98th Academy Awards · 2026
One Battle After Another
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
“Some search for battle, others are born into it...”
The story
Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis 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.
What critics & audiences say
Tomatometer94%Fresh#30 of 98 winnersFamous lines
Sergio St. Carlos: You know what freedom is?
Bob: What?
Sergio St. Carlos: No fear. Just like Tom fucking Cruise.
Bob: What was the fucking password, by the way, you fucking prick?
Comrade Josh: Time doesn't exist, yet it controls us anyway.
I've got a little Latino Harriet Tubman situation going on at my place. All legit. From the heart. No cash.
Comrade Joshua? Get a better name. "Comrade Josh" - that's a fuckin' ridiculous name for a revolutionary.
Bob: I'm calling in a Greyhawk 10, Comrade Josh.
Comrade Josh: Please hold.
Nothing is secure. Everything is wrong. No one is above suspicion.
Will you try to change the world like I did? We failed, but maybe you will not. Maybe you will be the one who puts the world right.
Col. Steven J. Lockjaw: I believe she was a sperm thief.
Sandy Irvine: A semen demon?
Col. Steven J. Lockjaw: That's correct.
I can't do her hair, man. You know that? I don't know how to do her hair right.
The daughter of a rat is a baby rat, and we must be careful.
Quotes via Wikiquote
Fun facts
- Despite winning Best Picture and becoming Paul Thomas Anderson's highest-grossing film at $213 million, it was a box office failure: it fell short of an estimated $300 million break-even point and reportedly lost Warner Bros. about $100 million.Wikipedia · Box office
- One Battle After Another was shot mostly on VistaVision, the 1950s widescreen 35 mm format, and became one of the first films to use it since the 1960s. Giovanni Ribisi is thanked in the credits for lending VistaVision cameras he had personally restored.Wikipedia · Cinematography
- Anderson and his crew attended the prom at Eureka High School to study current music and fashion, and students were cast as extras for a key scene.Wikipedia · Filming
- Ronald Reagan's former Sacramento mansion was used for the exterior of the Christmas Adventurers Club headquarters, a nod to Thomas Pynchon's focus on Reagan in Vineland, the novel that inspired the film.Wikipedia · Filming
- Production paused for two and a half months because Benicio del Toro was shooting Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme. Del Toro said he had "10 days to unpack and pack" before switching characters.Wikipedia · Filming
- It was the first time since Boogie Nights that Anderson agreed to test screenings, at Warner Bros.' request. Based on the feedback, he cut eight to ten minutes.Wikipedia · Post-production
- Casting director Cassandra Kulukundis said that for the role of Willa, anyone aged 12 to 25 was in contention. Newcomer Chase Infiniti won it after a six-month audition process, and Kulukundis won the first-ever Oscar for Best Casting.Wikipedia · Casting
- The film earned a record seven Screen Actors Guild nominations, the most in the guild's history, and appeared on 735 critics' year-end lists, more than any other 2025 film.Wikipedia · Accolades
- The crew shot about 1.5 million feet of film. Cinematographer Michael Bauman said VistaVision's horizontal eight-perf frames are twice the size of normal 35 mm.Wikipedia · Cinematography
- The film is dedicated to first assistant director and producer Adam Somner, who died in November 2024 and was posthumously among those credited with the Best Picture Oscar.Wikipedia · Post-production