Cops that moonlight as crooks, are forced to sacrifice the new guy on the force to pull off one last job.
This movie starts off with a bank heist that goes wrong when one member of the crew, Gabe Welch (Aaron Paul), bags cash in the vault and inadvertently takes a dye pack which explodes as they makes their escape. Once the crew gives their client, the Russian mob, the spoils from the heist they are blackmailed into doing one last job. The job is to break in and steal evidence from a special forces facility. The only problem with this is the response time of the police, so the crew of corrupt cops must engineer a Triple 9 across town in order for them to buy the time they need. They need to actually shoot and kill a police officer, Chris Allen (Casey Affleck), who is Marcus Belmont’s (Anthony Mackie) new partner. By the end of the movie you realize that nothing is going right for the gang, as they barely scrape by with having multiple characters die during the heist. The movie ends with a member of the crew turning on the rest of the crew to tie up loose ends.
Chris Allen, who is played by Casey Affleck, is the nephew of a detective on the force, Jeffery Allen (Woody Harrelson), and gets transferred from the 02 and assigned to be Marcus Belmont’s partner. Casey Affleck plays this character as an overconfident impulsive cop. At one point Chris and Marcus are investigating a gang related murder and Chris goes to canvas and interview for possible witnesses. Chris ends up confronting a lieutenant in a drug gang just to be an alpha.
Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Michael Atwood, the leader of the crew. He made a mistake and had a child with Irina Vlaslov’s (Kate Winslet) sister and that son is used as blackmail in order to get his crew to get the final piece of evidence that will free her husband. Chiwetel Ejiofor portrays the character as a caring father that is caught in a tight spot because his son is being used as leverage to get him to do a heist that puts his whole crew at risk.
Marcus Belmont is played by Anthony Mackie and is by far my favorite character. Marcus is a long time cop that is reluctantly given a new partner. He ends up having to make the tough decision of sending Chris Allen to his death or betraying his crew and putting them in danger. Mackie shows off his acting chops once he betrays Chris in an abandoned apartment complex.
Aaron Paul plays Gabe Welch an internally conflicted character who is greed and impulsive. In the opening bank heist scene he is the reason that it wasn’t a simple escape since he was eager to steal more than what they were there for. After he relapses from his six month drug free stint he complicates the whole mission for the crew and sabotages them at every chance he gets.
Russell Welch, who is played by Norman Reedus, is Gabe Welch’s brother. Russell got his brother into the crew to give him another shot after he relapsed.
Woody Harrelson is Jeffery Allen, a drug fueled detective who looks out for his nephew. He is a detective working in the same precinct as the bank heist crew, and although he breaks the law he is not part of the bank heist crew. He was the first to be suspicious that the bank heist was not done by robbers, but instead done by someone on the force.
Kate Winslet plays the villain Irina Vlaslov. She is the head of the Russian mob while her husband is in prison. She is ruthless since she is not afraid to use her nephew as leverage in order to get her husband’s freedom.
This movie is one of my top crime movies of all time because it shows what happens when nothing goes to plan. Although most of the characters are one dimensional some stand out like Marcus Belmont and Michael Atwood who are very externally conflicted because of their relationships with other characters.
I would recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see corruption and root for the bad guys for once.
If you are still on the fence after reading this Triple 9 review check out the trailer below.