On Sunday, 46-year-old French gangster and charismatic criminal Rédoine Faïd pulled off a prison break so bold and extraordinarily executed that even authorities seemed a bit impressed.

France’s Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet called the getaway from the prison in Réau, France “a spectacular escape.” The operation—completed in under 10 minutes on Sunday morning—involved Faïd’s accomplices kidnapping a helicopter pilot; directing the helicopter to the single prison courtyard unprotected by overheard netting; and launching smoke bombs as a distraction while masked men cut through an armed door with an angle grinder and grabbed Faïd. Belloubet explained that it was “an extremely well-prepared commando that may have used drones to survey the area beforehand.”

Given this elaborate getaway, the most surprising trivia note about Faïd definitely isn’t that he previously escaped prison. (In 2013, he escaped from a prison outside of Lille, France, by “seizing four guards as human shields and blowing several doors off with dynamite,” according to the BBC.) What is surprising about Faïd, however, is that he is kind of a movie nerd.

In fact, he holds Heat and its filmmaker Michael Mann in such high esteem that the career criminal has incorporated homages to both in his crimes, and even sought out Mann for a face-to-face meeting in 2009.

Incredibly, there is Internet video to immortalize this encounter. Proving himself a true Mann fan, Faïd made his way to a panel discussion with the filmmaker organized by the Cinémathèque Française to coincide with the 2009 release of Public Enemies. After sitting through the moderated conversation in Paris, Faïd got his hands on a microphone during the audience Q&A. Faïd had recently been released from prison—where he served 10 years for assorted armed robberies and jewel heists—and explained as much to the filmmaker (and audience).

“Heat remains the absolute [example] of organized crime, inspired by life, by people—real facts—he tries to transmit them in his cinema,” Faïd began (via translation). “I personally, I am a former gangster, unfortunately, I do not brag about it. I just spent 10 years in prison. I attacked armored vans. . . . For 20 years, I’ve known Michael Mann. I discovered him with Thief, and, with a bunch of friends, we’ve watched his films a bit as reports, as documentaries, and sometimes even . . . ”