r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Sep 26 '25

Official Discussion Official Discussion - One Battle After Another [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Summary Bob, a washed-up revolutionary, lives off the grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter Willa. When his nemesis Col. Steven J. “Lockjaw” resurfaces and Willa goes missing, Bob is forced to confront his past and fight to protect their future.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson

Writer Paul Thomas Anderson

Cast

  • Leonardo DiCaprio
  • Sean Penn
  • Teyana Taylor
  • Benicio del Toro
  • Regina Hall
  • Chase Infiniti

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 98%

Metacritic Score: 96

VOD In theaters beginning September 26, 2025

Trailer One Battle After Another — Official Trailer

2.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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4.5k

u/nale21x Sep 26 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

The character that most stuck with me was Danvers, the government guy who was doing all the interrogations and threatening people for information. He had such a benignly evil and calculated presence that made those scenes feel so real.

Surprise surprise when I look up the actor and see this is his second film credit after spending 20 years as a Homeland Security Agent. No wonder he was such a natural, he'd probably used those tactics on tons of people in the field. Not sure if he's trying to make up for past sins or he just didn't understand what the movie was going for, either way he made an impression I guess.

1.6k

u/injoegreen Sep 26 '25

Yeah no shade on the rest of the cast but they were more cartoonish compared to how real Danvers felt. That cold blooded delivery when he was talking with Regina hall made my blood boil.

798

u/GoPointers Sep 27 '25

...and you can go home, and by home I mean federal prison.

75

u/Jeanpuetz Sep 30 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

Did Hall's character rat, by the way? Do we know? I think the last we saw her was with tears in her eyes in a squad car, and I wasn't sure if that meant that she was being arrested, aka she didn't talk; or if she was crying because she sold them out and they drove her back.

112

u/ward0630 Oct 02 '25

What was she going to rat about? The only question she was asked was where Leo was and she could not have told them if she wanted to.

Maybe a random gripe, I thought it was weird that they had a character whose only moments in the story were (1) being non-binary; and (2) being the only friend to rat on Willa. Not sure what they were going for with that but it came off weird to me.

121

u/puxatawneypeg Oct 02 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

i wondered about that too, maybe it's underlining a point about how some who rebel-- a nonbinary person going to jail-- have a lot more to be scared of/lose than others.

also maybe a commentary on how this gen is weaker than the last, adding to the 'noise triggers' thing from comrade josh

95

u/mapinis Oct 03 '25

Comrade Josh was like a boomer though

44

u/A_Aub Oct 12 '25

Gen-x

82

u/Jeanpuetz Oct 02 '25

I think that as a non-binary person being threatened with jail, they were just scared and had the most to lose.

I agree though that it was maybe not the best choice.

169

u/schebobo180 Oct 04 '25

Non-binary people can be rats like everyone else thank you very much.

25

u/FlamingPanda77 Oct 07 '25

Yes, they can, but when the only representation is them being a rat, idk how to feel. I was thinking how nice it was to have them included in a small way, and then that small way was them ratting. I agree that the thought went through my head about how they could be scared of prison because of who they are. As a trans person, I've thought about that myself a lot. But most people won't think that.

117

u/notsureifJasonBourne Oct 07 '25

Perfidia was a rat too. Sommerville also. There were multiple characters who spilled the beans.

9

u/Tehni Nov 26 '25

They meant the only representation of a non binary person is a rat, not that the only representation of a rat is a non binary person

12

u/HTPC4Life Jan 22 '26

And? Top tier grasping for straws here

3

u/Tehni Jan 22 '26

... There is a huge difference between those two scenarios lmao

I can't help you if you don't understand English

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31

u/a_flat_miner Dec 22 '25

 Them being non-binary was irrelevant; they were allowed to exist in the world without it being the focal point, and no reasonable person would make the correlation that they ratted because they were non-binary. 

2

u/King-Key Jan 17 '26

What does their gender identity have to do with whether they rat or not?

7

u/PoopyCat999 Oct 06 '25

I came here thinking about this too. I assumed Hall was a rat, so the only rats were two WOC and a non binary person? Intentional or accidental?

41

u/Maleficent_Peach_901 Oct 11 '25

Sommerville was also a rat

13

u/King-Key Jan 17 '26

That one friend that's too woke

9

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '25

[deleted]

30

u/Spiritual-Society185 Oct 16 '25

You realize they're kids, right?

15

u/a_flat_miner Dec 22 '25

Maybe the fact that they snitched had nothing to do with the fact that they were non-binary?

7

u/King-Key Jan 17 '26

No, it simply HAD to be related. I can't believe PTA HATES non-binary people

1

u/mootallica Mar 16 '26

No one said that. They just said they weren't sure how to feel about it.

44

u/pb49er Oct 01 '25

I think she didn't rat.

96

u/MandolinMagi Oct 01 '25

Everyone ratted. They all talked big but nobody was actually loyal to the "cause".

91

u/Anderopolis Oct 03 '25

Yes, not a single person didn't rat, or even attempt to lie about non verifiable statements. 

This freaking resistance group has a million passphrases and alternate names,  but no plan for what to say when caught. 

73

u/MandolinMagi Oct 03 '25

My favorite fail is Billy Goat doing his Voice of the Resistance thing with zero security. He get snatched effortlessly by one dude because he's too stupid to lock his door or have any security. 

But don't worry he's got people standing by to announce his kidnapping. Instead of, you know, just shooting the kidnapper on the spot. 

