Why ‘By Any Means’ Got Slapped With an R-Rating? Here’s What the MPA Says

Mark Wahlberg’s latest crime thriller has arrived in theaters, and it did not walk away with a gentle age classification. ‘By Any Means’ opened on September 4, 2026, and its content ensured there was never any real chance of a softer rating.

The film reunites Wahlberg with the true crime genre in a project set against one of the most violent chapters of American history, and that backdrop plays directly into why censors drew the line where they did.

The Official Reason Behind the R-Rating

‘By Any Means’ carries an R rating from the MPA specifically for violence and bloody images along with pervasive language. The official MPA listing confirms this classification under certificate number 55964.

The Motion Picture Association did not leave much room for ambiguity when labeling the film, citing violence and bloody images as well as pervasive language as the driving factors. That combination alone was enough to push ‘By Any Means’ well past a PG-13 classification.

The rating stems mainly from the movie’s strong violence, bloody imagery, and frequent strong language throughout the runtime. There is little ambiguity in how the board arrived at its decision once the film’s content is broken down scene by scene.

What the Violence in ‘By Any Means’ Actually Looks Like

The Kids-In-Mind breakdown of the film details a couple of cross burnings carried out by people in white robes and hoods, along with people dying from smoke inhalation and burns after their homes are set on fire. The same breakdown notes people being shot and killed on screen, along with characters being beaten mercilessly in the head, face, and legs using a baseball bat and fists.

There is also a scene depicting a person being burned with a lit cigarette, on top of numerous discussions and arguments centered on racial violence and inequality. The film’s violence and bloody images specifically include shootings, murders, physical assaults, threats, and violent interrogations.

One reviewer for the film noted just how heavy the blood effects budget must have been, joking that the picture contains enough fake blood for a horror movie given how frequently it appears on screen.

The Language and Other Content That Pushed the Rating Further

Beyond the physical violence, the film’s dialogue includes more than 90 uses of the F-word along with other strong language throughout its 107 minute runtime. That volume of profanity alone would have been enough to secure an R rating on its own, let alone paired with the graphic content surrounding it.

The Kids-In-Mind evaluation also flags an implied sex scene, a coercive sex act that is not completed, and a few kissing scenes woven into the story. None of that content is the primary driver of the rating, but it adds another layer to why ‘By Any Means’ is firmly positioned as an adult viewing experience.

Why the Setting Makes the Harsh Rating Almost Inevitable

‘By Any Means’ is a historical crime thriller centered on a mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent teaming up to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in Mississippi in 1966. The story follows the real killing of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer, played by Giancarlo Esposito, in a Ku Klux Klan firebombing of his home, with the FBI vowing to catch those responsible.

Mark Wahlberg plays mafia hitman Greg Scarpa, who is forced to work alongside FBI agent Wayne Strider, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, as the pair get pulled into a deadly hunt where the line between justice and vengeance begins to blur. Given the true events the film draws from, sanitizing the violence would have undercut the entire point of the story.

Critics have been split on whether the harsh content serves the material or overwhelms it, with one reviewer for Variety describing Wahlberg’s enforcer as someone who teaches the virtues of violence in a bluntly drawn historical thriller. Audiences appear more forgiving of the approach, with the film’s Rotten Tomatoes audience score climbing well above its critic score in the days following release.

Given how unflinching ‘By Any Means’ is about depicting the brutality of the Jim Crow era, do you think the graphic violence and language earn their place in service of the true story, or does Wahlberg’s film lean on shock value more than it needed to?