THE INSPIRATION
Screenwriter, and former Army man, Matt Cook, was inspired to write the thriller Triple 9 during a road trip to Las Vegas with his mate, an undercover narcotics agent, who told him about a ‘999’ call he’d been on. In the US, ‘999’ is the highest-priority code police use when one of their own is wounded in a gun battle. Police everywhere reportedly stop what they’re doing to find the perpetrator.
“I asked my buddy, ‘What’s going on with the rest of the city?'” recalls Cook. “He was like, ‘Well it’s basically unpoliced’.”
THE SCRIPT
As soon as Cook returned to LA, he started outlining the script about a bank-robbing crew of corrupt cops and ex-Special Forces soldiers who, when forced to attempt a nigh-impossible heist for a ruthless mobster, decide their only hope of survival is to distract the entire Atlanta police force with a ‘999’. The screenplay caught the eye of Australian director John Hillcoat, 54, renowned for 2009’s The Road.
“There are so many great crime thrillers from the past. In fact, the early script was influenced by all those great other films, but I tried to give it more identity, mainly through research and basically get some more reality into it,” notes the film-maker.
THE SHOOT
The quest for authenticity led the director to Atlanta’s gang unit. “We had them on set advising us the entire time, telling us about what happens and what doesn’t happen on the streets,” he says. Hillcoat and his team also worked closely with ex-gang members.
“We couldn’t get active gang members, because that would’ve created a very volatile situation,” he says. “If we were doing a doc, I’m sure they would’ve been very wary, but there’s still that allure of the magic of cinema, so they were very keen to get it right. It was a fantastic collaboration.”
THE CAST
The top-notch cast includes Kate Winslet, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul and Anthony Mackie. Getting their schedules to align “was very, very difficult”, admits Hillcoat, who praises Oscar-winner Winslet’s unexpected performance as the cold-blooded Russian-Israeli crime boss Irina Vlaslov.
“That’s what I thought was exciting and why I was glad she was more excited than I ever expected,” remarks the director. “I knew she could pull it off. She was like a kid in a candy shop, but then I think villains are sometimes the best roles to play.”
Harrelson plays major-crimes investigator Jeffrey Allen and has credited the director with reining in his performance when needed. “He’s a real force, so it was a little bit of a balancing act,” notes Hillcoat. “I don’t think he quite realised tonally what we were doing, so once he got in the swing of things, he was great.”
THE DOGS OF WAR
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 38, who was Oscar-nominated for his role in 12 Years A Slave, was one of the first cast members to sign up. He plays former Special Forces soldier-turned-gang leader Michael Atwood.
“The structure of his background was fascinating,” says the actor. “The idea of these very militarised guys with a single-minded focus on doing their job, who have been mercenaries and are new sorts of dogs of war. How they fit into a civil society is always interesting – and whether these people can, or whether it’s in the fog of war they feel the most alive, which is true of Michael.”
THE WEAPONS
As a seasoned commando, Ejiofor needed to display a fierce mastery of weaponry, so for six weeks in 2014, he trained with stunt coordinator Mickey Giacomazzi and former Navy Seal Mark Stefanich, to learn combat skills.
“The weapons training is all a bit of a blur now,” admits Ejiofor. “I do remember running around with all this live ammunition and firing these AR-57s and getting really quite into it, despite not being a particular fan of guns or raised around guns. And for a little while, feeling very confident in that world – and then forgetting about it.”
THE HEIST
Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul, who portrays the tormented ex-cop Gabe Welch, reveals filming the opening sequence, in which the gang rob a bank, was “one of the greatest moments in my entire career”.
“It’s like when you’re a young kid playing cops and robbers. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, yes, I get to wear a mask, run through a bank with a gun and pull off one of the greatest heists in the history of cinema’.”
THE METHOD
Paul, 36, laughs when told he’s been described as someone who’s ‘mastered the art of drugged-out desperation’.
“It’s nice to zip on another skin and create crazy, intense emotions,” he says. “I used to try and take myself a little too seriously and wear that skin home and be that guy, but I remember [Breaking Bad co-star] Bryan Cranston on set one day, said, ‘You know you can leave that at work and go home and take a breather’. I learned a lot from that guy. It’s good to leave it on set some days.”
THE EMOTIONAL LINK
Anthony Mackie, who’s known for his role as Falcon in the Marvel Universe movies, plays gang-unit officer Marcus Belmont, who abuses his position of authority to pull off the ultimate betrayal. “As actors, our job is to connect with morally off-the-wall characters and I’d been chasing this movie for a long time, so when it came about, I was 100 per cent in,” says the 37-year-old, who starred in The Hurt Locker. “I wanted you not to not like Marcus and then be drawn in by him, so he becomes the emotional link in the movie.”
The actor thinks himself “fortunate” to be a part of this movie, which is not only ethnically, but gender diverse. “It felt good to go into work and have a regal lady to stand up for the other side of the spectrum, like Kate Winslet.”