One Battle After Another | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Paul Thomas Anderson |
Written by | Paul Thomas Anderson |
Based on | Vineland by Thomas Pynchon |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Michael Bauman |
Edited by | Andy Jurgensen |
Music by | Jonny Greenwood |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures [1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 162 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $130–175 million [3] |
Box office | $115 million [4] [5] |
One Battle After Another is a 2025 American action thriller film produced, written, and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, [6] inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. [7] It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti, and follows an ex-revolutionary who fights against a corrupt military official.
Anderson had wanted to adapt Pynchon's novel Vineland for years, and eventually incorporated several of his own stories into the book's narrative. Filming took place in California and was shot using VistaVision, making it one of the first films, alongside The Brutalist (2024), to use the format for principal photography since the 1960s. The budget, initially greenlit at $115 million, ballooned to as much as $175 million, the most expensive of Anderson's career.
One Battle After Another had its world premiere in Los Angeles on September 8, 2025, and was theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 26. The film received critical acclaim, and has grossed $115 million worldwide, becoming Anderson's highest-grossing film.
"Ghetto" Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are members of the far-left group of terrorists, the French 75. While breaking out detained immigrants from Otay Mesa Detention Center, Perfidia humiliates the corrupt commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw, who develops a sexual fascination with her. Pat and Perfidia become lovers as the French 75 carry out attacks on politicians' offices, banks, and the power grid. Steven catches Perfidia planting a bomb, but lets her go after she agrees to have sex with him at a motel.
Perfidia gives birth to a baby girl, Charlene, but Pat is unable to persuade her to settle down and live as a family. She abandons them to continue her revolutionary activities. After Perfidia is captured at a botched bank robbery, Steven arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for information about the French 75. She enters witness protection as Steven hunts down her comrades and shoots many of them on sight, forcing the others to go on the run. As Pat and Charlene are forced to live in hiding as Bob and Willa Ferguson, Perfidia escapes Steven's custody and flees to Mexico.
16 years later, living in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, Bob has become a paranoid drug addict who is living off the grid. He is protective of Willa, who has grown into a self-reliant and spirited teenager. Through his vehement anti-immigration efforts, Steven has become a colonel and a prominent figure in the US security agencies. He is invited to join the Christmas Adventurers Club, a secret society of far-right white supremacists. He hunts for Willa to cover up his interracial relationship, which the club forbids. He hires an indigenous bounty hunter, Avanti Q, who captures Bob's comrade Howard Sommerville, triggering a distress signal to the remaining French 75.
Under the guise of an immigration and drug enforcement operation, Steven dispatches his troops to Baktan Cross to find Bob and Willa. Deandra, a trusted member of the French 75, rescues Willa before her school dance is raided. Steven's men attack Bob's home while he is high. He escapes through a tunnel and calls the French 75 for help, but is unable to remember the password. He seeks out Willa's karate teacher and community leader Sergio St. Carlos, who evacuates a stream of immigrants through a hidden tunnel. Fleeing with Sergio's students across the rooftops, Bob falls and is arrested. Deandra brings Willa to a convent of revolutionary nuns, where she learns the truth about her mother's betrayal.
The Christmas Adventurers uncover evidence of Steven's relationship with Perfidia and send a member, Tim Smith, to eliminate him and Willa. Raiding the convent, Steven forcibly tests Willa's DNA while holding her as hostage, confirming she is his biological daughter and thus making him ineligible for the Christmas Adventurers Club. He therefore decides to kill her instead of freeing her. Sergio arranges for Bob to escape custody and drives him to the convent, throwing him from the car before being pulled over by police. Hot-wiring another car, Bob reaches the convent but fails to kill Steven with Sergio's sniper rifle. Steven hires Avanti to take Willa to a far-right militia, who will kill her. Tim tracks Steven down and shoots him in the face with a shotgun, causing him to crash his car, and leaves him for dead.
Avanti delivers Willa to the militia, but after a change of heart, frees her and dies gunning them down. Willa takes Avanti's car and pistol and is chased by Tim until she lures him into a crash by exploiting a blind summit. She shoots him dead when he does not know the revolutionary countersign. Bob finds her on the highway, but she points her gun at him, demanding the countersign, to which he exhaustingly does. The two tearfully reunite and drive away. A badly scarred Steven is seemingly welcomed into the Christmas Adventurers after lying that he was "reverse raped" by Perfidia, but is gassed to death and cremated shortly after his initiation. Returning home with Willa, Bob gives her a letter of hope from Perfidia, where she apologizes for her actions and vows to reunite with her family in the future, and his blessing as she sets off to join a protest hours away in Oakland.
