- An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.
- Kate Macer leads a Phoenix based kidnap response unit for the FBI. Following Kate's team leading a raid on a known drug den in nearby Chandler, Kate is recruited to work on a special ops team led by Matt Graver of the CIA, he who is on special assignment for the Department of Defense. They recruited her because they wanted someone with tactical procedures knowledge. Outwardly, the team's mission, which works behind a Delta Force team as its primary gun power as required, is to decapitate a Mexican drug cartel by capturing or dismembering the workings of the main players, cartel head Manuel Díaz, his second in command Guillermo Díaz (Manuel's brother), and drug lord Fausto Alarcón. Kate agrees to the assignment as she feels the work of this team would be more effective in stopping the drug trade in the US than the piecemeal work of her current kidnap response unit. The third on the team is a mysterious Hispanic or Latino man Kate only knows as Alejandro, and who she does not fully trust as she can tell that he is suffering from a very traumatic past. When Kate and the team arrive in El Paso for their first mission, Kate learns that the team's workings are not all they appear on the surface - many of the proceedings which would not be considered above board or legal - despite the end goal being as she knows it to be. Still largely in the dark and only given information on a need to know basis, Kate decides to stick it out with the team if only to discover all that she is not told while still believing in the end goal. She may have changing or at least mixed emotions as she learns more and more about what is going on, including the specific reason why she was recruited.—Huggo
- FBI field agent Kate Macer is approached to join a special anti-drugs task force that also involves the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice. She is given very little information about the methods or aims of the task force, except that it is going after senior members of a Mexican drug cartel. She soon realizes that their methods are quite unorthodox, even potentially illegal, and the aim may be even more unconventional.—grantss
- When FBI makes a raid on a cartel house in Arizona, they discover several bodies and two local police officers are killed by a booby trap. The leader of the operation Kate Macer is summoned to a meeting in the Department of Justice and Kate is invited to join a special force commanded by CIA Matt Graver to fight the cartels. The idealistic Kate brings her partner Reggie Wayne and they team up with the force. They learn that the team has the intent to promote havoc in the Sonora Cartel to force one well-known kingpin to come to Mexico to meet the drug lord Fausto Alarcon and find his whereabouts. But soon Kate finds that the assignments led by Matt and Alejandro are absolutely illegal and she discovers why she was invited to join the team.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- An idealistic FBI agent (Emily Blunt) is assigned to work a dangerous stretch of the US-Mexico border by her superior officer (Josh Brolin). She's exposed to the brutality of the Mexican drug cartel, and becomes partners with a defector from the cartel (Benicio Del Toro) who possesses keen knowledge about the organization. As she gets deeper into the ruthlessness and corruption surrounding the FBI sting to find the organizations leaders, her moral and professional boundaries are pushed to their breaking point..
- In Chandler, Arizona, FBI Critical Incident Response Group Agents Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) and Reggie Wayne (Daniel Kaluuya) lead a raid on a suspected Mexican cartel safe-house, where they discover dozens of decaying corpses and a booby trap that kills two policemen. Following the raid, Kate's boss recommends her for a Department of Justice special joint task force, overseen by Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) and the secretive Alejandro Gillick (Benicio Del Toro), to apprehend the Sonora Cartel lieutenant Manuel Díaz (Bernardo Saracino). Assured that the task force will bring Díaz and those responsible for the safe-house incident to justice, Kate joins.
The team travels in force to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to extradite Díaz's brother and henchman, Guillermo Diaz (Edgar Arreola). To preempt a possible ambush, the team kills several suspected Mexican cartel gunmen - shocking the conscientious Kate. Alejandro tortures Guillermo and learns that there's a tunnel Díaz uses to smuggle drugs into the U.S.
Reggie and Kate begin to question the task force's illegal and seemingly inexplicable methods. Finally, Matt reveals that the objective is not to apprehend Díaz as originally suggested, but to disrupt his drug operations to such a degree that Díaz will be summoned back to Mexico by his boss, elusive Sonora Cartel drug lord Fausto Alarcón. By following Díaz, they will bring Alarcón to justice. To disrupt Díaz's cash flow, the team raids a bank used by his money launderers. Kate and Reggie want to use their findings from the raid to mount a legal case against Díaz but are ordered to let it go - much to their frustration.
While commiserating at a bar, Reggie introduces Kate to Ted (Jon Bernthal), a friend and Phoenix police officer. Kate and Ted go to her apartment, but as they become passionate, Kate realizes Ted is with the cartel. In the ensuing struggle, Ted begins strangling Kate, when Alejandro suddenly appears and subdues him. Alejandro and Matt reveal that they used her as bait, knowing the cartel would try to assassinate her after she was seen at the bank raid. Alejandro and Matt torture Ted into revealing the names of other officers working for Díaz.
They soon learn that Díaz is being recalled to Mexico, as they hoped. Kate questions the good news, pointing out that they have no jurisdiction in Mexico. Matt states that she and Reggie were simply being used, as working with U.S. law officers grants the C.I.A. legal permission to continue. Angered, Reggie advises that he and Kate leave the task force, but she insists on joining a task force raid on the tunnel to learn more about the operation's true nature. At the Mexican end of the tunnel, Kate sees Alejandro kidnapping one of Díaz's drug mules, a corrupt Mexican police officer named Silvio (Maximiliano Hernández).
Kate attempts to arrest Alejandro for his illegal act, but he shoots into her bulletproof vest before driving off with Silvio. Realizing that Alejandro is operating illegally with the task force's support, and that there was never any intention of bringing Alarcón and Díaz to justice through legal channels, Kate confronts Matt.
Matt explains that they are attempting to return to a time when a single cartel, Medellín, ran the drug trade. This monopoly gave the U.S. more control. Alejandro, who worked for Medellín, was brought on to topple the Sonora Cartel by assassinating Alarcón, thus reducing cartel competition. Alejandro's own motive is revenge: Alarcón had ordered the murder of Alejandro's wife and daughter.
In Mexico, Alejandro forces Silvio to drive him to Díaz, kills Silvio, and forces Diaz to continue to Alarcón. Reaching Alarcón's estate, Alejandro kills Díaz, all the guards, and the entire Alarcón family. Alejandro appears in Kate's apartment and forces her at gunpoint to sign a waiver legitimizing the operation. As he leaves, she aims her pistol at him, but cannot bring herself to pull the trigger. In Nogales, Sonora, Silvio's widow watches her son's soccer game. The game is briefly interrupted by the sound of gunfire, before continuing.
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