Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg know a thing or two about bringing real-life events to the big screen to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, making Patriots Day—their third collaboration—pretty much a guaranteed hit. Patriots Day centers on the events surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013, a terrorist attack that resulted in death and confusion at the popular Massachusetts racing competition.
Wahlberg stars as Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders, a cop who joins investigators and first responders in an unprecedented manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (Alex Wolff) following the back-to-back explosions of two pressure cooker-style explosive devices. Berg's film also stars Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, Michelle Monaghan, and confirmed legend John Goodman.
Speaking withCollider last week, Berg opened up a bit about how he and Wahlberg managed to tackle two potentially massive projects in a single year. "We were instantly inspired," Berg said. "I mean Mark is obviously a Boston boy, but this is so in my wheelhouse, and it's about everything that I believe in. All I had to do was take one trip to Boston and sit down with the guys like Ed Davis and Billy Evans, Governor Patrick and meet some of the victims the families of some of the people that were killed… the Richards family and I was wide awake and ready to go."
Berg and Wahlberg's most recent collab, Deepwater Horizon, is currently in theaters. Deepwater Horizon takes a cinematic look at the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, an environmental catastrophe that many consider the worst of its kind in American history. The film was bested by Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children during its opening weekend, though Box Office Mojo still has it on track to bag at least $70 million during its run.
Patriots Day opens Dec. 21.
