Published Aug 15, 2026, 4:00 AM EDT
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Mark Wahlberg has certainly made a career out of playing the everyman who ends up in situations he can’t explain, as an ordinary man forced to do extraordinary things. And few movies showcase that better than this forgotten thriller from 2012. It may not have received the recognition of movies of films like The Departed or The Fighter, but it’s still worth checking out.
Now, more than a decade after its theatrical release, Contraband is quietly climbing streaming charts, introducing the tense smuggling thriller to a brand-new audience. A remake of the acclaimed Icelandic thriller Reykjavík-Rotterdam, Contraband follows former smuggler Chris Farraday (Wahlberg), who left his criminal past behind to build a quiet family life, but after his brother-in-law Andy (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a drug deal for ruthless boss Tim Briggs, Chris is forced back into the world of smuggling to repay the debt. With his wife’s family at stake, Chris recruits his best friend to pull off one last run to Panama, where millions in counterfeit bills await. But as events spiral out of control, Chris must use all his old skills to stay one step ahead of a deadly criminal network, cops, and hired killers.
The film features Kate Beckinsale (Canary Black) as Kate Farraday, Ben Foster (Hell or High Water) as Sebastian Abney, Giovanni Ribisi (Avatar: Fire & Ash) as Tim Briggs, Lukas Haas (Inception) as Danny Raymer, Diego Luna (Andor) as Gonzalo and J.K. Simmons (Juror #2) as Captain Camp. The film is directed by the prolific action filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur.
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
Contraband is another of those mid-budget thrillers that “don’t get made like this any more.” It was produced for $25 million and went on to gross around $96.3 million worldwide, making it one of Universal’s more profitable mid-budget thrillers of the early 2010s. Critically, it was a mixed bag. It has a 51% positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, so it really is one of those take it or leave it movies, but audiences like Wahlberg, and they were more enthusiastic about its prospects, which is why it’s doing so well. Like many thrillers from around that time, it’s found its ideal home on streaming, where people love a fast-paced action hit that doesn’t require them to think too hard.
Contraband is currently streaming on Netflix in the United States.
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