Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2025 Movie Has First Test Screening, Several Surprising Details Revealed

Known for the likes of Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, One Battle After Another has now been described as the “closest we’ll ever get” to a Paul Thomas Anderson making a “full-on action movie.” The footage that was shown included “tentpole-level spectacle,” including “loads of action and car chases,” and a “phenomenal” car chase climax. According to The Film Stage and their sources, One Battle After Another could be the director’s most mainstream movie yet. “It could definitely appeal to a lot of people, starting with Leo and the scale that is present,” they said.

Not only is the movie brimming with big, crowd-pleasing action sequences, One Battle After Another reportedly mixes thrills, humor, and “very moving” drama, with the project being compared to both director Jonathan Demme’s 1986 comedy thriller Something Wild and Alex Cox’s 1984 sci-fi black comedy Repo Man. The source even revealed that One Battle After Another “does feature sci-fi elements.” All of which promises one of the most unique cinematic experiences in years.

‘One Battle After Another’ Will Be a Modern Take On Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 Novel “Vineland”

One Battle After Another features an all-star cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Wood Harris, Alana Haim, Benicio del Toro, and Chase Infiniti. As well as the title and three-hour-long footage being revealed, sources confirm that the movie is indeed a “modern take” on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland.” Character details have also been revealed, with DiCaprio playing a man named Bob who goes by “Ghetto Pat,” while Penn will star as Col. Steve J. Lockjaw, the movie’s version of the book character Brock Vond.

The report also reveals some semblance of the previously mysterious plot, with One Battle After Another following “Lockjaw’s hunt for Teyana Taylor’s character after she leaves him to be with DiCaprio’s character.”

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For those unaware, “Vineland” was written by Thomas Pynchon and published in 1990. Set in California in 1984 against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s re-election, it’s thought that One Battle After Another will bring events into the modern day and the heated political environment of Donald Trump and MAGA. You can check out the synopsis for the “Vineland” novel below.

“A group of Americans in Northern California in 1984 are struggling with the consequences of their lives in the sixties, still run by the passions of those times — sexual and political — which have refused to die. Among them is Zoyd Wheeler who is preparing for his annual act of televised insanity (for which he receives a government stipend) when an unwelcome face appears from out of his past.

An old nemesis, federal prosecutor Brock Vond, storms into Vineland at the head of a heavily armed strike force. Soon Zoyd and his daughter, Prairie, go into hiding while Vond begins a relationship with Zoyd’s ex-wife and uses Prairie as a pawn against the mother she never knew she had. Part daytime drama, part political thriller, Vineland is a strange evocation of a twentieth-century America headed for a less than harmonic future.”