Michael B. Jordan wants to know ‘why we burn’ in the new Fahrenheit 451 trailer

HBO has released a new full-length trailer for its upcoming adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451, which shows off the world’s hellish dystopian society in which books are banned and burned.

The film will star Black Panther’s Michael B. Jordan as Guy Montag, a fireman who comes to question his job, while Shape of Water’s Michael Shannon plays Captain Beatty, the captain of his station. 99 Houses director Ramin Bahrani wrote and directed the movie.

This trailer shows off a bit more of the world that the book is set in, where books are banned and citizens’ behavior is closely regulated via pharmaceuticals. It opens with Montag showing a classroom full of children a pair of books as he explains what he and his colleagues do, and he says by the time they’ve grown up, there “won’t be one book left.” But Montag begins to have doubts about his role as book-burner. His smart home tells him that it was a misconception that firemen ever extinguished fires, and his boss tells him that people are “made equal by the fire,” and that when they’re equal, they’re happy.

Fahrenheit 451 premieres on May 19th.