Starring Mark Wahlberg and Kevin Bacon. Patriots Day is a 2016 American action thriller film based on the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 and the subsequent terrorist manhunt. On April 14, 2013, Boston Police Department Sergeant Tommy Saunders captures a suspect and fails to convince Commissioner Ed Davis to let him off from a punishment duty the next day, working the Boston Marathon. During the marathon, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev detonate two bombs, causing widespread panic in Boston and around the world.