One Battle After Another

Want a peaceful retirement? Then don’t be a guerrilla fighter. Sixteen years ago, Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) and his French 75 revolutionary group stormed a US Immigration & Customs Enforcement detention centre, freeing hundreds of prisoners. But doing so put him in the crosshairs of a military attack-dog and white supremacist leader ominously known as Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn). Now, even after a decade living off-grid in a state of frazzled anxiety, Bob’s fears of a reprisal might not be paranoia.

Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, the most concrete plot point in the One Battle After Another trailer is the kidnapping of Bob’s baby daughter. But that’s just the jump-off in a black-comedy actioner that sprawls wherever the hell it wants, sweeping up everything from weed-growing nuns to Benicio Del Toro as a karate teacher. Some critics calculate there could be as many as seven overlapping narratives.