Eddington

Eddington

Year: 2025

Runtime: 2 h 28 m

Language: english

Director: Ari Aster

Echo Score: 68

Budget: $25M

comedydramawestern

In May 2020, a tense standoff between Sheriff Ben Eddington (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Lewis Battista (Pedro Pascal) escalates in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico. The conflict ignites long-simmering resentments, dividing the community and pitting residents against each other as personal and political tensions rise to a breaking point.

Eddington (2025) – Spoiler-Free Movie Summary & Plot Overview

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In the heat of May 2020, the sleepy desert town of Eddington, New Mexico becomes an unlikely pressure cooker, its streets quieted by a pandemic that forces everyone inside and every conversation to the edge of fear. The town’s wide‑open horizons are now shadowed by masks, lockdown orders, and an invisible threat that turns ordinary routines into tense negotiations. Against this backdrop, the community’s everyday rhythms are fractured by a growing sense that the world outside is both distant and dangerously close.

Sheriff Ben Eddington steps into the frame as a man whose dedication to his badge is matched only by his stubborn independence. A seasoned lawman with a deep‑rooted sense of duty, he carries the weight of personal health concerns and a lingering distrust of authority that pits him against the very regulations meant to protect his town. His interactions are marked by a quiet intensity, a mix of old‑town grit and an unspoken longing for stability in an increasingly chaotic world.

Mayor Lewis Battista occupies the opposite side of the town’s makeshift battlefield, a politician trying to steer Eddington through an unprecedented crisis. He pushes for strict public‑health measures, believing that order and compliance are the only paths to survival. His polished demeanor and political savvy clash with the sheriff’s rugged pragmatism, setting the stage for a simmering standoff that reverberates through council chambers, diners, and dusty sidewalks alike.

The film swirls with an atmosphere of quiet dread and electric unease, where every glance can carry a hidden grievance and every conversation hints at deeper divides. Eddington’s residents, from longtime locals to newly arrived strangers, find themselves caught in a web of personal loyalties and ideological rifts. As the town hovers between cooperation and conflict, the audience is drawn into a story that feels both intimately personal and starkly reflective of a nation at a crossroads.

Last Updated: August 09, 2025 at 19:05

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Discover curated groups of movies connected by mood, themes, and story style. Browse collections built around emotion, atmosphere, and narrative focus to easily find films that match what you feel like watching right now.

Movies about societal fracture like Eddington

Stories where contemporary communities fracture under extreme political and social pressure.If you liked the tense, community-wide conflict in Eddington, explore more movies where a town or group unravels under political extremism, conspiracy theories, or societal collapse. These films capture the oppressive feel of a world falling apart from within.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives in this thread typically follow an escalating conflict that pits neighbors, friends, or institutions against each other. The story structure revolves around a catalyst event that exposes deep-seated resentments and ideological rifts, leading to violence, betrayal, and a complete breakdown of trust within a community.

Why These Movies?

Movies are grouped here for their shared focus on the fragility of modern society, their bleak and cynical outlook on human nature under pressure, and their creation of a deeply unsettling, chaotic atmosphere where normal life gives way to tribalistic conflict.

Bleak neo-western movies like Eddington

Modern tales set in the American West marked by moral ambiguity and violent conclusion.For viewers who appreciated the modern western setting and grim tone of Eddington, this section features similar movies that transplant the classic Western conflict into a contemporary world, often with heavy themes, complex characters, and violent, unresolved endings.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern involves a flawed protagonist, often an authority figure like a sheriff, confronting a systemic evil or personal demon within a stark, rural landscape. The journey is one of moral descent or futile resistance, culminating in violence that offers no catharsis or clear victory, only a reinforcement of the world's inherent harshness.

Why These Movies?

These films share a specific combination of genre (western/neo-western), a consistently dark and pessimistic tone, a steady pacing that builds towards explosive violence, and a focus on the moral decay of individuals within a desolate, modern-day American setting.

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Characters, Settings & Themes in Eddington

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