Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is nominated for 13 Academy Awards. One Battle After Another ending explained: Who survives the hypnotic car chase and shootout? Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is nominated for 13 Academy Awards. By Randall Colburn :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/RandallColburnauthorphotoe7e8b48d9f8645588439077e721a5f48.jpg) Randall Colburn Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at . His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications. EW's editorial guidelines March 11, 2026 9:00 a.m.

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is nominated for 13 Academy Awards.

One Battle After Another ending explained: Who survives the hypnotic car chase and shoot-out?

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest is nominated for 13 Academy Awards.

By Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn

Randall Colburn is a writer and editor at **. His work has previously appeared on The A.V. Club, The Guardian, The Ringer, and many other publications.

EW's editorial guidelines

March 11, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson in 'One Battle After Another'. Credit:

Paul Thomas Anderson knows how to keep audiences on their toes. Throughout his 30-year career, the *Boogie Nights* wunderkind has grown into a multidimensional artist with a curiosity that spans a myriad of genres, eras, and themes.

Anderson again defied expectations with *One Battle After Another,* which is easily the most action-packed and politically resonant film in his oeuvre. Loosely adapted from Thomas Pynchon's *Vineland*, it tells the unnerving, hilarious, and occasionally cartoonish story of a drug-addled ex-revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) who must save his daughter (Chase Infiniti) when a deranged former foe (Sean Penn) resurfaces after 16 years.

"Paul set up this scenario, this revolutionary that's ill-equipped to deal with these impending forces from his past that have come back to haunt him and take his daughter," DiCaprio previously said in conversation with **. "And I just love how he created a protagonist that doesn't have all the right answers, that doesn't do the right thing. That's his superpower, if anything, is constant moving forward. And the fact that he doesn't give up."

With 13 nominations, *One Battle* is poised to win big at the Academy Awards this year. Not only are stars DiCaprio, Penn, Teyana Taylor, and Benicio del Toro up for acting awards, but *One Battle* is also a frontrunner for Best Picture.

Ahead of the ceremony, revisit the movie's tense climax as we break down its ending.**

What is One Battle After Another about?

Leonardo DiCaprio in 'One Battle After Another'.

Warner Bros. Pictures

*One Battle After Another* begins with the French 75, a revolutionary group that counts DiCaprio's "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun among its members. Along with his lover, the mercurial Perfidia Beverly Hills (Taylor), he joins the French 75 on a mission to free detained immigrants along the U.S.-Mexico border.

It's here where Perfidia meets Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Penn), who becomes obsessed with her after she sexually exploits him during the raid. Later, after catching her planting a bomb, Lockjaw coerces her into sex in exchange for her freedom.

When Perfidia gets pregnant and gives birth to a daughter, Charlene, it's unclear if the father is Pat or Lockjaw. Pat, not knowing about her relationship with Lockjaw, takes to being a father, but Perfidia pulls away, choosing to continue her work as a revolutionary in lieu of settling down.

Sean Penn was so captivated by 'One Battle After Another' script he read it naked in one sitting

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"You have this woman that's like, whoa, what do I do now? Because all I know is the revolution. What do I do from here? Do I stay? Do I run?" Taylor said of her character's struggle in a chat with EW. "So then the baby is born and you see a shift to where now it's like, oh, okay, [she's] here, and now you only see her and you don't see me. So even if I thought about slowing down to play house, who wants to play house with the person who is ignoring them?"

Her decision comes with consequences, though, as she's arrested for murder following a botched bank robbery. Lockjaw promises to place her in witness protection if she snitches on the French 75, and she agrees, after which the majority of the revolutionary group is executed by Lockjaw and his men.

Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

Pat and his daughter are able to escape with the help of French 75 member Howard Sommerville (Paul Grimstad), who arranges new identities for them: Pat will now be known as Bob Ferguson and Charlene will be called Willa.

He also gives them a pair of scanners that sync melodies when brought within 200 yards of each other. Calling them "trust devices," he says, "Find somebody else out there and they happen to have one of these, trust them with your life."

Perfidia, meanwhile, abandons her life in witness protection and flees to Mexico.

Where do Bob and Willa end up?

Chase Infiniti as Willa in 'One Battle After Another'.

*One Battle *jumps ahead 16 years, and we see Bob and Willa (Infiniti) living in Baktan Cross, a sanctuary city in California.

Tensions are high between the two, as the now-16-year-old Willa struggles with her dad's drinking, drug use, and late nights. She otherwise seems happy, though, with a large group of friends and a hobby studying karate under Sergio St. Carlos (del Toro), who secretly runs an underground railroad-type operation for immigrants.

Bob, meanwhile, hides the truth about Perfidia from Willa, talking her mother up as a hero and neglecting mention her betraying the French 75.**

Who are the Christmas Adventurers?

The Christmas Adventurers in 'One Battle After Another'.

In *One Battle*, the Christmas Adventurers are a secretive club of elites in the highest levels of the private and public sectors who believe in "racial purification" and the eradication of "lunatics, haters, and punk trash." They're so influential as to have the ability to "cut through layers of bureaucracy" in order to achieve their ends.

