Triple Frontier (film)

Triple Frontier is a 2019 American action thriller film directed by J. C. Chandor, with a screenplay by Chandor and Mark Boal, from a story by Boal. The film stars Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal as a group of former Special Operations soldiers who reunite to plan a heist job of a South American crime lord.

The film was released by Netflix in select theaters on March 6, 2019, before its worldwide streaming release on March 13, 2019.

Plot
Santiago "Pope" Garcia works as a private military adviser in Colombia combating drug crime. During his time there, an informant named Yovanna asks for his help with smuggling her and her brother out of the country in exchange for information on the whereabouts of a drug lord named Lorea.

Yovanna tells Pope that Lorea lives in a safe house in the jungle along with all his cash. Pope travels home to the States to recruit his old Delta Force friends for a job to seize the money under the pretense of working for the Colombian government: Tom "Redfly" Davis, a realtor; William "Ironhead" Miller, a motivational speaker; his brother Ben Miller, a mixed martial arts fighter; and Francisco "Catfish" Morales, a former pilot. With persuasion from Pope, they decide to steal the money for themselves.

The group, wanting to minimize casualties, devises a plan to move in on the house while Lorea's family is at church. They quietly subdue the guards, without killing them, but cannot find Lorea or the money. Pope realises that the money is in the walls, and the team begin bagging the money. They realise that there is far more than they expected and rush to get as much as possible before Lorea's family and guards return. Redfly becomes consumed by the money and demands the crew continue loading it past the hard stop that he himself set. This alarms the crew, who finally convince him that they are out of time, and must leave immediately. With the money safely loaded in the truck, they make one last sweep for Lorea.

As they search for Lorea, he ambushes them and wounds Ironhead, before being killed by Pope. As the crew tends to Ironhead's wounds, and now several minutes past their getaway time, some guards return. The crew take them out, burn down the house, and escape in the van, driving by Lorea's family returning from church. They meet up with Yovanna and her brother with $250 million in the van, and then rendezvous with Ironhead's old friend who provides them a private Mi-8MTV-1 transport helicopter for their voyage to reach their getaway boat that would aide to their escape from South America. From there, they would transfer the money to an account in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda. Catfish is skeptical that the helicopter can hold the weight of all the money at high altitudes as they have to fly over the Andes Mountains in order to make it to the meeting point. Unwilling to leave behind any of the money, Redfly urges Catfish to proceed. The crew takes off with the money in a net bag attached under the helicopter. They transport Yovanna into Peru with her brother. Redfly aggressively questions her knowledge of them, knowing she could link them to the robbery. Before leaving, Pope leaves Yovanna and her brother with a share of the stolen money and visas to Sydney, Australia, and urges them to leave South America as soon as possible to avoid being caught by the gangsters. As the group takes off, an unsatisfied Redfly claims that Yovanna was lying to him but Pope talks him down. Redfly insinuates that they should have killed her, prompting Ironhead to convince Redfly that doing so would lead to circumstances he would not recover from. Fixated on the money, Redfly becomes more and more willing to break his own rules and do whatever is necessary to escape with the money.

As planned, the crew begin flying over the Andes Mountains. However as they are reaching the helicopter's maximum ceiling, one of the helicopter's gearboxes is overwhelmed and damaged due to the cargo load exceeding the maximum weight, causing their helicopter to enter an rapid descent. Unable to recover from their descent, Catfish urges the team to release the money bag via manual override to allow for a safe crash landing. The group survives the crash landing and exit the helicopter wreck with minor injuries and quickly move into action. Redfly and Pope attempt to retrieve the ditched money bag, which landed in a cocaine farm field village, by negotiating with the local farmers and villagers that are seen rummaging through the bag. The wounded Ironhead stands by at the wreckage while Catfish and Ben take position and recon the activity through bushes. Their attempts to peacefully retrieve the money fails due to a heated confrontation arising as the farmers mistaken the group as members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and view them as hostile upon noticing the other armed group members in the distance. When one of the angry farmers gets defensive and approaches with a machete, Redfly draws out his pistol and kills him and several others, prompting the other villagers to back away from the money bag. While Catfish, Ironhead, and Ben prepare a group of mules to transport the money, Pope and Redfly compensate the village elder with some of the stolen money. Upon reaching an agreement, they continue their voyage to the meeting point. The crew eventually set the mules free once the terrain becomes too treacherous.

When they reach the top of the mountain and make their way down, a firefight takes place with two villagers seeking to avenge the deaths of their families. Redfly takes one of them out before being killed by a single shot from the second villager’s rifle. Pope takes out the second shooter and the crew mourn Redfly's death. After a brief argument between Ben and Ironhead, Pope urges them on stating that both Redfly's family and they themselves deserve the money at this point. They proceed towards the ocean with the money and Redfly's body.

