united the creative forces of Denis Villeneuve and Taylor Sheridan, and it also assembled an all-star cast of recognizable stars. The 2015 film concerns an idealistic FBI agent who is assigned to a special task force that is joining the rising war against drugs. Hopping back and forth across the U.S. and Mexican border, the shadowy team aims to take down a larger cartel leader by leveraging a lower-level lieutenant against his own boss. Amid the fast-paced action, the film deconstructs the gray moral areas of the war against organized crime, and intentionally challenges the notion of clean justice.

After a popular debut at Cannes Film Festival, Sicario's wide release was a smash-hit, and it was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography. The cast was particularly praised, with the performances of Emily Blunt and Josh Brolin earning special attention. The small ensemble was particularly effective at telling the surprisingly gripping story, and each role was crucial to the plot. This naturally led to a sequel in 2018, though Sicario: Day of the Soldado was not as well-received.

The London-born star spent a few years honing her craft onstage before landing her first movie role in 2004's My Summer of Love. It wouldn't take long for Emily Blunt to gain worldwide attention when she played the role of the snarky Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada in 2006. Blunt's star would continue to rise throughout the 2000s and into the 2010s, and she landed major starring roles in films like The Edge of Tomorrow and Into the Woods. .

Blunt's Kate Macer is a young recruit to the FBI who is somewhat idealistic about the sort of work that the agency does. Though she is brilliant at her job, she often struggles with the complex moral issues that go into the team's fight against the cartel. Ostensibly, , as well as the moral compass.

Benicio del Toro burst onto the scene in the late 1980s and soon gained attention for his outlandish character work, and he frequently plays strange crooks. in 1995, but soon appeared in a myriad of different movies, like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Snatch. He would win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez in Traffic and was nominated again for 21 Grams.

Benicio del Toro's Alejandro Gillick is a man on a mission, and he is willing to work in the moral gray areas to get his revenge. A former prosecutor in Mexico, Gillick became a deadly assassin after agents from the cartel murdered his family in cold blood.

As the son of Hollywood icon James Brolin, Josh Brolin got started in show business early with a role in the film The Goonies. Though Brolin's career would slow down throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, he would have a resurgence after playing Llewelyn Moss in No Country for Old Men in 2007. He would continue to have high-profile roles in films like Milk (which earned him an Oscar nomination) and True Grit, but would find another level of stardom as

Matt Graver is a CIA Paramilitary Operations Officer with a somewhat mysterious past. He takes charge of the operation in Mexico during the movie, and has an unnervingly relaxed demeanor despite the seriousness of the mission. Matt intentionally keeps Kate in the dark throughout the film, and isn't afraid to withhold information to get a desired result.

Hailingfrom London, Daniel Kaluuya got his start starring in some of the most popular British TV shows of the 2000s. He famously appeared as Posh Kenneth in Skins for 11 episodes, and also played the role of Barclay in the iconic Doctor Who episode, "Planet of the Dead". Kaluuya would appear in the 2011 Black Mirror story, "Fifteen Million Merits", before landing . He would win an Oscar for playing Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah and voices Spider-Punk in the Spider-Verse movies.

Coming from a rough background, FBI Agent Reggie Wayne carries a lot of baggage with him on the mission into Mexico. Though he has a hardened exterior that seems impervious to emotion, Wayne actually harbors deep emotions that guide his actions. Wayne is Kate's partner, though they seem like polar opposites on the outside. However, they are equally conflicted on the inside.

After a myriad of small supporting roles in various movies and TV shows, Jon Bernthal became a household name when . He would follow that star-making TV role with his turn as The Punisher in Daredevil and the eponymous series on Netflix, before getting to show more of his dramatic side on The Bear as the late Mikey Berzatto. Bernthal would prove himself to be an adept action star when he played the role of the assassin Braxton Wolff in The Accountant and The Accountant 2.

Jon Bernthal's Ted is not a major character in Sicario, but he plays an important role in the development of the characters. Ted is a police officer with the Phoenix Police Department, and he meets Kate at a local bar where they form a quick bond. However, Ted isn't exactly who he seems, and his betrayal is an important moment in Kate's character development.

Jeffrey Donovan may have had some bigger roles in movies, but he's still mostly known for his TV roles. After more than a decade of supporting parts, , and that is still his most iconic part. He has since played Detective Frank Cosgrove on several seasons of Law & Order, and voiced the role of Machine Head in the animated superhero series, Invincible.

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Steve Forsing is a CIA Agent with a past in the military as a member of Delta Force. His tactical training comes in handy in Sicario, and he returns for the sequel as well.

A legend of stage and screen, Garber plays Dave Jennings who is overseeing the operation. Garber's stage work is extensive, but he is best known for playing Jesus in the Godspell movie adaptation and Thomas Andrews in Titanic.

Trujillo plays the role of a Mexican police officer in Sicario and has a list of credits a mile long. In more recent years, Trujillo played Che "Taza" Romero in Mayans M.C., and OMAC in DC's Blue Beetle. Trujillo returned to reprise his role as Rafael in Sicario: Day of the Soldado.

Fausto is the main drug kingpin that the team is tracking down throughout the movie, and is ostensibly the villain of Sicario. Cedillo has a somewhat smaller filmography, but has appeared in films like In The Electric Mist, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Harder They Fall.

Manuel Díaz is the cartel lieutenant who is apprehended early in the film in order to get to Fausto. Saracino had his big break in Sicario, but has also appeared in films like Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and TV shows like From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.