By Any Means opens in U.S. theaters on September 4, 2026. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays a young Black FBI agent sent to 1960s Mississippi, while Mark Wahlberg plays Greg Scarpa, a notorious Mafia hitman pulled into the same investigation.
Paramount presents the film as a crime thriller based on a true story. Its setup puts a federal agent and a Mafia informant on the same side of a hunt for the people responsible for brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders.
When does By Any Means come out?
By Any Means arrives in theaters on Friday, September 4, 2026. Paramount has announced a theatrical release, but it has not given the movie a digital rental date, streaming service, or physical-media release date. The official movie site is currently focused on showtimes.
What is By Any Means about?
The story takes place in Mississippi during the civil-rights era. A young FBI agent is sent to investigate a wave of killings aimed at civil-rights leaders and finds that the official system is not giving him enough access or protection to finish the job.
His reluctant partner is Greg Scarpa, a Mafia hitman who also worked as an FBI informant. The two men are divided by race, background, and loyalty, but the investigation forces them into an alliance neither would choose under normal circumstances.
The film’s title points to the bargain at its center. The agent wants a case that can stand inside the law, while Scarpa knows how to get answers through intimidation and violence. The official synopsis says their pursuit gradually blurs justice and vengeance, so the partnership is never presented as a clean hero-and-sidekick arrangement.
Who plays the By Any Means cast?
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II leads the cast as the FBI agent, and Mark Wahlberg plays Greg Scarpa. The wider ensemble includes Nicole Beharie, Josh Lucas, LisaGay Hamilton, LaChanze, Ethan Embry, David Strathairn, and Giancarlo Esposito.
Hammerstone Studios identifies Giancarlo Esposito as civil-rights leader Vernon Dahmer. The other supporting characters have not all been given detailed descriptions in the official material, so the movie’s central partnership remains the clearest way to understand the cast.
Who directed and wrote By Any Means?
Elegance Bratton directed By Any Means, with Sascha Penn writing the screenplay. Bratton previously directed The Inspection, a drama drawn from his experience in the U.S. Marine Corps. This new film moves into historical crime, but it keeps the focus on people navigating institutions that do not protect everyone equally.
The production comes from Hammerstone Studios, Thunder Road Films, Freedom Principle, North.Five.Six, and related partners, with Paramount handling the theatrical release. Mark Wahlberg is also among the producers.
Is By Any Means a true story?
Paramount and the production company describe By Any Means as based on a true story. The official pages identify the 1960s Mississippi investigation and Scarpa’s connection to the FBI, but they do not present the movie as a documentary or provide a scene-by-scene historical record.
The film should be read as a dramatized thriller built around real people and a real period of violence. Its main question is what happens when an investigation into attacks on civil-rights leaders depends on a man who operates outside the law.
What does the trailer show?
The trailer introduces the FBI agent as someone sent into a dangerous investigation with limited room to work. Scarpa arrives as the person who can move through the criminal world more easily than a federal badge can. Their scenes shift between tense meetings, road travel, weapons, and arguments over how far the investigation should go.
The footage also makes the period setting part of the conflict. This is not a modern procedural with a historical costume layer; the characters are working inside a Mississippi community where power, violence, and public trust are already under strain. The trailer keeps the plot details broad, leaving the identities of the killers and the full conspiracy for the film.
What has Paramount not announced yet?
Paramount has not announced a streaming home, digital release date, runtime, or a full breakdown of the supporting roles. The confirmed details are the September 4 theatrical opening, the 1960s Mississippi setting, the true-story basis, the Abdul-Mateen II and Wahlberg pairing, and Bratton’s direction.
If you are planning a movie weekend around the release, our September 2026 streaming guide tracks the other films and shows arriving this month.
By Any Means has a clear hook before anyone sees the full story: an FBI agent and a Mafia hitman investigating violence against civil-rights leaders while each man questions the other’s methods. Whether that uneasy partnership feels convincing will decide how much the thriller becomes more than a period-crime setup.
