Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn… three Oscar-winning leading men join forces in the new Warner Bros. Pictures One Battle After Another. Written, directed and produced by Paul Thomas Anderson the film has been getting a lot of attention not only for the cast, but for the formats the film will be shown on in theaters including VistaVision, 70mm film and IMAX® nationwide on it’s release day of September 26, 2025.
The premise seems promising, a washed-up revolutionary Bob (DiCaprio) exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When his evil nemesis (Penn) resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
DiCaprio is fantastic, and very funny at times, navigating the arc of his character. Benicio del Toro is a highlight clearly leaving his unique mark and take on on Sensei Sergio St. Carlos purpose and contributions — the scenes are always elevated when he’s a part of them. However, even with solid acting and veteran decisions, the script still had some glaring issues. The beginning of the film makes loud statements that aren’t inline with the satire seeped midsection, and there is a definite tone switch in the end that almost seems like a last minute decision to wrap up the story. It was overall disappointing and think it will struggle to find an audience.
A few areas addressed by the cast perhaps shed some motivation for context for the story….
Q: Leo, this is your first film with Paul. Kind of a simple question, but I mean, what was it about the role that drew you to it and said, “Yeah, this is going to be the role. This is going to be the movie where I work with Paul?”
Leonardo DiCaprio: I guess the humanity of the character in a strange way. You have an incredibly flawed protagonist and the unexpected choices. As soon as I read the script that Paul made with the character, I think it’s a complete setup for a sort of traditional trope that maybe we’ve seen a multitude of times before. But the character evolved as the movie went. We kind of put ourselves right up to the point of a very dramatic turning point in the movie and made real decisions on the spot. One of them being when Benicio arrives, it was a whole different setup and my character and his character took a complete left turn. I think towards the ending as well we just organically moved with the character through these locations and the character evolved. But I just love the premise of somebody that you think is going to be this hero, that’s able to resurrect and use the tools from his revolutionary past to become the ultimate hero.
But his real heroism is the idea that he just keeps relentlessly moving forward to protect his daughter. And I love the idea that you also expect that this character’s going to use massive espionage skills, but he cannot remember the password. It’s just a brilliant setup for what is ultimately a very flawed hero dynamic that he created. And it was a blast to make the movie. It was great to go on that journey and discover it as we went along.
Q: Sean, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, talk about discovering the character and how did you figure out who this guy was and how you were going to become him?
Sean Penn: When I read the script the first time, I started giggling at about page three and then I didn’t go very many pages where that didn’t happen. While there are tone shifts and the tone shifts are all recognizable in terms of placement, but which approach to that tone in your part of the bigger puzzle makes sense. And it occurred to me having worked briefly with Paul, but knowing Paul a long time and having great faith in him, as we all do, as probably any actor you talk to would expect to, it would be assuming to write a song with Brian Wilson. I don’t think you could do that. He’s finding the tone and the approach, and so you find which instruments he wants around and pay attention, and he’ll give you either those little looks or he’ll say, “I’m going to pretend I never saw that.” And it’s always very clear. And then you move on to another approach.
Q: Benicio, share about working with Leo as he’s sort of high up in this anxiety driven state, and your character Sensei is just kind of chill ocean waves, and that’s a really great contrast between the two of you in that sequence.
Benicio Del Toro: Well, I take it from the writing. Paul writes the line, ocean waves, and somehow I understood it. Leo brings tons of energy, so I just danced with it and stayed. I was the anchor in some ways, even though the scenes were packed with movement. We’re going through my house and everything is moving. So it made it a lot of fun. But working with Leo and with Paul, I had very little time, I came in in the middle of… They’ve already been shooting, I didn’t know what to expect. Leo is extremely funny off camera, he’s funny on camera, but he’s very funny off camera and Paul loves a laugh. So it just made it really relaxing and really fun to try and do things and take chances in doing things and come up with ideas and throwing them there. And sometimes Paul would say, like what Sean said, “I’m going to say I’m not going to hear that.” Or whatever. So he allowed me to throw some things on the table and it was just a lot of fun and it was joyous. I think one thing that Paul has is he loves the process of the actors. I think he really enjoys the actor’s process, and that’s something that, it’s great for an actor.
FE: How did you go about balancing those big action moments with some of the quieter character-driven moments as well?
Paul Thomas Anderson: Certainly we started in a little cabin in the woods with Leo and Chase, a location so small that there could really only be about four of us to fit comfortably. And we were doing the center of the story first, and it was a magical way to start to really get to know the two people who were really going to be our central protagonists, the people that you’re really going to root for in this film. And then in the afternoon we’d go off and we’d start to get our feet wet with shooting some cops chasing them, and we’d kind of do that in the afternoon, the evening, as the sun was going down. And then we just kept gathering momentum. We were led by our incredible producer and assistant director, Adam Somner, who has no shortage of experience doing large-scale action work, from Black Hawk Down to Gladiator.
He knows how to do this stuff. And so wherever I might’ve been inexperienced, he was incredibly experienced and he knew how to move all these pieces around. And ultimately, for as big a movie as it is, you look around and it’s still the same 15 or 20 of us that have made big movies or small movies, you’re still kind of… there’s a camera and there’s some sound guy and there’s actors, and it boils down to that. When you do a scene at a kitchen table, you can walk away very satisfied that you’ve done a great day’s work, or you feel confident or maybe you don’t feel confident. It’s different when you’re out there in the roads, shooting cars, driving fast. It’s not as satisfying, but it’s pieces that when you get to the cutting room will hopefully cut together and be very exciting for an audience.
One Battle After Another hits theaters in VistaVision, 70mm film and IMAX® nationwide on September 26, 2025.
