The first official trailer for By Any Means has been released, giving audiences a look at one of the biggest crime movies of 2026.
Directed by Elegance Bratton, the film takes viewers back to the violent state of Mississippi in 1966. In an early shot from the trailer, a dusty road and a burning cross set a dark mood for the story. The plot follows young Black FBI agent Wayne Strider, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Strider is forced to work alongside Gregory Scarpa, a brutal mafia killer played by Mark Wahlberg. Together, they must find the people who track down and murder civil rights leaders, bringing them face to face with the Ku Klux Klan. While the trailer features a lot of action, it also highlights a dark piece of history regarding how the government worked during the Civil Rights Movement.
Wahlberg plays the role of the real-life Scarpa. Nicknamed the Grim Reaper and the Mad Hatter, he was a fierce killer for the Colombo crime family in New York. However, secret records later revealed that he also worked as a secret helper and enforcer for the FBI under the code name, “34”.
During the 1960s, federal agents were often stopped by local police departments that were full of Ku Klux Klan members. Because regular legal ways did not get results, the government turned to a mobster. History records show the FBI secretly flew Scarpa to Mississippi twice for covert operations. His job was to bring his violent mob tactics to the South to kidnap suspects, break Klan members through torture, and find the bodies of missing civil rights workers.
On the government side, the film reports the bad choices made to solve crimes. Abdul-Mateen II’s Strider is a made-up character, but his story highlights the real frustration felt by investigators working inside a broken and racist system. The real-life investigation relied heavily on FBI handler Anthony Villano, who realised that the official judicial system was failing to secure confessions from local Klansmen.
The By Any Means trailer shows this struggle during a tense scene where Strider and Scarpa are arguing inside a dark car. Strider shouts that they must follow the law, but Scarpa just smiles and loads a heavy gun. Later in the video, a quick flash shows Strider turning his back and looking away while Scarpa slams a suspect against a wall to get information. This mirrors real-life accounts where federal agents reportedly booked a hotel room for Scarpa, supplied him with information, and stayed out of the room while he physically threatened Klan members to get them to talk. While Strider wants to do things the right way, he has to rely on Scarpa’s cruel methods to make progress.
By Any Means changes the ordinary idea that the civil rights era was won only by heroes who followed the rules. Bratton’s film shows that stopping racist groups sometimes meant hiring a different kind of criminal.
The trailer gives a quick look at this danger in a dramatic scene where a family’s home goes up in giant flames. This represents real-life victims, such as civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer, played by Giancarlo Esposito, whose murder historically triggered one of the very real-life undercover missions Scarpa took on for the government.
When By Any Means arrives in cinemas this September, it will offer more than a basic action story. It serves as a serious report on the past, showing how the line between justice and revenge can disappear when people become truly desperate.
