Netflix on Wednesday released the official teaser for The Rip, reuniting Ben Affleck and Matt Damon on screen 28 years after their breakthrough in Good Will Hunting and showing the longtime collaborators with nearly identical rugged beards.
Directed by Joe Carnahan, the gritty thriller follows a team of Miami police officers whose loyalty frays after they discover millions of dollars in cash hidden inside a derelict stash house. As word spreads about the seizure, relationships and trust are tested and survival becomes paramount.
Affleck, 52, and Damon, 54, play contrasting but complementary roles: Affleck portrays a larger-than-life character while Damon takes on a quieter, more introspective part, a dynamic the pair say echoes their early collaboration in Good Will Hunting. The Rip marks their third film together in four years, after appearing in Ridley Scott's The Last Duel and the Nike biopic Air.
Both actors also produced The Rip through Artists Equity, the production company they launched in November 2022. Artists Equity previously released Air in April 2023, which Affleck directed and in which both actors appeared. The company has since been involved in a slate that includes the 2023 documentary Kiss The Future, the 2024 Amazon MGM documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told about Jennifer Lopez, and the historical drama Small Things Like These, which premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.
During an interview with GQ this week, Damon said he was moved after watching Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary Get Back, and that the film influenced his view of collaborating with Affleck. "I started crying," Damon said of watching Get Back. "I told Ben, 'Who cares if we oversaturate the marketplace with movies we're both in? We're crazy if we don't take advantage of the fact that we are both still here and able to do this.'" He added that they do not plan to slow their collaborations.
Affleck, speaking about working with Damon, called acting alongside him "a humbling experience" and praised Damon as "so understated, so real and so honest." Affleck said he admires Damon's mastery of realism and noted that their longstanding friendship has shaped how they work together on film.
The partners have expanded Artists Equity's production slate beyond projects in which they star. The company was behind The Accountant 2 and is developing a heist thriller titled The Instigators, which is slated to feature both actors. Upcoming projects on the company's schedule include the musical drama Kiss of the Spider Woman and the biographical sports drama Unstoppable, which is expected to star Jennifer Lopez.
Affleck and Damon first won Oscars for Best Original Screenplay for Good Will Hunting in 1998. At the time, Affleck was 25 and Damon was 27; Affleck remains the youngest-ever winner in that screenwriting category. Their reunion in The Rip continues a professional partnership that has spanned acting, writing, directing and producing for nearly three decades.