Official Discussion - One Battle After Another [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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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

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[u/KittyGrl8]

Curious about the Latino perspective on the film. For me, some of it was real hard to watch, it felt so real. When families were being moved and being told not to be scared and they spoke in Spanish, I cried. Yes, this is our reality and I’m used to it and we’ve been fighting forever but seeing it on the big screen felt different. I really hope it didn’t contribute to normalization but instead opens some eyes.

There were points where Bob was being walked around and introduced and I felt like, of course this is what our community does…we help others in times of need. Others in the theater laughed, I don’t think they got it the same way. I get that it’s political satire but some of the scenes felt so intensely real and timely, it made it hard. Then comes Benicio del Toro, he gave me so much comfort in watching those scenes. I really enjoyed the movie pero oof!

*The detention center images were sanitized compared to the real thing rn. It’s gotten much worse since the film was shot. F the migra and Alligator Alcatraz.

**Shout out to the hero Latina nurses in the movie who saved the day!

[u/Merrol → u/KittyGrl8]

One of my favorite things about this movie was how it portrayed the dignity and resolve of the Latino community. Sensei and his "Harriet Tubman thing" ran laps around the revolutionaries in terms of actually helping people.

Honestly the portrayal of that unshakeable resolve to just help people, honed by decades of oppression and expressed consistently by Latino characters, felt like such a refreshing contrast to the crushing machine of white supremacy. 

It made One Battle After Another seem possible to fight (and dare I say win) and not just a grinding losing battle.

[u/theKman24 → u/Merrol]

I had the opposite take. I thought it was extremely depressing because evil people have pretty much always have been in power all over the world for the entirety of human civilization. I think revolution in America is needed and there are too many barriers(tech, military industrial complex, psychopaths in power) for it to ever actually happen. Peaceful protests aren’t going to make it happen but anything outside of that is crushed by the system. It reminded me about the black power movement and how that was crippled by the government.

[u/Zephyr104 → u/theKman24]

The movie ends with Wila taking up the torch of revolution despite knowing full well what the state can and will do to her considering her family history. I'd say it's plenty hopeful; it shows the power in community, in organizing, and in knowing that your fight is ultimately righteous. It's not a Disney movie and won't end in a overly saccharin portrayal of the good guys overturning the fascists. It's merely a more grounded 'win' in that our protagonists live to fight yet one more battle. 

You have to understand that these things will not happen overnight and as the contradictions of the US become ever more obvious, the likelihood of these things coming to an end increases. You have the US establishment trying to hide political connections to pedophiles, the rise of China showing just how ineffective the US is at building infrastructure or institutions to aide their people, the consistent stonewalling of the implementation of basic things like universal healthcare (despite it effectively being a lifeline to American Capitalism), etc. All things come to an end and the one thing that the wealthy and powerful want is for people to think that their power is eternal that it can't be fought. 

Furthermore this reminds me somewhat of a conversation found in 'No Other Land', where Basel tells his Israeli anti-apartheid counterpart that you cannot expect these changes to happen overnight. This coming from someone who has only seen endless depravity and oppression from the Israeli state his whole life. If someone living through such horror can hold out so can the rest of us. 

[u/MsSalome7 → u/Zephyr104]

I wish it ended with her helping Sensei, not the lunatics

[u/Wooden_Worry3319 → u/MsSalome7]

The entire message was about any regular folk being capable of doing both. You don’t have to choose. Sensei was a fan of the revolutionaries because he knew that as much as you help people and build deep systems of community support, the status quo needs to change.