The Instigators | |
---|---|
Directed by | Doug Liman |
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring |
|
Cinematography | Henry Braham |
Edited by | |
Music by | Christophe Beck |
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | Apple TV+ |
Release date |
|
Running time | 101 minutes [1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Box office | $11,106 [2] [3] |
The Instigators is a 2024 American heist comedy film directed by Doug Liman and written by Chuck Maclean and Casey Affleck. The film stars Affleck and Matt Damon, with a supporting cast that includes Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, Jack Harlow, and Ron Perlman.
The Instigators was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 2, 2024, before making its streaming debut on Apple TV+ on August 9, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics.
In Boston, two strangers from Quincy — divorced Marine veteran Rory and alcoholic ex-con Cobby Murphy — are recruited for a robbery. Rory struggles to explain his plans to his therapist, Dr. Rivera, while Cobby's bartender Mr. Kelly warns him not to return to his criminal ways. The night of the city's mayoral election, corrupt incumbent Joseph Miccelli has organized a celebration at the Wharf, where he will be accepting massive amounts of cash bribes. Mobsters Besegai and Dechico enlist their underling Scalvo, Rory, and Cobby to steal the money before it is picked up by armored car; Rory is adamant that he receive a share of exactly $32,480.
The three armed men sneak in through the Wharf restaurant kitchen, only to find the event is still full of people; challenger Mark Choi has won the election, but Miccelli refuses to concede. The Wharf's safe has already been emptied, so Scalvo robs Miccelli and his inner circle instead, taking Miccelli's bracelet. When the chief of police intervenes, he and Scalvo shoot each other dead and Cobby is wounded in the shoulder. He and Rory escape in the armored car, which they abandon after realizing a guard is still in the back. Lying low at Mr. Kelly's house, Rory and Cobby reach out to Dechico for help, but he sends Scalvo's associates Booch and Colani to kill them instead.
With a manhunt for the thieves underway, Miccelli tasks Frank Toomey of the Special Operations Unit to recover the bracelet, engraved with the combination to his office safe. Toomey questions Dechico, while Rory confides to Cobby that his share of the money is meant to make amends with his estranged son. Booch and Colani arrive to execute the two thieves, who have cut the house's gas line, preventing Booch from shooting without incinerating them all. Rory and Cobby escape with the bracelet as the house explodes.
Rory brings Cobby to Dr. Rivera, taking her as a willing hostage. They treat Cobby's gunshot wound at Rivera's home, but are forced to flee in her car after she calls the police. Still determined to help Rory, Rivera joins them and they narrowly survive a high-speed police chase. Breaking into Mr. Kelly's empty bar, the three are confronted by Toomey, who leaves with Rivera and the bracelet. Surrounded by police, Cobby cuts the gas line again and escapes with Rory as the bar explodes.
Cobby has memorized the number combination from the bracelet, and he and Rory decide to go after the money in the mayor's office. Stealing uniforms from a fire truck, they disguise themselves as firefighters and set off the fire alarms in city hall, causing the evacuation of the building as they sneak inside. Pursued by suspicious real firefighters, they lock themselves in the mayor's office with his counsel, Alan Flynn. Unlocking Miccelli's safe, they discover millions of dollars in illicit cash, while Flynn offers to testify against Miccelli, giving them two hard drives with evidence of the mayor's misdeeds.
The police surround city hall and open fire, wounding Cobby in the same shoulder. Sent in to negotiate with the thieves, Rivera exits the building with Flynn, while Rory and Cobby push the safe out of the window, leading the crowd outside to scramble for the cash. In the chaos, Rory and Cobby escape in a fire truck, but are soon confronted by Toomey. They offer him the drives in exchange for letting them go free, but he has them taken into custody.
Meanwhile, Besegai and Dechico escape to a cabin and attempt to reach the Canadian border on foot, while Miccelli is arrested fleeing to Canada. Choi takes office and is given the drives, which hold account information worth $100 million in untraceable funds. Realizing that he and his people can keep the money for themselves as long as they don't indict Cobby and Rory, Choi lets them go. Rory reconnects with his son, while Cobby visits Rivera at home. In a mid-credits scene, Besegai and Dechico are found frozen to death in the wilderness after unsuccessfully trying to sneak into Canada.
In December 2022, Apple TV+ acquired the rights to the project, which would see Doug Liman directing and Matt Damon and Casey Affleck starring. [4] Hong Chau joined the cast in February 2023, with other cast members being announced in the following months. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Christophe Beck composed the film's score. [10]
The Instigators was produced by Ben Affleck and Damon under their production company Artists Equity, alongside Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Kevin J. Walsh and Alison Winter, for distribution by Apple TV+ under Apple Original Films. [3] According to the film's closing credits, the production benefitted from fiscal incentives established in Spanish Corporate Income Tax Law, with collaboration of Government of Spain; the post-production services were carried out in Madrid.
