BANK UNDER SIEGE
Everybody up, now! On your feet!
-Get up, please! -Come on.
Slowly! Hands on your heads!
-Come on! -Stand up!
We don't have all day. Let's go!
Nobody move!
-Hands up. -Now!
Very slowly! Start moving. One at a time!
-Get on the bus. -Move slowly.
Go to the van.
To the bus. The bus.
Go ahead. Bus.
Bus.
Come on.
Bus.
Go ahead, ma'am.
This way, miss.
To the bus.
-Bus. Go on, ma'am. -We don't have all day. Quickly!
Van.
Go ahead. Bus.
Bus. Calm down! One at a time!
To the bus.
Bus. Very good.
Bus. Go through, miss. Bus.
Come here.
To the van.
Go ahead, bus. Go ahead, ma'am.
To the bus.
To the van. Bus.
Go to the van.
Go to the bus.
Go through, to the bus. Come on, to the bus.
Go through.
Bus.
To the bus. Calm down, sir. Stay calm.
To the bus.
Turn around.
-He's one of them. -Hands on your head.
He's one of them.
I'm sorry?
-He's one of the assailants. -What?
He's one of them.
No, officer. I came to withdraw money like everyone else.
I swear, I came--
Take off your jacket.
-What? -Stand against the van.
-But-- -You can tell me later.
Take off your jacket.
-Really? -I said take off your jacket!
Look at me.
Pull up your sleeves.
It's just that…
It's just that what?
They won't go any higher.
-Pull up your fucking sleeves. -They won't go higher!
-Where's José Juan? -I don't know.
-Where the fuck is Number 1? -I don't know anything, officer.
I just came to withdraw money.
You, you, and you, to the bus.
Take the others away.
Where are you, you bastard?
Number 1?
Haven't found him yet.
-Give me your flashlight. -Here.
Take your glasses off.
You're in big trouble, buddy.
On your feet.
No funny business.
Handcuffs.
Come on.
This is Number 1.
What's your name?
José Juan Martínez Gómez.
He's been tied to anarchist groups
and has a dozen prior arrests for armed robbery.
-And the rest of the gang? -All arrested.
-Civil Guards? -No. All common criminals.
So?
Why did you ask for Tejero's release?
It was a stunt.
We wanted to buy time while we opened a hole to the sewers.
But it didn't work out.
Conduct a thorough interrogation. But don't lay a hand on him.
-General. -Commander.
All the hostages are safe.
So are all my men. The operation was a success.
Did you hear that?
Congratulations.
Thank God.
General.
LETTER OF RESIGNATION
Sir.
The operation is over.
The hostages have been released. The assailants are in custody.
Thank God.
As soon as they're interrogated, we'll have further details. That's all.
-Ricardo. -Sir?
Thank you.
Get some rest.
Prime Minister.
While Plaza de Cataluña and the country get back to normal,
the authorities have announced a press conference
at the Delegation of the Government of Catalonia, where we expect more details
about the assault conducted by Special Ops
and about the identities of the captured assailants.
Be quiet.
Silence, please. Silence.
As you can imagine, it's been a frantic 37 hours.
We haven't eaten, we haven't slept. We haven't been able to report to you.
We've been through a tense situation.
Now that the hostages have been freed and the assailants detained,
we can give you more information.
General.
First of all,
I want to stress,
to end once and for all any speculation,
there are no Civil Guards
or military men among the detained assailants.
The Civil Guard was not involved.
At all.
Do you know who the assailants are?
They seem to be a gang of crooks, thugs, and anarchists.
-Is it an anarchist group? -No, miss. I didn't say that.
They are common criminals, robbers.
So, the heist was driven solely by financial gain?
Indeed.
The shot on the roof.
It hit one of my guys, right?
Cristóbal?
José María Cuevas.
He made a sudden movement,
and Special Ops opened fire.
He was a good guy.
He was a bank robber. Like you.
We all have to make a living.
There's a million ways to do that without stealing.
Without people like me, there wouldn't be people like you.
Tell me everything so we can get some rest.
I think we'd both be grateful for it.
Got a cigarette?
Do you have any blond?
Fine.
Where should I start?
At the beginning.
I take it the brilliant idea of robbing a bank
and asking for Tejero's liberation was yours.
It was a job I was commissioned for.
Someone asked you to rob the bank?
No.
To retrieve some documents.
What documents?
Some documents in a safe deposit box.
Can you tell me who hired you?
Get me a pack of blonds, and I'll tell you everything.
Congratulations, Maider.
-Congrats. -Thank you.
What's going on?
Your article was the only one mentioning bank robbers.
That is called a "scoop."
I hope this doesn't go to your heads.
We'll be okay with vacations and a raise.
For that, you go to Human Resources, you know.
Right.
Congrats.
I was lucky.
