Miami cops sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon over The Rip
Two real members of Florida law enforcement assure that the film is directly inspired by them and that this has harmed them on a daily basis since its release on Netflix.
When fiction furiously annoys reality…
Released at the start of the year on Netflix and particularly appreciated by critics, The Rip finds himself at the heart of a controversy. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s new thriller is already at the heart of a huge legal controversy.
Two Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office officers, Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, are suing the production company. The police accuse the film of having seriously damaged their personal and professional reputation.
In their complaint, the two men believe that the characters played by Damon and Affleck are directly inspired by them, even if their names are never mentioned on screen. According to them, the film and its promotional campaign suggest that they were involved in questionable behavior, professional misconduct and unethical practices during a real police operation.
The court documents, consulted by Entertainment Weeklyaccuse the companies Artists Equity and Falco Productions of defamation and “defamation by insinuation”. The police are also seeking compensation for emotional harm.
Neither Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, nor Artists Equity have responded publicly at this time. Netflix, which is not directly targeted by the complaint, declined to comment on the matter.
In The RipMatt Damon plays Lieutenant Dane Dumars while Ben Affleck plays Detective JD Byrne. The story follows two Miami police officers who discover $20 million belonging to a cartel, gradually revealing a vast network of corruption within the local police force.
The problem, according to the plaintiffs, is that the film is largely inspired by a real seizure of more than $21 million made by Smith and Santana in June 2016. The police officers’ lawyers believe that the many precise details used in the feature film (the context of Miami-Dade, the anti-drug team or even certain elements of the investigation) make it easy to identify their clients.
The complaint also points to several scenes where the characters clearly cross the boundaries of legality, including a sequence in which Ben Affleck’s character kills a DEA agent.
The police also criticize the film for opening with the words “inspired by real events“, even though, according to them, almost none of the events shown on the screen actually happened.
According to their lawyers, some colleagues and family members even asked them if they had used the seized money to finance renovations, buy cars, boats or pay for private schools for their children. Proof, according to them, that the public now associates their image with that of the corrupt police officers depicted in The Rip.
The two officers finally claim to have sent a formal notice to the producers in December 2025 in order to prevent the release of the film. But after the feature film was broadcast in January 2026, the producers reportedly responded that the accusations were unfounded, explaining that the police officers were never explicitly named in the film.
Today, Smith and Santana are seeking a public retraction, the addition of a visible disclaimer at the beginning of the film, and damages.
