The True Story Behind Ben Affleck & Matt Damon's The Rip Movie

The Rip, Netflix's new movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, is a cop thriller high on action and soaked in paranoia. After their captain is murdered, the Miami-Dade force's Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT) discovers a stash house hiding more than $20 million, which throws them into a suddenly life-threatening situation. At any moment, the cartel could be back in full force to reclaim their money, or the team of dirty cops rumored to be hitting stash houses and keeping the cash could show up to claim their ultimate prize – perhaps even with help from someone inside TNT.

As bullets and accusations fly, it may be difficult to believe the movie was "inspired by true events," as the opening title card claims. And, indeed, a lot of what writer-director Joe Carnahan brought to the screen is invention. But there is a true story at the heart of The Rip, and it came to the filmmakers straight from someone who actually lived through it.

The Rip Was Inspired By A Real-Life Miami Stash House Bust

According to the production notes shared with the press, The Rip's life began on the set of Bad Boys for Life, where Carnahan collaborated with Chris Casiano, a real Miami police officer working on the film as a technical advisor. Casiano shared a case from his days leading a tactical narcotics unit, which ultimately led to the biggest cash bust in the history of the Miami-Dade police department.

In 2016, according to a Miami Herald report from the time, police raided the home of Luis Hernandez-Gonzalez, who owned a gardening equipment business, on suspicion of marijuana trafficking. After searching the building, they discovered a secret room in the attic filled with about $24 million in cash, sealed in bags and stuffed in large buckets. These practical details were maintained for the film, as was the use of money-sniffing dogs to search the premises, which Carnahan related to Netflix:

“In the movie and in real life, when the dog was outside, it was just going nuts... [The dog's trainer] said what Catalina says in the movie: There’s a lot more than $75,000 in this house, because the dog’s alerting out here, meaning [it] could smell the amount of money already. I just thought that was really wild. I had never experienced a cop story like that.”

The bust was the culmination of a lengthy investigation conducted in part by the DEA, which also features in The Rip. And the detail of having to count the cash on-location is also true to life, though it sounds like it was more exhausting than dangerous. Speaking to GoldDerby, Carnahan says it actually has to be counted twice, and that the whole process took 42 hours.

Not included in any reports from the time, however, are mentions of the cartel, roving gangs of dirty cops, or a firefight with the FBI. The truth, it seems, was merely The Rip's jumping-off point. Though Casiano relayed to Netflix that during the real rip, he noticed there were cameras planted throughout the house, which made him wonder whether someone was going to come for him and his team:

“Joe [Carnahan] and I started building off of that aspect. It’s suspenseful: ‘Who’s a bad guy? Are the cops dirty? Is the cartel going to show up and kill everybody? What’s going on?’”

The Rip May Have Been Inspired By Real Miami Police Scandals

Though not direct inspiration in the way Casiano's rip was, Carnahan's movie evokes one of the more infamous police corruption scandals in US history: the Miami River Cops Scandal.

In 1985, three bodies were found floating in the Miami River, assumed to be part of a drug deal gone bad. But when the investigation concluded that policemen were responsible for raiding a boat and stealing 350-400kg of cocaine, an undercover sting operation eventually revealed a group that came to be known as the River Cops, who had been conducting such crimes for more than a year. According to a 1990 PBS report, those involved were estimated to have made between $100,000 and $2 million each from selling stolen drugs.

Some of the originals were tried and convicted on a range of charges and received lengthy prison sentences, but the investigation didn't stop there. The FBI got involved alongside Miami PD's Internal Affairs department, and ultimately, 10% of Miami's police force was found to be corrupt and were suspended or fired.

It would be surprising if this didn't inform The Rip. The rumored group of dirty cops hitting stash houses seems to reference the River Cops specifically, but the opening of the film draws on this situation more generally as well. IA and the FBI are investigating TNT following the killing of their captain, and multiple people refer to a Miami violent crime unit that had recently been shuttered after a similar investigation uncovered widespread corruption. The film is far from recreating this scandal directly, but despite being set in the modern day, Carnahan seems very interested in recreating this atmosphere.

Matt Damon's Character Pulled One More Real Detail From Chris Casiano's Life

Even though a great deal of what happens in The Rip is the stuff of fiction, another critical detail from Casiano's life was baked into the script, despite not being part of the original case. In 2021, following his time with Carnahan on the set of Bad Boys for Life, Casiano lost his 11-year-old son, Jake, after a lengthy battle with leukemia. With his blessing, Carnahan incorporated this into Damon's character, Lieutenant Dane Dumars, who was modeled on Casiano.

Dumars' grief over his son's death is an important throughline in The Rip, and the movie returns to it often. Though it's presented by other characters as a key factor in his strange behavior at the stash house, and even potentially motive for wanting to steal the money, its purpose in the story is ultimately to lend some emotional weight to the thrilling action. The Rip's credits reveal the film is dedicated to Jake William Casiano.

In the same interview with GoldDerby, Carnahan explains his intention was to "create a vessel with which to put this grief and sadness into, and maybe turn it into something where it's this living monument to Jake for his short time here on Earth. [...] It was really important to me that [Jake] be the first name you see, because you understood that there was a beating heart at the center."

Release Date January 16, 2026

Runtime 133 minutes

Director Joe Carnahan

Writers Joe Carnahan, Michael McGrale