Viewers are loving Netflix’s The Rip, which was inspired by real-life events. Though this highly entertaining, gritty crime thriller, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, is a dramatized version, the story at its core was drawn from an actual drug bust that took place in Miami Lakes, Florida, a decade ago.
The Rip became an instant hit following its January 16 premiere, and quickly nabbed the No.1 spot on the English film list last week with more than 40 million views as it entered its second week in the Top 10 across 93 countries.
The story begins after Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck) follow up on an anonymous tip about a cartel stash house, but when the Tactical Narcotics Team arrives, they find a lot more money than initially expected. There is mistrust and mayhem within the team following the murder of their captain, Jackie Velez (Lina Esco), and it’s unclear if these cops are there to seize or steal the money.
The Joe Carnahan-directed film is a mix of fact and fiction. In the movie, the raid takes place in Hialeah, but the true story that inspired the film took place in June of 2016 when Miami-Dade police raided a home belonging to Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, who led a double life. He ran a gardening supply store that was actually a front for a marijuana trafficking ring.
Police found over $20 million ($20,650,480 to be exact), a detail drawn directly from the true story that inspired the film. The cash was hidden in 24 orange Home Depot buckets that were placed in a secret compartment in an attic. The movie version used these details, in addition to the fact that it took the police 42 hours to count the money on site.
In the film, the home is occupied by a young woman named Desi (Sasha Calle), who is home alone when the police knock at her door. She inherited the house from her recently deceased grandmother. In real life, an older man lived in the home, but was not there during the initial raid.
Carnahan wrote The Rip and co-developed the fictionalized version with Michael McGrale, and the duo made several creative decisions, including the plot twists involving corruption within the police force and the cartel elements, both of which made this a very fun thriller for viewers.
In the real-life incident, none of the police involved were corrupt, and no shoot-outs or murderous cartel members were coming for their money. Carnahan was originally inspired to tell this story after his close friend, Chris Casiano, told him what happened while he was working as a Miami-Dade police officer; Casiano was tasked with supervising the team that found the money back in the day.
Carnahan loosely based Damon’s character on Casiano. Other characters, including Affleck’s, are composites of real people or complete fiction. The A-list cast includes excellent performances by Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kyle Chandler, Nestor Carbonell, Steven Yeun, and Teyana Taylor.
Carnahan, Affleck, and Damon spoke to Netflix’s Tudum about making this movie with all of its twists and turns. “There are some real unanswered questions about who is and who isn’t dirty,” said Affleck. “But even in a more immediate sense, who can you trust standing next to you trying to count this money?”
Damon added, “You don’t know who’s good, who’s bad, who’s corrupt, what people’s agendas are. The tension just kind of keeps getting ratcheted up. There are forces on the outside that are converging on them, and they’re going to have to defend themselves.”
Carnahan explained why the police stayed in the home, in what was a dangerous situation, to count the money. “They’re stuck now because the rules in Florida and Miami-Dade are that you have to count a seizure on-scene. You can’t leave. And now they have to count the money, not knowing necessarily who to trust, including one another.”
This movie reunited Affleck and Damon, who also served as producers and have been in roughly ten movies together over the years, including their Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting back in 1997 and the 2023 hit Air.
Affleck has another movie premiering on Netflix later this year. He will star in and direct the upcoming kidnapping thriller Animals, which he co-wrote with Connor McIntyre and Billy Ray. The story centers around a mayoral candidate and his wife, who are so desperate to pay their son’s ransom that they resort to extreme measures. In so doing, they reveal dark secrets they never intended to bring to light. Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington, Ray Fisher, and Yeun star alongside Affleck.
The Rip is more than just another cops-and-robbers movie. Carnahan kept a real detail about Casiano’s life in the film. Like Damon’s character who is grieving the loss of his 11-year-old son to cancer, Casiano’s son Jake passed away in 2021 from leukemia.
Carnahan included this emotional storyline as a tribute and dedicated the movie to Jake. “It’s such a sensitive topic, and it is the worst thing a parent could possibly go through. But he was lovely, and he let me really delve into his life and tell this cop thriller with this deeply emotional, personal bent to it.”
