The tense motion drama places Damon and Affleck in a uncommon on-screen battle as a police raid spirals into paranoia, betrayal, and violence.
Netflix wasted no time setting the tone for 2026 with “The Rip,” a gritty motion thriller pushed by stress, distrust, and explosive confrontations. Directed and co-written by Joe Carnahan, the movie drops audiences right into a Miami narcotics investigation that goes off the rails the second a police raid uncovers a hidden stash of cartel cash. The setup hints at a routine bust. Nonetheless, each choice afterward spirals into suspicion and violence. Thus, creating a way of mounting strain that defines the movie’s environment from the opening scene.
The premise feels immediately flamable. First, a squad of Tactical Narcotics Workforce officers stumbles throughout $20 million in cartel money, and the invention fractures their unity. Second, protocol breaks down. Third, telephones are confiscated. Reinforcements aren’t known as. Each character begins second-guessing motives, studying tone, and decoding glances. Due to this fact, making a claustrophobic setting that dominates a lot of the movie’s 113-minute runtime. What begins as a regular operation shortly turns into a psychological standoff.
Audiences have gravitated towards the movie’s confined stress, which makes use of a single Hialeah house because the beating coronary heart of paranoia. Viewers instantly latched onto the intrigue of seeing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share the display screen in roles outlined by battle fairly than camaraderie. Thus, making their partnership one of many movie’s key attracts.
Damon and Affleck Step Into One among Their Most Intense Collaborations But
On the heart of “The Rip” are Matt Damon’s Lieutenant Dane Dumars and Ben Affleck’s Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne, longtime companions strained by grief, hierarchy shifts, and private limitations. For Damon, the position faucets right into a weary introspective power formed by Dumars’s grief over the lack of his son to most cancers—a component that informs his hyper-cautious demeanor and quiet however commanding authority. His grounded efficiency attracts closely from emotional exhaustion, portraying a person who has seen an excessive amount of and trusts too little.
Affleck counterbalances him with a fiery, impulsive portrayal. Byrne operates with physicality and intuition, typically overshadowing the chain of command. His tendency to problem Dumars fuels a lot of the strain between the characters, particularly after the cash is found and management is examined. IMDb viewers have famous how their dynamic revives a well-known power whereas pushing each actors into extra abrasive territory than their traditional pairings.
The movie’s advertising leaned into their collaborative reunion, however the precise on-screen battle is what has pushed viewer discussions. Fairly than depicting two united forces navigating chaos, “The Rip” pits their skilled partnership in opposition to crumbling belief. Damon’s introspection and Affleck’s volatility give the movie its spine, guaranteeing that each choice they make feels consequential, dangerous, and emotionally loaded.
A Raid, a False Wall, and Twenty Million Causes to Distrust Everybody
The story launches into disaster mode when Dumars receives an nameless tip a couple of home containing illicit money. He assembles his group, consisting of Byrne, Mike Ro, Numa Baptiste, and Lolo Salazar. After that, he heads into what needs to be a simple operation. As a substitute, the second they crack open the false wall hiding $20 million in cartel cash, the foundations of engagement dissolve. Dumars tells every officer a distinct estimated quantity to gauge reactions, and the strain settles like smoke.
Telephones are confiscated. Backup is withheld. And the group turns into trapped in a strain cooker the place cartel members, native officers, and unknown betrayers all hover like shadows across the property. A burner telephone goes off. A lookout’s data throws loyalties into query. Each choice deepens the suspicion that not everybody inside the home is performing within the squad’s greatest curiosity.
When masked assailants storm the house, the group erupts into frantic defensive mode, with Salazar injured and the setting reworking from investigative territory right into a battle zone. By the point DEA Agent Matty Nix arrives in an armored car, the traces between allies and enemies blur irrevocably. The revelation that Velez—the murdered captain—set the home as a lure for corrupt officers detonates the narrative into its ultimate stretch of betrayal, pursuit, and violent confrontation.
Betrayal Splinters the Squad as Inside Motives Come to Mild
“The Rip” thrives on deception, and the turning level arrives when Dumars identifies the supply of inside betrayal. The seemingly loyal Mike Ro turns into the main target of suspicion after connections emerge linking him to the cartel’s actions and the threats circling the home. When Dumars publicly confronts him, the unraveling accelerates. Due to this fact, pushing the narrative towards a shootout involving Nix, whose personal allegiances dissolve below strain.
