The first trailer for One Battle After Another has dropped, and it looks like filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Boogie Nights) is throwing everything he’s got into this one—including a strong cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio, a ragtag crew of ex-revolutionaries, and what appears to be one very high-stakes rescue mission gone wildly sideways. Take a look at the trailer above; learn more below.
While plot specifics are still under wraps, here’s some of what we do know (presumably, maybe, potentially). The film is loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland (Pynchon also authored Inherent Vice, which Anderson adapted in 2014) and is set in Northern California. DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a once-notorious revolutionary now living in a dazed haze of regret and off-brand cigarettes. His past catches up to him when his daughter is kidnapped by the enemies he made years ago, forcing Bob to reunite with the remnants of his former group—the French ’75—for one more mission, whether they’re ready or not.
The trailer paints a picture of organised chaos. Phone calls to defunct secret lines, botched passwords, slow-motion gunfire, and a few genuine moments of Anderson-style absurdity fill the screen. It looks wild, with DiCaprio going the not-quite-stable route that he’s more than mastered at this point.
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Joining DiCaprio are Benicio del Toro as the Zen-like “Sensei,” Sean Penn as the menacing Colonel Lockjaw, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Chase Infiniti, and Alana Haim, reuniting with Anderson after Licorice Pizza.
Anderson directs from his own screenplay and re-teams with frequent collaborators, including composer Jonny Greenwood (There Will Be Blood), production designer Florencia Martin (Licorice Pizza), and co-DP Michael Bauman (Licorice Pizza). It’s reportedly Anderson’s most expensive film thus far, with a budget north of $US130 million.
One Battle After Another hits Australian cinemas on September 25th and U.S. cinemas on September 28th.
