Breaking is a 2021 American thriller drama film starring John Boyega as a Marine Corps veteran, Brian Brown-Easley, who is in financial trouble and robs a bank.

It is written and directed by Abi Damaris Corbin and co-written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, based on the true story of Brown-Easley, detailed in the 2018 Task & Purpose article "They Didn't Have to Kill Him" by Aaron Gell.

The film also stars Nicole Beharie, Selenis Leyva, Connie Britton, Jeffrey Donovan, and Michael Kenneth Williams.

Based on the 2017 real-life story of the late Brian Brown-Easley, a decorated Marine Corps veteran in dire financial straits resulting from systemic failure.

Easley is concerned over the effects of this on his daughter, alongside the prospects of homelessness to the point of threatening to blow up a Wells Fargo bank unless he receives payment he is owed from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Her death began a period of time in which Easley bounced around between various housing situations that included a Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.)

[3] In addition to the uncertainty of his living conditions and his mental health, Jessica said that Brian Easley was, at times, rarely around to help care for their daughter.

[3] On the morning of July 7, 2017, Brian Easley walked into a Wells Fargo bank with what he claimed was a semtex explosive in his backpack.

"[3] On March 2, 2021, it was announced that Jonathan Majors would star in the film, then titled 892, as a Marine war veteran who suffers from mental scars, and his hard transition back to civilian life.

[5][3] On July 8, 2021, it was reported that John Boyega replaced Majors due to a scheduling conflict with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

The website's consensus reads: "Breaking struggles to effectively convey its messages, but its noble intentions are well served by John Boyega's electrifying performance.

"[17] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 66 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[19] Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood said, "Corbin is firmly in control behind the camera and with particular expert help with her editor Chris Witt.

"[20] Writing for Variety, Peter Debruge said, "This is not an act of documentary reenactment so much as a tense, speculative drama, imagining what this man must have gone through during those hours, and how his actions rippled out to affect others' lives.