Anderson had considered adapting Thomas Pynchon's novel Vineland (1990) for years, but struggled, believing his love for the novel would get in the way of his ability to fairly rework it. Instead, he set aside the idea of an adaptation, and wrote a series of separate stories. One Battle After Another emerged as a combination of those stories with some elements of Vineland, particularly the father-daughter dynamic. [8]
In June 2023, Anderson's next film, rumored to star Regina Hall, Viggo Mortensen, and Joaquin Phoenix, found its home at Warner Bros. Pictures. [9] In January 2024, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Hall were confirmed to star. [10] In February, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Teyana Taylor, Shayna McHayle, and Chase Infiniti joined the cast. [11] DiCaprio reportedly received his standard $20 million fee for his involvement. [12]
Principal photography began in California on January 22, 2024. [13] [14] [15] The film, under the working title BC Project, filmed for eleven days across Humboldt County in Arcata, Cutten, Eureka, and Trinidad. [16] On February 3, production moved to Sacramento, with filming at the Sacramento County Administration Building and Sacramento County Courthouse. [17] A homeless encampment was cleared to allow for filming, sparking controversy. [18] On-location filming also took place in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Borrego Springs in May 2024, and El Paso, Texas, in June 2024. [19] [20] Other filming locations included the Westgate Hotel, [21] the city of San Diego and Otay Mesa near the Mexico–United States border. [22] [23] The film was shot on 35 mm film using VistaVision cameras by Michael Bauman, marking his second collaboration with Anderson, following Licorice Pizza (2021). [24] [25]
In February 2024, Variety reported that the film had been greenlit with a $115 million production budget. [26] In August 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported the budget was "more than $140 million", noting that Anderson's highest-grossing film, There Will Be Blood (2007), only made $76 million, but that "Warner executives say DiCaprio's box-office track record justifies the budget for Anderson". [27] That month, sources indicated the film had been titled The Battle of Baktan Cross as rumors circulated that it was loosely inspired by Pynchon's Vineland; Anderson previously adapted Pynchon's Inherent Vice (2009) into a feature film in 2014. [28] [29] By August 2025, Variety reported the film's final budget as $175 million, while Warner Bros. said it cost $130 million. [30] The film is the most costly of Anderson's career. [31] Deadline Hollywood reported that below the line, on-location shooting in California cost $101.6 million, with a tax credit of $8.4 million. [32]
Beginning in January 2025, the film had multiple test screenings, which reinforced the rumored connection to Vineland. [33] It marked the first time since Boogie Nights (1997) that Anderson agreed to audience testing; based on the feedback, he cut eight to ten minutes. [34] The film's title was confirmed in March, with Warner Bros. debuting a teaser. [35] [36] One Battle After Another marks Anderson's sixth feature film collaboration with the composer Jonny Greenwood, [37] and the sixth with Anderson and first assistant director and producer Adam Somner, who died in November 2024; the film is dedicated to Somner. [38] [39]
The score was composed by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, recorded with the London Contemporary Orchestra and conductor Hugh Brunt. It was released by Nonesuch Records on September 26, 2025. [40] The film also features two songs by Jon Brion, [41] marking Anderson and Brion's first collaboration since Punch-Drunk Love (2002). [42]
The film was released on September 26, 2025, following previews from September 24. [43] It is the first of Anderson's films to be released in IMAX. [44] It was previously set to be released on August 8, 2025, but was moved for a potential awards season run. [34] [45] The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theater in Los Angeles on September 8, 2025, and had a global tour beginning in London on September 16, in Mexico City on September 18, and ending in New York City on September 21. [46] [47] The film also screened at Fantastic Fest on September 23, 2025. [48]
One Battle After Another was projected in the VistaVision format, with screenings at the Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, Regal Union Square 17 in New York, Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, and Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London. It was also released in other formats, including IMAX 70 mm, digital IMAX, Dolby Vision, standard 70 mm film, and 4DX. [49]
As of October 8,2025 [update] , One Battle After Another has grossed $47 million in the United States and Canada, and $68 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $115 million. [4] [5]
