Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Reunite For Intense Crime Thriller ‘The Rip’

The dynamic duo that brought us Good Will Hunting is back, and this time they’re on opposite sides of a moral dilemma that could cost them everything. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon star in The Rip, a gritty cop thriller hitting Netflix this month that explores what happens when good cops face impossible temptation.

The Premise: $20 Million and a Moral Crisis

The Rip follows Miami-Dade’s Tactical Narcotics Team as they stumble upon a drug house that contains more than $20 million in cash. However, what should be a routine evidence seizure quickly becomes a pressure cooker of greed, suspicion, and survival.

Damon’s character, Lieutenant Dane Dumars, sets the stage perfectly in the trailer: “From the outside looking in, it seems simple. Seize the cash, count it, and turn it in. On the inside, it’s different.”

The twist? Protocol requires the team to count every dollar on-site before they can leave, and they’re sitting ducks in hostile territory while they do it. “In Miami, you have to count the money on-site, so that everybody knows how much is there,” Damon explains. It’s a procedural detail that transforms a straightforward bust into a nightmare scenario where the line between cop and criminal starts to blur.

Affleck and Damon: Partners Turned Rivals

The film doesn’t just pit cops against criminals, it explores fractures within the brotherhood itself. Dumars has just been promoted to lieutenant, making him the boss of his longtime partner, Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne (Affleck). As you might expect, this power shift creates immediate tension: “We’ve been peers for our [whole] careers, and now he’s been made the boss of the group.”

Add $20 million in cash to that dynamic, and you’ve got a powder keg. The trailer shows the former partners coming to blows, with Byrne screaming at Dumars: “You wanna steal this rip, just say it out loud! I don’t trust you right now, and that’s a problem.”

It’s the kind of intense, character-driven conflict that makes for great crime drama, and gives two of Hollywood’s best actors meaty material to work with.

The Impossible Choice

At its core, The Rip asks a question every man has probably pondered – What would you do if faced with a massive temptation like this?

The money is almost certainly cartel cash, which means whoever it belongs to will be coming for it, with extreme prejudice. As Damon notes, “They know that it’s almost certainly cartel money that belongs to very dangerous people who are probably going to come get it. They’re on the clock, and they have to start thinking of defending where they are because they can’t just leave.”

Joe Carnahan Brings the Heat

Behind the camera is Joe Carnahan, the director known for hard-hitting action thrillers like Narc and The Grey. Carnahan understands how to build tension, and The Rip looks like it delivers in spades. He describes the setup succinctly: “[They] can’t leave, which makes them targets for a bunch of bad guys. And now they have to count the money, not knowing necessarily who to trust, including one another.”

The trailer promises Carnahan’s signature style: kinetic action, moral complexity, and no easy answers. Expect gunfights, car chases, and rooftop shootouts as the team tries to survive the night while counting millions under the threat of cartel retaliation.

Why You Should Watch

The Rip has all of the ingredients for a must-watch thriller: two A-list stars with genuine chemistry, a high-concept premise grounded in procedural reality, and a director who knows how to deliver pulse-pounding action with substance. The moral questions it raises – about loyalty, temptation, and what good men do when pushed to their limits – give it depth beyond the typical cops-and-robbers formula.

Whether you’re here for the Affleck-Damon reunion, the action-packed set pieces, or the psychological tension of watching trust disintegrate under pressure, The Rip looks like it’s going to deliver.

The Rip streams exclusively on Netflix starting January 16th. Clear your schedule, as this one’s definitely going to be worth the watch.