Mark Wahlberg’s FBI Crime Thriller By Any Means Hits Digital October 20

By Any Means, the R-rated crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, arrives on digital platforms Tuesday, October 20. Screen Rant lists Prime Video, Apple TV and Fandango at Home. It reaches DVD and Blu-ray on December 15, per AceShowbiz.

Directed by Elegance Bratton and written by Sascha Penn, the film is set in 1966 Mississippi and loosely based on true events. Abdul-Mateen plays a young Black FBI agent sent to investigate killings of civil rights leaders, and he is forced to work with mafia hitman Gregory Scarpa, played by Wahlberg.

Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, David Strathairn and Giancarlo Esposito also star. Wahlberg is a producer.

Paramount released the film on September 4. It earned $16.7 million worldwide, including $15.7 million in North America, per Media Play News.

The True Story Behind the Film

The screenplay draws on a little-known chapter of FBI history. Gregory Scarpa was a hitman for the Colombo crime family who also served as a Bureau informant. According to long-circulated accounts, agents turned to him in 1964 to pressure Ku Klux Klan members in Mississippi into revealing where three murdered civil rights workers had been buried. That episode inspired a scene in the 1988 drama Mississippi Burning, although the film replaced Scarpa with a different character. By Any Means moves the partnership to 1966 and builds it around the firebombing murder of Vernon Dahmer Sr., a Mississippi NAACP leader whose case the Bureau struggled to solve through ordinary methods.

In the story, agent Wayne Strider, played by Abdul-Mateen, is assigned to the investigation and is paired with Scarpa, who has an informal license to use brutal tactics to get answers. The two men share a belief in justice, but they disagree sharply about how to pursue it. Strider follows the rules, while Scarpa does not, and that clash drives the film's tension.

Cast, Crew and Production

Bratton, who earlier directed the acclaimed drama The Inspection, makes his first studio-scale feature with By Any Means. The supporting cast also includes LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze and Ethan Embry. Producers include Basil Iwanyk, whose company Thunder Road Films is involved, along with Hammerstone Studios, Bratton and Wahlberg. Abdul-Mateen joined the project in early 2025, replacing a previously announced actor because of a scheduling conflict. Wahlberg underwent a physical transformation for the role and wears a prosthetic nose as Scarpa. The film runs 107 minutes and carries a reported production budget of around $29 million.

How Critics and Audiences Responded

Reviews were divided. Several critics praised Abdul-Mateen's measured performance and the on-screen contrast between the two leads, and some called the film an entertaining buddy-cop thriller set against a serious historical backdrop. Others felt it struggled to balance exploitation-style violence with the weight of its subject matter, and some argued that Wahlberg's showier performance overshadowed the more restrained work around him. The result is a film that has drawn mixed notices rather than a clear consensus, which is common for historical thrillers that combine genre thrills with real events.

Why the Digital Release Matters

The theatrical run ended with about $16.7 million worldwide, less than the film's reported cost to make. That makes home viewing an important second chance. Mid-budget adult thrillers often find larger audiences on rental and purchase platforms, where viewers can watch without the pressure of opening-weekend competition. The October 20 launch gives the film a clear window ahead of the holiday season, and the December 15 disc release serves collectors who prefer physical editions.

What Viewers Can Expect

Anyone planning a home viewing should know that the film earns its R rating. Reviewers noted that Bratton does not shy away from graphic violence, and several scenes depict the racial terror of the period directly. Those scenes sit alongside a mismatched-partners structure familiar from classic buddy-cop films, which is where much of the film's energy comes from. At under two hours, it moves quickly from the first investigation to the final confrontation. Viewers who want historical context may find it useful to read about the Dahmer case and the 1964 search for the missing civil rights workers before watching, since the film changes dates and details for dramatic effect.