One Battle After Another is a 2025 American action-comedy thriller film written, directed, and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. Inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, the film's ensemble cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti, in her film debut. The film follows a drug using washed-up former revolutionary who is thrust back into the conflict when an amoral tenacious counterterrorist agent resurfaces after sixteen years to bring them to justice to cover his past sins.
Anderson had wanted to adapt Vineland since the early 2000s, and eventually incorporated his own stories into the narrative while writing the screenplay. Principal photography took place in California from January to June 2024 using VistaVision, becoming one of the first films to use the format since the 1960s. Following its premiere on September 8, 2025, One Battle After Another was released in the United States by Warner Bros. Pictures on September 26. With a budget of $130–175 million, it is the most expensive film of Anderson's career and the highest-grossing at over $213 million worldwide.
One Battle After Another received acclaim and numerous accolades. At the 98th Academy Awards, it was nominated for 13 awards and won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Penn), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and the inaugural Best Casting award. It also received one win from a record seven nominations at the 32nd Actor Awards; three wins at the 31st Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture; four wins at the 83rd Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; and six wins at the 79th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film. The film was listed by the American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2025 and won five awards from the National Board of Review, including Best Film.
Plot
"Ghetto" Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are lovers and members of a far-left militant revolutionary group, the French 75. While breaking out detained immigrants from Otay Mesa Detention Center, Perfidia sexually humiliates the commanding officer, Steven J. Lockjaw, who afterward becomes obsessed with her. Later, when Lockjaw catches Perfidia planting a bomb, he lets her go after she agrees to his demand to meet him for sex. Soon after, Perfidia becomes pregnant.
After Perfidia gives birth to a girl they name Charlene, Pat tries to persuade her to settle down, but she instead abandons Pat and Charlene to continue her revolutionary activities. Perfidia is arrested after murdering a security guard during a botched bank robbery. Lockjaw arranges for her to avoid prison in exchange for information on key French 75 members. Perfidia enters witness protection, while Lockjaw uses the information she provided to hunt down and summarily execute her comrades. French 75 member Howard Sommerville gives Pat and Charlene stolen identities as Bob and Willa Ferguson, while Perfidia flees witness protection for Mexico.
Sixteen years later, living off-the-grid in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California, Bob has become a paranoid stoner. He is protective of Willa, now a teenager who resents Bob's substance abuse, and told her that her mother was a hero who died when she was a baby. Through his anti-immigration efforts, Lockjaw has become a colonel and a prominent figure within the U.S. security agencies. When Lockjaw is invited to become a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist secret society, he seeks to kill Willa to hide his past interracial relationship with Perfidia. Lockjaw sends bounty hunter Avanti Q to capture Howard, who is able to transmit a distress signal to the French 75 before he is forced to reveal Bob and Willa's location.
Using an immigration and drug enforcement operation as cover, Lockjaw sends troops to Baktan Cross. French 75 member Deandra rescues Willa before her school dance is raided and takes her to a convent of revolutionary nuns, where she is told the truth about her mother's betrayal. Bob is warned by the French 75 of Lockjaw's imminent arrival. Escaping through a hidden tunnel, Bob is helped by Sergio St. Carlos, Willa's karate sensei and a community leader, who also evacuates immigrants via a hidden passage. After learning about the convent from another French 75 member, Bob flees with Sergio's students across rooftops but falls and is arrested then hospitalized without being recognized.
The Christmas Adventurers club find evidence of Lockjaw's relationship with Perfidia, and that Willa may be his child. Using the euphemism “clean”, they send member Tim Smith to kill Lockjaw and Willa. By tracing her phone, Lockjaw locates Willa at the convent, where Deandra is arrested. Holding Willa hostage, Lockjaw tests their DNA in front of her, confirming she is his biological daughter. Sergio arranges Bob's escape and drives him to the convent. When they are pursued by the police, Sergio diverts the police so Bob can escape. Bob reaches the convent, and fails to snipe Lockjaw with Sergio's rifle. Lockjaw hires Avanti to kill Willa, but Avanti refuses due to her age; he agrees instead to deliver her to a far-right militia.
Tim shoots Lockjaw as he is driving, causing Lockjaw to crash. While searching for Willa, Bob discovers Lockjaw's body at the crash site. Avanti brings Willa to the militia, but after a change of heart, frees her and is killed in a shootout with the militia. Willa escapes with Avanti's car and pistol with Tim in pursuit as Bob desperately tries to catch up. Willa lures Tim into a crash by exploiting a blind summit, shooting and killing him when he fails to respond with the revolutionary countersign. Bob finds Willa, who demands the countersign. Bob is able to talk her down, and they embrace.
Some time later, a severely scarred Lockjaw is seemingly welcomed into the Christmas Adventurers Club, but they fatally gas then cremate him instead. Returning home with Willa, Bob gives her a letter from Perfidia, in which she apologizes for her actions and vows to someday reunite with her family. Later, Bob gives Willa his blessing as she departs for a protest in Oakland.
