Contained in the Radical Political Story Behind ‘One Battle After One other’

Whereas the adrenaline-fueled occasions in One Battle After One other are fictional, Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Corridor and Teyana Taylor’s characters had been impressed by real-life revolutionaries.

The political dramedy, which premiered in September 2025, adopted a gaggle of once-idealistic revolutionaries whose quiet lives are upended when a brand new risk attracts them again into the underground world they thought that they had left behind. Director Paul Thomas Anderson revealed in an August 2025 Esquire interview with DiCaprio that he had been writing the screenplay for many years.

“Twenty years in the past, I began scripting this story, and the kernels of it had been mainly simply to put in writing an motion car-chase film,” the filmmaker stated, noting that he based mostly a few of it on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland.

“Vineland was all the time going to be too exhausting to adapt, so I stole the elements that spoke to me and simply began operating like a thief,” Anderson defined. “I assume that’s what all us writers do — we’re f—— thieves.”

Like Pynchon’s ebook, One Battle After One other was additionally impressed by the real-life radical actions that emerged within the late Nineteen Sixties and Seventies. In a September 2025 interview with Radio Instances, DiCaprio revealed that Anderson drew inspiration for the French 75 from the Climate Underground, a real-life revolutionary group, whereas Taylor opened up about trying to Black Liberation Military activist Assata Shakur when growing her character, Perfidia.

So, is One Battle After One other based mostly on a real story? This is the whole lot to know concerning the real-life revolutionaries who impressed the action-packed movie.

Is One Battle After One other based mostly on a real story?

No, One Battle After One other is not based mostly on a real story. Elements of the film had been tailored from the novel Vineland, and a number of the radical teams and revolutionaries had been loosely impressed by real-life actions from the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies.

“Typically I assumed I want to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, a ebook written within the eighties concerning the sixties,” Anderson informed DiCaprio of the movie’s inspiration of their Esquire interview. “However I used to be it within the early 2000s, pondering of what the story means at the moment. Lower to an entire different story that I had floating round that was a couple of feminine revolutionary.”

The filmmaker added that the “varied strands” he’d held onto for 20 years by no means “went out of favor.”

“As a result of no matter appears to be occurring politically appears to all the time be the identical,” Anderson concluded. “Identical s—, completely different 12 months.”

Who’re the French 75 based mostly on?

DiCaprio informed Radio Instances that Anderson based mostly his character’s fictional French 75 militant group on real-life revolutionaries often known as the Climate Underground, who “had been preventing imperialism, the Vietnam Conflict, civil rights.”

“[They were] multicultural those who then needed to form of scatter like rats across the nation and attempt to assimilate themselves and disappear into on a regular basis society, however at a time and a spot they had been prepared to threat their life for his or her ideology and perception system,” the actor stated.

Often known as the Weathermen, the group emerged as a small offshoot of the College students for a Democratic Society (SDS) after the group fractured in 1969, in accordance with the FBI. In a 1974 manifesto, members stated they aimed to “disrupt the empire … to incapacitate it, to place strain on the cracks.”

By 1975, the Weathermen had claimed duty for 25 bombings, together with an assault on the U.S. Capitol. Whereas their assaults typically strove to keep away from civilian casualties, in March 1970, three of its personal members had been killed after a bomb they had been constructing detonated inside a Greenwich Village townhouse.

On the time, some members had been arrested in reference to bombing plots, whereas others evaded authorities and remained fugitives for many years.

Is Perfidia impressed by an actual particular person?

Whereas Anderson hasn’t stated Perfidia was based mostly on a selected historic determine, Taylor stated she drew on Shakur, a former member of the Black Liberation Military, when shaping her efficiency.

Talking with Radio Instances, the actress recalled noticing Shakur’s autobiography — one in every of her favourite books — sitting on the filmmaker’s desk throughout their early conversations concerning the character.

“I sort of really feel prefer it was a full circle second,” the actress and musician stated. “I used to be similar to, ‘Oh, that is actually dope.’ And I do know precisely the place I wish to go and what course I wish to go in for Perfidia.”

In accordance with NPR, Shakur was an activist and member of the Black Panther Get together who grew to become a distinguished determine within the Black liberation motion of the Seventies.

She was convicted in 1977 of homicide, armed theft and different offenses stemming from a 1973 incident during which New Jersey State Troopers pulled over her and two others as a result of their automotive’s taillight was damaged. A gunfight ensued, which left an officer and a fellow activist lifeless.

Although she was sentenced to life in jail, Shakur escaped in 1979 and fled to Cuba, the place she was granted political asylum. She lived in exile till her demise on Sept. 25, 2025 — a day earlier than One Battle After One other premiered.

“I don’t have a look at Perfidia and say, ‘That is Assata’s life,’ ” Taylor defined in a November 2025 interview with EurWeb. “These are two ladies who had been unapologetically themselves … they stood ten toes down on what they believed in. You possibly can’t do something however respect that.”

What historic occasions impressed One Battle After One other?

The items of One Battle After One other — particularly these drawn from Vineland — had been loosely impressed by the leftist revolutionary teams that proliferated within the Nineteen Sixties and the backlash they confronted in subsequent a long time.

Whereas the movie up to date Vineland’s historic context for the twenty first century, Anderson retained its core echoes of counterculture and underground actions to discover up to date points like police violence, racial injustice and authorities overreach.

“Paul began scripting this film 20 years in the past, so I do not suppose that it was essentially related to the political relevancies of immediately,” Corridor informed Radio Instances. “However boy does it coincide!”

Taylor agreed, noting that the film was “very related to what’s occurring immediately.”

“Why is that this nonetheless related immediately?” the actress requested rhetorically. “Why are we nonetheless going via this? And the place is the change? … I positively suppose that this film will create a variety of wholesome dialogue and far wanted conversations that have to be had.”