Benicio Del Toro Battles Death, Legacy & a Knife-Wielding Nun in Wes Anderson’s ‘The Phoenician Scheme’

Set in 1950, director Wes Anderson’s latest hyper-stylized production, The Phoenician Scheme, stars Benicio Del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, an arms dealer and one of Europe’s richest men. His ruthless business practices have made him a frequent target of assassination attempts — he’s barely survived a sixth plane crash as the movie opens.

Aware his time may be limited, he names Liesl (Mia Threapleton, who — nepo-baby alert! — is Kate Winslet’s daughter), the only girl of his 10 children, as sole heir to his estate. A 20-year-old knife-wielding nun, she hasn’t spoken to her father in six years, but they make up for lost time traveling the world as he attempts to bring his most important project, the mysterious Phoenician Scheme, to fruition. But a renegade group of assassins is determined to stop him.

Like all Anderson projects, in between the quirky plot, surreal visuals and long list of A-list costars, including Michael Cera, Willem Dafoe, Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks, is a heartwarming story of a dad trying to reconnect with his children.

The Phoenician Scheme | In theaters Friday, May 30