Disney Star Fights Back in Action-Packed Clip From This Week’s Violent New Thriller [Exclusive]

One of the most overlooked thrillers of the year is out this week, and audiences won’t want to miss a Disney star getting his hands dirty after a criminal past catches up to him in bloody fashion. Starring Billy Magnussen, his latest film revolves around a man reluctantly pulled back into the family business, whose only legacy is violence.

Violent Ends hits theaters on October 31, but audiences won’t have to wait to see an action-packed preview of the film. MovieWeb can exclusively reveal a clip from the acclaimed revenge thriller, which features Magnussen’s Luke Frost on the run as he is being chased by two men with guns. His race from imminent death ends with Luke getting the upper hand on the assailants, with more than just survival on his mind. You can watch the exclusive clip below.

Magnussen, known for his work in the live-action Aladdin remake, Road House, and, most recently, Lilo & Stitch, breaks bad in Violent Ends as an “honest man” willing to do what is necessary to right some grisly wrongs. Of course, he won’t be alone, as Magnussen will be joined by Alexandra Shipp, James Badge Dale, Kate Burton, Ray McKinnon, and Nick Stahl. The film was written and directed by John-Michael Powell, who previously made his feature-length debut with the 2022 drama The Send-Off. Read the official synopsis:

Set in the Ozark Mountains, Lucas Frost is an honest man brought up in a crime family whose only legacy is violence. As Lucas tries to make a peaceful life of his own with his fiancée, Emma, he is suddenly pulled back into the family business when his cousin, Eli, perpetrates an armed robbery with brutal consequences.

‘Violent Ends’ Director Teases an “Anti-Western” Inspired by Several Classics

Violent Ends director John-Michael Powell revealed his inspiration for the revenge thriller, which he positions as more than just an action-packed revenge thriller. Below the surface, the film tackles “the recursiveness of violence, with what happens when family loyalty collides with morality.” Moreover, its resemblance to classic westerns is just one part of the pie, as Powell notes he wanted to “make an anti-western” that dealt with more than the usual “good versus evil” formula.

“I wanted to make an anti-western that wasn’t just another “guys with guns” tale of good versus evil. What interested me was the cost — both the emotional toll of revenge, and how violence ripples through generations like an echo you can’t silence, as well as the cultural limitations of the western cliché of an honest man with a gun in his hand. Stylistically, I drew inspiration from classic westerns that shaped me — ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST, THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE — combined with modern Americana crime films like NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, BLUE RUIN, and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. But always filtered through my own lived experience of Arkansas. I wanted to capture the South as I know it through the lens of a modern western-crime narrative: not as a cliché backdrop, but as a living, breathing character with its own contradictions. Beautiful and brutal. Familiar and unsettling.”