Absurd — and accurate — moments abound in Masterminds

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This article was published 30/09/2016 (3643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LOS ANGELES — Masterminds might seem like an outlandish comedy based on unbelievably stupid criminals. But it’s not as far off as you might think.

David Ghantt, who pulled off the Loomis, Fargo & Co. vault robbery in 1997 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for the crime, served as a consultant on the film.

“We were not telling a verbatim story or making a documentary,” director Jared Hess says.

“But it is an accurate celebration of what happened. The real things were pretty outrageous and ridiculous, including the poor decisions that followed the heist.”

Real moments in the film include:

The money was huge

Ghantt (played by Zach Galifianakis) loaded more than US$17-million, mostly in 20s and 50s, into an armoured car. In the movie, that’s depicted as a wall of cash.

“The stack was about 4-feet high, 9-feet long and weighed over a ton when I got done,” says Ghantt, 47.

Even the way Galifianakis haphazardly threw it into the truck is true to reality. “When Zach did it, it was like, ‘Yeah, that’s accurate,’ ” Hess says.The heist was caught on video

Ghantt disabled two security cameras in the vault.

But he missed a third camera, which catured the crime.

“The third one was hidden, I didn’t even know about it and overlooked it,” Ghantt says. “Zach does this little dance when he’s finished loading the money. That’s accurate, too.

People lived large after

the robbery

While Ghantt moved to Mexico to let things cool down after the heist, his robbery cohorts stayed in North Carolina with the bulk of the money. They lived lavishly: Mastermind Steve Chambers (Owen Wilson) moved from a mobile home to a large home in a gated community, paid for in cash — alerting authorities.

His flashy decor included a black-velvet Elvis painting and faux leopard-skin carpet. He also drove a BMW.

“They were pretty bold with their spending at that point. That was the dumbest thing that they did. Beside the heist itself,” Galifianakis says.

An inept hitman was sent to kill David Ghantt

In the film, Jason Sudeikis plays a sadistic assassin hired to knock off Ghantt, who befriends him. The pal part is true.

“We ended up becoming friends. And (the filmmakers) took that and ran with it,” Ghantt says.— USA Today