3 Short paragraphs (Or Not): The Rip

2026, Joe Carnahan (Copshop) -- Netflix

The Rip is a cops & crime movie starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as two aging, tired and possibly corrupt cops dealing with finding Too Much Money in a cartel stash house. Ben and Joe worked together twenty years ago on his movie Smokin' Aces but Matt and Joe have never worked together before. But seeing the two friends together in a movie, under Joe, says a lot about the collaboration between the three. 

When the credits rolled was the first time I was reminded this was a Carnahan movie.

The movie begins with the murder of police captain Jackie Velez (Lina Esco, S.W.A.T.). She's walking in a parking lot when two masked individuals attacked, ending her life with a shotgun, but not before she enters a txt into a phone and tosses it away.

Next up, the intros. As the Tactical Narcotics Taskforce (TNT) squad reels from the death of their captain, Internal Affairs and "the Feds" (FBI) are also there, as this Miami-Dade station is already under the microscope after the disbanding of a fully corrupt major case squad, which has made things tough for the TNT. This little opener, constantly switching between Detective JD Byrne (Ben Affleck, Mallrats) and the others in the bullpen, especially him squaring off with his own brother FBI Agent Del Byrne (Scott Adkins, Avengement), to the point of fisticuffs. Meanwhile, Lt Dane Dumar (Matt Damon, The Wall), squad leader, is chatting with Major Vallejo (Nestor Carbonell, The Morning Show) about how difficult this all is, and whether he really even wants to be a cop anymore. Between the damage to their reputation by way of the other corrupt cops and the death of their friend and comrade, he's dispirited.

This opening is dialogue forward; in fact, much of the movie is. Writers Carnahan and Michael McGrale (The Following) really lean into the cop shop talk, a mixture of cop jargon and street lingo. They build personalities and build expectations for the viewer, of what we will think of these guys. Are they Good Guys? Are they just another bunch of corrupt cops. And also, Vallejo has pointed out the Feds are here because they believe another cop was responsible for Velez's killing, so pretty much everyone is a suspect.

Just need to post at least one line of dialogue, so you get the idea; from Byrne, as he talks to his brother about the aforementioned corrupt cops:

"Not a lot of straight-A students. But superb fucking murder police. And you guys fucking torched the place. Which further hamstrings Jackie’s investigation because now all the VCAT guys, not just the bent ones, are buried fucking alive."

Then Dane gets a tip on his phone, a text message from a burner phone about a money house belonging to the cartels. As they are all leaving the station, he tells them what's what and they are all coming along, no OT, it just has to be done. If you are quick, you might catch that he tells one person one dollar value, another person a different amount. Hmm...

From there, its somewhat typical Miami cop fare. They go to a run down subdivision where apparently the only occupied house is the one they are going to. The cartels buy up homes to hide their monies in plain sight. Inside is Desi Lopez Molina (Sasha Calle, Sugar), living in her late grandmother's house. "Nope, no money here!" she says, of course, but they bulldoze their way in with typical veiled cop threats. We are not exactly supposed to like these guys, definitely not trust them. In today's context, that's not hard to impress upon the viewer. Then they find a completely empty attic. In an old lady house, just this side shy of hoarding (the garage has 30 years worth of phone books...), an entirely empty room is more than a little suspicious. And Desi has no idea, nope, no way. When they kick in a wall, they find industrial tubs jam packed with neatly sorted, packaged and labelled cash. Not $150k as Dane suggested to some, but much more... way way WAY more. Millions. Tens of millions.

And with my typical overly long opener, the movie is presented. Stupid Money. Enough money for all these cops to just disappear, even if they weren't corrupt. Even the best of them would be tempted. And Desi just sitting, handcuffed, on the sidelines, being all nervous, cuz she knows exactly who owns the money.

And it begins. The movie instantly begins playing them off each other. Dane vs Byrne, the two biggest personalities in the room. Some come together, just counting the money and postulating what they could do with it, like everyone does when they see a big lottery number on the TV. Others are acting very suspicious, pulling out burner phones, even though Dane specifically asked everyone to give up their phones, as this is the kind of money that ruins everything. But do we even trust Dane? Byrne definitely doesn't. But who do we trust? The movie plays on our expectations, manipulates everything we know about these kinds of movies and has a lot of fun with the constant, never ending stream of dialogue and chat, back and forth between the squad. 

There are a few twists. A phone call from the cartel saying "go ahead, take the money, we don't care, we will accept the loss, and no we didn't kill Jackie, but we don't need the heat from killing a house full of cops." And who is Detective Ro (Steven Yeun, Nope) talking to on his burner phone? And what about the house at the far end of the roundabout that is blinking "PIGS" on their porch lamp in morse code? What about when the power is cut and masked, armoured thugs unload automatic weapons into all their vehicles, essentially trapping them all there. Its not a scene-ender, it doesn't kill anyone, so... why? What the ever living fuck is going on here?

I thought the movie was pretty effective in leading your around by the nose but not directly to the conclusion. You might get an idea of where you will end up, but I doubt most will. I am not saying there is a Big Reveal, but there are some satisfying revelations. The pair of leads are now aging action stars, so the movie does lean on them being tired. grizzled veterans, but with still the power & motivation to be effective. And I loved the fact that the movie wanted you to put down your phone, sit up on the sofa and just listen.  I also enjoyed that it was pretty much a "bottle episode", primarily taking place inside the stash house. We get to become comfortable with the characters, watch their faces, make our own decisions on what happens next.

Oh, and we do find out why Jackie was killed, her connection to the stash house and who was corrupt, and who wasn't.