The last time we saw Ben Affleck in a heist movie, he was robbing Fenway Park in his 2010 directorial effort, The Town. This time out the actor stars in a heist film where the thieves have a much bigger score in mind, one that will be even more dangerous to pull off and nigh impossible to get away clean. Check out Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac in the trailer for Netflix's Triple Frontier in the video below.
Right away this trailer starts out with a scene that is commonplace in heist films, where the leader or organizer of the team lays out the terms, letting everyone involved know what's at stake, the consequences of failure and the what happens if they succeed. By offering everyone an out up front, we the audience are clued in to the fact that what comes next will not be easy, and the chances of everyone making it out unscathed are even smaller than the chances of success.
After that tense beginning we are given the details of the heist itself, as Ben Affleck, Oscar Isaac and their team of military operators are planning to go to a dangerous place and rob an extremely dangerous drug cartel of $75 million. Throughout the trailer we get the sense that pulling off this heist will not result in a carefree life for these men. The cost of this money will be that they will have to look over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.
Another thing that stands out in the trailer for Triple Frontier is the star-studded nature of the cast this film boasts. In addition to Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac, who play Tom 'Redfly' Davis and Santiago 'Pope' Garcia respectively, Triple Frontier also stars Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal, Mudbound's Garrett Hedlund and The Lost City of Z's Charlie Hunnam. Hopefully these talented actors will all be given plenty to work with here.
In addition to the thrill of the heist itself, what makes a great heist film is that we care about the thieves. And even if fans don't condone, they can understand their reasoning for doing what they're doing. For instance, in Heat, for Neil McCauley, taking scores was all he knew and he was chasing something that he could never truly catch. And in this year's Widows, Viola Davis' character was desperate and had a gun to her head.
In Triple Frontier, we see that these men are not the kind of likeable criminals or professional theives that often populate heist movies. These are soldiers, the best at what they do for their country, but their dedicated and difficult service has not resulted in them being able to live a good life. That desperation sees them turning to what they know best.
That is perhaps the most compelling aspect to this film, understanding how these characters wind up at this point where they use their one true skill to fight not for country, but for themselves in a mission that will most certainly not go as planned.
What is especially encouraging about this aspect is that the story for the film comes from Oscar winner Mark Boal, who previously worked with Kathryn Bigelow on The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. Here he teamed with the film's director, J.C. Chandor on the script, so hopefully with Triple Frontier they are able to tell a similarly layered and compelling story as Boal's previous work.
Triple Frontier stars streaming on Netflix and opens in select theaters in March. For all of next year's biggest movies, check out our 2019 Release Schedule.
