Clint Eastwood stars as Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who is broke, alone, and facing foreclosure of his business when he is offered a job that simply requires him to drive. Easy enough, but, unbeknownst to Earl, he's just signed on as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel. He does well, so well, in fact, that his cargo increases exponentially, and Earl is assigned a handler. But he isn't the only one keeping tabs on Earl; the mysterious new drug mule has also hit the radar of hard-charging DEA agent Colin Bates. And even as his money problems become a thing of the past, Earl's past mistakes start to weigh heavily on him, and it's uncertain if he'll have time to right those wrongs before law enforcement, or the cartel's enforcers, catch up to him."

Plot Synopsis:
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This movie is based on a true story of a World War II vet named Leo Sharp.

The film opens with Earl Stone (Clint Eastwood), an elderly man who grows daylilies, winning another award for his flowers. At the same time, his daughter Iris (Alison Eastwood) is getting re-married elsewhere. Granddaughter Ginny is initially optimistic that Earl will show up but grandma Mary Stone - Earl's ex-wife (Dianne Wiest) knows he will ultimately disappoint everyone. In fact, Earl stands up his family once more.

10 years later.

The internet flower businesses have driven Earl into foreclosure. He shows up at Ginny's birthday party and Iris causes a scene. Mary realizes that Earl is there looking for a place to live, when she sees all the possessions in his beat-up old truck.

One of Ginny's shady friends gives Earl a business card and tells him he knows someone who is hiring drivers. Good money, no questions asked. Earl finally calls and goes to a garage where Mexican goons put a duffel bag in the back of his truck as well as a cell phone. He is told to never use the phone but to answer it "night or day." He is to never look in the bag, park the truck and come back in an hour. He does as told and finds an envelope stuffed with cash in the glove compartment.

Meanwhile, the DEA has brought a new hot shot agent, Colin Bates (Bradley Cooper) to try and catch drug dealers and traffic into the US. He and his partner (Michael Pena) recruit an informer and get to work.

Earl buys himself a new truck and gets his home out of foreclosure. A Korean war vet, he visits the VA and finds it has been gutted by a fire. "If only someone would donate some money to repair it," says a volunteer, eying Earl's new truck.

Earl attends Ginny's wedding but Mary and Iris are distant. Mary tells Earl that if has truly changed, it will take some time and effort. It won't be instant acceptance.

Earl does another run, impressing the Mexican hoods with his new truck. The cartel boss, Laton, is also amazed that a 90-year-old man nicknamed "El Tata" (Earl) is the most successful new mule for his organization.

The VA holds a big reopening celebration. Earl is a hero. He also pays for granddaughter Ginny's education and attends her graduation ceremony. Iris is still distant but Mary is starting to come around. But she also has developed a bad cough.

The DEA has learned of the existence of "El Tata" and is beginning to gather clues to his identity. All they know is that he has carried more drugs than any other carrier and he has a black truck. Earl has many several more drug runs and has gained the respect of the Mexican gangsters.

Earl does a run and bumps into DEA agent Colin Bates at a coffee shop, the night after the DEA stakes out a motel looking for El Tata. Earl gives him advice about his family, telling him "Don't be like me."

Laton brings Earl to Mexico to meet him and throws a big party in his honor. Unfortunately, his underlings feel they can do a better job and murder Laton. The new boss tells the Mexican hoods that they must crack down on Earl, and not give him the leniency to meander on his drug runs, because there's too much money at stake.

Mary is brought home for hospice care to die. Earl has just started his first run for the new boss but knows this is his last chance to make things right, so he disappears. The DEA and the Mexican cartel is frantic that he's gone off the grid for the first time.

Iris comes around as Earl stays by his ex-wife's bedside until she dies, then attends the funeral. She invites him to spend Thanksgiving dinner with the family. He then resumes his drug delivery.

The hoods who were supposed to be following Earl see his truck and follow him to a truck stop, where they beat him up. They take the flier from the memorial service and realize he has a legitimate reason to have vanished, but their new boss sees things differently. At first, he wants Earl killed. But they plead his case. He tells them it will be their heads if Earl doesn't complete the delivery.

However Bates now has ID'd Earl's truck and he is finally stopped and arrested. At trial, Earl's lawyer attempts to paint him as a broke, desperate war hero trying to provide for his family. But Earl stops her and pleads guilty to all charges. His daughter and granddaughter kiss him. Iris says "At least we'll know where to find you."

The film ends with Earl growing daylilies in the prison garden.

