There Will Be Blood Summary and Analysis
There Will Be Blood (2007) is a critically acclaimed film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It chronicles the rise of Daniel Plainview, a turn-of-the-century prospector-turned-oilman, and delves into the dark undercurrents of ambition and greed in the American frontier. Set against the backdrop of California’s early oil boom, the film offers a gripping portrait of a man who will stop at nothing to build an empire.
This summary and analysis will retell the key plot points, provide a deep Daniel Plainview analysis, and explore the There Will Be Blood themes of ambition, greed, capitalism, faith, loneliness, and legacy. In the process, we draw parallels to modern capitalism and contemporary issues, examining how this period drama’s message resonates in today’s world. The tone here is clear, direct, and impactful – a Hemingway-esque recounting that lays bare the film’s meaning while maintaining the dramatic intensity of its storytelling.
Key Plot Points
The Rise of an Oil Man: The film’s story begins in 1898 with Daniel Plainview as a solitary prospector digging for precious minerals in the American Southwest. After a serious accident in a mine, Daniel emerges wounded but determined. By 1902, he has transitioned to drilling for oil in California and strikes his first gusher. An early tragedy soon shapes his life: when a worker is killed in an accident, Daniel adopts the man’s orphaned baby son. He names the boy H.W. and raises him as his own. Daniel uses H.W. to help portray himself as a trustworthy family man to landowners and investors, but beneath that friendly facade he remains ruthlessly focused on the oil business and profit.
A Tip about Little Boston: By 1911, Daniel Plainview has established himself in the oil business and is searching for his next big strike. He is approached by a young man, Paul Sunday, who offers to sell information about oil on his family’s property in Little Boston, California. Sensing a golden opportunity, Daniel and H.W. travel to the remote desert township of Little Boston under the pretense of quail hunting to scout the land. On the Sunday ranch, Daniel finds clear signs of abundant oil. He meets Paul’s twin brother, Eli Sunday, the local preacher. Daniel strikes a bargain to buy the Sunday farm at a low price, agreeing to pay Eli $5,000 for the church as part of the deal. With the Sunday land secured, Daniel begins snapping up surrounding properties for drilling. Only one farmer, a man named William Bandy, refuses to sell his tract – an obstacle Daniel postpones dealing with for the time being.
Conflict with Eli Sunday: Tensions between Daniel and Eli flare as soon as drilling begins. Eli, as the local pastor, insists on blessing the oil well before work starts, but Daniel pointedly refuses and commences drilling without him. This slight sets the two men at odds, each resentful of the other’s influence. Not long into the operation, misfortune strikes the Little Boston well: one worker is killed in an accident, and shortly thereafter a high-pressure gas blowout triggers a massive gusher that bursts into flames. The oil strike is an economic triumph for Daniel, but it comes at a personal cost – young H.W. is too close to the explosion and loses his hearing. Daniel manages to pull H.W. to safety, but as the derrick burns, he oscillates between genuine panic for his son and a grim satisfaction that the inferno signifies a huge oil find. In the aftermath, Eli confronts Daniel about the promised $5,000 donation that Daniel has withheld. Wracked with guilt over H.W. and angered by Eli’s demands, Daniel snaps. He grabs Eli and viciously slams him into the mud, beating and dragging the preacher in front of everyone. Covered in oil and humiliation, Eli is left speechless as Daniel snarls at him to take the money. That evening, the wounded Eli unleashes his frustration on his father, lambasting him for having trusted Daniel’s deal.
Betrayal and Loss: H.W.’s deafness creates a painful rift between father and son. The boy grows frustrated and isolated, and Daniel – increasingly absorbed in his business – struggles to communicate or comfort him. In the midst of this strain, a drifter arrives at Daniel’s camp claiming to be Henry Plainview, Daniel’s estranged half-brother. Yearning for a genuine familial bond, Daniel welcomes “Henry” and gives him work. Young H.W., however, senses something amiss about the newcomer and even attempts a drastic act (setting fire to their cabin) in a bid to get rid of him. Unable to handle H.W.’s outburst and special needs, Daniel decides to send his son away to a residential school for the deaf in San Francisco. This cold decision marks a turning point – Daniel effectively chooses his oil ventures over his child.
