Plot
Chris Farraday (
Mark Wahlberg) is an ex-smuggler who works installing security alarms and lives a peaceful life with his wife, Kate (
Kate Beckinsale), and their children in
New Orleans. One day, Chris and Kate learn that her brother Andy (
Caleb Landry Jones) was smuggling drugs in a cargo ship, but was forced to drop them into the ocean in order to avoid arrest during a surprise inspection by the U.S. Customs. Andy's boss, ruthless mobster Tim Briggs (
Giovanni Ribisi), is infuriated and wants Andy to repay him the drug's worth in money.
Chris meets with Briggs, who threatens to kill Chris' family if Andy doesn't pay $700,000 in two weeks. Chris realizes that the only way to raise the money is to run contraband and joins the crew of a cargo ship where his father Bud (
William Lucking), currently in prison, used to run contraband, in order to smuggle $10,000,000 in fake bills from Panama with the help of Andy and Chris' old friend Danny Raymer (
Lukas Haas). While Chris is gone, Briggs and a couple of his thugs break into Chris's house and scares his wife and kids. When one of the kids pushes the thugs, a thug accidentally fires off his pistol to the wall. Briggs and his thugs then leave, causing Chris to asks his best friend, Sebastian Abney (
Ben Foster), to take care of his family.
In Panama, the Chief Engineer gives Chris extra time by sabotaging the ship's pitch propeller, drawing suspicion from Captain Camp (
J. K. Simmons). However, Chris discovers that the bills are useless, not starch-free paper, and the only one who can provide them good ones is crime lord Gonzalo (
Diego Luna). Meanwhile, Briggs attacks Kate in her house, forcing her to move to Sebastian's apartment. He then calls Andy and threatens to kill one of his sister's children if Andy doesn't use the buy money intended for the fake bills to acquire a stash of cocaine. Andy runs off with the buy-money, leading an infuriated Gonzalo to force Chris and Danny to participate in an armored car heist. Chris and Danny are assigned with the job of driving in front of the armored car, forcing it to stop and becoming vulnerable to the robbers. However, Gonzalo and his men are killed in a firefight with the police.
Chris and Danny make it back to Gonzalo's warehouse, where they then escape in a van loaded with the fake money, and also a
Jackson Pollock painting which was stolen in the armored car heist. Meanwhile, Sebastian begins working with Briggs against Chris, after a Scottish gangster Jim Church (
David O'Hara) threatens to kill Sebastian if Sebastian doesn't repay the money Sebastian borrowed to save his fledgling construction business. Also Sebastian calls Chris and Chris tells Sebastian he might throw the money in the ocean. Sebastian tells Briggs to scare Kate, in order to make sure that Chris doesn't dump the drugs bought by Andy into the ocean. That same night, Briggs rams Chris's house with his truck and assaults Kate, warning her to tell Chris to complete the mission and to not throw the cash in the ocean. Sebastian comes in and pretends to rescue Kate, scaring off Briggs. Sebastian tells Kate to get in his truck, but Kate knows he's been drinking and she doesn't want her kids in the car with him. So she grabs the kids and drives off.
At the Panama City freight yard, a crew member of the ship has a container standing by for Chris to drive the contraband-loaded van into. The crew member also bribes a freight-yard supervisor to delay the loading of three containers in order to give Chris time to make it to the ship. Chris assaults Andy for stealing the money and spending it on cocaine. Andy reveals to Chris that Briggs was going to kill Chris's son if Andy refused the offer. Kate calls Chris and tells him what Briggs did to her and what he said. Chris is surprised that Briggs knew the idea of Chris drowning the cash. First, Chris suspects Andy of being disloyal, but after Andy persistently tells Chris he didn't say anything, Chris figures out it was Sebastian. Chris calls Sebastian and threatens to kill him.
Eventually Sebastian's constant watch over Kate, becomes tiresome to her. Kate leaves a friend's house and goes back to Sebastian's apartment to retrieve some personal items. Sebastian, under the influence, tries to force himself on her. Kate, resists him and runs to the bathroom and locks the door. Sebastian insults Kate calling her a brat and a uppity bitch. Kate then persists on calling Chris, informing him of what Sebastian tried to do. Sebastian tells Kate not to call Chris, telling her he needs to complete his mission and with Kate calling him, it ruin everything. Kate begins to call Chris, and Sebastian rams his shoulder to the door, busting it open and forcing Kate flying towards the wall, with her head bashing against the wall. Sebastian panics, thinking the unconscious Kate is dead, and wraps her in plastic, preparing to dispose of her body.
Sebastian throws Kate's unconscious body in a hole, where the next morning Sebastian will have his construction workers fill the hole, covering up the evidence of Kate's supposed death.
After leaving Panama, Sebastian contacts Captain Camp and admits that Chris is smuggling on his ship, promising him a share if he makes sure Chris doesn't throw it overboard. Chris does not give up the location of the stash on the ship, so the captain calls U.S. customs and reports that Chris Farraday is running drugs on the ship. However, when the Customs Agents meet the ship in port, they cannot find the drugs, and they find no contraband in Chris's possession. Knowing that Camp is a germophobe who had brought his own carpet cleaner aboard ship, Chris hides the bricks of cocaine in the water-tank of the carpet cleaner. Chris does this while the captain is eating a meal in the messhall.
