--- title: Beasts of No Nation: Netflix Released the First Trailer description: The film tells the story of an African child soldier involved in civil war canonical: https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-30T17:25:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:45:10.122Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Watch the Heart-Stopping Trailer for 'Beasts of No Nation' og:description: The film tells the story of an African child soldier involved in civil war og:url: https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbedba3476d54199b/69885d380a4a223f4d9c565e/beasts-of-no-nation2.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: beasts of no nation og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch the Heart-Stopping Trailer for 'Beasts of No Nation' twitter:description: The film tells the story of an African child soldier involved in civil war twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbedba3476d54199b/69885d380a4a223f4d9c565e/beasts-of-no-nation2.jpg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch the Intense Trailer for _Beasts of No Nation_ by [Ariana Bacle / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Ariana Bacle / Entertainment Weekly Jul 30, 2015 5:25 PM UTC  Netflix by [Ariana Bacle / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Ariana Bacle / Entertainment Weekly Jul 30, 2015 5:25 PM UTC The first trailer for [Cary Fukunaga’s upcoming ](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/03/netflix-nabs-cary-fukunagas-beasts-no-nation)[_Beasts of No Nation_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/03/03/netflix-nabs-cary-fukunagas-beasts-no-nation)is an emotional, intense look into the life of an African child soldier that ends with Idris Elba’s character forcing the little boy to make a choice: kill the man in front of him who possibly killed his family — or let him escape with his life. _Beasts of No Nation_ is a Netflix original film based on Uzodinma Iweala’s 2005 novel of the same name, and will be one of [the first Netflix original films along with](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/07/netflix-premiere-dates-beasts-of-no-nation-ridiculous-six) _Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, The Ridiculous Six,_ and _Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend._ It’s set to begin streaming Oct. 16, and will debut in select Landmark theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Indianapolis, Detroit, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego that same day. The film will debut at [the Venice Film Festival](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/29/venice-film-festival-2015-lineup) and also screen at [the Toronto International Film Festival](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/28/toronto-film-festival-2015-slate). See the trailer above. _This_ [_article_](http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/30/beasts-no-nation-idris-elba-trailer-video-netflix) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/"},"headline":"Watch the Intense Trailer for Beasts of No Nation","datePublished":"2015-07-30T17:25:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:45:10.122Z","description":"The film tells the story of an African child soldier involved in civil war","url":"https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/","keywords":["movies","Africa","Netflix","Trailer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbedba3476d54199b/69885d380a4a223f4d9c565e/beasts-of-no-nation2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ariana Bacle / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbedba3476d54199b/69885d380a4a223f4d9c565e/beasts-of-no-nation2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"beasts of no nation","caption":"beasts of no nation","creditText":"Netflix","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3978935/trailer-beasts-no-nation/","name":"Watch the Intense Trailer for Beasts of No Nation"}}]}] ```