With H.W. gone, Daniel grows close to the man he believes is his brother. In a rare moment of openness, Daniel confides in “Henry” that “I have a competition in me” – an admission that he hates seeing others succeed and is driven by pure rivalry. But before long, Daniel begins noticing inconsistencies in Henry’s stories. One night, he confronts the man at gunpoint and demands the truth. The impostor breaks down and confesses: he is not Daniel’s brother at all. The real Henry Plainview had died, and this fraud assumed his identity hoping to share in Daniel’s fortune. Realizing he’s been deceived, Daniel flies into a rage and kills the man on the spot. After burying the body, Daniel spends the night drinking next to the grave, reading the real Henry’s diary and weeping – mourning both his lost brother and the collapse of his last hope for authentic family.
The following morning, William Bandy – the one holdout landowner in Little Boston – comes to Daniel with a proposition. Having discovered Daniel’s crime, Bandy offers to keep quiet and grant Daniel the needed pipeline route through his ranch, on the condition that Daniel repent and be baptized in Eli Sunday’s church. Desperate to complete his pipeline to the ocean, Daniel grudgingly agrees to Bandy’s terms.
“I Abandon My Child!”: Daniel follows through on his promise to Bandy by subjecting himself to baptism at Eli’s church. In front of the congregation, Eli cannot resist turning the ritual into a personal humiliation for Daniel. With theatrical zeal, Eli leads the ceremony, shouting for Daniel to be washed of his sins and prompting him to confess “I’ve abandoned my child!” again and again. Eli even strikes Daniel, spurring him louder. The proud oilman is brought low, choking on tears as he’s forced to publicly acknowledge how he forsook H.W. for the sake of fortune. Though presented as salvation, the spectacle is really Eli’s revenge for the beating he suffered. Daniel endures the ordeal solely because it wins him the prize he needs – the pipeline. As soon as he’s dunked and ostensibly “saved,” Daniel’s deal is secured and he has access to Bandy’s land. Walking out of the church, Daniel leans to Eli and hisses, “There’s the pipeline.” In that moment it’s clear: Daniel’s repentance was purely business.
With the pipeline built, Daniel’s empire expands and his wealth soars. H.W. returns from school and rejoins his father. On the surface, Daniel appears to have achieved everything he ever wanted – he is now a rich, powerful oil tycoon with a family by his side. However, the coming final chapter will show how hollow his victory truly is.
Years Later – “I’m Finished”: The story skips ahead to 1927. Daniel Plainview is now immensely wealthy but a shadow of the man he once was. He lives isolated in a lavish mansion, spending his days in a drunken haze, often lurching around a private bowling alley beneath his home. His success has brought him no peace – only solitude and bitterness. H.W., now grown into a young man, returns to visit his father with an important announcement. He intends to start his own oil business in Mexico, independent of Daniel. Rather than show pride or support, Daniel reacts with fury. He cruelly mocks H.W.’s deafness and then reveals the bitter truth: H.W. is not his biological son, but merely an orphaned boy Daniel took in. In a torrent of verbal abuse, Daniel calls him “a bastard in a basket” and declares that H.W. was nothing more than a business prop to help win deals. Stunned and hurt, H.W. tells Daniel he’s glad to have no blood relation to him and leaves. With his son gone for good, Daniel has finally succeeded in cutting himself off from everyone.
The Final Confrontation: Not long after this, Eli Sunday comes to Daniel’s mansion for one last meeting. It is the late 1920s and Eli – now a down-on-his-luck radio preacher – is desperate for cash. He proposes that Daniel partner with him to finally drill on William Bandy’s land (Bandy has recently died and his grandson is willing to sell). Eli hopes to profit from the oil that might remain there. Unbeknownst to him, Daniel has already extracted that oil. With cruel glee, Daniel reveals that he used nearby wells to drain Bandy’s oil field dry. He illustrates the point with a flamboyant metaphor: “I drink your milkshake!” – boasting that he has sucked up Eli’s oil fortune from under him.
Daniel then proceeds to completely unmask and degrade Eli. He feigns interest in Eli’s deal only on the condition that Eli renounce his faith. Cornered by poverty, Eli weakly agrees. At Daniel’s command, the trembling pastor loudly declares he is a false prophet and that God is a superstition. Once Eli has stripped himself of all dignity, Daniel drops the act. He tells Eli there will be no deal and cruelly mocks him for his failures (even taunting that Eli’s smarter twin brother Paul got rich and left him behind). Eli collapses in sobs, realising he has lost everything. This only fuels Daniel’s rage. He chases Eli around the bowling alley and savagely bludgeons him to death with a bowling pin. When Daniel’s butler hesitantly comes down to investigate the commotion, he finds Daniel panting over Eli’s bloodied body. In exhausted finality, Daniel looks up and declares, “I’m finished.”
