Abhiroop Das
Directed by Joe Carnahan, Netflix’s ‘The Rip’ traces a day in the life of Lieutenant Dane Dumars of the Miami Police’s Tactical Narcotics Division. A seasoned veteran, he ventures into what appears to be a fairly ordinary search and seizure, not knowing that his life is about to turn upside down. As the investigation tightens and walls are broken down, millions of dollars spill out, far more than anything Dumars and his team could imagine. As fear, greed, and paranoia nestle themselves in the minds of everyone locked into the house, the mystery thriller movie asks a simple question: Who are the good guys in a world where good and bad can no longer be easily defined? Dumars’ tattoos, which remain an enigma for most of the movie, provide a symbolic answer to this question. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Matt Damon Got Temporary Tattoos For His Role in The Rip
In ‘The Rip,’ Matt Damon’s character sports two major tattoos, one on each of his hands, and both carry significant narrative meaning. However, given that the tattoos are noticeably absent in the actor’s subsequent public appearances, it can be surmised that those were temporary designs added by the creative team specifically for the screen. In real life, Damon is bona fide a tattoo aficionado, and has transformed his right arm and shoulder into what he calls his “little universe” of body designs. In 2013, Damon got his wife’s name, “Lucy,” inked on his arm, which was followed by a 2019 tattoo of his four children’s names. Four years later, Damon got the word “Nomad” etched on his shoulder, in memory of his late father, reiterating the emotional significance of tattoos in his life.
While Dane Dumars, the movie’s protagonist, has his own share of emotional linkages to the two tattoos on his hands: the letters “AWTGG” and “WAAWB,” they are fictional constructs of writers Joe Carnahan and Michael McGrale. As such, Damon has no reason to keep the tattoos beyond the production of the movie. The fact that their existence begins and ends with the movie adds several additional layers of meaning to the designs, while also retaining their specific context. Damon is no stranger to using temporary tattoos as a part of his character designs, as the actor famously sported fake neck tattoos while filming for ‘Elysium.’ Such creative measures give both him and his crew enough flexibility to play with the designs and their meanings without being limited in scope, as best displayed in ‘The Rip.’
Dumars’ Tattoos Spell Out His Last Conversation With His Son
The meaning behind Dumars’ “AWTGG” and “WAAWB” tattoos unfolds in two layers over the course of the movie, with the latter being revealed towards the final stretches. Initially, we are told the literal full form of the designs, with the former standing for “Are we the good guys?” and the latter meaning ‘We are and always will be.” Together, they form a shared exchange that initially appears to be a sort of self-affirmative mantra that Dumars relies on. As the team leader at Miami Police Department’s TNT, or Tactical Narcotics Team, he is constantly faced with one moral dilemma after another. Often, these questions center around the larger point of being an honest cop in a world corrupted beyond recognition. To that end, it makes sense for him to constantly require an anchor, such as the tattoos.
Dumars’ brief dynamic with Desi, the woman inhabiting the house he raids, adds a curious spin to the meaning of his tattoos. Upon learning what they stand for, she immediately confronts him with how the definitive tone of the phrases might potentially shield him from facing his own cruelty. While that almost seems to be the case as the movie proceeds and the mystery thickens, in the end, we learn that Dumars’ tattoos are far from an abstract sentiment, and are actually the last words he shared with his son, Jake, who died at the age of 10. It was Jake who asked his father whether they, as a whole, were the good guys. Dumars’ response, as such, is not just limited to the police framework, but represents his innate sense of what is truly, unchangingly human about him and his son.
It is likely that the idea for the tattoos came to director and co-writer Joe Carnahan in the context of Jake William Casiano, the son of Captain Chris Casiano, whose real-life police raid informed the premise of the movie. Jake passed away in 2021 after battling leukemia for three years, and his reimagining within the movie forms the basis of Carnahan’s heartfelt tribute. In a conversation with Gold Derby, he explained that the movie essentially serves as “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.” Dumars’ tattoos, as such, embody this complex blend of emotions on-screen, tying Jake’s memory to the film’s emotional core.
Read More: Is The Rip a True Story? Are Dane Dumars and JD Byrne Based on Real Miami Cops?
