Triple Frontier, released March 3, 2019, features an amazing cast that joins together for the crime film, but the consequences are downright atrocious. The movie starts with Oscar Isaac’s character, Santiago “Pope” Garcia, leading a highly armed squad in a dramatic operation on a drug cartel’s secret hideaway within a disco. Pope devises a scheme to take the $75 million the criminal leader has stored away within his secret stronghold of a mansion with the help of an insider, played by Adria Arjona, who has no real importance besides adding a pretty face to the film. 

Although this isn’t enough, he must receive help from his former comrades, allowing Triple Frontier to be placed in the beloved film trope about reuniting the gang for one final score. This time, however, they are pursuing this objective for personal gain, rather than for the benefit of any country or philosophy. The film explores the idea that these guys have given it all for their nation, and yet they are barely surviving. The ambiguity of the concept is fascinating, as is the characters’ critical attitude to loyalty, which is a recurring topic in their former line of work. However, because of the shallow way in which it represents the reality of the individuals’ daily lives, the crime’s origin is scarcely discernible. 

While the action is brilliantly filmed and frequently suspenseful, the characters are so poorly sketched that it’s difficult to care about whether they make a smooth escape with their looted fortunes. The movie’s attention focuses on a group of former special-ops master tacticians with the attempt to negotiate one hurdle after another in the dangerous area of South America that lends the picture its namesake. This intricate framing doesn’t emotionally connect with the characters to the point where the audience isn’t nearly as engaged in the terrible choices they must make in order to survive as they should be.

The opening hour of Triple Frontier is revealed to be a framework for the second half, which is composed of all the inescapable tragedy that attempts to captivate you. Mostly relying on greed and survival, the men continue to make impulsive decisions in regards to the crash-landing near a cocaine plantation and having to buy their way out of a string of dilemmas. They end up having to give up money at every milestone in order to stay alive.

Triple Frontier is expectedly primarily about combat. Despite being properly organized, the theft becomes a race against the clock with several unforeseen factors. And it’s at this point that it becomes obvious that escaping with the money will be far more difficult than getting in and grabbing it as planned. Every step of the route presents a fresh near-death experience, with the heart-racing helicopter ride across the Andes serving as the climax. And with each tragedy, our heroes begin to question if the goal was really worth it. 

As the situation continues to go haywire and the tension rises, these individuals inevitably shift on each other. However, despite purportedly having seen them at their best and worst, the essential human aspect of this exceptional event fails to connect since we hardly know them through an emotional aspect.