Traffic

"No one gets away clean"

2000 2h 27m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

🔥

93%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

7.5

IMDB

★7.1TMDB · 2,519🍅93%Rotten Tomatoes●86Metacritic★7.5IMDB · 228,102

ThrillerDramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

An exploration of the United States of America's war on drugs from multiple perspectives. For the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the war becomes personal when he discovers his well-educated daughter is abusing cocaine within their comfortable suburban home. In Mexico, a flawed, but noble policeman agrees to testify against a powerful general in league with a cartel, and in San Diego, a drug kingpin's sheltered trophy wife must learn her husband's ruthless business after he is arrested, endangering her luxurious lifestyle.

“No one gets away clean”

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Cast

Michael Douglas
Robert Wakefield
Benicio del Toro
Javier Rodriguez
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Helena Ayala
Erika Christensen
Caroline Wakefield
Don Cheadle
Montel Gordon
Jacob Vargas
Manolo Sanchez
Miguel Ferrer
Eduardo Ruiz
Luis Guzmán
Ray Castro

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writers: Stephen Gaghan, Simon Moore
Languages: Spanish, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

228+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Steven Soderbergh, shot by Steven Soderbergh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Cliff Martinez. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Stephen Mirrione shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Michael Douglas and Benicio del Toro and Catherine Zeta-Jones carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steven Soderbergh directs. Steven Soderbergh behind the camera. Cliff Martinez scores. Stephen Mirrione cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Spanish, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Spanish, English.
4228+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Steven Soderbergh, shot by Steven Soderbergh. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Cliff Martinez. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Stephen Mirrione shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Michael Douglas and Benicio del Toro and Catherine Zeta-Jones carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "No one gets away clean".
10IMDB entry: tt0181865 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 16 themes, including "drug dealer", "daughter", "mother", "drug abuse".

The technical file

Cinematography: Steven Soderbergh
Original score: Cliff Martinez
Editing: Stephen Mirrione
Production design: Philip Messina
Costume design: Louise Frogley
Makeup / hair: Bonnie Clevering
Sound: Larry Blake
Stunt coordinator: John Robotham
Runtime: 147 min · 2h 27m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $48,000,000
Box office: $207,515,725
Return: 432% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Traffic (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes: 93% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 86/100
IMDB rating: 7.5/10 · 228,102 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Won 4 Oscars. 73 wins & 86 nominations total

Academy Award for Best Film Editing
Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Director
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Steven Soderbergh

Stills · wallpapers

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

JPV8522021-04-12
★ 9/10
Seen this a few times over the years and still remains a compelling multi-character drama with some fine performances all around. Also has some great visuals depending on the storyline. Not sure where I rank it amongst Soderbergh's other works (Ocean's 11 has the fun factory going for it) but still love it no matter how many times I've seen it. 4.5/5
5rJoud2021-07-04
★ 5/10
Someone needs to go back to directing school This gem of the millennium comes with a great story (which has been done countless times before and after), great actors (funny faced most of them), and very well done action. Unfortunately all is wasted on the terrible actual telling of that story and its people in action. We get weird colors, useless zoom ins, shots into nothing, a boring soundtrack, the whole thing stripped off any continuity and stretched to 2 hours 30 minutes. It is understandable the makers of this film wanted to underline the realism with a documentary style, but come on. Or maybe they just were on some of the drugs shown in the picture, or maybe, and that must be it, they wanted the audience to feel like they were on drugs. 9 June 2017 I am migrating my reviews from a different site which has become simply garbage. TMDB looks awesome and I look forward to be a part of it.
CinemaSerf2025-08-16
★ 7/10
Remember when western governments went through their phases of appointing a “czar” for everything? They clearly didn’t recall just what happened to the last one of them, and to be fair to “Wakefield” (Michael Douglas) his chances of success trying to stop the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the USA wasn’t much likelier to succeed. In many ways the application of this task is little better than an honour amongst thieves arrangement with his own DEA officers trying to take down the “Ayala” cartel whilst south of the Rio Grande, law enforcement has rules that are more akin to survival of the fittest. They do make a semblance of a breakthrough, though, when they manage to arrest “Carlos Ayala” (Steven Bauer) thanks to some sterling work from “Gordon” (Don Cheadle) and “Castro” (Luis Guzmán). What they haven’t quite bargained on, though, is that his hitherto largely unaware wife “Helena” (Catherine Zeta Jones) is determined to avoid ending up on skid-row with her son, and so decides to take up some of the slack in her husband’s nefarious business enterprise. Meantime, different methods are proving effective for “Rodriguez” (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner “Sanchez” (Jacob Vargas) who are just as unscrupulous when it comes to tracking down these culprits and their mules, and after some success find themselves embroiled in a much more perilous endeavour to bring down the kingpin of the “Obregon” organisation. What doesn’t exactly help the new American boss is that his teenage daughter “Caroline” (Erika Christensen) spends a fair amount of her time stoked up with her boyfriend (Topher Grace) and their posh mates, sniffing or snorting whatever they can get hold of in their money-no-object, country club, lives and when that news leaks out, his own position might need him to start thinking about that second letter he had been warned to write. As the nets all begin to tighten, much hinges on the testimony of the dealer “Ruíz” (Miguel Ferrer) who has been promised immunity if he spills the beans, but - well, let’s just say that “Mrs. Ayala” wants her husband back. Rather than take a broad-brush approach to the national level of the politicking here, this works better because it focuses more on the people on the ground who are routinely making and breaking the rules to stay one step ahead of people who have ten times the budgets, the resources and the guile to ensure that for every one that are caught, another nine get through. Though I didn’t love the sometimes quite amateur-looking photography, and I felt the score frequently quite obtrusive, Del Toro is on great form exuding well the attitude of a pragmatic officer who has standards and red lines, but they can conveniently blur from time to time. Ferrer is also effective as the creepy snitch and the gradual incorporation of the threads into a single denouement works well in providing clear evidence that such a single conclusion isn’t ever going to realistically possible! Luckily, Douglas isn’t used so much because he’s pretty hopeless, but just about everyone else works well delivering a gritty dramatisation of what it could be like for the narcotics equivalent of King Canute.