Poster © USA Films. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreCrime, Drama & Thriller
RatedR
Runtime2 hr 27 mins
ReleasedDecember 27, 2000
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorSteven Soderbergh
StarringDon Cheadle, Benicio del Toro, Michael Douglas
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Traffic (2000)
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| Traffic's Details | |
| Genre | Crime, Drama & Thriller |
| Rated | R |
| Released | 12/27/2000 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 27 mins |
| Budget | $48M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | Traffik by Simon Moore |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Spanish |
| Traffic's Interests | |
| General | Border checkpoints, wiretaps, Washington briefings, Tijuana shot in hot amber, Ohio shot in cold blue. |
| Music | Cliff Martinez, all low hums and nerves. |
| Movies | Sicario (2015). Benicio del Toro heads back to the border, and it gets even tenser. |
| Television | Traffik, the 1989 British miniseries this whole thing is adapted from. |
| Heroes | Javier Rodriguez, trying to stay honest when everyone around him has a price. |
| Traffic's Crew | |
| Director | Steven Soderbergh |
| Writers | Stephen Gaghan |
| Producers | Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz, Laura Bickford |
| Cinematography | Peter Andrews |
| Music | Cliff Martinez |
| Edited By | Stephen Mirrione |
| Production | USA Films, Bedford Falls Productions, Laura Bickford Productions, Initial Entertainment Group |
| Distributed By | USA Films (United States and Canada), Initial Entertainment Group (International), Universal Music & Video Distribution |
Color filters do a lot of the talking in Traffic. Mexico is a hot, grainy yellow, Ohio and Washington are a cold blue, and San Diego gets the sunshine, so you always know where you are, and after a while it feels like hand-holding. The Washington storyline is the weakest. Michael Douglas plays a judge put in charge of the drug war whose own family is in trouble, and the script turns his scenes into speeches. The rest stays tense and smart across 147 minutes. Benicio del Toro is extraordinary as Javier, a Tijuana cop who says very little and thinks constantly, every risky choice playing out in his eyes. Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán needle each other through a stakeout like coworkers who’ve shared one car too long. Catherine Zeta-Jones goes from sheltered to steely. It made $207.5 million worldwide on a reported $48M. An 8.3 because it treats the drug war like a puzzle with no winners. $367.92 says you spend your next movie night guessing what color the director picked for each city.
What works: Del Toro’s quiet, watchful Javier, Cheadle and Guzmán’s stakeout banter, and three stories that tighten together without losing anyone.
What doesn’t: The Washington storyline leans on speeches, and the heavy color filters start to feel like the movie holding your hand.
Who it’s for: Grown-up viewers who like big, serious ensemble dramas that trust them to keep up.
Spoilers
Javier helps bring down a corrupt general and asks for only one thing in return: lights for a neighborhood baseball field, so kids have somewhere to play at night. Wakefield walks out in the middle of his big speech to be with his family, and Montel sneaks a listening device into the Ayala house, refusing to quit.
Steven Soderbergh braids together three stories about the drug trade on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. In Tijuana, honest cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio del Toro) gets pulled into a powerful general's crackdown. In Ohio, conservative judge Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas) is named the nation's new drug czar, while his own teenage daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is quietly struggling with addiction. In San Diego, DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzmán) flip a dealer, and wealthy Helena Ayala (Catherine Zeta-Jones) finds out what her husband really does for a living. One hundred forty-seven minutes, three color palettes, no easy answers.
Policy wonks, worried parents and anyone who still thinks there is a simple fix.
Javier Rodríguez Rodríguezphoto: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
| Benicio del Toro | Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez |
| Jacob Vargas | Manolo Sánchez |
| Marisol Padilla Sánchez | Ana Sánchez |
| Tomas Milian | General Arturo Salazar |
| Jose Yenque | Salazar Soldier / The Torturer |
| Michael Douglas | Robert Wakefield |
| Amy Irving | Barbara Wakefield |
| Erika Christensen | Caroline Wakefield |
| Topher Grace | Seth Abrahams |
| D. W. Moffett | Jeff Sheridan |
| James Brolin | General Ralph Landry |
| Albert Finney | White House Chief of Staff |
| Steven Bauer | Carlos Ayala |
| Catherine Zeta-Jones | Helena Ayala |
| Dennis Quaid | Arnie Metzger |
| Clifton Collins Jr. | Francisco "Frankie Flowers" Flores |
| Don Cheadle | Montel Gordon |
| Luis Guzmán | Ray Castro |
| Miguel Ferrer | Eduardo Ruiz |
| Peter Riegert | Michael Adler |
| Benjamin Bratt | Juan Obregón |
| Viola Davis | the Social Worker |
| John Slattery | Assistant District Attorney Dan Colier |
| James Pickens Jr. | The Prosecutor |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $207.5M; Domestic box office $124.1M; Opening weekend $185K; Profit / loss (est.) +$31.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 93%; CinemaScore B; box office chart updated; Rotten Tomatoes critics 93% (222 reviews); Metacritic 86 / 100; CinemaScore B; IMDb users 7.5 / 10 (232,441 votes); movie.guru score 7.8.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.