Triple Frontier promises a lot. Thankfully it also delivers! Santiago “Pope” Garcia is a private military advisor in Columbia. Unable to capture the elusive drug kingpin ‘Lorea' he returns to the US with a plan. He knows that the drug lord is hiding out in the jungle with millions of dollars hidden in his house. So he convinces four of his ex-military friends to go on a reckie for the Columbian DEA. Each will get $17K for one week's work and then they are done with the job.
It's quite clear that the four friends don't have much to lose and everything to gain. Tom Davis, played by Ben Affleck, is retired and selling condo's but can't keep up with the bills. William Miller, played by Charlie Hunnam, gives inspirational pep talks to new army recruits. Ben Miller, his brother, played by Garrett Hedlund, is a boxer fighting in two-bit bouts locally. And Catfish Morales, played by Pedro Pascal, is on suspension for doing coke.
So off the five guys go, heading into the wilds of the Columbian jungle. They scope out the house, find the weaknesses and complete the job. Then Pope, played by Oscar Isaac, suggests that they implement their own plan and rob the house. Knowing that Lorea will be almost unguarded on Sunday morning, it will be the perfect opportunity to go in, kill him and take the money. The idea is met with some resistance but knowing there's probably $100m in the house, and they all need the money badly, they agree to the robbery.
I won't mention any spoilers but suffice to say, it doesn't all go according to plan. What I will say though, is that it really is an excellent film. What starts out as Good versus Bad soon gets twisted and turned on its head. Five decent, good guys, want to stop and kill a drug lord. We can all identify with that. They plan to turn over all of the money to the DEA for a 25% cut of whatever they get. Again, you think, fair enough. But then they get greedy. And when they get greedy, the trust starts to go and when that happens it all inevitably goes wrong.
Triple Frontier, like it's fellow heist/crime movie 21 Bridges, is a well thought out film that has more tension than gun-toting action. And that tension keeps building so subtly that you can hardly bear to watch some parts but yet remain glued to the screen. It has its shocking moments but surprisingly for an action film, there is very little over-the-top stuff which makes it more engaging.
Well worth a watch!
