Netflix’s new crime thriller, ‘The Rip‘, feels like a story that might be too real to be fully fictional. The film is about two Miami officers who enter a cartel stash house and find a huge pile of cash. A law forces them to stay there and count the money before they can leave. That one rule makes everything more intense and makes people wonder whether this really happened in Miami.
Yes, ‘The Rip‘ is based on a true story. The movie is inspired by a real case linked to the Miami-Dade Police Department.
The Real Inspiration Behind ‘The Rip’
The true story behind the movie comes from Chris Casiano, a real Miami cop who found a massive amount of money hidden in a house while he was leading the department’s Tactical Narcotics Team.
Joe Carnahan, the writer-director, made it clear that this story held personal meaning for him. He told Netflix, “The Rip came out of a deeply personal experience that my friend went through… Both as a father and as head of tactical narcotics for the Miami-Dade police department.” So even though the movie is a thriller, the starting point is very real.
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In the film, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play Lieutenant Dane Dumars and Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne. Both characters work in the Tactical Narcotics Team, and during an operation, their unit finds $20 million in cartel cash inside a derelict stash house. Then the real pressure creeps in.
Miami law requires the officers to count the money before leaving the premises. Because of that rule, the team has only a limited amount of time to finish counting before the dangerous men who hid the money return to claim it. As the counting continues, the danger doesn’t only come from outside the house. It also starts to build within the team.
The Miami-Dade Case Explained
Carnahan explained this in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, saying the officers have to count the money while not knowing who they can trust, including one another. He also shared a real-life detail that helped shape the movie: the cash was hidden inside containers in the walls, and the officers had to sledgehammer it out.
At the same time, a dog outside was barking and going “nuts,” and Carnahan said he found that detail really wild because he had never experienced a cop story like that before. Even though the main setup is true, the movie does add something extra to the story.
While the idea of cops finding millions and counting it on-site is real, most of what happens later in the film is fictionalized. It even includes the corruption, dirty cops, and confrontations over the money. Still, the counting rules shown in the film are not made up. Carnahan confirmed that counting the money on the seizure scene is absolutely true.
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He also revealed that the real-life situation took 42 hours to count the cash. It is far longer than the movie could show. On top of that, the process is strict. Officers must count the money twice, and they must do it by hand. Internal Affairs gets involved if the final count is off by even one dollar. It explains why the pressure feels so intense in the story.
Carnahan also explained that the “real rip” tied to Sasha Calle’s character Desi was different in real life. That person was actually an older man. Even more surprising, the owner of the place ended up counting, too, at one point, and Carnahan laughed about it. He also said he had to take the most cinematic elements and “parse through it,” since nobody could make a 42-hour movie, so certain parts were shortened or cut.
So, yes, ‘The Rip‘ is based on a true story, and the real Miami case behind it connects back to Chris Casiano and the Miami-Dade Tactical Narcotics Team. The officers really did find a massive cartel cash stash, and they really did have to count it on-site. The final amount also matches real life at $20,650,480.
Even though the movie adds fictional drama, including dirty cops and major conflicts to keep the story thrilling, the real-life foundation, the strict counting rules, the 42-hour counting reality, and the dedication to Jake Casiano remain the heart of the story Netflix brought to the screen.
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