I was at the right place at the right time.
That's what being a good journalist is about.
That, and handing in your piece before we go to press.
You have 45 minutes.
-Forty-five minutes? -Go.
Shit.
Thank you.
I want the truth,
the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth.
We got the job in mid-March.
I was with Cuevas
and some anarchist buddies at the Ortez restaurant.
Manuel Vilagrán's place?
-You know him? -Heard of him, yeah.
I also heard he was part of Carrero Blanco's Secret Service.
He was a spy in Franco's time.
He told me someone in Perpignan wanted to see me.
That they had an important job for me.
So I went to Perpignan.
And there was the captain.
What captain?
Captain Manglano.
Do you mean Manglano, the director at CESID?
How are you?
All right.
Your family?
-Just fine. Doing well. -Good.
We are interested in some documents in box 156
at the Central Bank in Barcelona.
What do you think?
-Why don't your people do it themselves? -No.
It has to look like a robbery. You need to put on a big show.
But that should be easy for you.
You go in, hold everyone hostage,
and release a statement asking for Tejero's release,
along with the Civil Guards detained on February 23rd.
Easy. If they believe there are Civil Guards inside,
they won't go in with Special Ops, right?
That way, you have plenty of time
to dig a little hole in the basement and escape through the sewers.
Of course, taking all the money in the vault with you.
How much?
Eight hundred million.
Enough for you, your friends, and your friends' friends to retire.
Imagine being behind the biggest heist this country has ever seen.
-I can picture it. -Good.
Very good.
Let's see.
You claim you had to rob the bank to retrieve some secret documents
and pretend to be Civil Guards demanding Tejero's release,
when actually you were bank robbers who wanted to take the bank's money.
Exactly.
What documents were they?
For CESID to set up this operation, they must be important.
I have no idea.
That was none of our business.
Where are those documents?
May I go to the bathroom?
Free the hostages!
What mattered to us was the money.
But they gave us fake blueprints.
That means they didn't want you to escape.
Probably.
They likely wanted Special Ops to take us out.
At least you.
Well, me and Cuevas.
We were the ones who were in on it.
Well, they already took Cuevas out.
I don't know if this is the truth or something you made up.
-Everything I told you is true. -You sure?
Yes.
We should take him before the court so he can tell the judge--
Paco,
take some time off.
Get rest.
Keep them, Blond.
You're gonna need them.
CENTRAL BANK HEIST,
AN UNBELIEVABLE CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF TERRORISM
CALVO-SOTELO ASKED TO CLARIFY
FEAR OF A NEW AND FINAL COUP
We go now to Congress, where Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo
is sharing details about last weekend's events in Barcelona.
Number 1, José Juan Martínez Gómez,
states that on March 15 or 16,
he met an individual called Antonio Luis in Perpignan.
He claimed to support far-right ideologies
and to know about Juan Martínez Gómez's
past criminal activities.
What the hell?
Martínez Gómez was needed for an important mission,
the heist and hostage-taking at the Central Bank of Barcelona.
The man in custody received instructions
to confuse the authorities and the public by hiding their true identities
and passing themselves off as a military group.
Spanish and French authorities are searching for Antonio Luis,
contact of the so-called Number 1.
Now, I must admit there's a fundamental question
that I cannot yet fully answer.
Who is behind these acts?
We said this was a simple bank robbery,
and the prime minister just said it was a far-right plot.
Isabel, we shared what we knew.
-This was the screw-up of the century. -I'll talk to my source.
-Maybe he can tell us something. -It's over.
-We're out of options. -But--
No buts. We work on the police blotter, and this is national news.
-I can keep investigating this. -Are you listening to me?
All right.
Listen here.
This is from the last 48 hours.
Three violent robberies in the Eixample.
Two minors, two kids dead from overdoses.
Another woman murdered by her husband.
That makes 12 women killed by their partners so far this year.
I want to focus on this, Maider.
I want to give visibility to this topic. Got it?
Perfect.
Get your act together and write an article for me, please.
Robbery Division, hello?
Could I speak to Commissioner López?
Sorry. The commissioner has taken some time off.
Could you give me his home number or an address?
I'm afraid we can't share that sort of information.
Right.
Okay, thank you very much.
I know where to find him.
It makes all the sense in the world.
The thing at the Central wasn't as big as February 23rd,
but it's turned the country upside down.
It only helps the far right.
Do you think the far right hired
a gang of small-time crooks to destabilize the country?
Honestly, I don't know.
This country has been kinda surreal lately.
They aren't telling us the truth.
At least not the whole truth.
And the Basque girl's determined to figure it out, huh?
That's right.
What was your daughter called?
Drink all you want, she won't come back, and you won't be able to forget her.
I used to cut myself.
Until one day,
my mother,
who was as bad off as I was,
told me,
"Either we decide to keep on living, or we jump out the window."
