FBI agent Jason Cole (Darren Cain) appears to have it all. He’s rising up the ranks in the FBI. He has a beautiful wife. A great home. But things aren’t as they seem.
His past has come back to haunt him. His life is about to change. No one in his life is safe. Especially his wife.
That’s the gist of Rift. It’s a movie of love, revenge, and consequence.
Let’s look at the leadership lessons this type of story can teach us.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Rift
1. Magnus Valtteri (Curt Bonnem):
Your inability to tell time has thrown us completely off schedule.
Magnus wasn’t one of the good guys. He was a gun runner. And a horrible human being all around.
Jason, as an undercover gun runner, appears late to the meeting. Magnus tells Jason that his tardiness has thrown everything off schedule.
While Magnus is a bad guy in Rift, he’s not wrong. Tardiness, lateness, and disregard for other’s time are huge issues in organizations.
When you’re late, you show that you don’t care about the other person’s time. You’re focused on yourself and your needs.
Ensure you’re not constantly running late to meetings, business deals, and more. Your lack of care for others shows when you’re late.
2. Simple rewards can mean a lot:
Jason met with his wife, Dr. Savannah Cole (Brooke Montalvo), for an anniversary breakfast. He brought her to the upper level of a less-than-fancy restaurant.
This didn’t matter to either of them. Especially Jason. He was just thrilled to spend time with his wife.
The setting didn’t have to be spectacular. There didn’t have to be a fancy meal. It just had to be them, together.
When you think of ways to reward your team members for excellent work, remember you don’t have to blow the bank to show you appreciate them.
You can give simple rewards. Rewards that matter.
Some suggestions:
- Tickets to their favorite entertainment event
- A day off
- Lunch
Find simple ways to show your appreciation. It means a lot to those you lead.
3. Jason Cole:
I just need us to spend some time together.
Jason and Savannah’s schedules had been hectic. They were like ships passing in the night. One worked days, the other nights.
They missed each other.
Jason let Savannah know he missed her. He shared how he had planned a getaway for the pair. He wanted time with just her.
As our schedules get busy, we can forget to take care of our relationships with our family members. While your business needs you, so does your family.
Make sure you’re making time to spend together with them. You’ll regret the time you didn’t.
4. Bad leaders give impossible choices:
A stranger (Josh Hooks), who we later discover is named Nikolai, approached Jason at the restaurant where he and Savannah were supposed to meet. He asks Jason a difficult question.
The question was: If given the choice to save everyone in this room or just one person, what would you do?
Nikolai was going to kill everyone in the restaurant. Or Jason could choose to sacrifice one person. That person would turn out to be his wife.
Nikolai gave Jason an impossible choice.
Bad leaders do this. They force their people’s hands to choose between horrible options.
It may be working on their child’s birthday for the third year in a row. Or it may be falsifying the books (never an appropriate decision) or risking termination.
Don’t make your people choose between impossible choices.
5. Jason Cole:
I’d wanna know all my options.
Jason’s response was unique. He knew there were more options than the two impossible choices before him.
So he asked. He stated what he wanted.
All of his options.
When you have impossible, complex, and ugly choices before you, know that you don’t always have to choose one of them. You can ask for all your options. You can seek out alternate options.
Be willing to ask what other choices there are. You may be shocked to discover there are better options.
6. Leaders make snap decisions:
The FBI discovers one of the bombs had been placed at Mercy General Hospital. It’s the hospital where Savannah worked.
A bomb disposal expert was dispatched to disarm the bomb. There were only 58 seconds left when the bomb expert cut the wire. The bomb was disarmed but he had to make a snap decision.
We’re under a lot of pressure to make the right choices. Time is ticking, like the clock on the bomb. We have to make a choice.
Examine your situation. What’s happening? Who’s impacted? How do things look?
By quickly assessing the danger, you can make effective snap decisions.
7. Bad leaders blame others:
Nikolai had set up a trap for the FBI agents. The GPS coordinates that they thought would lead them to Savannah led them to another location.
There, Special Agent Tyrell Smith (David Lee Garver) and his team would trip a wire that set off a deadly explosion.
As Jason talked to Nikolai, Nikolai wouldn’t take the blame. Instead, he placed the blame squarely on Jason. It wasn’t his fault… it was his.
We’ve probably all worked for someone who wouldn’t take responsibility for their actions and decisions. They would state it was someone else’s fault. Maybe it was just fate. They couldn’t accept their choices led to the destruction they caused.
Don’t be that leader. Be the better leader. Be a leader who can see their mistakes. Who can own up to them. Who can apologize.
8. Our past can have future consequences:
It is revealed the villain of the movie is Nikolai. Nikolai Valterri.
Does that last name sound familiar? It should be if you watched the movie. Valterri is the name of the man Jason killed in the gun deal at the beginning of the film. And that Valterri was Nikolai’s father.
Nikolai was coming after Jason because of his past.
Your decision years ago will have consequences for today, tomorrow, and beyond.
Know that the choices you make will ripple out through time. People will remember what you’ve done. You’ll know whether or not you were honest.
Make choices that you can live with in the future.
9. Every situation is different:
Jason and the FBI get the location of Savannah. They find her sitting in a chair with bombs all around her.
The bomb disposal expert is back. He begins examining the wires. There’s a problem.
This bomb differs from the one he disposed of earlier in the movie.
We enter situations with the mindset that things will be just like last time. They may not be.
Things change. Situations are different.
Understand this as you walk into similar but different situations.
10. Problems will continue to arise when we compromise:
As the movie ends, Jason gets a phone call. It’s from Nikolai. He’s still out there (that’s right, folks… Jason let Nikolai go to get Savannah’s location).
Nikolai now has leverage over Jason. He’s going to keep popping up throughout his life. He’s not letting go because Jason compromised.
When we compromise ourselves, we give way to let future issues arise. Jason did this by letting Nikolai go. Nikolai now has his eye on Jason, his family, and more.
Make sure you’re not compromising your morals or legalities. When we do, those things will come back to haunt us.
