The film stars Chris Pine, Ben Foster, Gillian Jacobs, Eddie Marsan, J. D. Pardo, Florian Munteanu, and Kiefer Sutherland.

The Contractor was released in theaters and on-demand in the United States on April 1, 2022, by Paramount Pictures and STXfilms.

Sergeant First Class James Harper, a decorated Green Beret, is involuntarily discharged from the Army due to his use of illegal steroids to treat a debilitating knee injury.

Facing financial ruin, he contacts his friend Mike who works with a private military company under the command of fellow veteran Rusty Jennings.

Harper is receiving lucrative offers from similar firms, but feels a sense of duty to his country.

After analyzing the data, Rusty informs the team that Salim is working for Al-Qaeda and developing a bio-agent to be used against America.

Harper follows orders and then departs after setting the lab on fire, carrying Salim's laptop containing the research data.

Mike proceeds alone with Salim's laptop but informs Harper he will be picked up from a specific location after he is sufficiently rested.

When Mike doesn't come back Harper leaves the hotel, gets a burner phone, and makes contact with Rusty, who informs him there is a car waiting to exfiltrate him to safety, but Harper senses something is amiss when Rusty tells him that Mike never made it to Berlin.

Harper evades capture and manages to kill the hit team, who are revealed to be former Recon Marines working for Rusty.

Harper plays a video on the iPad in which Salim explains that he was indeed working on a successful H5N1 vaccine formula that he intends to provide for free, rather than sell to a pharmaceutical company.

[13] In February 2022, it was announced Paramount Pictures and Showtime acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film from STX.

In the United States and Canada, The Contractor was released alongside Morbius, and was projected to gross less than $1 million from 489 theaters in its opening weekend.

The website's critics consensus reads: "The Contractor is caught between message movie and standard-issue action thriller, satisfying neither aim despite strong work from a talented cast.