Forget 'The Odyssey,' Matt Damon's Crime Thriller Sets New Netflix Record

Published Jul 31, 2026, 7:57 AM EDT Luca Mehta is a Chicago-born critic, interviewer, and podcaster based in Toronto. He specializes in retrospectives, new releases, genre films, and red carpet interviews. Massachusetts’ Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (or “Mattfleck”) are unequivocally the Bay State’s greatest cinematic export. Elbowing their way onto the screen by any means necessary, Affleck (who had an early role in an educational series called The Voyage of the Mimi) and Damon made their big-screen quasi-debut as extras in Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams. After becoming Kevin Smith regulars alongside writing and starring in Good Will Hunting, 1997 showed that Affleck and Damon had a taste for the game. Collaborating on 16 films between the founding of two production studios—the now-defunct Pearl Street Films and the newer Artists Equity—the duo’s latest starring-producing venture, Joe Carnahan’s The Rip, is one of Netflix’s biggest movies of 2026 so far. Sporting a star-studded cast including a mid-awards-circuit Teyana Taylor, Steven Yeun, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Kyle Chandler, Sasha Calle, and Scott Adkins, The Rip was loosely based on the true story of Miami-Dade captain Chris Casiano, who found an undisclosed sum of money in the walls of a Miami stash house. That’s the extent of The Rip's real-life parallels—everything else is purely fictional, for the sake of great entertainment. After discovering the money ($20 million, to be exact), the lines of trust and morality begin to blur between the gang of douchey, hyper-Floridian cops. Everyone’s a hair away from going ballistic, imbuing The Rip with a fun, palpable, claustrophobic paranoia. Anchoring much of that paranoia, though, are the beloved “Mattfleck.” Considering Affleck and Damon have been close friends for approximately 45 years (twice as long as I’ve been alive), their creative relationship has been nothing but ironclad. Good Will Hunting proved their dramatic chops as both writers and performers; they can do comedy, as seen in Kevin Smith’s Dogma; they can do historical epics like Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel (which they co-wrote alongside Nicole Holofcener)—all’s to say is that there’s nothing the Dunkin’ Donuts duo can’t accomplish. After seldom collaborating in the 2010s besides Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, The Rip marks their third 2020s onscreen collaboration after 2021’s The Last Duel and 2023’s Air, the latter of which Affleck directed. The Rip, though, tests cinema’s greatest bromance. As opposed to their lax, friendly relationship as Nike scout Sonny Vacarro (Damon) and CEO Phil Knight (Affleck), The Rip’s Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Damon) and Detective J.D. Byrne (Affleck) butt heads. In fairness to Byrne, he has reason to be suspicious: not only did Dumars get the tip about the titular “rip,” but he gave each team member a different number of the rip’s total tally. Conversely, Dumars might have his own game afoot, as rumors of corruption in the MDPD circulate behind the scenes. Does Dumars have a plan, or is he in on something more sinister? It’s a tense, chamber-set exercise of cloak and dagger, as the slow roll of information exposes hard truths. Joe Carnahan Conceals the Truth Image via Netflix With word spreading of a mole feeding the (unspecified) Colombian cartel information from the inside, the ties between seemingly amicable characters start to fray. Everyone walks the line between volatility and suspicion, leaving the viewer guessing as to who’s worth listening to. With burner phones and pre-existing police infighting in the mix, it’s any man’s game as to who plans on stealing the titular rip. Where The Rip excels, though, is in its gradual revealing of what’s really going on inside the stash house. Relationships—particularly that between Byrne and Dumars—bubble over as stories contradict, as the numbers quite literally don’t add up. Carnahan’s screenplay leapfrogs between characters as audience surrogates, giving each character reasonable credence and doubt. As the knot tightens, the potential for all-out pandemonium reaches all-time highs. Threatening phone calls from mysterious, voice-modulated antagonists (a hilarious cliché) and classic group split-ups provide the pressure cooker with ample heat, most of which hinges on some excellent performers. The Rip relies on familiarity with its actors—whether that be Steven Yeun’s natural affability, Teyana Taylor’s charisma, or Damon and Affleck’s real-life friendship. Once the mole’s cover is blown, though, The Rip veers into a guns-blazing action rather than a suspenseful thriller. Fun as the set pieces are, it’s also lame to basically write out every female character before the big shootout. It wraps up nicely, though; compared to the first two acts, I wanted a little more. ‘The Rip’ Did Well, But Could’ve Done Better Image via Netflix Upon its Netflix release, The Rip, according to Deadline, “​​scored Netflix’s biggest feature opening since Happy Gilmore 2 with 41.6M views.” It’s more than a modest opening, particularly for streaming, though it would be nice to have some financial statistics (which streamers notoriously refuse to provide) to back up its semi-unreasonable $100 million budget. Part of The Rip’s charm is that it’s a classic dad-type movie that would’ve done numbers in theaters, except that time has, unfortunately, passed. The mid-budget theatrical experience still hasn't bounced back to pre-COVID numbers, with streaming prices (inflation, too) jacking up costs to no end. It’s a shame, because if it were still 2016, The Rip could’ve been truly great. Make no mistake: The Rip is still fantastically acted, super well-shot (lots of beautiful blue-tones!), and overall solidly constructed, but that’s due to it being Artists Equity’s production rather than Netflix, who simply distributed the film. Had The Rip gone to theaters, it would’ve done away with all of Netflix’s infamous second-screen dialogue, something that Damon and Affleck decried on the Joe Rogan Experience before the film’s release. It’s a shame for Netflix to kneecap such a film with potential greatness, though it's not egregious enough to completely halt a well-oiled thrill ride. That said, were The Rip given a proper theatrical release (maybe even a crisp 4K disc), it might've had a legacy besides the positive streaming ratings. Is ‘The Rip’ Worth Watching? Image via Netflix Compared to the slew of Netflix original action films (or any Netflix original, to be honest), The Rip is far more worthy of one’s time than the usual streaming droll our algorithms subject us to. Joe Carnahan’s journeyman reliability lends itself to The Rip’s textured look and feel, and directs an all-star cast—particularly Ben Affleck and a pre-The Odyssey Matt Damon—to elevate some otherwise basic material. It’s easily one of Netflix’s best films of the year in terms of their distribution slate; a testament to The Rip and an indictment of the streamer’s 2026 arsenal. A tense, sometimes funny, and polished police procedural, The Rip is one of Netflix’s best films of the year so far. Release Date January 13, 2026 Cast Detective Sergeant J.D. Byrne Teyana Taylor Detective Numa Baptistie Runtime 113 minutes Director Joe Carnahan Writers Joe Carnahan, Michael McGrale Producers Ben Affleck, Kevin Halloran, Matt Damon, Michael Joe