AllMovie

Contraband director Baltasar Kormákur and star Mark Wahlberg reteam 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. Bill Paxton, Edward James Olmos, Paula Patton, and James Marsden co-star.