What starts as a simple story about mask mandates in a small New Mexico town during COVID, somehow ends with fake terrorists, a data conspiracy, and a sheriff-turned-mayor who can barely speak. Eddington is the kind of movie that makes you constantly wonder "where is this going?". It moves slowly at first, letting you get comfortable with what seems like familiar small-town drama, before pulling the rug out from under you completely. By the end, you'll be questioning everything you thought you understood about the story, the characters, and maybe even the news you watch every day.
The Story
Eddington is set in a small town in New Mexico during May 2020, when everything was falling apart because of COVID. The story follows Sheriff Joe Cross (played by Joaquin Phoenix), who's basically a guy whose life is a complete mess but doesn't want to admit it.
The movie starts when Mayor Ted Garcia (played by Pedro Pascal) decides everyone in town has to wear masks and stay inside because of the pandemic. Joe thinks this is stupid and unfair. Joe lives with his wife Louise (played by Emma Stone), who makes weird art and seems really sad all the time, and her conspiracy-theory-obsessed mother Dawn, who believes in all kinds of wild stories about secret evil groups.
Joe gets so angry about the mask rules that he decides to run against Ted for mayor. This makes Louise even more upset because she just wants to be left alone. Joe gets help from two police officers - Guy and Michael. Meanwhile, Ted's teenage son Eric starts going to Black Lives Matter protests with his friend Brian and a girl named Sarah who cares a lot about social justice.
Here's where things get really twisted. To win the election, Joe tells everyone that Ted hurt Louise when she was younger. This is a lie, but Joe thinks it will help him win. Louise gets so upset about this lie that she leaves town with a weird cult leader named Vernon Jefferson Peak that her mother invited over for dinner.
The next day, Ted is furious and slaps Joe in front of a bunch of people. That night, Joe completely loses his mind. First, Joe shoots and kills a homeless man and throws his body in a river. Then he goes to Ted's house and kills both Ted and his teenage son Eric with a sniper rifle. To cover up his crimes, Joe makes it look like a group called Antifa did it.
But here's where the movie gets really crazy. A private jet full of armed soldiers lands near the town. These guys dress in black and pretend to be Antifa terrorists, but they're actually mercenaries - basically fake soldiers hired by someone with lots of money. They start attacking the town, kidnapping people, and setting fires everywhere.
Joe tries to frame Michael (the young Black police officer) for the murders he committed. But Officer Butterfly Jimenez, who works for the local Native American tribe, starts figuring out that Joe is lying. The fake soldiers kidnap Michael and try to blow him up in the desert. Joe and Guy go to rescue him, but when they get close, a bomb goes off that kills Guy and badly hurts Michael.
Joe has to run back to town while these fake soldiers chase him with guns. He breaks into a gun store to get weapons and starts shooting at them. During this crazy gun battle, Joe accidentally shoots off Officer Jimenez's leg. Finally, one of the fake soldiers stabs Joe in the head with a knife. Joe almost dies, but Brian (Eric's friend) saves him by shooting the attacker while filming it on his phone.
The movie then jumps forward one year. Brian has become a famous conservative influencer on the internet because of his video of "saving" Joe from the "terrorists." Joe survived but now he can barely move or talk - he's basically like a vegetable. He's the mayor now, but Dawn (Louise's crazy mother) takes care of him and makes all his decisions. Louise is pregnant with the cult leader's baby and living somewhere else. Michael survived too and is now the undersheriff, but he practices shooting at targets - maybe thinking about getting revenge on Joe.
The movie ends by showing us that a huge data center called "SolidGoldMagikarp" has been built in the town. This suggests that some big tech company was behind all the chaos - they wanted to build their computer servers there, and they used the fake soldiers to create so much trouble that they could get what they wanted while everyone was distracted by fighting each other.
My Review
Watching Eddington was like being on the world's most stressful roller coaster while someone kept changing the track in the middle of the ride. The first part of the movie shows us all these people living in this small town during a really scary and confusing time. Everyone is worried, angry, and looking for someone to blame for their problems.
What I found most interesting is how the movie shows that Joe isn't evil at first - he genuinely thinks the mask rules are unfair and hurts people. But instead of trying to solve problems peacefully, he gets more and more angry until he becomes a murderer. It's like watching someone slowly turn into a monster, and it's really uncomfortable to watch.
The movie is also really funny in a dark way, which surprised me. There are scenes where people say and do such ridiculous things that you have to laugh, even though the situation is terrible. Like when Brian tries to impress a girl by talking about social justice issues he doesn't really understand, or when Joe runs around town carrying a ring light for his campaign speech.
One thing that made me think was how the movie shows that everyone gets their news and opinions from their phones and social media. People are constantly scrolling through videos and getting angry about things they see online. The movie suggests that someone (maybe the tech company) is deliberately showing people content that makes them more extreme and angry, because angry people are easier to control.
The fake Antifa soldiers were the most confusing part for me at first. It seems crazy that someone would hire fake terrorists to attack a town just to build a computer data center. But then I realized the movie is trying to show us that we never really know who's behind the things we see on the news or social media. Maybe the "terrorists" we're scared of aren't real, or maybe they're working for someone completely different than we think.
What made me sad was how the movie shows that regular people like Michael, who's just trying to do his job as a police officer, get hurt the most. He doesn't want to be involved in any of the political fighting, but he gets framed for murder and almost killed anyway. The movie seems to be saying that while politicians and rich people fight for power, ordinary people pay the price.
The ending is really depressing because nobody really wins except the big tech company. Joe is basically a zombie, Louise ran away to join a cult, people died, and the town is still a mess. But the data center got built, which was apparently the real goal all along. It makes you think about whether all the political fighting we see on TV and social media is just a distraction while powerful people do whatever they want.
I also noticed that the movie shows how easy it is for people to believe crazy stories when they're scared and confused. Dawn believes in conspiracy theories, the townspeople believe Joe's lies about Ted, and everyone believes that the fake soldiers are real terrorists. It makes you wonder what stories we believe that might not be true.
The acting is really good, especially Joaquin Phoenix as Joe. He makes you feel sorry for Joe at the beginning, but by the end, you're terrified of him. Emma Stone as Louise doesn't get to do much, which is disappointing, but when she does speak up, you can feel how trapped and scared she is.
The movie looks amazing too. The way it's filmed makes you feel like you're right there in this small town watching everything fall apart. The gun battle at the end feels like a video game, which I think was intentional - it's supposed to show how unreal and crazy everything has become.
The biggest problem with the movie is that it's very long and sometimes feels like it's trying to say too many things at once. There are so many characters and storylines that some of them don't get finished properly. Also, the switch from a political drama to an action movie with fake terrorists feels jarring and might confuse some viewers.
But overall, I think Eddington is a movie that will make you think, even if it makes you uncomfortable. It's not a fun, happy movie - it's more like holding up a mirror to show us how messed up things have become. It suggests that while we're all fighting about masks, politics, and social issues, powerful people are manipulating us and getting what they want.
The movie seems to be warning us that our phones and social media might be making us angrier and more extreme on purpose, and that we should be more careful about what we believe and who we trust. It also shows how dangerous it can be when people choose violence instead of trying to solve problems peacefully.
If you like movies that make you think and don't mind feeling uncomfortable, you might find Eddington interesting. Just be prepared for a wild ride that doesn't have a happy ending, and don't expect simple answers to complicated questions.
Watch on Apple TV