a gift.
[Corberó] I swear, it gives me goose bumps.
[Herrán] A gift. Filming with them is a gift that fills you with life.
[Acebo] It was like a gift.
[Alonso] It's a gift.
[Darko Peric] I take it like, "Wow!"
[Rodrigo de la Serna] A privilege, really.
[Paco Tous] I'll cherish it forever.
[slow-tempo music playing]
♪ What you looking at... ♪
Let's light one to see how much heat they can take, okay?
♪ Those shades so dark You can hardly see... ♪
- This doesn't go! - [chattering]
It's broken!
♪ Who ya hiding from? Who are you hiding from? ♪
♪ I think you're looking good Well, I'm missing you... ♪
My grandfather.
He died filming The Pier.
The best change in the series.
[chattering]
- But I also think... - "I'm going on vacation."
Cristina, Jesús, Olalla.
Yes, of course. Sorry, Titi.
♪ Well, I guess we'll never know... ♪
Are you filming?
- [man] What do you think? - [chattering]
Valentina!
- [camera shutter clicks] - Look, I'm on the beach!
♪ Do you put 'em on when you go to bed And then wake up with 'em on? ♪
♪ Maybe you were born in 'em But just look what you've become ♪
♪ You ain't no beauty queen You ain't no superstar ♪
♪ You're just an old little guy ♪
♪ That's really all you are ♪