Facing El Chapo

Two Mexican police officers are working the final hours of a routine shift in Sinaloa in 2016 when they stop a stolen car and come face to face with one of the world's most wanted criminals, the head of a powerful drug cartel. The officers recognize him immediately. When he tries to buy them off and they refuse, he threatens that his people will kill them if they let him go, leaving the two men to fight for their lives before their shift is over.

Facing El Chapo is a Mexican action crime thriller directed by Chava Cartas and written by Bernardo Esquinca, with Francisco González Compeán and Sebastian Jurado producing. It is Cartas's seventh feature, following a run of films that began with MexZombies in 2022 and continued through Sobreviviendo mis XV, Counterattack, Borrón y Vida Nueva, Mirreyes contra Godínez: Un Especial de Navidad and Our Times, all in 2025, placing it at the end of an especially busy period in his career.

Alfonso Herrera and Noé Hernández star as the two officers, Carmona and Rosales, with Hector Kotsifakis as El Chapo Guzmán, alongside Paola Fernández, Gerardo Trejoluna and Fernando Cuautle in a credited cast of 22. The film, which runs 91 minutes, was released on August 21, 2026, and holds a rating of 8.8 out of 10 on TMDB from 761 votes.