By Any Means arrives in U.S. theaters on September 4, 2026, with Paramount Pictures bringing Elegance Bratton’s historical crime thriller to audiences. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Mark Wahlberg, the film turns a Civil Rights-era chapter into a tense crime story, pairing a young Black FBI agent with notorious Mafia hitman Gregory Scarpa during an investigation in 1966 Mississippi.
At the center of the story is Wayne Strider, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, an FBI agent sent to Mississippi following violence targeting civil rights leaders. His investigation becomes connected to the murder of Vernon Dahmer, the Mississippi NAACP leader and voting-rights activist who was killed when his home was firebombed in January 1966. With local resistance and fear making the investigation difficult, the FBI turns to Gregory Scarpa, a Colombo crime family figure who was also a longtime informant.
The film is inspired by true events, but it does not present every character as historical fact. Wayne Strider is a fictional composite created for the story, while Gregory Scarpa was a real mobster whose relationship with the FBI extended for decades. That distinction gives By Any Means room to build a conventional thriller around a complicated piece of American history without presenting its fictional elements as documentary evidence.
The central pairing is also the film’s strongest cinematic hook. Abdul-Mateen II plays Strider as controlled and principled, gradually pushed toward methods that challenge his understanding of justice. Wahlberg’s Gregory Scarpa is more physical and unpredictable, creating a sharp contrast with the agent’s restraint. Their uneasy partnership gives the film a buddy-thriller structure while keeping the moral conflict at its center.
Bratton approaches the material as an action thriller rather than a conventional historical drama. Paramount says the director drew inspiration from filmmakers and films including John Woo, Goodfellas and Inglourious Basterds. Bratton and producer Chester Algernal Gordon also travelled to Mississippi and met members of the Dahmer and Scarpa families, judges, prosecutors and FBI consultants. The production built a 400-page look book from period photography to help recreate 1966, with cinematographer Ante Cheng using harder lighting and rare anamorphic lenses.
The ensemble adds further weight to the period setting. Giancarlo Esposito plays Vernon Dahmer, while Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry and David Strathairn appear in supporting roles. Sascha Penn wrote the screenplay, while Terence Blanchard composed the jazz-influenced score. Diane Warren wrote the original title song, “By Any Means,” performed by the Isley Brothers and David Kushner.
Rather than separating its historical subject from its entertainment value, the film uses the investigation to show how institutions, personal loyalties and violence collide when conventional justice fails. The supporting performances broaden the story beyond its two leads, while the period design gives Mississippi a specific visual identity. Rated R for pervasive language and violence, the 1-hour-47-minute film is positioned as a theatrical crime drama, giving its central partnership space to unfold on the big screen.
The film’s early critical response has been measured rather than unanimous. Rotten Tomatoes lists By Any Means at 71% from 21 critic reviews as of September 4. The Associated Press praised Abdul-Mateen II’s complex performance and described the film as a propulsive action thriller, while other reviews have questioned its tonal balance and the exaggerated quality of Wahlberg’s portrayal.
By Any Means ultimately brings together an unusual pairing, a little-known chapter of American history and the conventions of a crime thriller. With Bratton choosing to approach the material through action and character dynamics, the film offers audiences a genre-driven story while keeping its roots in the complicated realities of the events that inspired it.