The insanity intensifies as Nix’s car turns into a battleground, leading to lethal exchanges and a determined pursuit that ends with Ro’s apprehension. All through this sequence, Damon and Affleck drive the emotional stakes as colleagues torn between obligation and disillusionment. Their reactions convey exhaustion, disappointment, and the heavy burden of management within the face of ethical decay.
The ultimate reversal—discovering that the confiscated cash was swapped for telephone books—cements the movie’s curiosity in misdirection. Even after the betrayals are uncovered, the group learns they had been manipulated but once more, forcing them to confront the truth that protocol and loyalty failed them at each stage. The eventual restoration of the actual money affords closure, however the trauma of the expertise lingers between Dumars and Byrne, establishing a bittersweet ultimate scene.
Performances Throughout the Ensemble Deepen the Movie’s Emotional Rigidity
Steven Yeun’s portrayal of Detective Mike Ro brings a layered complexity to the character caught between profession frustration and misguided alliances. His inside battle strengthens the story’s slow-burn stress, making his eventual downfall really feel each tragic and inevitable. Teyana Taylor’s Numa Baptiste delivers sharp timing, humor, and poise. Thus, bringing levity that underscores her rising presence in dramatic roles. IMDb customers have highlighted Taylor’s showcase as one in every of her strongest shifts into high-stakes storytelling.
Catalina Sandino Moreno’s flip as Lolo Salazar provides adrenaline-driven urgency, putting her character on the crossroads of risk-taking and ethical restraint. Sasha Calle’s efficiency as Desi grounds the story in extraordinary survival instincts, turning her position right into a pivotal narrative hyperlink between the officers and the trapped home. Kyle Chandler’s Matty Nix injects suspicion, authority, and chaos, capturing the anomaly that fuels the movie’s anxieties.
Collectively, the ensemble reinforces Carnahan’s imaginative and prescient of a squad stretched past its limits. Every efficiency contributes to the movie’s themes of loyalty, desperation, and ethical erosion. The solid’s pure chemistry—notably between Damon and Affleck—elevates the credibility of long-time skilled bonds strained to the brink.
Carnahan’s Path Creates a Strain-Cooker Thriller in a Single Setting
Carnahan crafts “The Rip” via a structural and stylistic lens targeted on confinement. Almost your complete movie unfolds in or across the Hialeah home, turning slender hallways, false partitions, and cramped rooms into dramatic battlegrounds. The ultra-wide cinematography captures each bodily stress and psychological claustrophobia, whereas sharp modifying amplifies each second of doubt or suspicion between characters.
The movie’s ticking-clock construction heightens urgency, permitting strain to mount with out counting on conventional chase sequences. As a substitute, the pacing leans into sustained depth—conversations grow to be interrogations, silences grow to be warnings, and each gunshot alters the steadiness of belief. The sound design and rating assist the strain, utilizing accelerated rhythms to reflect characters’ rising paranoia and emotional depletion.
Carnahan’s inventive selections additionally emphasize temper over spectacle. Whereas motion sequences punctuate the story, the movie’s true energy lies in its psychological character examine. By specializing in confined areas and ethical pressure, the director elevates a easy raid setup right into a labyrinth of suspicion and betrayal, rewarding repeat viewings as motivations grow to be clearer with every rewatch.
A Robust Netflix Debut Sparks Buzz, Debate, and Early Fan Momentum
Launched on January 16, 2026, “The Rip” surged instantly on Netflix, drawing 41.6 million views in its preliminary interval—numbers that impressed audiences and triggered efficiency bonuses for greater than a thousand crew members. Rotten Tomatoes’ 81% rating displays the movie’s profitable execution of stress, character dynamics, and narrative twists, whereas early viewer discussions reward the ensemble’s dedication and the film’s unpredictable nature.
Social media reactions mirror the movie’s depth. Followers have celebrated the sudden on-screen antagonism between Damon and Affleck, with many saying this dynamic pushes their longstanding collaboration into recent territory. Dialog additionally facilities round Teyana Taylor’s breakout presence, sparking renewed dialogue about her increasing vary and momentum throughout genres.
Debate persists relating to the movie’s pacing, with some viewers noting a sluggish begin earlier than the narrative’s full momentum takes maintain. But even these critiques acknowledge that the ultimate payoff is substantial, tying collectively betrayals, emotional arcs, and motion sequences in a method that sustains engagement lengthy after the credit roll. “The Rip” positions itself as one in every of Netflix’s first main cultural flashpoints of 2026—fueled by star energy, sharp course, and the type of stress that grips audiences from begin to end.
