Watch Zac Efron Accidentally Go to War in an Exclusive First Look at The Greatest Beer Run Ever

Get ready to see a new side of Zac Efron.

In his upcoming movie The Greatest Beer Run Ever, the actor, 34, stars as real-life accidental local hero Chickie Donohue, who in 1967 decided on a whim to bring beer from his New York neighborhood to his friends serving in the Vietnam War.

PEOPLE's exclusive debut of the trailer shows glimpses of what makes Donohue's story so unbelievable — including the "a real guy actually did this" note in the first 10 seconds — and why Efron's performance in it is unique.

"When I met with Zac, what struck me was he was at a very interesting place in his career," director Peter Farrelly tells PEOPLE. "He said, 'I really want to do something different.' And what he does here, in my eyes, is that."

He continues: "Zac's the most open actor I've ever worked with. A lot of times you do a scene, you go up to the actor afterwards, and you're giving him notes, but you can see they're in their own head, like running it through, figuring it out themselves, they're really not listening to you. Zac's the opposite."

The film is based on the New York Times bestseller The Greatest Beer Run Ever: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John "Chick" Donohue and J.T. Molloy and also stars Russell Crowe and Bill Murray.

courtesy Apple

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Farrelly (Green Book, Dumb and Dumber) says that before connecting with Efron to discuss the role, he had to first get the blessing from the film's inspiration — Donohue himself.

"Once we worked out a deal [in securing the film rights], the first thing I did was I went to Florida, I hung out with Chickie for a couple days and picked his brain," Farrelly recalls. "It's so hard to believe this actually happened. And yet as I was talking to him, I realized there was way more to the story than I even knew."

The Oscar winner says that Donohue's story is just as powerful right now as it was when it happened 55 years ago.

courtesy apple

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"It resonates today, on a lot of levels. At that time in the United States, the country was as divided as it is today," says Farrelly. "It had, and [the division] was over Vietnam, and it shows that both sides had a point and I mean, obviously, the war sucked. It was a bad war. But the soldiers didn't suck. The soldiers were 18-, 19-year-old kids who were patriots and they were doing their duty."

What sets apart Donohue's incredible experience and Beer Run — which included an actual beer run/delivery — is that the film is centered on a "normal" person's point of view versus the military's or a soldier's.

"What I love about this is there's been Vietnam movies, but there's never been one told from [this] point of view, and that's what's interesting," says Farrelly. "He's looking at it from where America looked at it, not where the soldiers looked at it. They were in the throes of it, but we were on the outside looking in, and this is a guy who thought he knew what was going on from what he saw on the news. But he went over there and found out it was quite different."

The Greatest Beer Run Ever premieres in select theaters and on Apple TV+ on Sept. 30.