‘The Rip’ True Story, Explained

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s latest Netflix film has been impressing critics and audiences, delivering a tense, often emotional story that keeps viewers guessing. The Rip is writer-director Joe Carnahan’s most recent foray into the crime thriller genre, following notable entries such as Smokin’ Aces, Narc, and Gerard Butler’s Copshop. The film offers a story of ever-shifting loyalties, leaving viewers unsure whom to trust as the plot navigates moral ambiguities and corruption. However, Carnahan’s latest also starts by claiming to be based on a true story.

While the action-packed finale of The Rip may have some questioning its claims to be a true story, the thriller got more details right than some might think. Still, there are embellishments at play, with Carnahan taking creative liberties where needed to craft the most entertaining film. What ultimately is the true story that inspired The Rip? Luckily, the truth made headlines at the time, allowing viewers insight into where the differences lie.

The True Story Behind ‘The Rip’, Explained

The Massive Cash Seizure Actually Happened

Netflix

The Rip stars Damon as Lieutenant Dane Dumars, the head of the Tactical Narcotics Team, alongside Affleck as Detective Sergeant JD Byrne. Together with their squad, they follow up on a tip about a possible money seizure, which leads them to find over $20 million when it was thought to be only a few hundred thousand. The discovery creates division within the team, with some looking to take it for themselves. The story involves cops killing cops, neighborhoods being peppered with gunfire, and even a high-speed car chase. While some of those details are highly fictionalized, the movie went above and beyond to get some of the particulars nearly perfect.

Thanks to The Rip‘s production notes, audiences know Carnahan first got the idea for the movie while working on Bad Boys for Life, when the technical advisor, Miami police officer Chris Casiano, told the director about a real cash seizure he had experienced while leading a tactical squad, much like the movie depicts. The real story took place in 2016and is detailed in a Miami Herald article that highlightssurprising similarities. Miami-Dade police detectives did actually raid the house of a suspected drug trafficker, finding over $24 million in the walls.

What is striking is The Rip‘s level of detail surrounding the discovery of the money. From the color of the buckets to how the money was wrapped in plastic, everything was pulled straight from the story, including the small moment of a firearm found in one of the buckets, which proved to be a very real detail. According to the Miami Herald:

“Miami-Dade police detectives raiding the home of a suspected marijuana trafficker unearthed an estimated $24 million in cash — mostly in bundles of $100 bills in heat-sealed bags stuffed in 24 orange 5-gallon Home Depot-brand buckets.”

“But inside the master-bedroom closet, Miami-Dade police detectives found heat-sealed bags of cash, each labeled “$150K.” Police also found numerous vials of steroids and a loaded Tec-9 pistol with an extended clip, according to the arrest report.”

One of the unique details from The Rip that the audience may assume is fabricated is how the detectives locate the money inside the house. The movie shows the detectives pulling a small religious figure on the wall, which alerts them to a hidden room behind it, full of orange buckets of money. The setup feels like an elaborate movie setup, but proves to be another accurate detail.

“Exhausted investigators late Wednesday were still counting the cash, most of which was found inside a secret compartment only accessible through the attic of the posh house. The hidden room was guarded by a hallway statuette of St. Lazarus.”

“It could only accessed through the attic, through a trap door hidden by a layer of fiberglass insulation. The attic entrance was guarded by more figurines associated with the Santeria religion. Removing the St. Lazarus from a wall alcove, detectives punched a hole in the hallway wall to remove the buckets.”

‘The Rip’s Most Heartbreaking Detail Is Real

Matt Damon talking to a suspect in 'The Rip"

The Rip also draws inspiration from Casiano, who served as the film’s technical advisor and the basis for Damon’s Dumars. The emotional throughline for Dumars is his son’s death, which audiences learn was due to cancer when he was 11. The character is guided by his moral compass throughout the film, with the added background providing depth and deeper meaning to earlier moments. This tragic detail mirrors Casiano’s real life, as his son, Jake William Casiano, died at the age of 11 from leukemia, with The Rip being dedicated to him. Carnahan spoke about the film’s dedication to GoldDerby, noting that Jake was the “beating heart at the center,” stating:

“It’s tricky, because you gotta go to your friend and say, ‘I don’t want this to feel exploitive or cheap, and I don’t want to take advantage of the memory of your boy… Can we 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?’ And Chris signed off, and God bless him.”

“I showed the movie to him about a month ago in Miami, and we had an absolutely bucking-sobs cry afterward; it was very cathartic and amazing. 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.”

What Did ‘The Rip’ Change for the Movie?

Steven Yeun, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, and Kyle Chandler in 'The Rip'

Much of The Rip does take liberties with the story. The real case was not spurred to life by the death of an officer, nor was there an elaborate ploy going on to shake loose dirty cops. While the movie posits that the officers involved were tempted, the truth is far more straightforward. What began as a DEA investigation into marijuana traffickers eventually led to the house the detectives raided. The police also appear to have accounted for all the money and transported it safely into custody, making the high-speed finale of The Rip pure fiction. As stated by the Miami Herald:

“The discovery stunned even veteran narcotics detectives who are used to processing large amounts of money. The buckets were loaded onto the back of a pickup truck and hauled to the Miami-Dade police department, where the bills were painstakingly entered into money-counting machines.”

While Damon’s Dumars is based on Casiano, many of the other characters are works of fiction, like the corrupt cops, as none of that was based on fact. Desi, the home’s occupant in The Rip, also appears to be fictional, as no cash reward was given out to someone dwelling in the house, nor did it burn down, with the article further noting:

“Miami-Dade police will likely now move to take ownership of the money through civil forfeiture laws, while the feds could seize the Miami Lakes home.”

The cash at the center of The Rip was real, and the seizure became one of the largest in the jurisdiction’s history, grabbing headlines. However, the story itself is highly fictionalized, drawing heavily on the actual event but not offering an accurate retelling. Still, the film’s standout emotional arc for Dumars is built on a truth that makes it a distinct memorial. The Rip offers some truth beyond the gritty crime thriller plot, but it is only loosely based on the facts.