"One Battle After Another" New Trailer: Leonardo DiCaprio Plays a Washed-Up Radical on the Run in Paul Thomas Anderson’s New Satirical Thriller with Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn
PTA channels post-revolution burnout as DiCaprio stars as a former militant stumbling through fatherhood and a citywide manhunt in this darkly comic tale of disillusionment and faded rebellion.
What does anti-government radicalism look like in America? Well, some would argue it’s stronger than ever. And depending on who you ask, anti-government radicalism leans both left and right, fueled by a shared sense of a system rigged against the common people.
But for his latest film, filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson perhaps paints a bleaker image—that anti-government radicalism is dying. Or perhaps already near death, limping along on its last leg, worn down by cynicism and the slow erosion of any real revolutionary spark.
We suppose Anderson’s image of political radicalism draws from the romantic notion of ‘60s and ‘70s counterculture and the anti-war movement—the days when long-haired youth marched in the streets, questioned authority, and believed a better world was not only possible, but inevitable.
And certainly everyone from Anderson’s generation (Gen Xers) was raised on Boomer nostalgia that painted protest as both noble and cool. Hip and fashionable. But by the time Gen X came of age, the revolution had either sold out or fizzled out. Hippies became yuppies, movements became brands, and rebellion got repackaged as lifestyle.
Sure, the ‘60s and ‘70s were handed down like a myth—who doesn’t love the idea of free love and sticking it to The Man? But that myth didn’t hold up under the weight of the Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush Jr. administrations, as the former hippies not only became sellout yuppies, but the very people in power.
Now to be fair, we have no idea what PTA is trying to say with his latest film One Battle After Another, which marks his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio—decades after having wanted to work with him on 1997’s Boogie Nights, a project Leo famously passed on to star in Titanic. (Everything worked out in the end.)
But it’s interesting to see that this is the project PTA and DiCaprio have finally agreed to collaborate on. It’s a story that, at least from early hints, seems to wrestle with disillusionment, fractured ideals, and the fading glow of American rebellion from that era. Despite the film taking place in the present day—though we initially thought (judging only by costume and environment) that it might have been set in the late ‘90s or early 2000s—it still has an air of post-revolutionary hangover, where the echoes of past movements such as Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army linger in the background.
DiCaprio himself comes from L.A. bohemian-hippie parents of the ‘60s and ‘70s. His father, George DiCaprio, was a performance artist and underground comic book illustrator known for rubbing elbows with counterculture figures like Timothy Leary. Which makes it all the more fascinating that Leo is playing a burnout radical struggling to connect with his teenage daughter.
Perhaps this film project is somehow a Gen X rebuke of the Boomer generation’s notion of counterculture radicalism—where the conviction and ideas eventually gave way to comfort and stagnation, leaving the next few generations to unpack the broken debris of a so-called revolution that never got off the ground and slowly dissolved into irony, apathy, and carefully curated nostalgia. “The revolution will not be televised” is now less a rallying cry and more a T-shirt slogan... a cool jazz-infused rap song.
Said to be inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Inherent Vice author Thomas Pynchon, Paul Thomas Anderson writes and directs this pitch-black satire where Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Bob Ferguson, a former anti-government revolutionary and member of the radical vigilante group known as French ‘75, which once carried out bombings of federal buildings around Los Angeles.
Despite years of inactivity, the L.A. police department has launched a military-style crackdown on the last known members, forcing DiCaprio’s Bob to try to skip town before they catch him. As he bumbles from safe house to safe house—forgetting code words, passwords, and his own contingency plans—his main objective is to get his teenage daughter, Willa, to safety.
The only problem? She wants nothing to do with him... nor could she care less about the damn revolution. To her, Bob isn’t some noble freedom fighter... he’s just an aging burnout dragging her into the fallout of a cause that died long before she was born.
Newcomer Chase Infiniti plays Willa, Bob’s daughter, while dancer and actress Teyana Taylor (A Thousand and One) stars as Profidia, Bob’s better half—who just might be more radical, and far more dangerous, than he is. She has already been caught and taken into custody by hard-charging L.A. police colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, played by Oscar-winner Sean Penn.
Fellow Oscar-winner Benicio del Toro co-stars as “Sensei” Sergio, Bob’s former mentor, while rounding out the cast are Regina Hall, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle (aka rapper Junglepussy), and indie rocker/Licorice Pizza star Alana Haim.
Already considered a possible awards contender and shot in VistaVision (an old 1950s-style process of filming in higher resolution, recently brought back into fashion by films like The Brutalist), One Battle After Another is scheduled to open in theaters and IMAX on September 26th.
So, let the revolution begin! The cinema kind, of course.
Official Synopsis:
No fear…
From Warner Bros. Pictures and Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson comes “One Battle After Another,” starring Academy Award and BAFTA winner Leonardo DiCaprio. Oscar and BAFTA winners Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro also star alongside Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, as well as Wood Harris and Alana Haim. Anderson directs from his own screenplay.
The producers are Oscar and BAFTA nominees Adam Somner and Sara Murphy and Anderson, with Will Weiske executive producing.
The creative team behind the camera includes several frequent collaborators, among them directors of photography Michael Bauman and Anderson; Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning production designer Florencia Martin; BAFTA-nominated editor Andy Jurgensen; Oscar and BAFTA-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood; casting director Cassandra Kulukundis; and with music by Oscar- and BAFTA- nominated composer Jonny Greenwood.
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents A Ghoulardi Film Company Production, A Paul Thomas Anderson Film, “One Battle After Another.” Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, the film will be in theaters and IMAX® nationwide on September 26, 2025, and internationally beginning 24 September 2025.
I can't wait to see the movie.