In the United States and Canada, One Battle After Another opened in 3,634 theaters, the widest release for a film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and his first film to debut in wide release. [50] [51] It made $8.8 million on its first day, including $3.1 million from Thursday previews. [52] [51] It earned $22 million over the weekend, topping the box office and handily marking the best weekend for a film directed by Anderson, topping the $4.9 million earned by There Will Be Blood in its fifth weekend in 2008. [53] [54] In its second weekend the film grossed $11 million (a drop of 50%), finishing second behind newcomer Taylor Swift: The Official Release Party of a Showgirl . [55]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 95% of 373 critics' reviews are positive.The website's consensus reads: "An epic screwball adventure teeming with awe-inspiring action set pieces, One Battle After Another is Paul Thomas Anderson's most entertaining film yet while also one of his most thematically rich." [57] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 95 out of 100, based on 63 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". [58] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on its A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak rated the film four-and-a-half out of five stars, with 74% of audiences saying they would "definitely recommend" it. [53]
Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com wrote that One Battle After Another "is a timeless story of resistance, one that playfully weaves together influences as broad-reaching as the true story of Weather Underground and cinematic depictions of rebellion, but it's also a remarkably propulsive, fun, and eventually moving piece of work about the human beings caught up in the chaotic machine." [59] Justin Chang of The New Yorker called the film "a father-daughter epic, with an unusually personal gush of feeling. You can count on one hand the number of scenes that Bob and Willa share, but their connection—a swirl of protectiveness, exasperation, and fiercely unconditional love—binds the movie and its madly whirling parts together." [60] Katie Walsh of the Chicago Tribune called the film a "searing indictment of this particular moment in American history" by which "Anderson balances the sprawling, conspiracy-minded aspects of this yarn with the intimate father-daughter story, which is the heart of the matter." [61]
Writing for The New York Times , Manohla Dargis called the film "a carnivalesque epic about good and evil, violence and power, inalienable rights and the fight against injustice; it's also a love story. The film speaks to the failures of the past and of the present but insists on the promise of the future." [62] Richard Lawson of The Hollywood Reporter stated One Battle After Another is "a furious film, a richly engaging and persuasive polemic" in which "Anderson shows a previously unseen aptitude for action and suspense; One Battle After Another is, essentially, a thriller, albeit one teeming with enormous ideas about the collapse and possible rescue of the country." [63] Alex Saveliev of Film Threat opened his review, writing the film "demands to be seen on the largest screen possible to fully absorb the 35mm VistaVision experience with every cell of your body. Everything about it is grand: its characters, its action sequences, its timely sentiments, even the quieter moments." [64]
Peter Bradshaw, writing in The Guardian , was effusive in his praise of the film. He celebrates the "riff on the now recognisable Anderson-Pynchonian idea of counterculture and counter-revolution", praises the score of Jonny Greenwood, and ponders if the "central paternity crisis triangle [is] an image for an ownership dispute around the American melting-pot dream?" Bradshaw awarded the film five stars. [65]
The performances of the cast were highly praised. Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote "Anderson knows that the quality that liberates DiCaprio is comedy. By having him play Bob as a dissolute stoner addict, discombobulated by his loss of faith, he humanizes DiCaprio and coaxes a great performance out of him." [66] Tallerico of RogerEbert.com felt DiCaprio gives a "carefully modulated" performance, but he nevertheless singled out Sean Penn's performance as "his best work in years", stating he "flexes his muscles, grits his teeth, and growls his lines, but somehow threads the needle between truth and caricature." [59] David Sims of The Atlantic opined: "Penn, giving a brilliant performance of cold villainy that could win him a third Oscar, is unafraid of lancing the inherent goofiness of a fascist. DiCaprio plays Bob as a sweetheart rather than a buffoon; he's a tired, strung-out antihero made weary not by his yearslong efforts to fight back but by the relentlessness of the world." [67] David Ehrlich of IndieWire praised "magnetically self-possessed newcomer/instant movie star Chase Infiniti, whose performance inspires a strange kind of secondhand pride." He also singled out the performances of Taylor and Penn, calling the former "eruptive (...) steaming with revolutionary zeal" and the latter "career-best". [68]
William Bibbiani of TheWrap was less enthusiastic, describing the plot as scattershot, unfocused, overly long, and the film's themes as shallow, writing: "He's more interested in taking cheap potshots at the film's real-world analogues than actually exploring them." [69] Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal similarly noted the film is "big and brash. Rangy in tone, style and theme, it has so much going on that a single viewing hardly seems sufficient to absorb it all. Whether it's a masterpiece or a hodgepodge will be a matter of some discussion; the reach is evident but the grasp is a little shaky." [70] One Battle After Another has been criticized by conservative and right-leaning commentators for its sympathetic portrayal of antifascist revolutionaries, especially in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the sniper attack on a Dallas ICE facility. [71]
The film's first full trailer won a Golden Trailer Award for its score. [72] [73]