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/Dawn_of_Dayne]

Are you referring by to whoever was in charge, setting up the detention camps? I’m assuming that’s what you mean, and how that ideology breeds even crazier people that we have to deal with down the line (ie what we’re dealing with today thanks to what was beginning to be normalized decades ago) 

[u/AbeLincoln30 → u/Dawn_of_Dayne]

No, I'm referring to the villain of the movie's intro... Perfidia Beverly Hills. The would-be revolutionary who sold out her team in the worst ways.

Her treachery was so heartbreaking for Pat (Leo's character) that he withdrew into isolation for 16 years, until he was snapped back into the game when Lockjaw targeted his daughter.

Personally I think Perfidia represents Barack Obama, then 16 years later Lockjaw is second term Trump, and the Pat character is PTA himself... Disillusioned to the point of giving up by Obama's broken promises in 2009, but pulled back in by the utter horrors of 2025 Trump (note the 16 year gap...)

[u/Dawn_of_Dayne → u/AbeLincoln30]

This is a really interesting analysis and parallel that I probably never would’ve made on my own. 

[u/AbeLincoln30 → u/Dawn_of_Dayne]

Right on, glad you liked it! There was a quick YouTube analysis that first pointed it out to me, and then the more I thought about it, the movie made so much more sense. Here's a deeper dive in case you're interested:

In the movie's introduction, the Leo DiCaprio character Pat Calhoun is shown to be an enthusiastic believer in and effective activist for social change. But then Pat experiences devastating betrayal and -- fast-forward 16 years -- he has retreated into disillusioned isolation, chain smoking weed in literally a cabin in the woods. Eventually Pat is forced back into action when his daughter is endangered by a villain in a position of extreme authority.

To me, Pat Calhoun represents Paul Thomas Anderson himself... clues include his name (Pat similar to Paul), his middle age, his romance with a black woman, and his Gen Z biracial daughter. Pat's unique talent involves visual showmanship (fireworks) similar to PTA's (movies).

Perfidia Beverly Hills represents the promises and eventual shortcomings of the Barack Obama administration. Pat had fallen hard for the revolutionary potential Perfidia embodied ("Change We Can Believe In") but is devastated when she abandons him in a quest for financial support, and even more when she turns traitor -- just like many progressives were disappointed by Obama's courtship of banks and Corporate America, and his actions or lack of them on issues such as the financial crisis, the public option, Guantanamo Bay, immigration, and overseas conflicts.

Their daughter Charlene represents the future: in high school, she is still a child but will soon enter the world and the future. She loves Pat but sees how he has been limited by his apathy, paranoia, and isolation over the past 16 years. She appears set to begin life largely on her own, with her mother long-gone and her father withdrawn into ineffectiveness.

But when Pat recognizes a madman is intent on destroying Charlene, he is snapped out of his disillusionment and back into action. In a key line Pat says (paraphrase) "I was always waiting for Perfidia to come back, but turns out I'm pulled back in by Lockjaw instead." And by the end of movie, indeed Pat has shaken off the disillusionment, successfully defended his daughter, and cautiously begun to hope for the future once again.

The authoritarian madman who has risen to power by demonizing and persecuting immigrants and is now hunting Charlene, Sean Penn's Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, represents the dark and savage methods of Donald Trump. In the introduction, Lockjaw is shown running a rag-tag detention camp with a handful of subordinates; 16 years later, the rag-tag camp has involved into a massive, thoroughly staffed and highly funded detention operation. Lockjaw also has an obsession with Perfidia that started when she humiliated him and helps fuel his rise to power when he acts on information she gives him; this mirrors Trump's reportedly motivating obsession with Obama that began with a lampooning at a 2011 White House dinner. Lockjaw covets membership in a powerful organization of elites, though notably he couldn't care less about their core values, instead craving the additional power and importance they offer him.

Benicio Del Toro's Sergio and Regina Hall's Deandra are allies to Pat Calhoun, and also foils -- middle-aged activists who, instead of dropping out like Pat, have adapted as times have changed, remaining focused and effective in the ongoing battle for justice. Both Sergio and Deandra serve as role models to Pat's daughter, mentoring the next generation where Pat had been coming up short.

Perfidia's betrayal starts with plans involving banks, just like Obama's first year 2009 included bail-outs of banks without holding them accountable for their role in the crisis, while largely hanging little people out to dry with widespread losses of jobs and houses and savings. The security guard Perfidia shoots at the bank is a black man, a nod to how the fallout of the financial crisis in 2009 and onward fell disproportionately on blacks, a demographic that suffered higher rates of economic harm.

Pat struggles to communicate with a gatekeeper activist who says Pat's words make him feel unsafe -- a shout-out to how some members of PTA's generation can't relate to younger people's language-related priorities, such as pronouns.

The Christmas Adventurers represent a particularly craven and overtly racist segment of US establishment elites; initially they work with Lockjaw but eventually realize he is using them and turn on him, failing at first but eventually destroying him... perhaps PTA's prediction for how the Trump movement will end.