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Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another closes on a weirdly brutal but tender note, with a father reuniting with his daughter, making it a political satire inside father-daughter grief, protest spectacle and manic set pieces. Driven by their revolutionary values, opposed by the far-right, Leonardo DiCaprio's Bob Ferguson aka Pat Calhoun brilliantly leads this dramatic showdown.
Anderson retools revolutionary myth into a strangely human narrative, exploring the story of a man, who would do anything to protect his daughter. Here's what happens at the end of One Battle After Another, and what fate awaits DiCaprio's Ferguson.
How does One Battle After Another start?
In the fever dream of rebellion, Ghetto Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills emerge as unlikely icons of chaos under their far-left banner: the elusive French 75. During an act of defiance at a California detention center, she attracts the attention of Captain Steven Lockjaw who becomes eerily attracted to her.
On the other hand, Pat and Perfidia fall into their own love story written in smoke and sirens, tearing through banks, offices and grids like modern day outlaws. But lust and loyalty collide when Perfidia is cornered by Lockjaw during a bomb plot, and she trades a sexual encounter for her freedom. This one simple act becomes the core of the story.
Motherhood briefly tethers her, but the baby, Charlene, cannot compete with the rush of the cause. When a heist collapses in bloodshed, Lockjaw offers Perfidia a deal: betrayal for survival. She takes it, vanishing into protection while her comrades are gunned down. Pat becomes Bob Ferguson, Charlene becomes Willa, and Perfidia, always untouchable, slips across the border into Mexico, chasing the revolutionary ghost.
How the ghost of their past eventually catch up to the Fergusons
Sixteen years down the line, Bob is down to a husk. Once a firebrand, he now lives as a junkie, pacing the shadows of Baktan Cross. His daughter Willa has learned to be her own compass, a sharp, stubborn teenager who is unafraid of the world her father hides her from. On the other hand, contrary to their peace, Lockjaw is plotting against them.
Lockjaw has reached heights with his far-right political agenda, his cruelty rewarded with political stars and ascension. He slips easily into the Christmas Adventurer's Club, a gilded lodge of white supremacists who start racially charged wars. In the midst of all this, Lockjaw is also hiding one shameful secret: His encounter with Perfidia, and what could have come out as it's result. Because of this, he is hunting down Bub and Willa, determined to wipe out the last piece of evidence of his own betrayal.
Lockjaw hires Avanti Q, an indigenous tracker with cold precision. Their first capture is Howard Sommerville, a remaining member of the French 75, whose capture lit up a beacon to the few revolutionaries left. Under the guise of law enforcement, Lockjaw marches troops into Baktan Cross.
Things begin to worsen at Willa's school, where Deandra, a survivor of the French 75 takes her away for protection just before the Christmas Adventurer's Club reaches her. On the other hand Bob, intoxicated and stumbling, has to watch as his house collapses under gunfire. He claws through a secret tunnel and reaches Sergio St. Carlos, who is a karate master and underground liberator.
On the other hand, Willa is carried off to a convent with revolutionary nuns. There, she learns the true story of her mother's betrayal and how everything went down after her.
How does One Battle After Another end?
In the final act of One Battle After Another, the chaos of revolution, conspiracy and family secrets crashes into something intimate: The bond between Bob and Willa. What starts as a bloody battle between militants and supremacists turns into a story about what it means to be a parent, a child and a survivor.
The Christmas Adventurers, a cabal that thrives on secrets, finally turn against Lockjaw when they learn of his history with Perfidia. It is soon revealed that he is actually Willa's biological father, giving the story a sharper turn as we re-evaluate Bob and Willa's relationship. When the Christmas Adventurers learn of this, they send Will Smith to take care of Lockjaw's betrayal.
On the other hand, Sergio sacrifices himself to save Bob as he is taken in by the police. Avanti Q, who has been hired to find Willa, finds her but refuses to let her die and instead becomes a martyr herself, opposing Lockjaw's gunmen. Their deaths are a reminder of the fact that community isn't an absurd slogan: It is built on people willing to bleed for one another.
Lockjaw faces death at Smith's hands but the story takes a sharp turn as Willa kills Smith when he is unable to remember the revolutionary countersign. The act is both survival and initiation as she has stepped into her mother's fire but twisted it into her own agency. However, we see more of Lockjaw's survival as he staggers back to the Adventurers, who give him a few moments of piece before incinerating him. It's a fitting end to his story as he gets consumed by the same machinery of hate that once elevated him, gets killed by the same brotherhood he belonged to.
What remains is the quiet reunion of Bob and Willa. She now knows the truth about her biological father, but embraces him all the same. One Battle After Another closes not with victory but with recognition. Willa walks forward into a protest with her mother’s letter in her pocket and Bob’s blessing on her shoulders. The revolution, it suggests, is never about ideology alone, it is about who will stand beside you when everything burns.
The political premise of One Battle After Another
Paul Thomas Andreson's film doesn't anchor itself to a single leader or movement. Instead it strips down politics to the mechanics of power. The bureaucracy, in particular, is framed as both a cage and a weapon. Bob's repeated missteps with the French 75 show how freedom fighters often get tangled in procedure. But also, the same underground network became his lifeline after Perfidia's betrayal and abandonment.
Across enemy lines, The Christmas Adventurers Club, a cabal of wealthy racists disguised as benefactors manipulates the military and the police for their own sick beliefs. Lockjaw embodies the stench of desperation as he's willing to destroy cities and kill his own daughter for his belief. His death underscores his disposability, as he's killed by the very system he worshiped and climbed on.
The ending for One Battle After Another doesn't promise victory, but it shows that love fuels the struggle. As she marches on to her own protests, carried forward by the letter left behind by Perfidia, it's a reminder of how resistance and revolution will always be worth it. Her mother's betrayal is portrayed in a different light, that her love for her family was simply smaller than the love she had for her beliefs.
Although the real enemies: The Christmas Adventurers remain untouched, the film has a more powerful message. It insists that the fight goes on, not for triumph, but for the people worth protecting. And there's hope that the system will someday be brought down, one battle after another.
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