Genre: Action Thriller
Premise: When a group of cops get a tip that 150k of drug money is stashed at a house, they go to pick up the “rip.” But once they find out that it’s actually 20 million dollars, a series of events that include a cartel coming to take them down and secrets within their division that mean no one can trust each other, put their lives in jeopardy.
About: The script was written in 5 weeks. The movie came together within 24 hours. Carnahan sent the script to Damon. It got to Affleck quickly, who called the next day. Just like that the movie was a go. 4 quadrants? Fuck 4 quadrants. Affleck and Damon wanted to make a “one-quadrant” movie, targeting the “film bro” crowd, which explains why they promoted the movie on podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience.
Writer: Joe Carnahan & Michael McGrale
Details: 105 minutes
When I heard that Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were signing up for a Joe Carnahan movie, my first thought was, “Does Joe Carnahan have secret videos of Matt and Ben engaged in lurid activities with kangaroos or something?”
No shade on Carnahan but Joe’s very openly embraced a career that includes directing low-budget straight-to-streaming action movies. Meanwhile, Matt Damon is getting a major part in Christopher Nolan’s latest movie. Even Ben is still clinging to A-minus status. I don’t know how these two worlds came together but I’m not complaining.
Carnahan, for those who don’t remember, was once considered the hottest action director in town. The guy was about to direct Tom Cruise in a Mission Impossible sequel before he, according to industry outlets, lost his mind (and subsequently lost the job).
But Carnahan can deliver a solid action movie when need be. So I’m glad Matt and Ben gave him a shot.
The Rip is a great example of how to write an action script that will sell. I would even go so far as to say, this would be the best action script on the market of the past 3 years. And that’s specifically because all action movies feel the same. Guy with gun. Guy shoots a lot. Lots of people get shot and die. The End.
This script actually has some thought put into it. I’ll explain what that looks like in a sec. But, first, if you haven’t seen the film, here’s the plot.
Cops Dane (Damon) and J.D. (Affleck) are the head of a special Miami drug unit. On this day, Dane gets a tip. There’s a house where drug runners have stashed 150k. It’s their job to go secure it. Dane and J.D. take their team, which include Mike Ro (the blandest actor in Hollywood, Steven Yeun), Numa (One Battle After Another’s Teyana Taylor), and Lolo.
The crew heads to the house, which is at the end of a cul de sac. A young woman named Desi allows them in and the crew immediately checks the attic, which is suspiciously clean. They break down the walls and find barrels miraculously filled with, what looks to be, 20 million bucks.
The rules of a rip are that you must count it on location. So Numa and Lolo get to counting. Meanwhile, a call comes in. It’s from a bad-sounding man who says they have 30 minutes to leave the house or they all die.
J.D. doesn’t seem rattled for some reason. He’s more concerned about his partner, who hasn’t called the rip in to the boss. Whispers between the rest of the team indicate that Dane is thinking of keeping the money for all of them. But that’s not exactly like trading in your tickets at the arcade for a giant teddy bear. This is likely cartel money, and they’ll want it back. And if anyone at the precinct finds out, they’d go to prison for sure. So what do they do?
If that wasn’t bad enough, Mike Ro, who’s been put on guard in front of the house, notices that there are no cars on this block. No people. And once it gets dark, all those house lights start flickering in what seems like… a pattern? Are the people in the houses talking to each other? If so, is Dane’s team about to be ambushed? That may be just the beginning of their problems as Dane and J.D.’s team have bitten off way more than they can chew.
The first thing The Rip does well is create a dangerous, contained scenario. We are in a house at the end of a cul de sac, tasked with securing a large sum of money. This may seem like a small or obvious creative choice, but it is actually critical. By establishing a contained environment with a clear objective (count the rip and get it to the station) the story immediately becomes legible. The reader understands the situation, the rules, and what success and failure look like.
This is where many writers, especially in action scripts, go wrong. They jump from location to location, constantly resetting the geography. The result is that the story never takes shape. There is motion, but no form. A plot needs boundaries in order to solidify.
This is exactly why Die Hard is considered one of the greatest action movies ever made. It is a clear contained scenario. The moment John McClane is trapped in Nakatomi Plaza, the rules are clear and the tension locks in. Contrast that with Die Hard 4, where McClane is bouncing between countless locations. Most people can barely recall the plot. That is what a non-contained scenario does. It dilutes the plot instead of strengthening it.
The second thing The Rip does exceptionally well is build sustained suspense. I am continually surprised by how many screenwriters do not understand how suspense works. At its most basic level, the formula is simple: Tell the audience that something bad is coming then make them wait for it.
