Arcata, Calif. — For days the quiet pedestrian bridge near Cal Poly Humboldt looked like any other redwood-lined walkway. Then Leonardo DiCaprio sprinted across it, a film crew followed with cameras, and a crowd of locals spilled toward the freeway, eager to glimpse Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie One Battle After Another.

Film commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine remembers the moment vividly.

“I had to radio over to the officer and say, ‘You have to stop them,’” she told SFGATE. “We were laughing our butts off. It was one of the more daring scenes we did.”

On the other end of the walkie-talkie, a police officer hid behind a tree, trying not to interrupt the take. The entire sequence played out like a meta-scene from the $150 million survival epic itself.

Story Highlights

• Film Title: One Battle After Another (formerly “BC Project”)

• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

• Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro

• Key Locations: Arcata pedestrian bridge, Sequoia Park, Eureka High School, Murphy’s Markets, Borrego Springs, Sacramento

• Budget: $150 million

• Release: Premieres nationwide Friday

• Main Keyword: One Battle After Another

A Public Production

Hesseltine says secrecy was nearly impossible once the on-ramp across from Cal Poly Humboldt shut down for a heart-pounding chase.

“They knew these very public scenes were going to draw a crowd,” she said. “They figured, may as well include them instead of making them go away. People were thrilled.”

Locals became extras on the spot. For Anderson, who spent years developing One Battle After Another, the spontaneous involvement underscored the film’s road-show design.

From “BC Project” to Big Screen

Originally nicknamed “BC Project,” the movie shot its climactic finale at the Texas Dip in Borrego Springs, California. It is DiCaprio’s first collaboration with Anderson after he famously passed on Boogie Nights for Titanic. Warner Bros. calls One Battle After Another “a live-wire survival epic” blending action, dark comedy and modern politics.

Plot with a Modern Edge

The film opens at an immigration detention center on the U.S.–Mexico border, where a revolutionary group called the French 75 stages a raid to free migrants and intimidate officials. DiCaprio plays Ghetto Pat, a self-taught explosives expert eager to prove himself to leader Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). Sean Penn portrays Col. Steven Lockjaw, an avowed white supremacist opposing them.

When betrayal tears the group apart, Ghetto Pat disappears with his newborn. Sixteen years later, his teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) goes missing, and he enlists her martial-arts instructor (Benicio Del Toro) for a frantic rescue.

Long in the Making

Anderson, 55, first envisioned the story two decades ago as an “action car-chase movie” about a female revolutionary. Inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, he secured the author’s blessing for a modern adaptation. The resulting One Battle After Another veers from his trademark period pieces into contemporary America.

Producer Sara Murphy called the location search “very much designed to be a road show.” Hesseltine recalls receiving the first call in 2019 while recovering from a concussion:

“I’ll do anything for a movie,” she laughed.

Filming Under the Radar

Pandemic delays pushed the shoot back until after Licorice Pizza. By then, masks allowed Anderson to scout homes unrecognized. Hesseltine recounts touring a house where Anderson admired a Radiohead poster without revealing his own collaboration with the band.

“I was like, ‘You know who you said that to, right?’” she said. “She was flabbergasted.”

That home later appeared in the film.

Eureka Takes Center Stage

Eureka High School became a prominent backdrop for One Battle After Another, hosting a stoned-out DiCaprio scene and a prom standoff involving hundreds of local students as extras. Sequoia Park doubled as the off-grid refuge for DiCaprio and Willa, while Babe’s Pizza & Pasta turned into a Mexican restaurant. Murphy’s Markets in Cutten provided one of the film’s best comic moments already teased in trailers.

Sacramento’s Brutalist Streets

After Humboldt, the production shifted quickly to Stockton, Tracy and Sacramento. Location manager Michael Glaser praised Sacramento’s “striking brutalist architecture” rarely seen on screen. City film commissioner Jennifer King had been in talks for a year before learning Anderson was behind the project.

“That’s when they told me it was PTA, and stunts would be involved,” King said.

The Sacramento shoot included the Torch Club blues bar, the Vagabond Inn, La Superior Mercados, the county courthouse and the Reagan Mansion. The most harrowing scenes — a car chase shutting down ten city blocks and an overnight bank explosion on J Street — unfolded under tight safety supervision.

“It was intense, but the stunt coordinator made sure everything went smoothly,” King said.

A Rare Blend of Action and Heart

With its mix of shoot-’em-up action, absurd humor and intimate family drama, One Battle After Another stands as one of Anderson’s most ambitious projects. The Jonny Greenwood score ticks like a time bomb, and at nearly three hours the film moves like a brisk thriller. Critics already cite it as a leading Oscar contender.

For Northern California, the production was more than a spectacle; it was a starring role. Residents watched their everyday streets become part of a sweeping story — one that, like its title, feels like One Battle After Another.