Handlung

Two hardened criminals get into trouble with the US border patrol after meeting with a Mexican drug lord, and then revelations start to unfold.

Robert Trench, an undercover DEA agent, takes advantage of gunman Michael Stigman's idea to rob a bank to bust him and a mob boss. However, it proves too successful with much more money seized than anticipated with Trench's forces not stopping the getaway. Complicating things still more, Stigman turns out to be a Naval Intelligence agent who shoots Trench and takes the money. The interservice debacle suddenly finds Trench and Stigman in a bloody web of corrupt clandestine rivalries as they are hunted, blackmailed and isolated for the money on both sides of the law. Now, the fugitives must work together to find a way out of this situation with no one to turn to but themselves.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Contraband director Baltasar Kormákur and star Mark Wahlberg re-team for this all-star thriller centered on the fragile alliance between two operatives from rival bureaus, neither of whom realize that the other is working undercover. For the past year, U.S. naval intelligence officer Marcus Stigman (Wahlberg) and DEA agent Bobby Trench (Denzel Washington) have been on a covert mission to infiltrate a powerful narcotics syndicate. In the criminal underworld, trust comes in short supply. Stigman and Trench have been forced to work as partners, but continue to eye one another with an air of suspicion. Both men realize their only hope for survival is to stick together, however, after a sensitive mission involving a Mexican drug cartel goes horribly awry. Their identities compromised as their respective agencies deny any knowledge of their existence, Stigman and Trench must now elude capture by the authorities while using their acute criminal know-how to also strike back at the ruthless gangsters who would sooner see them six-feet underground, rather than rotting away behind bars..

Criminals Robert Trench (Denzel Washington) and Michael Stigman (Mark Wahlberg) are questioned by U.S. Customs after a meeting with drug lord Manny "Papi" Greco (Edward James Olmos) in Mexico. The duo met Greco at his farm in Mexico, where Papi gives Trench a packet of cash (in exchange for 500 fake passports ordered by Greco) instead of the cocaine worth $100,000 he requested. Greco refuses to give any cocaine to Trench and says that there was a mole in his organization who was caught recently and hence Greco is not taking on any new customers.

Unknown to Stigman, Trench is an undercover DEA Special Agent Robert "Bobby Beans" Trench and reports to his superior, Jessup (Robert John Burke), that he failed to acquire cocaine from Greco that they could use as evidence to convict him. Jessup believes that Trench has been undercover for more than 3 years and suspects his loyalty to the DEA. The mole, who Pappi killed, was Little Toro, and Trench was working on flipping him as a witness for the DEA. Trench does not reveal Toro's death to Jessup, who gives him 2 weeks to get evidence against Pappi.

Against Jessup's orders, Trench decides to remain undercover and assist Stigman in robbing $3 million from Greco (from Papi's bank in Tres Cruces, Texas), so they can prosecute Greco for money laundering. Stigman had seen Pappi's man deliver money to the bank every 2 weeks.

Stigman is suspicious that their car was stopped at the US border, and they would have been apprehended, if Pappi had given them the drugs. Stigman believed that Trench was trying to set him up, but continues with his plan.

Trench later meets with his lover, Deb Rees (Paula Patton), who is involved with another man as well. Trench tells Deb about his plan to rob Pappi's bank and to bring him in for money laundering. Trench asks Deb to bring the DEA to the bank right after the heist, so Stigman can be arrested, and the money can be taken into DEA custody.

U.S. Navy Special Operations Petty Officer 1st Class Michael "Stig" Stigman, an undercover Naval Intelligence Officer, meets with his commanding officer, U.S. Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander Harold Quince (James Marsden), who instructs Stigman to kill Trench so the Navy can use the stolen money to fund covert operations.

Trench and Stigman hit the police station of the area first and lock up all the police staff before hitting the bank. Trench and Stigman are surprised to find $43 million (rather than $3 million) in the vault. After the heist, Stigman follows orders to betray Trench and escape with the money. Stigman shoots to wound instead of to kill. Stigman is surprised to see Bobby's DEA badge and leaves him in the desert. Learning of this, Quince attempts to have Stigman killed. Stigman escapes after learning the money will be transferred to a Navy base in Corpus Christi. Meanwhile, a man named Earl (Bill Paxton) aggressively interrogates the bank manager about the money Trench and Stigman stole from him.

Trench visits Jessup to tell him what happened, but Earl and his men are there waiting for him. Earl kills Jessup, frames Trench for the murder and lets him go, making a deal that if Trench returns the $43 million, he will be cleared. Trench goes to Stigman's apartment to find out where he took the money, only to have Stigman contact him from a sniper's post across the street. Trench figures out that Stigman is with the military & no longer has the money with him.

A hit squad sent by Quince attacks the apartment but Stig helps Trench escape. Trench and Stigman kidnap Greco and interrogate him in the garage at Deb's house, where they find out Earl, Greco's associate, is a black ops operative, and that Trench and Stigman had been tricked into stealing money from the CIA. Greco also reveals that all the drug cartels were paying protection money to the CIA in exchange for the CIA transferring their drugs from across the border into USA.

The garage is attacked by another hit squad, led by Quince. Trench gets suspicious as to how Quince was able to trace Trench and Stigman to Deb's house in the first place. The trio ends up being captured by Greco and taken to his farm in Mexico. After torturing them and receiving a visit from Earl, Greco gives the pair 24 hours to steal the money from the Navy and return it to him, or Deb will die. Stigman & Trench attack the Naval base at Corpus Christi as that's where Stigman thought that Quince had mentioned he was taking the money.

At the base, Trench infiltrates Quince's office, only to discover Quince is Deb's boyfriend, and they had planned to steal the money for themselves. Meanwhile, Stigman asks U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Tuwey (Fred Ward) for help. Tuwey orders Quince's arrest but disavows Stigman to prevent the scandal from tarnishing the Navy's reputation. Both men escape from US Navy Masters-at-Arms officers. Unable to find the money, Trench is too late to prevent Greco from killing Deb. He later realizes that the money is in a motel room that he and Deb frequented and goes to help Stigman, who had returned to Greco's farm alone for vengeance.

There, Stigman is surrounded by Greco's men until both Quince and Earl intervene. Trench arrives in a car filled with money, and then blows up the car, scattering the money everywhere, which leads to a massive shootout. During a standoff among Quince, Earl, Trench, and Stigman, Earl reveals that the CIA has 20 other secret banks, and the loss of the $43 million is only a minor setback.

Signaling Stigman with a phrase from an earlier conversation, Stigman shoots Earl, and Trench shoots Quince. Trench and Stigman kill Greco and the duo escapes, but not before Trench shoots Stigman in the leg as payback for shooting him in the desert. While planning to continue to take down the CIA's secret banks and sabotage their black ops operations, Trench reveals to Stigman that he did not blow up all the money and had some stashed away.