Abhiroop Das
Helmed by Joe Carnahan, Netflix’s ‘The Rip’ follows the Tactical Narcotics Team of the Miami Police Department, comprised of seasoned officers whose job is to conduct extensive raids and seize whatever cash, drugs, and weapons are found on-site. One such raid is projected to yield a few hundred thousand dollars at most, but when walls break down and reveal the millions of dollars stashed within, only Lieutenant Dane Dumars realizes that this is far from good news. Before long, a state of paranoia sets in, and the members of the squad begin doubting each other’s actions and intentions alike. As the hours go by and the plot thickens in this action-packed mystery thriller movie, everyone locked in the house simultaneously becomes a suspect and a victim, shining light on the various ways crime manifests and spreads into everyday life.
The Rip’s Story is Loosely Based on a Real-Life Police Raid in Miami
‘The Rip’ is partially inspired by a real-life police incident recounted to director and co-writer Joe Carnahan by his friend in the Miami Dade Police Department, Christopher “Chris” Casiano, who leads a tactical narcotics squad within the force. He told Carnahan that, on one occasion, he received a tip about a house with a lot of drug money stashed away. What Chris didn’t expect upon arrival, however, was that there would be millions of dollars hidden behind the house’s walls. It is this moment that serves as a loose basis for the movie’s premise, which is centered around a group of cops discovering a lot more money than their initial assumption. In an interview with Gold Derby, Carnahan talked about the specifics of Chris’ story that sparked his creative drive. In particular, the “photographs of containers in the wall that they sledgehammered out” left him completely awestruck.
Carnahan’s conception of the story was also informed by the technical details Chris added to his recounting of the raid. Specifically, he talked about how the team had to count the money on-site and that it is standard to count the total twice before moving it to a different location. As per reports, the squad arrived at 169th Terrace in Miami Lakes on June 29, 2016, to execute the search warrant on the house. This was a culmination of a years-long investigation into a drug trafficking operation, and a closer inspection of the house with their cash-sniffing dog confirmed their instincts. Tightly packed stacks of cash amounting to $24 million were found stashed in 24 five-gallon buckets hidden inside the drywall. Chris told Carnahan about how it was standard practice to count the money on-site and that it was standard to count the total twice before moving it to a different location.
Given the huge sum of money at hand, however, Chris needed a full 42 hours to get the job done. The security cameras inside the house recorded their movements while Chris got increasingly tense by the minute. For Carnahan, this event had a uniquely cinematic edge to it and allowed him to pour his love for the cop genre, specifically 70s era cop thrillers, into a narrative with roots in real life. ‘The Rip’ takes this singular raid as its base and makes a number of fictional additions to it, resulting in a finished product that is highly dramatized in its nature. While there are a number of overlaps between the on-screen raid and its real-life counterpart, the story ultimately goes in a direction of its own.
The movie’s connection to real life is not just limited to one incident, but rather draws from the real-life police ecosystem. This is perhaps best represented by the title itself, as ‘The Rip’ is a Miami slang term for police officers “ripping,” or confiscating cash, ammunition, or substances away from the criminals. This style of seizure is captured perfectly in the movie, with the screenplay involving a number of police slang, abbreviations, and technical terms that give the movie an air of realism. It is possible that the writing team was also inspired by stories and anecdotes about cartel presence in Miami, which occupies a major chunk of the narrative. Additionally, the film broadens its social commentary by tackling corruption in police forces, amongst other contemporarily relevant topics, in a way that flows naturally with the larger storyline.
Dane Dumars is a Dramatization of a Real-Life Police Officer, While JD Byrne is Fictional in Nature
Given that ‘The Rip’ was born out of Officer Chris Casiano’s real-life experiences, it is only natural that the movie’s protagonist, Lieutenant Dane Dumars, is vaguely based on Chris himself. Where this connection is made apparent, however, is in the film’s careful approach to the character of Jake Dumars, Dane’s son, who died of cancer. The character is loosely based on Chris’ own son, Jake William Casiano, who died on May 8, 2021, at the age of 11, after a long battle with leukemia. As reported by Gold Derby, it was a challenging task for Carnahan to integrate Jake into the story in a sensitive manner, and they ultimately decided to portray Jake via a narrative device or vessel, which could serve as a “living monument” to his son. This idea likely took form as Dane’s tattoos, underscoring how his character is carefully constructed to crystallize several ideas into a single whole.
Unlike Dane, Detective Sergeant JD Byrne is a fictional police officer created by Joe Carnahan and Michael McGrale specifically for the narrative. Given that Chris’ original recounting of the raid does not mention or highlight a real-life counterpart to Byrne’s character, it is likely that the latter was created from scratch by the writing team. In the movie, Byrne stands out as a contrasting presence when compared to his friend and cop-partner, Dane. Ben Affleck, who brings that role to life, was specifically interested in how the character is centered around a very specific perception of masculinity. In a conversation with GQ, he also revealed that he was “drawn to playing what I suppose now is an unapologetically ‘throwback’ type role.” As such, while Dane has a partial basis in reality, Byrne is likely designed as an embodiment of classic cop archetypes.
Read More: Is Coldwater Based on a True Story? Is it a Real Village?