The movie was inspired by the story of Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran in his 80s who became the world's oldest and most prolific drug mule for the Sinaloa Cartel.
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On December 10, 2018, Clint Eastwood was photographed at the movie's Los Angeles premiere with his secret daughter Laurie. She identified herself to photographers as 'Laurie Eastwood'. The next day, Alison Eastwood confirmed on Instagram that Laurie is her half-sister. Laurie is believed to be the Washington-born Eastwood daughter who was given up for adoption in 1954, as alleged by biographer Patrick McGilligan in the heavily suppressed book "Clint: The Life and Legend" (1999) - an allegation no media outlet would repeat at the time. It has taken Clint 64 years to acknowledge Laurie.
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It is based on The New York Times article "The Sinaloa Cartel's 90-Year-Old Drug Mule" by Sam Dolnick, which recounts the true story of Leo Sharp, a World War II veteran in his 80s who became a drug courier for the Sinaloa Cartel.
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The release of The 15:17 to Paris (2018) and this movie mark the eighth time Clint Eastwood directed two features for release in a single year. The other years were 1973, 1982, 1990, 1997, 2006, 2008 and 2014.
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Clifton Collins Jr. who plays Gustavo is Clint Eastwood's real life ex-son-in-law.
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Clint Eastwood's first credited acting role since Trouble with the Curve (2012).
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Andy Garcia was ready to accept any role in order to do a movie with Clint Eastwood.
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Marks actress Alison Eastwood's fourth film under father Clint Eastwood's direction, and the second film Michael Peña has worked on with Clint.
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This was the second collaboration between Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper after American Sniper (2014).
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Yves Bèlanger's inclusion as cinematographer marked the first time Clint Eastwood did not work with Tom Stern as his cinematographer on a feature film in eighteen years. Stern worked as a gaffer on several of Eastwood's films from the 1980s into the early 2000s, before being promoted to director of photography on every scripted feature-length film by Eastwood, starting with Blood Work (2002) (Stern's first cinematography credit) to The 15:17 to Paris (2018) (Eastwood's earlier 2018 film).
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This was director Clint Eastwood's second collaboration with Laurence Fishburne. Eastwood previously directed Fishburne in Mystic River (2003).
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The Nov. 3 death of Sondra Locke, Eastwood's common law wife from 1975-89, was not publicized until the eve of the film's opening.
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This marks the second time that actor Michael Peña played a DEA agent in connection with the Sinaloan cartel and their activities. The other project, also from 2018, was Narcos: Mexico (2018).
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Alison Eastwood, who recently focused on production and directing, was surprised that her father asked her to play alongside her (she plays Iris, Earl's daughter).
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This was the second collaboration between director Clint Eastwood and writer Nick Schenk, after Gran Torino (2008).
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This was not the only time Clint Eastwood played a "mule." He also played one of a different kind in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).
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Near the end of the film's trailer released on October 4, 2018, an excerpt from Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paginini" can be heard.
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In recent years, Clint Eastwood has only rarely been on camera, but Earl convinced him to rethink the experience. His last role was in Trouble with the Curve (2012).
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Clint Eastwood's character Earl Stone drives thru a fast food restaurant named "Gunny's Burgers". Clint Eastwood played the role of Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Highway nicknamed "Gunny" in Heartbreak Ridge (1986), which Eastwood also directed.
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The film was partially filmed in Augusta, Georgia, birthplace of co star Lawrence Fishburne.
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The film marked the second collaboration between Laurence Fishburne and Michael Peña in 2018. They also worked together in Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018).
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Ruben Fleischer was originally set to direct the movie.
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Uniquely enough, 2018 witnessed yet another octogenarian Robert Redford also appearing as an aging criminal in The Old Man & the Gun (2018).
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This was the first theatrically released film for actor Loren Dean since Conviction (2010), which starred Hilary Swank, who co-starred in Million Dollar Baby (2004), which was also directed by and starred Clint Eastwood. Dean previously worked with Eastwood on Space Cowboys (2000).
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One of Earl's (Clint Eastwood's) handlers scolds him for speaking without being asked, by saying, "Mules don't talk!". Clint Eastwood's first credited movie role was that of "Jonesey", in Francis in the Navy (1955), which was part of the "Francis, The Talking Mule" series.
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In the history, the deliveries of Earl lead him in several States and the film follows it in these peregrinations at the wheel of his pick-up. To shoot the exterior shots, Clint Eastwood and a small team drove Earl's two pickups, the old and the new, during a three-day road trip toward the end of filming.
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Michael Pena, Laurence Fishburne, and Bradley Cooper have appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe
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The Mule is not photographed by Clint Eastwood's favorite cinematographer, Tom Stern. This is a first since Blood Work (2002), the first collaboration between the two men. Canadian Yves Bèlanger takes over instead.
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Other footage has been shot elsewhere than in Atlanta, for example, in the Midwest cities' DEA offices, where Laurence Fishburne, Bradley Cooper, and Michael Peña's characters work, as well as the sites used for the home. Mary, the local veterans, the Ginny wedding reception room or a roadside motel. For the sequences in the tire shop that serves as a den of the cartel, the team traveled to New Mexico, and for the impressive property of Laton, a house was spotted in Las Cruces, and decorated to match the opulence and extravagance of the boss of the cartel.
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The prospect of working for the second time with Clint Eastwood seduced Bradley Cooper.
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Taissa Farmiga and Alison Eastwood's real-life mothers both had them in their 40s.
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Mainly shot in Georgia, several regions of which served as a living environment for Earl.
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The cast is shown only in the end of the closing credits.
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Laurence Fishburne and Andy Garcia previously both appeared in the movie Passengers.
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Michael Pena, who plays Bradley Cooper's DEA agent partner, is in a very select group of actors who appeared in movies which were voted Best Picture Oscar winners. He was featured in Eastwood's 'Million Dollar Baby' and the following year's 'Crash.'
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Lobo Sebastian and Clifton Collins Jr. starred together in the movie One Eight Seven (1997).
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Numerous vehicles, that did not yet exist in 2005, can be seen in the hotel parking lot at the Daylily Convention.
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When the leader of the cartel is first shown shooting skeet, his second shot goes off before the barrel moves to the left.
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When Earl completes his second run, in the new black truck, he parks at the motel and exits without putting the keys in the glove compartment.
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During Earl's first trip as a mule, in an overhead shot, you can see the traffic headlights in the background where the production crew had stopped highway traffic to shoot the scene.
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When driving past White Sands National Monument, Earl is driving on white gypsum road with sand dunes on both sides. This type of road is only found within the National Monument. The road past the monument is a paved US highway and sand dunes are not on both sides of the highway.
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When Earl is outside reconciling with his daughter, there are lilies in full bloom, yet there are no leaves on the tree (and presumably it is November. as he is invited for Thanksgiving).
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