September is traditionally the month when Hollywood segues from action films to awards-season prestige fare. But what if a movie could be both?

In fact, what if a September movie could be a whole lot of things — not just an Oscar contender with car chases, but an up-to-the-minute political satire and a father-daughter buddy picture, too?

Enter “One Battle After Another,” the ambitious new film from the director Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood,” “Phantom Thread”), which Warner Bros. will release in theaters on Sept. 26. The studio has delivered original hits this year like “Sinners” and “Weapons,” but Hollywood is watching closely to see if that hot streak will extend to this pricey auteur project, which reportedly cost more than $140 million.

Loosely inspired by the novel “Vineland,” by Thomas Pynchon, “One Battle After Another” stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob, an explosives expert with the radical revolutionary group the French 75. As he embarks on covert missions alongside the fiery Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and the more measured Deandra (Regina Hall), Bob and Perfidia fall in love and have a daughter, Willa. But Perfidia’s entanglement with the ruthless Col. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) puts the French 75 in jeopardy and forces Bob to go on the run with his infant.

Many years later, Bob is living under an assumed name in the sleepy town of Baktan Cross, raising a now teenage Willa (Chase Infiniti, in her film debut). Paranoid and often stoned, Bob warns a skeptical Willa to stay alert in case of attack, and he’s right to worry: Lockjaw is still hunting them, convinced that their capture could gain him entry into a secretive, well-heeled group of white supremacists who improbably call themselves the Christmas Adventurers. When the colonel does eventually bring all his firepower to bear on Baktan Cross, Bob must save Willa with the help of her resourceful karate instructor (Benicio Del Toro) as well as the reappeared Deandra.