Plot Summary (There Will Be Blood) There Will Be Blood

Daniel Plainview claws silver from the earth with his bare hands

In 1898, Daniel Plainview works alone in a cramped mine shaft in New Mexico, chipping at rock with a pickaxe. He discovers silver ore, but a fall into the shaft breaks his leg. He drags himself across the desert floor to an assay office, silver sample in hand, and collects his claim. By 1902, he has shifted to oil prospecting near Los Angeles. When an accident at his well kills a worker, Plainview adopts the dead man's infant son, whom he names H.W. The boy becomes a prop — a way to present himself as a family man when pitching landowners on drilling leases. (wikipedia, imdb)

A tip from Paul Sunday sends Plainview to Little Boston

In 1911, a young man named Paul Sunday visits Plainview and, for $500, reveals that his family's ranch in Little Boston, California sits on an ocean of oil. Plainview and H.W. travel to the Sunday ranch, posing as quail hunters to scout the land. He sees oil seeping from the ground and confirms the claim. Plainview negotiates leases with the Sunday family and neighboring ranchers, delivering his pitch as a family man with a son at his side. Paul's twin brother Eli, an ambitious young preacher who leads the Church of the Third Revelation, demands $10,000 from Plainview for the church — a request Plainview agrees to and then ignores. (wikipedia)

The oil brings wealth and the drilling brings disaster

Plainview builds a derrick and begins drilling. An accident kills a worker, and Plainview buries the man quietly, concerned only with keeping production running. A gas blowout erupts from the well, deafening H.W. with the force of the explosion and igniting a fire that burns for days. The well comes in — Plainview has struck a gusher — but his son is now deaf, and Plainview's attention is consumed by the oil, not the boy. He sends H.W. away to a school for the deaf in San Francisco. Eli confronts Plainview about the unpaid church donation, and Plainview beats him, dragging him through the mud and slapping him repeatedly. (wikipedia)

A man claiming to be Plainview's brother exposes Plainview's loneliness

A man named Henry arrives and claims to be Plainview's half-brother, presenting a diary as proof. Plainview, starved for any human connection, takes Henry in and confides in him — revealing his contempt for the people around him and his desire to earn enough money to get away from everyone. But details don't add up, and Plainview eventually forces Henry to admit the truth: he is not Plainview's brother but a friend of the real Henry, who died of tuberculosis. Plainview murders the impostor and buries him in the desert. A hunter who witnessed the burial forces Plainview to submit to a public baptism in Eli's church, where Eli humiliates Plainview before the congregation, slapping him and demanding he confess his sins — including abandoning H.W. (wikipedia)

Plainview secures his pipeline and abandons everything human

Standard Oil offers to buy Plainview's operation, but he refuses, determined to build his own pipeline to the coast rather than let anyone else profit from his oil. The pipeline route requires crossing the Bandy ranch, whose owner makes Plainview's baptism the condition for granting an easement. With the pipeline complete, Plainview's fortune is secured. H.W. returns from the deaf school and reconnects with Mary Sunday, Eli's sister, whom he later marries. But Plainview's isolation deepens. He lives in a mansion, drinks constantly, and sees no one. (wikipedia)

The bowling alley finale destroys both men

By 1927, Plainview lives alone in a cavernous mansion, passed out drunk in his private bowling alley. His butler is his only companion. H.W. visits to tell Plainview he plans to start his own oil company in Mexico. Plainview, enraged, reveals that H.W. is not his biological son — calling him "a bastard from a basket" — and disowns him. Shortly after, Eli Sunday arrives. Eli is now broke, his radio ministry having failed. He offers Plainview drilling rights to the last untapped parcel in Little Boston — the Bandy ranch — in exchange for money. Plainview forces Eli to renounce his faith, making him repeat "I am a false prophet, God is a superstition" over and over. Then Plainview tells Eli the land is worthless — he has already drained it through adjacent wells. Plainview chases Eli through the bowling alley and beats him to death with a bowling pin. When his butler arrives, Plainview says simply: "I'm finished." (wikipedia)