Lockjaw is elated when he finds out he's eligible for membership, though he worries a "vulnerability test" conducted by the group will discover his past relationship with Perfidia. He already suspects that he may be the father of her child, and knows it would very bad for the Christmas Adventurers to uncover this.

As such, he makes it his goal to confirm her parentage and, depending on what he finds, make the problem go away. This sends Lockjaw on a mission to track her down — and sends Bob on a mission to save her.**

Who is Willa's real dad?

Sean Penn as Steven J. Lockjaw in 'One Battle After Another'.

Willa eludes Lockjaw's goons with the help of Deandra (Regina Hall), a French 75 member, and finds refuge with the Sisters of the Brave Beaver, a convent of sympathetic (if exhausted) nuns. But Lockjaw eventually finds his way there, where he subjects Willa to a DNA test to determine if he's her father.

Willa probes him for answers as they await the test results. "Did you rape her?" she asks, referring to her mother. "Did you love her?"

He snaps at her, saying that he has a greater purpose with the Christmas Adventurers. "It is a higher honor than having you," he says.

Upon learning that she is, in fact, his daughter, he passes her off to Avanti (Eric Schweig), a bounty hunter, to "dispose" of her. Avanti refuses, saying he doesn't kill kids, so Lockjaw arranges for him to transport her to a white nationalist militia who will do the job.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way," Lockjaw says to Willa. "If you had any manners we might've gotten to know each other."**

Avanti takes her to the militia, but can't bring himself to leave her with them. He instead frees the girl, leading to a shootout that leaves everyone except Willa dead.

After retrieving Avanti's keys and gun, she drives off in his car.

John Hoogenakker as Tim in 'One Battle After Another'.

Tim (John Hoogenakker) is a member of the Christmas Adventurers who's hired by the powers that be to "clean up" the Lockjaw situation. The club has learned about Willa's existence and Lockjaw's mission to "dispose of evidence and continue to make fools of all of us."

After Lockjaw drops off Willa, he's accosted on the road and shot by Tim, causing his car to crash.

Do Bob and Willa reunite?

Chase Infiniti in 'One Battle After Another'.

With the help of Sergio, Bob is able to track Lockjaw to the convent — but is unable to stop him from absconding with Willa. When he happens upon Lockjaw's crashed car, he's relieved to see that Willa isn't part of the wreckage. (He can't say the same Lockjaw's bloody body.)

Willa, meanwhile, finds herself trailed by Tim as she races down the hilly highways of the Anza-Borrego Desert. Knowing she's in danger, she parks and exits her car just over the ridge of one of the hills, knowing that Tim will smash into it. That's exactly what happens — but Tim is still alive.

Unsure of who to trust, she yells out the code phrase used by the surviving French 75 members. When he expresses confusion, she shoots him dead.

And that's when Bob pulls up. The melodies of their scanners sync, but she still yells the code at him, having been traumatized by the cavalcade of monsters on her tail. When he responds correctly, she collapses in his arms.

Does Lockjaw join the Christmas Adventurers?

Sean Penn in 'One Battle After Another'.

He thinks so. Scarred after surviving the gunshot and the wreck, he claims to the Christmas Adventurers that he was "raped in reverse" by Perfidia. "I believe she was a sperm thief," he says. "They saw the power of my mind and body. They desired it."

The powers that be seemingly accept this explanation and lead Lockjaw to an office in the club's Southwest headquarters. He chokes up while sitting in his new corner unit, about as bland a space as you're likely to see. Then there's hissing through the air vents. Within moments, his eyes grow heavy and he slips into unconsciousness. He's been poisoned.

Men in hazmat suits arrive, transporting his corpse to an incinerator, where his body is burned.**

What happens at the end of One Battle After Another?

Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills in 'One Battle After Another'.

Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures

*One Battle* ends with Bob and Willa, now back home in Baktan Cross. While at the convent, Willa learned about her mother's betrayal, and now Bob wants to be fully honest with her. He gives her a letter written to her by Perfidia.

"I pretended my whole life — pretended to be strong, pretended to be dead," reads the letter, which Taylor recites in a voiceover. "Is it too late for us, after all my lies? Are you happy? Do you have love? What will you do when you get older? Will you try to change the world like I did? We failed. Maybe you will not. Maybe you will be the one who puts the world right."

Taylor spoke about her experience recording the letter with EW. "It's so crazy because that note that you hear, we did that in one take. And I just remember how emotional we were — me, Paul, and our sound guy. We are all crying," she said. "[It] was the last day of filming, and that letter just hit hard. *Are you happy? Do you have love? *I'm getting chills just thinking about it."**

When Willa hears of a protest a few hours away, she gathers her things as Tom Petty's "American Girl" begins to play.

"Be careful," Bob says.

"I won't," she replies.**

Where can I watch One Battle After Another?

*One Battle After Another *is currently available to stream on HBO Max.

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Published: March 13, 2026 at 01:38PM on Source: MANUEL MAG

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