One Battle After Another: What You Need to Know
Paul Thomas Anderson is the only director of his cohort (which includes Soderbergh, Tarantino, David O. Russell, and Alexander Payne), who has never made a truly bad picture.
In terms of output, he is closer to Tarantino (who is older by 7 years), claiming an oeuvre of nine feature films, spanning three decades, from 1996 (The Hard Eight) to the present.
Genre
Nominally, an epic adventure, the movie is also grounded in the screwball and romantic tradition, boasting some awesomely executed action set pieces.
One Battle After Another is Anderson’s most ambitious and most entertaining film to date while also his most thematically dense, with strong political overtones.
Ghetto” Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills are introduced as 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.
When Lockjaw catches Perfidia planting a bomb, he lets her go after she consents to his sexual demands, during which she 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 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 is arrested 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 confirming she is his biological daughter.
Sergio arranges Bob’s escape and drives him to the convent, diverting 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 the far-right militia.
Tim shoots Lockjaw as he is driving, causing him to crash, and, while searching for Willa, Bob discovers Lockjaw’s body.
Avanti brings Willa to the militia, but frees her and is killed in a shootout with the militia.
Willa escapes with Avanti’s car and pistol as Bob desperately tries to catch up. Willa lures Tim into a crash by exploiting a blind summit, killing him when he fails to respond with the revolutionary countersign.’
Bob finds Willa, who demands the countersign, but he talks her down, and they embrace.
A severely scarred Lockjaw is welcomed into the Christmas Adventurers Club, but he got fatally gas and then cremated instead.
Returning home with Willa, Bob gives her a letter from Perfidia, in which she apologizes for her actions and vows to reunite with her family.
In the end, Bob gives Willa his blessing as she departs for a protest in Oakland.
Cast
DiCaprio as “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun/”Rocketman”/Bob Ferguson, washed-up former member and explosive device expert of revolutionary group French 75
Sean Penn, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, military officer pursuing the French 75
Benicio del Toro as Sergio St. Carlos, Willa’s Karatedo teacher and leader of undocumented community in Baktan Cross
Regina Hall as Deandra, a French 75 member
Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, French 75 member, Willa’s mother and Pat’s partner
Chase Infiniti, Willa Ferguson/Charlene Calhoun, Steven & Perfidia’s daughter
Wood Harris as Laredo, a French 75 member
Alana Haim as Mae West, a French 75 member
Paul Grimstad, Howard Sommerville/”Billy Goat”/”Gringo Coyote,” French 75
Shayna McHayle as Junglepussy, a French 75 member
Tony Goldwyn as Virgil Throckmorton, member of Christmas Adventurers Club
John Hoogenakker as Tim Smith, member of the Christmas Adventurers Club
Starletta DuPois as Grandma Minnie, Perfidia’s mother
Eric Schweig as Avanti, bounty hunter
D. W. Moffett as Bill Desmond, member of the Christmas Adventurers Club
Kevin Tighe as Roy More, member of the Christmas Adventurers Club
Jim Downey as Sandy Irvine, member of the Christmas Adventurers Club
James Raterman as Colonel Danvers, Steven’s second-in-command
Dijon Duenas as Talleyrand, a French 75 member
Dan Chariton as Comrade Josh, a French 75 member
Jon Beavers as 1776 James, a white nationalist gang member
Jena Malone, the voice of the French 75 greeting code
Collaborations
One Battle After Another marks Anderson’s sixth feature collaboration with the composer Jonny Greenwood.
It is also the sixth of Anderson and first assistant director/producer Adam Somner, who died in November 2024; the film is dedicated to him.