Cast
Production Development
Paul Thomas Anderson had considered adapting the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon since the early 2000s, but struggled, believing his love for the novel would get in the way of his ability to fairly rework it. Instead, Anderson set aside working on an adaptation and envisioned two ideas: one about an "action car-chase movie" and one about a "female revolutionary". One Battle After Another ultimately emerged as a combination of those two stories with some elements of Vineland, particularly the father-daughter dynamic.
Casting In June 2023, Anderson's next film, rumored to star Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Viggo Mortensen and Joaquin Phoenix, found its home at Warner Bros. Pictures. In January 2024, DiCaprio and Hall were confirmed to star, with Sean Penn joining the cast. DiCaprio reportedly received his standard $25 million fee for his involvement. In February, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Chase Infiniti, Shayna McHayle, and Teyana Taylor joined the cast. The casting of Benicio del Toro was confirmed in June. Jacob Batalon revealed that he auditioned for the role of Comrade Josh.
To land the role of Willa Ferguson, the teenage daughter of the film's central character, Infiniti went through a six-month audition process involving multiple callbacks and camera tests as well as chemistry reads with DiCaprio and Hall. The reads were designed to gauge the rapport between the then-newcomer and her potential castmates, but, said Infiniti, "They felt like the coolest kind of masterclass. I remember leaving the room thinking, 'I would love this part, but even if I don't get it, I'll take that with me forever. Infiniti had also been a kickboxing trainer, but she still spent months training in both karate and mixed martial arts that tested her readiness to do her own stunts and handle some intense scenes with Penn. "With Willia , it was anybody who's right", casting director Cassandra Kulukundis said of the broad criteria Anderson gave her, adding, "Doesn't matter if they've ever acted before, if they're a star, if I found them in school, if I find them on the street. That was a huge netif you were between 12 and 25, I was looking at you." Kulukundis was able to narrow the search when she realized how important the physical demands of the part were to the performance. "The moment I saw [Infiniti] dancing, I don't know how to describe it. She's the most unique looking human being I've ever seen." For Kulukundis, Infiniti's ability to hold her own against DiCaprio was also vital. "We tried [DiCaprio] with a bunch of girls and he was really thoughtful and helpful, and we could see the chemistry with Chase. She just kept passing all the tests."
Filming Principal photography began in California in January 2024. The film, under the working title BC Project, had filmed for eleven days across Humboldt County in Arcata, Cutten, Eureka, Kneeland, and Trinidad. Local experts, including the Sisters of the Valley, on which the Sisters of the Brave Beaver in the film was based, were consulted. To make observations about music and fashion trends, Anderson and his crew attended the prom at Eureka High School; students were cast as extras for a key scene.
On February 3, production moved to Sacramento, with filming at the Sacramento County Administration Building and Sacramento County Courthouse. A homeless encampment was cleared to allow for filming, sparking controversy. The former Sacramento mansion of Governor Ronald Reagan was used for exterior shots for the Christmas Adventurers Club's headquarters, tying the film back into the original novel, with Pynchon's focus on Reagan.
The production took a two-and-a-half-month break from filming because del Toro had a scheduling conflict with Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme (shot between March and June 2024). When del Toro arrived fresh off the set of The Phoenician Scheme, with ten days between projects, he stepped into a fast-moving production. "I had 10 days to unpack and pack", del Toro said of the 2024 shoot, adding, "Unpack my character in Wes' movie and then get dressed like Sensei and just go. You don't have time to adjust. If you want to jump on a carousel, you generally want time to run and catch up and then jump in. There was none of that."
On location filming also took place in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Borrego Springs in May 2024, and El Paso, Texas, including El Paso Streetcars, in June 2024. Other filming locations included La Purísima Mission, the Westgate Hotel, and the city of San Diego and Otay Mesa near the Mexico–United States border.
Cinematography The film was shot by Michael Bauman on 35 mm movie film using VistaVision cameras, marking his third collaboration with Anderson, following Phantom Thread (2017) and Licorice Pizza (2021). Between 75 and 80% of the film was shot on VistaVision. One Battle After Another is notable for utilizing VistaVision cameras; Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (2024) seemed to revive the high-resolution widescreen 35 mm format from the 1950s. "The question was more, 'Is this going to be a reliable enough format for us?' When you see the shots from The Brutalist, [DP] Lol Crawley has got the camera on a tripod. It's just sitting there and we weren't going to do anything like that", Bauman said, adding, "One Battle was always going to be about movement. It had to be handheld; it had to be on Steadicam; it had to be strapped to cars; it had to bounce around." Bauman described his experience shooting the film as "being on the knife's edge", mostly because it was shot on location instead of a sound stage.