First Look: ‘ANACONDA’ Trailer Unleashes Jack Black and Paul Rudd on Snake-Hunting Adventure

Trailer for Anaconda (2025), Couresty of Sony Entertainment 

Now, when I say that Jack Black and Paul Rudd are responsible for rebooting Anaconda, I’m not simply talking about their leading roles in this new film. I mean that in the trailer, which dropped on September 17, these two established titans of onscreen comedy are revealed to be playing a couple of filmmakers, Doug (Black) and Ronald (Rudd), who have loved the original Anaconda since childhood and are determined to make their own version of it, “indie-style.”

Soon enough, they’re cruising along the Amazon in a boat, equipped with a script that Doug is typing up on his computer, a snake handler, and a real live anaconda that appears startlingly realistic – which is to say that it isn’t anywhere close to the gargantuan size we’ve come to expect.

Fortunately for the movie we’ll be watching, but unfortunately for the one that Doug and Ronald are making, this snake doesn’t last long: Ron gets squeamish while filming a scene with the tame constrictor and fearfully flings it overboard, where it’s chopped to bits by the propeller. “We have to go out in the jungle and find another one,” Doug declares. No reptile in the world can chew at all, but if Black’s line delivery here and throughout the trailer is any indication, he’ll mince more than enough scenery to compensate for the movie’s dearth of more grisly maceration.

Self-Aware, Schlocky Fun by the Anaconda’s-Gutful

And I’m certain that neither Black nor anybody else involved in this film would have it any other way. Indeed, the middle portion of the trailer, in which scenes of giant-snake-based action are scored to snippets of the iconic “anaconda” line from Sir-Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back, is determined to dispel any suspicions to the contrary. Rudd will also be partaking in Black’s feast of ham, and even Thandiwe Newton isn’t exactly aiming for another BAFTA either.

Most of the action in the trailer is indistinctly shown, but it promises to be fairly bombastic. The in-film indie Anaconda reboot project, which is implied early on to have a budget of $9,400, nonetheless comes equipped with a river boat, a smaller power boat, and a sizable van in which the characters flee through the jungle after their first giant anaconda sighting.

One Action Centerpiece Too Many Is Spoiled

Unfortunately, this is one of those trailers that functions as a 2-plus-minute version of the film it’s advertising; read no further if you don’t fancy spoilers. The macabre action-comedy centerpiece of the new Anaconda appears to be a scene wherein the rest of the imperiled explorers encounter Doug’s inert body under the corpse of a small pig. Though grief-stricken, they quickly hatch a plan to escape by using their dead friend, with the pig carcass duct-taped to his shoulders, as bait for the anaconda – “Doug would have wanted this.”

The plan proves quite effective, but as the snake closes in, they realize that they really should have checked Doug’s pulse: He promptly revives, and is then running for his life with the anaconda in hot pursuit. The trailer ends just as it’s about to reach him. Will its ineffable predatory aim strike true? Or will Doug live to remove that revolting corpse from his back? You can find out this Christmas.