Ben Affleck's #1 Movie In The U.S. Is A Reminder To Watch His 7-Year-Old Netflix Action Thriller

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Ben Affleck tackles a man in The Rip 2026

Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.

Although The Rip is great, this stellar Ben Affleck thriller is also a perfect reminder to check out the actor’s underrated earlier Netflix hit, Triple Frontier. Directed by Narc’s Joe Carnahan, The Rip is a tense, gritty action thriller with a killer premise. The movie follows a group of cops who uncover millions in cash at a stash house.

The group soon turns on each other as they debate what they should do about this $20 million payday they’ve found hidden in an attic. By The Rip’s ending, unpredictable alliances have been forged and broken, bullets have flown, and a whole lot of lives have been lost over this life-changing sum of untracable cash.

The Rip Is A Reminder To Check Out Triple Frontier

Ben Affleck as JD Byrne (left) shines his flashlight as he and Matt Damon as Dane Dumars (right) investigate.

As well as a stellar supporting role for One Battle After Another's breakout star Teyana Taylor, The Rip is also notable for reuniting Good Will Hunting stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. The duo previously appeared together in Air and The Last Duel, but The Rip sees them lead a starry ensemble cast that also includes Kyle Chandler, Sasha Calle, and Steven Yeun.

While The Rip is superb, viewers who enjoy Netflix’s latest hit action thriller need to seek out Affleck’s earlier, similar heist movie. 2019’s brutal Triple Frontier featured a similarly stacked ensemble cast, including Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac, and Pedro Pascal alongside Affleck in the lead role. Like The Rip, this thriller was lean, fast-paced, and twisty.

This tense thriller saw a group of ex-Delta Force military men reunite to pull off a daring heist by robbing a drug lord in Peru. Isaac’s Santiago “Pope” Garcia brings his old unit back together to pull off the ambitious robbery, but everything that can go wrong soon does in Triple Frontier's bloody, unpredictable story.

The Rip vs. Triple Frontier: Which Is Better?

Frankie/Catfish (Pedro Pascal) speaks to Tom/Redfly (Ben Affleck) and Santiago/Pope (Oscar Isaac) about the weight issue on the helicopter with the amount of money they have.

Directed by Margin Call’s JC Chandor, Triple Frontier is a tense, grim action thriller with a couple of genuinely shocking moments. However, while both movies are entertaining and subversive, The Rip’s twisty plot is the stronger of the two. That said, for viewers who want an action-packed story full of double crosses, deceit, and gunfights, both movies are a safe bet.

The Rip’s intensity comes from the movie’s lone location setup and the tension between its amoral antiheroes, whereas Triple Frontier is more concerned with following its protagonists as they attempt to pull off an almost impossibly ambitious heist in an unfamiliar country with nowhere near enough backup. Thus, for all Triple Frontier’s style and slickness, The Rip is a more morally complex thriller.