The Rip’s ending was essentially about Dane and J.D. nabbing the duo that had killed their friend and colleague, Jackie. Dane and J.D. were part of the Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), which also had Mike, Numa, Lolo, and Jackie. One fine night, Jackie was murdered by two gunmen, and although the FBI had started an investigation into this case, they were getting nowhere. Dane had a feeling that it was someone from the team, but he obviously didn’t know who it was. So, with the intention of unmasking the guilty party, Dane ordered his team to tend to a crime-stopper tip. They reached the stash house in Hialeah, where the only resident was Desi, and they began their search. The amount that they found was close to $20 million, which was way more than the TNT had bargained for. Desi kept telling the crew to take the money they wanted and leave, or else all of them would end up dying. Two former VCAT (Violent Criminal Apprehension Team) cops showed up to tell them the same thing. And then they got a phone call telling them to take $150k and split. It was after that moment that Dane began concocting a scheme to seemingly steal all the money, not just some of it, whereas the reality was that he was setting a trap for the individuals who actually wanted to pocket all that cash and were also behind Jackie’s death. Did Dane’s gamble pay off?
Spoiler Alert
Why Was Jackie Killed?
As far as I understood, there was a group of law enforcement officers in Florida who were hitting the cartel’s stash houses and getting rich. They were so elusive that the concept of these heist teams was treated like an urban myth. But Jackie believed that the rumors were true, and she had started investigating the matter. She was aware of the fact that the cartel’s stash house in Hialeah was lucrative enough to draw the attention of this heist team. She wanted to use that as bait to lure in the corrupt officers and then nab them. I suppose this heist team was doing a counter-investigation, which was how they found out about the work that Jackie was doing. So, they cornered her and killed her in a way that made it look like it was the work of the cartel. Before dying though, Jackie had sent a message to Dane, telling him the address of the stash house. However, that was it. She couldn’t tell Dane why she had sent him that message, what he was supposed to do with that information, or what would happen if he didn’t put that intel to good use. Dane knew one thing and one thing only: he had to avenge Jackie. There’s no way to say how Jackie would have conducted the operation of luring in this nefarious heist team, but maybe Dane’s determination to do right by Jackie was so intense that he channeled her spirit and more or less did the exact same thing that Jackie would have done.
So, why did Jackie fail to see another sunrise while Dane succeeded? Maybe because Jackie never expected his compatriots to straight-up kill her. She knew that her colleagues were the ones who were corrupt, but I suppose she expected a warning shot of some kind, especially because they had worked with her for such a long time. During her dying moments, she ensured that her killers saw the disgust she felt upon learning that the people she considered to be her friends prioritized money over their camaraderie. Dane, though, was fully prepared for such an outcome, and maybe that’s why he never took his finger off the trigger. He trusted no one, and that’s why he made it all the way to the end. And the fact that Dane lived and Jackie died was a critique of the environment that these law enforcers had created. Ideally, there’s a thick line between criminals and cops, but this heist team had blurred that line, thereby forcing the “good guys” to be in a constant state of paranoia and skepticism to survive.
Why did J.D. kill Matty, but Dane arrested Mike?
As explained in The Rip, Mike and Matty were part of a heist team that also included Dayo, Warwick, and Junger. The movie didn’t exactly get into the reasoning behind why all five of them were hitting stash houses; we only got to know why Matty was playing this game. If you have watched enough movies and TV shows about corrupt officers, you might have predicted it as well, but, yeah, Matty wanted to make enough to live his twilight years out as comfortably as possible. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to achieve that dream of his on the salary of a DEA agent. I don’t know how much a DEA agent earns in a year–the internet says it’s around $60k, but if anybody personally knows the amount, let me know in the comments–but I suppose with inflation and budget cuts, that salary just wasn’t cutting it for Matty. He knew that if he did his job correctly and executed every single drug bust as honestly as possible, the rewards would be minimal. He had been in this profession long enough to know that there was no way to stop criminals from infiltrating every nook and cranny of the country. He probably felt that the government didn’t have any actual intention of solving crime, because they benefited from these cartels, mafias, and gangs. So, he came to the conclusion that if he couldn’t fix the system, he might as well milk it.
Matty couldn’t have done it himself, which was why he roped in Dayo, Warwick, and Junger. And that brings us to their fates. I am not sure what happened to Warwick and Junger during the shootout between the FBI, the heist team, and the TNT; maybe they were killed or arrested. Dayo was shot in the head by J.D. The same happened to Matty. However, Mike was spared by Dane, and the reason behind it must be Mike’s willingness to pay for his sins. His actions were motivated by greed, but when push came to shove, he didn’t shoot to kill. Much like how he tried to warn his team, in the case of Jackie, he maimed her. Matty was ruthless and usually aimed for the head. Hence, it was quite fitting that he caught one in the head as well, even when J.D. requested that he surrender. The editing in his dying moments made it seem like Jackie had possessed the body of her lover, J.D., to deliver the killing blow on Matty. As for Mike, when Dane told him to stop fighting and running, he was struck with the realization of what a monster he had become because of his lust for money. His change of heart won’t fix anything or bring Jackie back to life, but it’s the least he could do.
What Did The Beach Scene Signify?
In The Rip’s ending, once the TNT had hand-delivered the money to the DEA, Lolo, Numa, and Wilbur (the dog) had gone home, and Desi had gotten a cut of the money that had been confiscated (because ultimately it was her grandmother’s house that went up in flames just because the cartel was using it as their stash house and the TNT used it as bait to do an internal investigation), Dane and J.D. decided to go to the beach to have a beer. While sitting there, watching the sunset, they saw a kid playing with her dog and hyping the sunrise. When the child’s mother called her Jackie, J.D. and Dane exchanged a look and continued to admire the sunrise. Everyone in the TNT knew that Jackie used to believe in witchcraft and spirituality. So, if you look at this moment through that lens, you can say that even though Jackie died at the hands of Mike and Matty, her spirit lives on through another Jackie. Alternatively, you can say that while one Jackie didn’t get to see the sunrise again, another Jackie did. And it is for Jackies like her that people like Dane, J.D., Numa, Lolo, and Wilbur have to keep fighting the good fight.
If the upholders of law and protectors of society become criminals, then our ability to cherish the simplicities of life dies. From an aesthetic perspective, yeah, a sunrise is awesome to look at, but from an existential POV, a sunrise means that you made it through one more day of this precious and limited life that we have. If we stop seeking the rush that a sunrise gives us, we start looking at stuff like money as our prime motivator. Yes, money is extremely important to survive, but you need to know when you have enough. Once materialism overtakes the joy that nature can provide, you become a lost case. Early on in the film, Dane said that he didn’t want to be a cop anymore because the people in this profession were cannibalizing each other. However, once he saw that kid celebrating a sunrise, I think his zeal to use the power that comes with being a cop was reignited. He wanted to keep the promise that he had made to his dying son and continue being “one of the good guys” so that someone like Jackie could wake up with hope, not fear, in their heart. Anyway, that’s what I think about the ending of the movie. If you have any other interpretation in mind, feel free to share it in the comments section below.
