Really a masterpiece

Scene opens with cuts between dashcam and helicopter cam, and walkie-talkie voice. The traffic jam at the border creates the perfect circumstances for tension. The characters have already talked about how if anything goes wrong, it will go wrong at the border

Viewer gets brief, real-time glimpses into passing motorists. Anyone can be a threat. Quick view of the tatted up cholos. "Get your service weapon out."

The female character is a stand-in for the viewer. She's not trained for this shit.

Within a minute you have multiple cars identified as threats. There are a few blunders here. Benicio swings his rifle right past the head of Emily Blunt, and the Michael Weston guy's bolt is open and empty, lol.

But the tension is fully escalated and "WHAT ARE THE RULES HERE?" cuts directly to the movie's main themes: how do you take on cartels if you have to follow one-sided codes of ethics and legality?

Great cut to the dog barking as the ominous synth music begins

Close-ups of the bad guys

"It's coming, it's coming now"

And still another 20 or 30 seconds of tension, nothing happening.

Tension peaks with a stand-off and then the shoot-out.

Josh Brolin chewing gum and smirking the whole time.

What's most impressive is that, in most movies, something would go terribly wrong. Here, the team performs perfectly. The threats get resolved directly. Apart from the gunman who jumps out at Emily Blunt, everything remains under total control.

Amazing filmmaking to squeeze that amount of tension out of a situation firmly in hand.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5708586&forum_id=2#48834245)