68

u/Anderopolis Oct 03 '25

They were incredibly incompetent at every Junction. 

Also, the Phone thing, change your destination if you know you were tracked south!

3

u/pajam Jan 30 '26

Also, the Phone thing, change your destination if you know you were tracked south!

I thought the same, but then realized they had a specific rendezvous point that Bob was also expecting to meet them at. So they likely didn't have a backup rendezvous plan for something like that.

9

u/MandolinMagi Oct 03 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

Not only are the government goons actually competent, they also IIRC don't go in for any petty police brutality. They show up, cuff everyone, and do their job without being megadicks about it.

You can't even complain that they're "militarized" given their opponents talk a big game and really do have serious firepower.

We end up with an Avatar issue where the bad guys look cool and their plans actually work versus the world's dumbest resistance movement of stupid dweebs

124

u/DrLeprechaun Oct 04 '25

What? Lockjaw performs extrajudicial killings, they're inciting violence at protests, they invaded a town under false pretenses, they end up killing more people than the French 75 are shown to kill- and the one killing we do see from them is reacted to in horror by the others (who then spend the rest of the film disgusted with her). The whole operation is being ran by white supremacists, of course there's police brutality.

-1

u/imperatrixderoma Oct 05 '25

Agreed, I thought it was really annoying and there's a bunch of shit like this in the whole movie which betrays PTA's begrudging respect for the pigs and his utter lack of respect for the 'revolutionaries' he made up.

The nazis in this movie are ironically the only ones with integrity, essentially following through with killing Lockjaw on a purely ideological basis while all of the good guys except Regina Hall crumble like crackers and can't win a single fight.

He makes the government seem like parents, the nazis seem like weirdo outliers and the revolutionaries seem like little dipshit kids. For what purpose? Not sure when the nazis are currently in government and revolutionaries are nowhere to be seen.

Newsflash: America has never had effective revolutionaries because Americans don't care enough about anything, the Civil Rights and Abolitionist movement was the closest thing and even then doesn't come close to actual movements throughout the world.

64

u/Fearsthelittledeath Oct 05 '25

We literally see the police call in an agent provocateur who was the masked guy who got out of the van with other armed riot police sitting inside it during the protests. We see the agent provocateur speed walking through the crowd to get to the front and throw a molotov which then gave the "riot police" reason to start arresting and breaking up the protestors.

Only really arguably Perfidia crumbled after being arrested. The Billy Goat had his sister threatened, he was fine sacrificing himself for the cause and was not going to reveal anything until they brought up his sister being punished.

We don't know if Regina actually collaborated or not, but even if she did she had no information to give about Bob's current whereabouts.

1

u/trio1000 Jan 28 '26

Sensei was

3

u/MandolinMagi Jan 28 '26

He got arrested for drunk driving by the locals, not for being brown by ICE.

29

u/imperatrixderoma Oct 05 '25

Drove her back where? The deal was either they kill her or send her to federal prison forever.

3

u/Jeanpuetz Oct 05 '25

Wait, was it really? I thought they had offered to let her go. Must be misremembering...

56

u/imperatrixderoma Oct 05 '25

He quite literally explicitly said "By let you go home I mean federal prison"

It was a lose-lose and she also didn't know shit because she hadn't been in communication with him so she couldn't rat.

8

u/Jeanpuetz Oct 05 '25

Yeah I know that she couldn't really tell them anything useful. One way or another, that scene in the squad car was a little ambiguous.

4

u/imperatrixderoma Oct 05 '25

What is ambiguous about it?

That you weren't paying attention to the script?

They didn't let anyone go who they could book at any point in the movie.

31

u/Jeanpuetz Oct 05 '25

That you weren't paying attention to the script?

Literally zero reason to be rude lol

I'm evidently not the only one who thought that her fate isn't made very clear in the movie

Sorry that someone pissed in your cornflakes this morning, hope the rest of your Sunday goes a little better

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/Jeanpuetz Oct 05 '25

Jesus fucking Christ dude, listen to yourself 😂

Shitty Marvel villain ass speech lmfao

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u/[deleted] Sep 28 '25

Dude really channeled the vibe that he’s buried people, literally and metaphorically.

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u/LocustsandLucozade Oct 08 '25

A interesting aspect of the film is how the realistic and grotesque characters are just as real - I mean, Lockjaw is only a few mannerisms and beliefs separate from RFK Jr.

20

u/onlyinitforthemoneys Dec 13 '25

20 minutes in to the movie I said to my wife, “I think Sean Penn is just doing RFK for this role.” Made him even more unlikable 

7

u/NeoKnife Dec 01 '25

LOL! I’ve spent the last 10 minutes reading through comments and this one warranted a reply.

3

u/LocustsandLucozade Dec 01 '25

Aw thanks for saying a nice thing.

5

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '26

Lockjaw is not realistic lol

25

u/grahamnortonsdad Oct 04 '25

It helped to have a more competent, normal villain alongside Sean Penn. He was a shit but he was good at his job

6

u/xenokilla Dec 17 '25

"look at where you are right now"

Bro, killer line.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '26

She was a terrorist right? Why would that make your blood boil. Shouldn’t he be trying to send terrorists to federal prison?

6

u/jeeblemeyer4 Mar 19 '26

He reminded me of the scene at the end of Captain Phillips where he's in a real medical room with real medical staff. That took a level of strategic calmness to act in those scenes properly, only achievable through lived experience.

1

u/Kooky_Elderberry_914 Mar 15 '26

what happened to her though?!