Benedict Cumberbatch and Nicholas Hoult play arch-rivals Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, respectively, locked in a race to electrify the world in The Current War. In The Current War, brilliant inventors and arch-rivals Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult) engage in increasingly vicious tactics in the battle to determine whether direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) technology will ultimately bring electricity to the world at large.