After Andy is discharged off the ship, Briggs and his thugs chase after Andy. After Andy is cornered, Briggs throws Andy in a van. Meanwhile, Chris has devised a plan to set up the rude, obnoxious Camp.
Camp leaves the vessel to go home, unknowingly carrying off the drugs. After Customs has excused Chris, Chris meets Briggs in a dark desolate area of the cargo yard. Briggs threatens to kill Andy. Chris breaks Briggs's car window and throws Briggs out the car, and severely beats up Briggs for everything he did to his family. Chris tells Andy to run. Briggs's thugs hold Chris at gunpoint. Chris takes Briggs to Camp's house, having made a duplicate key to the house while on the ship, and knowingly activates Camp's security system. Chris opens the carpet cleaner and pulls out the stash of drugs. The volatile Briggs compliments Chris on his smuggling skills, and sits in the Camp's living room tasting the cocaine. Chris asks permission to go to the bathroom, and sneaks out the garage in the Captain's car. Camp awakens with the noise, and comes into the living room, startled to see drug dealer Briggs. When the police arrive, Chris is long gone and both Briggs and Camp are arrested.
Chris knows Sebastian has an office at a construction site, and goes there to find Sebastian. Chris brutally beats up Sebastian and demands him to tell him Kate's location. Sebastian tells Chris that she's dead. Chris tries calling her cellphone, and hears the ringtone in a building foundation where cement is being poured. Kate is rescued seconds before being buried in cement. Sebastian is arrested, and meets Bud in prison, where Bud gives a group of inmates an approving nod, as they surround Sebastian. His fate is left unknown.
Andy retrieves the fake bills, which Chris had dumped into the ocean in order to avoid being caught by U.S. Customs. At a police auction, Andy purchases the van that was used to escape, which still contains the painting.
Chris meets with Church, who offers Chris $2.5 million for the fake currency. Chris demands $3 million; Church agrees to meet Chris's price. In a friendly conversation, Church asks Chris if he knows anything about the painting that was stolen in Panama. Church says its worth over $140 million. Church also says to Chris that the painting must be worth at least $20,000,000 on the black market.
As Chris and Andy leave the meeting with Church, we see the painting in the van. The painting had gone unnoticed by the customs police when they had custody of the van. Chris tells his buddies in the van that the painting is worth at least $20 million, and they cheer with delight. Later, it is presumed that they sell the painting on the black market and split the money among themselves.
Reception
Contraband opened from mixed to negative reviews. Based on 110 reviews, the film currently holds a 48% "rotten" score from
Rotten Tomatoes with the consensus saying, "It's more entertaining than your average January action thriller, but that isn't enough to excuse Contraband's lack of originality and unnecessarily convoluted plot."
[3]
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times felt that "
Contraband involves a lot of energy," but he was growing "tired of violent retreads of these heist elements."
[4] Tom Long of
The Detroit News criticized the film for having "too much plot and too little character" and concluded that it "comes off the factory floor with its engine running and ready to drive. But the ride feels overly familiar."
[5] Claudia Puig of
USA Today called "the 'one last job' trope [...] a particularly tired one" and remarked that while it "has a few moments of tension," the film "adheres to a predictable heist formula hardly worth trafficking in."
[6] Andrew O'Hehir of
Salon characterized the film as "exactly the sort of movie that Hollywood specializes in, the kind which seems on paper as if it ought to be entertaining, but winds up a massive and chaotic drag" and observed that "it's much more like a cynical hash job, whose faux-realistic manner can't hide all the hackneyed crime-movie situations."
[7]
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone thought the film "goes down in a sea of Hollywood clichés" and that Mark "Wahlberg could sleepwalk through this role, and does. See this movie and you'll surely follow his lead."
[8] Kyle Smith of the
New York Post derided the film, noting that "watching a hero progress due in large part to lucky breaks and idiot moves by others does not make a movie" and that "it's puzzling why anyone considered this script worth shooting."
[9] Scott Tobias of
NPRdismissed the film as a "mediocre [...] thriller," something "to be remembered, vaguely."
[10] Rafer Guzman of
Newsday expressed disappointment that "a little action is all you'll get" and opined that the film "fails by overreaching: It aspires to the heightened drama of
The Departed but lands instead in the bargain bin of forgettable action product."
[11]
Justin Chang of
Variety praised the film as "reasonably swift and effective" and for taking "a hard-driving line of action and a commitment to one-damned-thing-after-another storytelling that carries it past any number of narrative speed bumps and preposterous detours."
[12] Michael O'Sullivan of
The Washington Post compared the film to "an
Ocean's Eleven movie, minus the glamour," saying that it was "taut and suspenseful for the most part."
[13] Owen Gleiberman of
Entertainment Weekly stated that the film, "while often grungy and far-fetched, does keep you watching. And in January, that's recommendation enough."
[14]
