Leonardo DiCaprio Leads First Gun-Toting Teaser for 'One Battle After Another' (2025)

Warner Bros. Pictures has unveiled a first look at Paul Thomas Anderson's mysterious crime thriller One Battle After Another, which might well turn out to be one of this year's most surprising movies. The 21-second preview (video below) offers a glimpse of what's to come ahead of the official trailer that is set to release next week, and it seems that the modern take on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland is going to involve plenty of gunfire, as bullets fly around an all-star cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn.

The gun-toting teaser opens with DiCaprio's character "Bob" enjoying a seemingly peaceful moment, which is abruptly interrupted by the sound of gunshots. The barrage of bullets is coming from a pregnant woman who is wielding a machine gun. The sound of the ammunition being fired from the weapon continues, triggering a montage of clips – one showing DiCaprio running, another of someone traveling down an open road, and a third showing a baby. A voice asks DiCaprio, "What are you gonna do about this baby?" While the question isn't answered, it seems that DiCaprio will take matters into his own hands and those hands will also end up carrying a gun.

This short and snappy teaser offers our best look yet at One Battle After Another, which has kept many details in its barrel for now. The footage shown at a test screening was said to include some "tentpole-level spectacle," including "loads of action" and a "phenomenal" car chase climax. It is also possible that it will be Anderson's most mainstream movie yet and "the closest we'll ever get" to a "full-on action movie" from the director, who is perhaps better known for crafting psychological dramas, such as Magnolia and Phantom Thread.

'One Battle After Another' Has Had Its Release Date Delayed

The teaser for One Battle After Another arrives just as the movie has had its release date pushed back. Warner Bros. has made some major changes to its theatrical release calendars, resulting in a shift for Anderson's latest flick, which was originally due out on Aug. 8, 2025, but is now loaded up to hit the big screen on Sept. 26 this year – that date became vacant after the studio also pushed back the release of Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride! to 2026. Meanwhile, Zach Cregger's Weapons moved up to the Aug. 8 slot that was previously reserved for One Battle After Another.

It appears that Warner Bros. is betting big on One Battle After Another, as The Wall Street Journal estimated the movie's cost to be around $140 million. Meanwhile, Anderson's last project, Licorice Pizza, failed to recoup its $40 million production budget after only grossing $33.28 million at the worldwide box office despite being acclaimed by critics, while his most successful movie on record, There Will Be Blood, brought in $76 million globally. According to the outlet, "Warner executives say DiCaprio's box-office track record justifies the budget for Anderson." However, whether the movie's star power will convert into ticket sales remains to be seen.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures

Paul Thomas Anderson

Birthdate

June 26, 1970

Birthplace

Studio City, California, USA

Bio

Paul Thomas Anderson born June 26 1970 is an American film director screenwriter and producer He has written and directed five feature films Hard Eight 1996 Boogie Nights 1997 Magnolia 1999 Punch Drunk Love 2002 and There Will Be Blood 2007 He has been nominated for five Academy Awards There Will Be Blood for Best Achievement in Directing Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Adapted Screenplay Magnolia for Best Original Screenplay and Boogie Nights for Best Original Screenplay Anderson has been hailed as being one of the most exciting talents to come along in years and as being among the supreme talents of today In 2004 Anderson was ranked 21st on The Guardian s list of the 40 best directors In 2007 Total Film named him the 20th greatest director of all time In 2011 Entertainment Weekly named him the 11th greatest working director calling him one of the most dynamic directors to emerge in the last 20 years Description above from the Wikipedia article paul Thomas Anderson licensed under CC BY SA full list of contributors on Wikipedia