And we decided to keep on living.
Paula.
Her name was Paula.
I'll play the next one.
I'm gonna make you work for it.
You again? What do you want?
The heist is over, and I'm on vacation.
Did you watch the prime minister's speech?
You want a beer?
She asked if you watched the speech, Paco.
Go on. Ask away.
-Were you with Number 1? -Affirmative.
-Did you talk to him? -Affirmative.
What did he say?
If I tell you, you're not gonna believe it.
Even I have trouble believing it.
Is the far right behind all this?
He said the operation was a commissioned job from Manglano,
the director at CESID.
To retrieve some documents from a safe deposit box.
They made it seem like the far right
and used the statement about Tejero to stir up chaos.
Their reward for the job was the 800 million in the bank's vault.
I have no idea if he decided to change his story after he talked to me
or if someone came up with a more convenient story.
What files could be worth orchestrating an operation like that?
He said he never got to see them.
I don't know if he lied or told me the truth.
Now, if you'll excuse me…
Listen.
This whole thing seems off.
If I were you, I'd tread carefully.
Thank you.
You have a visitor.
Fuck.
I've told you everything I know. Let me sleep, please.
How are you, Jose?
So you're the new director at CESID?
Damn. For having switched sides, you're not doing bad at all, huh?
I'm getting with the times. You might want to do the same.
It was a setup, right?
-No. -No?
So you didn't know that there was a rock wall blocking our escape.
I had no idea. I swear on my family.
The only thing I can think of
is that those blueprints were made before they added security to the walls.
-It's the only explanation. -Right.
I put a lot at stake to do what you asked.
Look where it landed me.
Let's not dwell on the past. It's not something we can change.
What do you wanna talk about, then?
I've made statements about a dozen times, and I'm beginning to get fucking tired.
Look, Jose.
Listen carefully.
All you have to do
is make a statement where you say
that everything you've said so far was a lie.
That the heist was your idea
and that all you wanted was to take the Central Bank's money.
That's what you have to say.
What's in it for me?
You wouldn't be taken out.
You and your family.
You'll be in for a long time, but it would have happened regardless.
It's all the same.
But… if you make this last statement,
the state's discretionary funds will handle things.
They'll make sure your wife and children are provided for.
Understood?
That's right.
You have to think of your family.
-I do. Every day. -Good.
That's what it means to be a man.
It's a good deal. Think it over.
AN END WITH MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
Chema, where's Maider?
I haven't seen her.
Berni, have you seen Maider?
She must be working on the article you assigned her.
EDITOR IN CHIEF
SOUTH OF FRANCE ON ALERT
You were a friend of Jose's. Could you tell me about him?
He wanted to pull off a big heist and then retire.
He's a pathological liar.
He's always lying. You can't believe a word he says.
I'm from the Barcelona Daily. Can I ask you some questions?
Is there a secret plot behind the Central Bank heist?
PRESS COVERS HEIST
Mr. Rollán?
-Yes. -I'm Maider Garmendia.
I'd like to ask you about the heist.
Two different feelings. First.
That feeling of joy because it was over.
And immediately, a feeling of confusion.
It wasn't possible that people described
as crooks, thugs, and something anarchist leaning
had the state cornered
in a perfectly organized,
perfectly orchestrated attack.
Nobody believes that. It's obvious…
You see? González suspects there's more to this too.
I met people who know Number 1. They all say something different.
That he wanted to pull off a big heist and retire.
That he's a liar and we shouldn't believe anything he says.
That he was a police informant
and, as an anarchist, he gave up a few of his comrades.
Maider, it's just like February 23rd. We'll never know the truth.
If I could just talk to him or Manglano…
You have work to do.
The piece Isabel asked you to write.
Good afternoon, Lieutenant Colonel.
Prime Minister.
Any news?
As of now, they're all common criminals.
And the far-right story?
We believe he made it up to give the issue a political angle and reduce his sentence.
Extraordinary.
This is turning into a real circus.
We need to turn the page.
We need to bury the subject as soon as possible.
We still have individuals tied to the coup,
but they are in the barracks.
If you give me the necessary budget and power,
you will never have to deal with coup plots again.
I have to discuss this with the rest of the cabinet.
I'll have an answer in one or two days.
Perfect.
By the way…
the King has requested that CESID be in charge of your personal security.
The King said that?
All right. If there's nothing else… Ricardo.
Prime Minister.
The article you asked for.
Sit down, please.
I like you, Maider. I do.
I think you could become an outstanding journalist.
But I can't have anyone going rogue on my team.
-But-- -I know you are still on the bank case.
I know.
I need to know the truth.
To find out what happened.
I understand.
But, in that case, you'll have to switch departments.
Or newspapers.
Hello?
No, put him through.
Yes, Mario.
Yes.
