One Battle After Another trailer is officially here, and things are looking just right for this upcoming American comedy. We were first given a 20-second teaser, which offered a brief glimpse into the film written, directed, and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. For the film’s main star, Leonardo DiCaprio, it is the first time he has been in one of Anderson’s movies and will also play alongside the talents of Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti. One Battle After Another is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland.
One Battle After Another: Celebrities the World’s Most Inept Freedom Fighters
We don’t know much about the plot, but thankfully, the trailer offers a glimpse of what Anderson has in store for us, with DiCaprio playing Bob Ferguson. The film seems to be set around a very rough, down-on-his-luck Ferguson, who is part of a wacky, unorganized revolution with his wife bearing his young daughter fighting right alongside him. Somehow, in his vain attempts to be worthy of what is expected of him, he loses track of his family and now desperately turns the world upside down to find them.
Send In The Fighting Clowns
The fact that this is a comedy isn’t wasted as the first image you see in the trailer is of Bob’s frantic appearance wearing a beanie in a bathrobe, wearing oversized sunglasses, desperately trying not to look paranoid. While desperately checking to ensure he is not being followed in what appears to be the safest place on earth, Bob uses a payphone, requesting help with a long, complicated code from his rebel group. After the fourth or fifth challenge to the code, DiCaprio forgets the correct response and pleads for forgiveness and help to find his family. Rather than receiving any assistance, Bob is chastised and hung up on.
This looks to be the theme in One Battle After Another for Bob as he is portrayed as the world’s most inept freedom fighter. Thankfully, he isn’t alone in his quest, searching for his family, as he turns to the character played by Del Toro, who is Bob’s main contact in the resistance and his teacher. In the trailer, Bob is portrayed as a sensei, a smooth resistance leader who fearlessly helps DiCaprio, even to the point of almost lovingly pushing him out of a speeding car.
A Hero’s Motivation
The feeling that DiCaprio is never good enough is shown perfectly in the trailer as it shows his wife, played by Taylor, who is firing off what looks like an M60 with ease while being three weeks overdue for delivering their child.
The freedom fighting group of One Battle After Another is a civil rights activist group who are an anti-government group fighting an alt-rights white supremacist society. All Bob’s paranoia isn’t unfounded, as he is being hunted by the white supremacist leader played by Penn. He is shown hunting them in their vacated rooms actually taking a picture of Bob’s daughter and smelling it, filling him with his zeal to end the rebellion. It shows his hate and determination that he would stoop to even use a child to secure his absolute rule.
End With A Bang
With a killer cast, zany suspicion of inept revolutionaries, One Battle After Another has the groundwork to be a hilarious hit. The trailer ends with a bang of this showing DiCaprio screaming down a hallway, “Viva la revolución” with over exuberance and total lack of any people skills, giving all the indications of someone who has completely lost his mind. His acting is answered with Del Toro’s smile disappearing down a trap door in the floor with a rug all too slowly rolling, covering him. It is scheduled for release on September 26, 2025, by Warner Bros. Pictures.
