One Battle After Another (2025)
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2025-09 to 2026-08
A washed-up former revolutionary must protect his teenage daughter from a relentless, obsessed counterterrorist agent who seeks to erase his past.
The story
The film follows a drug-using, washed-up former revolutionary named Bob who lives off-the-grid in a sanctuary city in California with his teenage daughter, Willa. Their secluded life is shattered when a tenacious and amoral counterterrorist agent, Steven J. Lockjaw, resurfaces after sixteen years. Lockjaw, now a high-ranking official, seeks to eliminate Willa to conceal a secret past relationship with Bob's former partner, Perfidia. As Lockjaw utilizes his influence and resources to hunt them down, Bob and Willa are forced into a desperate struggle for survival against a determined adversary who views them as a threat to his own secrets.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Bob and Perfidia are members of the French 75, a radical group. After Perfidia is forced into witness protection and Bob is given a new identity, they live apart for sixteen years. Bob lives in Baktan Cross with his daughter, Willa, while Lockjaw becomes a powerful figure in U.S. security. Lockjaw discovers that Willa is his biological daughter and seeks to eliminate her to hide his past. He sends a bounty hunter and eventually moves his forces into Bob's territory. Amidst a chaotic series of events involving a convent of revolutionary nuns and a desperate escape through the desert, Bob and Willa are pursued by both Lockjaw's forces and a white supremacist group, the Christmas Adventurers Club. After a series of violent encounters, Lockjaw is critically injured in a crash and later killed by his own allies. Willa escapes a deadly confrontation with a bounty hunter and a member of the club. The film ends with Bob and Willa reunited, and Bob receiving a final letter from Perfidia, while Willa prepares to join a protest.
- First release year
- 2025
- Runtime (minutes)
- 162
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Paul Thomas Anderson
- Writers
- Paul Thomas Anderson · writer
- Cast and characters
- Leonardo DiCaprio · Bob; Sean Penn · Steven J. Lockjaw; Benicio del Toro · Sergio St. Carlos; Regina Hall · Perfidia Beverly Hills; Teyana Taylor · Deandra; Chase Infiniti · Willa
- Genres
- action; comedy; thriller
- Themes
- resistance; revolution; father-daughter relationship; anti-authoritarianism
- Tone and mood
- tense; urgent; whimsical; violent
- Premise and plot tags
- action; political thriller; survival; conspiracy
- Source material / true-story basis
- Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
- Content notes
- violence
- Reception
- The film received widespread acclaim and was hailed as a masterpiece by many critics, though it faced some criticism regarding its length and political focus.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 95 · scale: 100 · review count: 63
- Awards and nominations
- Best Picture · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Director · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Supporting Actor · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Adapted Screenplay · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Film Editing · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Casting · Academy Awards · 98th · Win; Best Picture · Critics' Choice Awards · 31st · Win; Best Director · Critics' Choice Awards · 31st · Win
- Production trivia
- It is the most expensive film of Paul Thomas Anderson's career.; The film's production included a set piece at the former mansion of Governor Ronald Reagan.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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