The Rip: The Jake William Casiano Tribute Explained

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are famously the best of buddies in Hollywood, so what better genre for them to team up on than a buddy cop movie? In Joe Carnahan's new heist thriller "The Rip" (read /Film's review here) they star as Miami narcotics cops Dane Dumars and JD Byrne, respectively. The movie centers around the tactical team, led by Dumars, discovering $20 million of drug money in a stash house, kicking off a web of deceit and violence over which cop is or isn't dirty.

The movie's jacked-as-a-bodybuilder cast includes not just Damon and Affleck but also Steven Yeun, Kyle Chandler, Teyana Taylor, and more. However, listed before any of their names in the end credits is a tribute: "In Loving Memory of Jake William Casiano." That name has a true tragedy behind it.

The seed of "The Rip" was a real Miami drug bust in 2016 that found $24 million (reported on by the Miami Herald). Carnahan had heard about that from his friend Chris Casiano, a real Miami police officer. Per Carnahan's interview with /Film's Ben Pearson, the details of the movie's story are quite far away from real life. Still, Carnahan employed Casiano on "The Rip" as a technical advisor ... and not just to get a semi-accurate feel for the movie.

Casino's son, Jake William, was diagnosed with leukemia and sadly passed away in 2021 at age 11. The movie is a tribute to his memory. In an interview about "The Rip" with Gold Derby, Carnahan said: "It was really important to me that [Jake] be the first name you see, because you understood that there was a beating heart at the center [of the movie]."

Even so, getting that message right was a delicate act for Carnahan.

In his interview with Gold Derby, Joe Carnahan discussed the tribute to Jake William Casiano. Though Chris Casiano signed off on it Carnahan called it a "tricky" situation for them to be in:

"You gotta go to your friend and say, 'I don't want this to feel exploitative or cheap, and I don't want to take advantage of the memory of your boy.' [...] 'Can we create a vessel with which to put this grief and sadness into, and maybe turn it into something where it's this living monument to Jake for his short time here on Earth?'"

Indeed, the tribute to Jake Casiano isn't merely plastered onto the end credits; it informs the movie's story. Damon's Lieutenant Dumars also had a son who died of cancer and part of his arc in the movie is dealing with his grief. Speaking to Decider, Carnahan said that Dumars' whole character was "loosely" based on Chris Casiano, and that "The Rip" itself was "was me trying to conceive something that would help my friend deal with grief [...] a clumsy way of trying to give him something."

It's easy to see why, per Carnahan's chat with Gold Derby, he had a good cry together with Chris Casiano when he screened the movie for him.

"The Rip" is streaming on Netflix.