Once we learn the rip is twenty million dollars, the story fundamentally changes. That number implies bigger players, more powerful interests, and far greater danger than the cops initially expect. The stakes escalate instantly. Not long after Dane and J.D. discover the cash, the house phone rings. A man delivers a clear ultimatum. If they are not out of the house in thirty minutes, they will all be dead.
At that point, the script has done the hard part. A bad thing is coming. All that remains is to create time between now and when it arrives. Suspense lives in between that space. And the beauty of suspense is that it does not require constant action to function. The simple knowledge that something terrible is inevitable is enough to keep the reader turning pages. What reader would not want to see what happens when the big bad wolf finally shows up?
What makes this script even stronger is that it does not rely on that single engine. It layers in additional reasons to stay engaged. Most notably, a series of mysteries. Dale clearly knows more about the rip than he’s letting on. What is he hiding? Mike Ro keeps sending texts to unknown contacts when the other cops aren’t watching. What’s he really doing? These unanswered questions deepen the suspense and ensure that momentum never lets up.
The Rip was a big reminder to me that B-movie scenarios are perfect for screenplays. I’m going to say something pretty controversial here but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. Screenplays aren’t good at handling character depth. They’re good at handling thrills and suspense. But character depth eludes them.
The reason why boils down to movies only being two hours long and the inability to get inside a character’s head in the movie format. This is why movies use “show don’t tell,” because, unlike books, you can’t read about what’s going on in the protagonist’s head between all the action. If you’re only showing us who a character is through their actions, there’s only so much you can tell us about them.
Yes yes, I know. There are movies with great characters. I’m just saying it’s hard to do in this format. Movies do a better job with setups like The Rip. Tell us a little bit about each person in a group, put that group in peril, load up the stakes so they’re as high as possible, and let your plot cook. That simple formula will get you far in screenwriting.
My issue with The Rip is that it accepts its “B-Movie” status and uses it as a reason not to work as hard. It’s like everyone working on the movie said, “We’re going to make a B-movie here and we’re never going to try to do anything more than that.”
There’s a moment later in the film where the house catches on fire and it isn’t clear whether they purposefully set it on fire or it happened by accident. Carnahan seemed to want a plot development that forced the team out of the house and came up with the fire at the last second yet never had a conversation about whether the fire was purposeful or accidental. Even the actors seemed confused by it. “We’ll grab the rest of the money in a sec,” J.D. says, as he and the others carry the bags of cash outside. Uhhhh, the house is literally burning down. You don’t have another sec. Seconds later, they just seem to forget about the rest of the money.
Plenty of writers out there embody the “NFL Receiver” approach to scriptwriting – occasionally they’ll run a half-ass route. But there are B movies out there that demonstrate what can happen when you try and ace the test. John Wick is a great example. That was developed as a B movie. But everybody cared so much about every detail in it that it became an A+ B movie, and spawned a billion dollar franchise as a result.
I wonder what this movie would’ve looked like if Matt and Ben put just as much effort into it as they did Good Will Hunting, when they were starving writer-actors living in West Hollywood. I suspect they would’ve plugged up the holes and made it great. With that said, this was still a solid entry into the B-movie market and one of the better movies Netflix has made.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[xx] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Matt and Ben have had a lot of press around Matt’s reveal that Netflix asked them to clarify the plot 4 times throughout the movie because people who watch their movies are constantly checking their phones. It caused a lot of gasps by cinephiles online but, you know what? I don’t think it’s bad advice at all. And not even because it’s a Netflix film we’re talking about. There’s actually a TON going on in this script. You’ve got the mystery of the money, the mystery of each individual character, you’ve got people lying to each other, you’ve got new information constantly coming in that changes the group dynamic. This is a perfect candidate for constant plot updates. I can’t tell you how many scripts I read with heavy plots where the writer just assumes I know what’s going on. But I have no idea because they only told me once! If you have a complex script, don’t hesitate to remind the reader what’s happening in your plot. Otherwise, they’re going to have no idea.
What I learned 2: Whatever the coolest idea in your script is, keep working on the script until you get the most out of it as possible. The best thing about this script was the reveal that the entire block looked to be cartel members and that our crew was trapped at the end of the block. I got tingles when the lights in each house started passing messages in morse code. Amazing idea. But because Carnahan “speed-wrote” his script, he barely got anything out of that amazing idea. Which is screenwriting negligence as far as I’m concerned. Great ideas come along rarely. If you get one, take it to the freaking finish line!
What I learned 3: You cannot speed-write a script with this much mystery and this many reveals. Mysteries and reveals create lots of potential plot holes. For that reason, it’s impossible to do so without the script being sloppy. You can speed-write a rom-com. You can speed-write John Wick. You can’t speed-write a script like this nor should you try.
