Triple Frontier Director & Crew Rescued About 50 Stray Dogs While Filming

Triple Frontier director J.C. Chandor and the film’s crew wound up rescuing several stray dogs during production on the Netflix action-thriller. The movie endured a prolonged and arduous journey to fruition, going through multiple changes in director and cast over the course of its development. It eventually found a home at Netflix and started production in March 2018, with Chandor (who’s known for acclaimed films like All is Lost and A Most Violent Year) at the helm. Triple Frontier only just began streaming through Netflix today and has been generally well-received by critics so far.

Actors like Oscar Isaac, Ben Affleck, and Pedro Pascal star in Triple Frontier as former Special Forces operatives who reunite to carry out a dangerous heist that, if successful, will secure their and their families’ futures. The film primarily takes place in South America (“Triple Frontier” refers to the border area where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet, which is an active spot for contraband and drug trafficking) and was partly shot on-location near Bogotá, Colombia. However, behind the gritty thriller is a much sweeter story involving stray pups in Colombia.

Related: Garrett Hedlund & Charlie Hunnam: Triple Frontier Interview

People has revealed that Chandor and the Triple Frontier crew encountered numerous stray dogs while filming around Bogotá and eventually set up a kennel for the dogs to wander in throughout production. They also brought in veterinarian caretakers to care for the pups and provide spay/neuter surgeries, among other basic health treatments. As Chandor pointed out to People, you can actually spot one of the dogs in Triple Frontier during a chase sequence, about ten minutes into the film.

Chandor, it turns out, actually spent most of his breaks during filming visiting the dogs and ultimately adopted one of the pups to take home to his family in the U.S., after production wrapped. The filmmaker and his family even named the dog Maximo, which is one of the more popular baby names in Colombia. Chandor wasn’t the only Triple Frontier crew member who ended up bringing a dog home after the movie’s shoot finished, either. In fact, according to a tweet posted by producer Andy Horowitz, the Triple Frontier team rescued around 50 dogs in total, at the end of the day.

It’s a very tender story and all the more pleasantly surprising when you consider that Triple Frontier itself is a decidedly grim and un-happy movie (in a good way, mind you). More than that, it makes for a great ending to the film’s larger struggle to get made and a refreshingly touching tale about what went down off-camera during the production of a major Netflix release. Suffice it to say, those who either haven’t seen Triple Frontier yet or decide to rewatch it may end up seeing the aforementioned chase scene in a whole new light now.

MORE: Triple Frontier’s Ending & Real Meaning Explained

Source: People, Andy Horwitz