Ben scouts ahead and reports that their getaway boat is still waiting for them but the village is filled with armed teens waiting for them. While Pope initially argues that they "go through" the armed teens, the others vehemently disagree. They have come to realize they have sacrificed everything they believe in for the money, including their integrity. Pope becomes remorseful of his desire to kill the teenagers and takes it back. Knowing they cannot sneak all the money through the town, they toss the money into a ravine, keeping only what they can carry in their own backpacks. They attempt to quietly make their way through the town to the boat carrying Redfly's body, but are discovered. A car chase ensues and Pope hesitates to kill any more people, instead shooting the tires of the pursuers, causing their car to swerve into the sand. The team makes it to safety in the boat with five million dollars and Redfly's body.

At the offshore account in St. John's, a lawyer provides paperwork disseminating the funds evenly between the four men and Redfly's family trust. However, the guilt-ridden men each agree in turn to give their shares to Redfly's family. Afterwards, the team go their separate ways with Pope planning to head to Australia to find Yovanna. Before leaving, Ironhead gives Pope a set of coordinates scribbled on a piece of paper, the location of the ravine in Peru where they left the money behind.

Cast

 * Ben Affleck as Tom "Redfly" Davis
 * Oscar Isaac as Santiago "Pope" Garcia
 * Charlie Hunnam as William "Ironhead" Miller
 * Garrett Hedlund as Ben “Benny” Miller
 * Pedro Pascal as Francisco "Catfish" Morales
 * Adria Arjona as Yovanna
 * Louis Rodriguez as Duke (as Louis Jeovanny)
 * Juan Camilo Castillo as Captain Diego
 * Reynaldo Gallegos as Gabriel Martin Lorea (as Rey Gallegos)
 * Madeline Wary as Tess Davis
 * Michael Benjamin Hernandez as David

Production
In October 2010, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp entered talks to join the cast of the film, to be directed by Kathryn Bigelow from a screenplay by Mark Boal with shooting set to commence in early 2011. In November 2010, Hanks officially was cast. Production lagged, and, in June 2015, it was announced that J. C. Chandor was in talks to direct the film for Paramount Pictures, while Bigelow left because she wanted to focus on her film about Bowe Bergdahl (ultimately dropped in favor of Detroit). Both Hanks and Will Smith were in talks for the lead roles. The film, alternately titled Sleeping Dogs, would be produced by Roven and Alex Gartner through Atlas Entertainment. In September 2015, Chandor officially signed on to helm the film. On January 20, 2016, it was reported that Depp was again in early talks to star in the film, while Hanks' attachment was yet to be confirmed, and Smith had left due to scheduling conflicts filming Collateral Beauty.

In January 2017, it was reported that Channing Tatum and Tom Hardy were in talks to join the film, with Depp and Hanks no longer up for roles. In February 2017, Mahershala Ali joined the cast, with Tatum and Hardy also officially signed on. On April 12, 2017, a month before shooting was set to commence, it was reported that Triple Frontier had been dropped by Paramount, and Tatum and Hardy no longer would be a part of the cast, while Ali and Adria Arjona were still attached to star.

On May 1, 2017, it was reported that Netflix was in negotiations to acquire the rights to the film with Ben Affleck and Casey Affleck in negotiations for the roles Hardy and Tatum vacated, with Ali and Arjona remaining on the project. Ben Affleck exited the film in early July 2017, due to personal reasons. On July 26, 2017, it was reported that Mark Wahlberg was in talks to join the film in the role Affleck vacated, along with Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, and Pedro Pascal, with Arjona still attached to the project. Principal production was set to commence in August 2017, in Hawaii and Colombia.

On March 19, 2018, it was announced that Triple Frontier would commence principal production on March 26, 2018, in Oahu, Hawaii. Ben Affleck had signed back on to star, cast with Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, Garrett Hedlund, Pedro Pascal, and Adria Arjona. Ali had been forced to drop out of the project when production was delayed.

The film's name, Triple Frontier, refers to the eponymous area.

Disasterpeace composed the film score. The soundtrack was released by Milan Records.

Release
The film had its world premiere in New York City on March 3, 2019. It was released in select theaters on March 6, before its worldwide Netflix release a week later on March 13. On April 16, 2019, Netflix announced that the film had been viewed by over 52 million viewers on its service within its first month of release.

Critical response
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 113 reviews, with an average rating of 6.37/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "An outstanding cast and ambitious story help Triple Frontier overcome an uneven narrative—and elevate the end result above a crowded field of grim and gritty heist thrillers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".