Eddington (film)

In late May 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ted Garcia, mayor of the small town of Eddington, New Mexico, implements a lockdown and mask mandate based on the governor's orders. Conservative Sevilla County Sheriff Joe Cross publicly protests the measures, worsening his already-poor relationship with Garcia. Joe lives with his emotionally unstable and distant wife, Louise, and her mother, Dawn, an avid follower of QAnon-like conspiracy theories.

Joe decides to run for mayor against Garcia, who is running on a liberal, "tech-positive" platform which supports the construction of a massive data center near Eddington. He enlists his two deputies, Guy and Michael, as campaign aides. His wife and mother-in-law invite conspiracist cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak to dinner; Joe is skeptical of Peak's stories of child trafficking and ritual abuse, but his wife suggests that she was a victim of similar abuse. She also strongly disapproves of Joe's campaign.

Meanwhile, Garcia's high school-aged son Eric and his friend Brian get involved in Black Lives Matter protests, in part because they are competing for the affections of the social-justice minded Sarah. As the sheriff's office struggles to respond to escalating protests, Joe publicly claims that Garcia raped Louise as a teenager in order to sway the election in his favor. Louise releases a video denying Joe's claims and leaves town with Vernon.

Joe is embarrassed by his wife's denial, and further humiliated when, while responding to a noise complaint at Garcia's house during a fundraiser, Garcia slaps him. That night, he murders a local vagrant and dumps his body in a nearby river, and then kills Garcia and Eric in their home with a scoped rifle, staging the scene as an Antifa attack. Meanwhile, a mysterious private jet carrying heavily armed men and a collection of left-wing protest signs heads towards Eddington.^[10]

Joe's claims are doubted by Butterfly Jimenez, a tribal deputy from the adjacent Pueblo reservation who becomes involved in the investigation and correctly suspects Joe as the perpetrator. Joe, with the assistance of Guy, obstructs the investigation and frames Michael for the Garcias' deaths. Mere hours later, the armed men descend on Eddington, where they initiate several political false flag attacks and kidnap Michael from jail, killing Guy in the process. After wounding one of the assailants, who drops his phone, Joe realizes that he and others been fed misinformation in order to aggravate tensions in Eddington. The men pursue Joe into the town, where he breaks into a gun store and begins firing a machine gun wildly in their direction. In doing so, he accidentally wounds Jimenez, who is killed by a sniper moments later. The last attacker succeeds in badly wounding Joe, but moments before Joe is killed, Brian appears, filming himself shooting the attacker and saving Joe's life.

A year later, Brian is a prominent conservative influencer, having capitalized on his filmed rescue of Joe from the purported Antifa terrorists. Joe, left quadriplegic and brain-damaged by the attack, has finally been elected Mayor of Eddington, but Dawn speaks on his behalf. Under Dawn's watch, the data center is opened, with the implication that the center's developers might have orchestrated the events of the preceding year.^[11][12] After returning from the center's grand opening, Joe and Dawn watch news coverage of Vernon and a pregnant Louise at a rally. Michael, who also survived and is now undersheriff, practices target shooting on the outskirts of town. Dawn and a caregiver maneuver Joe into a bed, then she and the caretaker join Joe in the same bed.

• Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, Sevilla County sheriff and a mayoral candidate
• Pedro Pascal as Ted Garcia, Eddington's incumbent mayor who is running for re-election
• Emma Stone as Louise Cross, Joe's wife
• Austin Butler as Vernon Jefferson Peak, a radical cult leader
• Luke Grimes as Guy Tooley, a deputy at the Sevilla County Sheriff's Office in Eddington.
• Deirdre O'Connell as Dawn, Louise's mother
• Micheal Ward as Michael Cooke, a deputy at the Sevilla County Sheriff's Office in Eddington.
• Amélie Hoeferle as Sarah Allen, a social justice influencer
• Clifton Collins Jr. as Lodge, a mentally ill vagrant
• William Belleau as Officer Butterfly Jimenez, an intrepid Pueblo policeman
• Matt Gomez Hidaka as Eric Garcia, Mayor Garcia's son
• Cameron Mann as Brian, Eric's best friend
• Rachel de la Torre as Paula, a local restaurant owner
• Amadeo Arzola as Laird, a vocal protester
• Landall Goolsby as Will
• Robyn Reede as The Irate Woman
• Elise Falanga as Nicolette, a follower of Vernon
• King Orba as Warren, the New Mexico governor's economic advisor
• David Pinter as Antifa Terrorist 1^[13][a]
• Keith Jardine as Antifa Terrorist 2^[13]
• Sam Quinn as Protest Leader
• Keith Jardine as Muscular Man
• Daniel Clowes as Frankie Salmone
• Ari Aster as Radio Journalist (uncredited)

Ari Aster wrote a script for a contemporary Western film that he had at one point considered making as his directorial debut. He tried to make it for about five years before deciding to make Hereditary and Midsommar first.^[15] While promoting his third film, Beau Is Afraid, Aster indicated that his next film would likely be a Western and that he had updated it to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[16][17]

Emma Stone and Christopher Abbott were attached to star in the film in January 2023,^[18] and Aster also planned to collaborate with Joaquin Phoenix again for the film. Aster and Phoenix were scouting New Mexico shooting locations in August 2023.^[19] In March 2024, Phoenix, Stone, Austin Butler, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Micheal Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr. were added to the cast, and Abbott was no longer attached.^[20][21] The film was produced by Square Peg and A24, who also financed the film with Access Entertainment and IPR.VC.^[20][22]

Filming took place from March through May 2024 in Albuquerque and Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.^[23][24] The water tower with the mural that is shown toward the beginning of the film is the Las Cruces Water Tank.

On April 9, 2025, it was announced that Bobby Krlic would compose the film's score, after previously collaborating with Aster on Midsommar and Beau Is Afraid.^[25] On May 7, it was announced that Daniel Pemberton would also be composing the film's score alongside Krlic.^[26]

Eddington premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2025.^[6] The film also played in Australia at the Sydney Film Festival on June 12, 2025,^[27] and at Revelation Perth International Film Festival on July 5, 2025.^[28] It also opened 29th Fantasia International Film Festival on July 16, 2025.^[29]

Eddington was released in the United States on July 18, 2025.^[30]

It was screened in the 'Best of 2025' section of the 20th Rome Film Festival in October 2025.^[31]

On October 30, 2025, the film was showcased at the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival in 'Gala Selection' section.^[32]

Several critics have noted that Eddington uses the Western genre to explore contemporary American political divisions, conspiracy theories, and pandemic-era paranoia. David Ehrlich of IndieWire described it as "a bleak and brilliant look at post-COVID America."

Aster himself stated, "If I had to boil it down, I’d say Eddington is really just about a data center being built." He elaborated:^[45]

From my perspective, a common enemy in the film is the 'distraction.' We’re living in a collapsing system where political battles mesmerize us as big tech and capital seizes everything. What has really happened, which Covid [sic] pushed even further, is that people are powerless in this system and they've been taken away from having any access to changing the world. Control over data and information is the privilege of power, and that works even better if your suspicions and your anger can be displaced onto your neighbor. The old idea of democracy, which is that it would be a countervailing force against power run amok, is gone completely. COVID cut the last link. The pandemic did. And out there is power - big power - and we haven't found the way to deal with it yet. But we're going to have to. And that’s what the characters in Eddington are driving themselves mad trying to do — whether they know it or not.

Aster has stated that a "sort-of" sequel to Eddington is currently in development. He later clarified that it's "not a sequel, but there are returning characters."^[46]

• Hemet, or the Landlady Don't Drink Tea, a 2023 film with satirical COVID-19 messaging leading to paranoia between neighbors.