Daniel Plainview: Character Analysis
Daniel Plainview is a study in ruthless ambition and the human cost of unchecked greed. He starts as a solitary prospector chiseling out a living from rock and ends up a wealthy oil baron – embodying the raw, competitive spirit of American capitalism. On the surface, Daniel can be charismatic and disarmingly plain-spoken. He often plays the role of the friendly family businessman, talking of bringing roads and schools to new towns. This facade of benevolence wins over landowners and communities, but behind it Daniel’s heart beats only for profit and power. Every warm smile and fatherly introduction is a calculated move to get what he wants.
Yet Daniel is not a caricature; the film exposes slivers of genuine feeling within him. He shows affection for young H.W. in the early days, and when disaster strikes – like H.W.’s injury in the oil blowout – Daniel’s panic reveals he does care. His guilt-laden cry during the church baptism (“I’ve abandoned my child!”) is agonising evidence that Daniel is capable of remorse. However, these human impulses are gradually choked off by his all-consuming obsession with success. Daniel admits at one point that “I have a competition in me” and that he hates seeing anyone else succeed. This blunt confession lays bare his worldview: life is a zero-sum contest that he must win at all costs. As his fortune grows, so does his cynicism and paranoia. He trusts no one, pushing away even those he once loved. By the film’s end, Daniel has morphed from a driven entrepreneur into a vindictive, isolated tyrant – a man whose wealth has devoured his soul. Daniel Day-Lewis’s riveting performance amplifies this transformation, making Plainview both mesmerizing and terrifying. In the final tally, Daniel Plainview stands as a cautionary figure of hubris: a man who gained the world and lost himself, leaving behind only loneliness and ruin.
Central Themes
Ambition and Greed: The most evident theme driving There Will Be Blood is unbridled ambition leading to greed. Daniel Plainview’s hunger for success is all-consuming. His ambition begins as a desire to build something out of the barren earth, a classic rags-to-riches pursuit. However, as oil gushes and riches roll in, that ambition warps into monstrous greed. Daniel is willing to sacrifice lives and relationships alike to feed his rise. The film portrays how great fortunes in the American West were often born from ruthless tactics and moral compromise. Greed propels Daniel to lie, cheat, and strong-arm his way to dominance. Yet, greed is shown as a double-edged sword: the more Daniel feeds it, the more isolated and bitter he becomes. By the end, his wealth is vast but brings no joy or purpose beyond itself.
Capitalism and Competition: There Will Be Blood is frequently interpreted as a parable about the rise of modern capitalism. Daniel Plainview is essentially a one-man corporation, an early 20th-century tycoon cut from the same cloth as real oil barons and robber barons of American history. The film illustrates the cutthroat nature of capitalist competition: Daniel competes with rival oil companies and with anyone who stands in his way. His famous admission – that he has a competition in him and dislikes seeing others succeed – speaks to the heart of capitalism’s adversarial spirit. At the dawn of the oil age, Daniel buys land cheaply from unsuspecting farmers and brings change to Little Boston – creating new jobs but also new dangers. The film doesn’t lecture with overt commentary, but through Daniel’s journey it shows both the creative and destructive sides of capitalism. Oil money builds towns and fortunes, but it also leaves ruin in its wake – accidents, exploitation, and upheaval. By the time Daniel builds his pipeline, we witness the birth of the modern oil industry – a template for corporate empires to come. The film suggests that the competitive drive at capitalism’s core is both creative and destructive, breeding innovation while fostering a ruthless winner-takes-all mentality.
