Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s new film The Rip is out on Netflix now, and while it’s an action thriller film about a team of Miami cops who discovers millions of dollars of drug cartel money and the tensions that mount between them, it also features a touching tribute.
Director Joe Carnahan has revealed that the film is actually based on a real-life raid that his friend Chris Casiano took part in.
Casiano tragically lost his son, Jake William Casiano, at the age of just 11-years-old to leukemia in 2021. Not only is there a dedication to the boy just before the credits roll, but Damon’s character in the film is dealing with the loss of his son Jake to cancer.
Speaking to Gold Derby, Carnahan explained that: “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.’
“[Instead, I asked] ‘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.”
He continued: “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.”
“The small moments and more human aspects of it — that’s the stuff that I like,” he said of the film in general. “The action and the twists and turns, I love that too, but it’s the little things that, to me, make that movie.”