Principal photography began in Boston in March 2023, [11] with locations including Bova's Bakery in North End. [12] After principal photography wrapped up, a data breach led to the erasure of several pages of the script. [13] As a result, many of the film's scenes had to be re-contextualized to align with the new screenplay. [14] [15] [16]
The Instigators was released in select theaters in the United States on August 2, 2024, before premiering on Apple TV+ on August 9. [17]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 41% of 140 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.4/10.The website's consensus reads: "The alchemy of Casey Affleck and Matt Damon's knucklehead rapport provides some charm, but this laidback caper unravels due to a lack of intrigue and pulse." [18] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 49 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [19]
Douglas Eric Liman is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing the films Swingers (1996), Go (1999), The Bourne Identity (2002), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), Jumper (2008), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), American Made (2017) and Road House (2024).
The Bourne franchise consists of action-thriller installments based on the character Jason Bourne, created by author Robert Ludlum. The franchise includes five films and a spin-off television series. The overall plot centers around Jason Bourne, a CIA assassin suffering from dissociative amnesia, portrayed by Matt Damon.
Skydance Media, LLC, also known as Skydance Productions, is an American media production and finance company based in Santa Monica, California. Founded by David Ellison in 2006, the company specializes in films, animation, television, video games, and sports.
American actor and filmmaker Ben Affleck began his career as a child, appearing in several television shows, including the PBS educational program The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). He played an antisemite in the sports film School Ties (1992) and featured as a regular on the television drama Against the Grain (1993). He gained attention for playing the supporting part of a high-school senior in Richard Linklater's cult film Dazed and Confused (1993), after which he had his first leading role in Rich Wilkes's comedy Glory Daze (1995). In 1997, Affleck played a comics artist in Smith's art-house success Chasing Amy. He co-wrote the script and starred with Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's drama film Good Will Hunting, for which they won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
American actor Matt Damon made his film debut with a small role in Mystic Pizza (1988), after which he played several supporting roles. His first leading role was in the legal drama film The Rainmaker (1997). His breakthrough came later that year when he played the title role of an unrecognized genius in Good Will Hunting, which he also co-wrote with Ben Affleck. They won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and Damon was nominated for Best Actor. He followed it by playing the title roles of a soldier in Steven Spielberg's war drama Saving Private Ryan (1998) and of the criminal Tom Ripley in the thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), both of which gained critical and commercial success. Damon and Sean Bailey worked on the television series Project Greenlight since 2000, helping newcomers make their first film.
Hong Chau is an American actress. She has received several award nominations for her film roles as Ngoc Lan Tran in Downsizing (2017) and as Liz, a nurse, in The Whale (2022), including one for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the latter.
Kevin J. Walsh is an American film and TV producer. Walsh is best known for producing the critically acclaimed films Napoleon, House of Gucci, and Manchester by the Sea, in which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture with Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, and Lauren Beck. The film received 18 major award nominations and won two Academy Awards.
Studio 8 is an American entertainment company founded in 2014, by Jeff Robinov, John Graham, Mark Miner and based in Culver City. It specializes in film and television production.
Sunday Night Productions is an American film and television production company founded by John Krasinski and Allyson Seeger in 2013. It has produced the television series Lip Sync Battle, Dream Corp LLC, and Jack Ryan, the YouTube streaming news show Some Good News (2020), and the films Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (2009), Promised Land (2012), The Hollars (2016), and A Quiet Place Part II (2020).
The Last Duel is a 2021 historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Nicole Holofcener, Ben Affleck, and Matt Damon, based on the 2004 book The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager. Set in medieval France, the film stars Damon as Jean de Carrouges, a knight who challenges his former friend, squire Jacques le Gris, to a judicial duel after Jean's wife, Marguerite, accuses Jacques of raping her. The events leading up to the duel are divided into three distinct chapters, reflecting the contradictory perspectives of the three main characters. Affleck also stars in a supporting role as Count Pierre d'Alençon.
Apple Studios LLC is an American film, television and in-house production company that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV+ as well as films that are intended for theatrical releases.
Sinking Spring is an upcoming American crime drama television series created by Peter Craig, based on the 2009 novel Dope Thief by Dennis Tafoya. It is set to premiere on Apple TV+.
Artists Equity is an American production company founded by actors and filmmakers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon in November 2022.
Bova's Bakery is a bakery in the North End of Boston, United States.
Last Days, also reported as The Last Days Of John Allen Chau, is an upcoming American biographical film directed by Justin Lin and written by Ben Ripley. It is based on the article "The Last Days of John Allen Chau" by Alex Perry.
After the Hunt is an upcoming English-language thriller film directed by Luca Guadagnino from a screenplay by Nora Garrett. It stars Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny.
The following is a list of unproduced Ben Affleck projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, American filmmaker Ben Affleck has worked on several projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell in development hell, were officially canceled, were in development limbo or would see life under a different production team.