Okay, when…
When can we have it?
What are you doing here?
Want to grab a drink?
It's not the best day for it.
There's something I want to tell you.
For the first few hours, I was at the command center.
At around 10:30, we called the bank to talk to Number 1.
General Pajuelo thought it was Captain Gil Sánchez Valiente's voice.
-But it wasn't him. -No, not at all.
But maybe his subconscious gave him away.
Where was Sánchez Valiente on February 23rd?
I don't know.
-In Congress, with Tejero. -So?
According to my informants, he left Congress with some documents.
The documents at the Central Bank?
If what Number 1 told me is true, it makes perfect sense.
Let's get out of here. We're being watched.
Why are you helping me?
It'd be nice if the truth came out for once.
My first post was in the Basque Country.
Six months later, they planted a car bomb in front of our precinct.
The building was nearly destroyed, and… it was a miracle I survived.
Who are you?
-Get out, or I'll call the police. -There's no need.
This is a courtesy visit.
Don't worry. Close the door. Sit down.
What do you want?
The only person
who knows the whole truth is José Juan.
But he will never reveal it, for his own good, of course.
Do not waste your time.
Forget about it.
Look.
Felipe González is going to win the elections,
which means this country is going to undergo a radical change.
Whether we like it or not.
In a few years, what happened on February 23rd
and at the Central Bank will be history.
And then, if you want,
you can write a little book covering all the events.
But for now, forget about it.
Do you understand?
You need to think ahead.
The future is full of possibilities and money.
Who doesn't like a little money, huh?
How are you? Are you okay?
It was him. Manglano, in the flesh.
He thinks he's untouchable.
We need to let it go.
I'm not giving up.
-If I could talk to Number 1… -There's no way.
There's another person who might know what was in those documents.
ORTEZ BAR
There he is. Let's go.
We want to talk to your boss.
He's not here, but I can pass along a message.
Don't mess with me. I just saw him walk in!
What's going on?
What's this?
Mr. Vilagrán, we'd like to have a word with you.
It'll be just a minute.
Come on in.
So…
How can I help you?
You were at the Central Bank.
You left the bank with the first group of freed hostages.
You took the documents from safety box 156 with you.
We just want to know the content of those documents.
You must have the wrong person.
I don't know anything about the bank or any secret documents.
Look.
We can do this the easy way
or the hard way.
Come here!
All right, fine. Don't hit me, please.
Okay, calm down.
Don't worry.
No one will know you told us. This will stay between us.
What happened to the documents?
SECRET
Those documents approved
the provisional government after February 23rd.
Manglano was tasked with retrieving them and was appointed head of CESID in return.
Throughout many years of authoritarian regime…
MAY 30 NATO HQ, BRUSSELS
…to Spaniards, the West and Europe
have been synonymous with freedom and democracy.
JULY 7, 1981
Divorce now! Now!
The Divorce Act is finally passed with votes from the opposition.
Rockers, whoever's not high, get high and watch out!
We mean it, we feel it Felipe's gonna be it
OCTOBER 28, 1982
This victory gives the Socialist Party the honorable mandate
of leading the nation's government
during the next four years.
CENTRAL BANK
It's a fucking epidemic.
Give people drugs and alcohol, and they will forget everything.
You have a visitor.
Long time no see.
-I was transferred to Madrid. -I heard.
Why are you here?
The Central Bank case verdicts are out.
The Blond got 38 years.
According to the sentence, the motive was strictly financial.
Want to grab a drink?
Sure.
MARTÍNEZ GÓMEZ GOT OUT ON TEMPORARY RELEASE 8 YEARS LATER
AND ESCAPED.
HE CLAIMS THE FIRST THING HE DID WAS GO BACK TO THE CENTRAL AND RETRIEVE
THE MONEY HE HAD HIDDEN IN THE BASEMENT.
MANGLANO, HAVING LED CESID SINCE 1981,
RESIGNED IN 1995 OVER A WIRETAPPING SCANDAL
TARGETING POLITICIANS, DIPLOMATS, ENTREPRENEURS, AND JOURNALISTS.
JOSÉ JUAN MARTÍNEZ GÓMEZ STANDS BY HIS VERSION OF EVENTS.
IT HAS NOT YET BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVE THE INVOLVEMENT
OF MANGLANO OR VILAGRÁN IN THE EVENTS SHOWN HERE.
DURING THE CALVO-SOTELO ADMINISTRATION, SPAIN JOINED NATO, PASSED THE DIVORCE ACT,
AND COUP PLOTS CEASED.
IN THE 1982 GENERAL ELECTIONS,
FELIPE GONZÁLEZ'S PSOE TRIUMPHED…
AND SPAIN "TURNED THE PAGE."
BASED ON REAL EVENTS.
Subtitle translation by: Soledad Etchemendy