Sweaty palms, bad decisions, and the creeping realization that the walls are closing in have always been Joe Carnahan’s cinematic comfort zone, from the raw nerve of “Narc” to the adrenalized chaos of “Smokin’ Aces.” With “The Rip,” Carnahan distills that obsession into its most claustrophobic form yet, a lean, pressure-cooker cop thriller that weaponizes procedure, grief, and mistrust by refusing to let anyone leave the room.
Premiering January 16 on Netflix, the film follows a team of law enforcement officers tasked with counting a massive cash seizure inside a private home, only to realize the money has placed them squarely in someone else’s crosshairs, turning routine protocol into a moral and physical siege where loyalty fractures and survival comes at a cost. The film stars Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Kyle Chandler, Scott Adkins, and more.
On this episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo is joined by writer-director Joe Carnahan to discuss how “The Rip” grew out of deeply personal real-life experience, why confinement can be more terrifying than scale, collaborating with Damon and Affleck as producers, and why character-driven crime stories continue to pull him back more than any franchise machinery.
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