Faith and Religion: Running parallel to the narrative of oil and money is a critical exploration of faith, fervor, and religious exploitation. Eli Sunday and Daniel Plainview represent two pillars of early American society – the Church and Big Business – and they are in constant competition for authority and influence. Eli, as a young charismatic preacher, ostensibly seeks to save souls and serve God, but the film subtly questions his sincerity. Eli’s church healing sessions and dramatic sermons border on performance. He craves validation, power over his flock, and a slice of the economic action (he’s not shy to demand money for his church). In one sense, Eli is as much an opportunist as Daniel – only his commodity is religion. The clashes between Eli and Daniel are laden with symbolic meaning. When Daniel violently baptises Eli in oil and drags him through the mud, it’s a dramatic power struggle between capitalism and the church. Later, when Eli forces Daniel to kneel and confess, it’s payback as well as a depiction of religious hypocrisy – Eli is using his position not to grant genuine absolution but to settle scores. There Will Be Blood depicts how faith can be co-opted or corrupted when it intersects with greed. By the end, Eli’s betrayal of his own faith in exchange for money (and Daniel’s deranged triumph over him) suggests that, in this story, capitalism has soundly beaten the church at its own game. The film leaves us pondering the irony that both Daniel and Eli claim to be doing good for the community (one building the future, one saving souls), yet both are ultimately driven by self-interest and end up destroying each other.
Loneliness and Family: Amid the drilling rigs and sermons, the film is at its core also a tragic story of family – or the lack thereof. Loneliness seeps into the edges of every frame as Daniel Plainview’s empire grows. In the beginning, H.W. provides Daniel with a semblance of family, and their bond, however calculated on Daniel’s part, still humanises him. We see tender moments, like Daniel playing with the baby H.W. or teaching him to call him “Dad.” But as Daniel’s obsession with oil intensifies, his ability to maintain human connections deteriorates. H.W.’s deafness creates a wall between father and son, one that Daniel is too impatient and selfish to try to break through (he never learns sign language, for instance). The act of sending H.W. away is effectively Daniel severing the only loving relationship he had. From that point on, Daniel spirals deeper into solitude. The arrival of “brother” Henry briefly offers hope of kinship, but that too is an illusion. By 1927, Daniel is physically surrounded by luxury and ostensibly has what men strive for, but he is emotionally utterly alone. His house is as empty as his heart. Loneliness in There Will Be Blood is shown to be the end result of a life built on distrust and aggression. Daniel cannot stand to share success or affection, so he ends up with neither. The emptiness that hangs over the final scenes, with Daniel drunkenly muttering to himself in his mansion, underscores the point: what good is an empire if you have walled yourself off from all love and human warmth?
Legacy and the Cost of Success: There Will Be Blood invites us to consider what legacy Daniel Plainview will leave behind. Legacy is a theme tied closely to family and ambition in the film. Daniel’s initial outward narrative is about building a legacy – he sells himself as a family man creating a prosperous future for communities and for his son. However, by the conclusion, that narrative is revealed as hollow propaganda. Daniel’s true legacy is measured in oil wells and blood, not a thriving family or community goodwill. We see a bitter irony in H.W.’s fate: the child who might have been Daniel’s heir is instead driven away to start a separate life, specifically so he won’t become like Daniel. Daniel effectively ensures that his family line ends with him – his “success” doesn’t pass down lovingly to the next generation, it repels it. The final words “I’m finished” signify that Daniel has completed the only thing he ever truly cared about – defeating all competition – and in doing so he has also finished any chance of redemption or a positive legacy. The cost of his success is total: it costs him his soul, his family, and his sanity. At the end of his life, no one remains by Daniel’s side; his only legacy is a cautionary tale – a legacy of greed that yields nothing but loneliness and destruction.
Modern-Day Parallels
Though set a century ago, There Will Be Blood resonates strongly with issues in our contemporary world, drawing modern capitalism parallels that feel startlingly relevant. The character of Daniel Plainview can be seen as a precursor to today’s titan CEOs and billionaires. His ruthless pursuit of oil wealth mirrors the drive of modern corporate moguls in industries ranging from fossil fuels to tech. Corporate power today often manifests in single-minded leaders who dominate markets, much like Daniel cornered the oil in Little Boston. We see echoes of Plainview’s cutthroat tactics in present-day corporate giants that crush competition, lobby for control of resources, or exploit loopholes to expand their empires. The film’s depiction of early wealth inequality – where one man’s fortune explodes while those around him see little long-term benefit – also parallels today’s stark divide between the ultra-rich and the rest of society. Daniel’s drilling also highlights the era’s casual approach to the environment – he pollutes and exploits the land with little concern. This attitude prefigures modern environmental crises born from the relentless quest for oil and profit that began in his time.
The struggle between Daniel and Eli also foreshadows the ongoing tension between secular power and religious influence in society. Religious manipulation, as shown through Eli Sunday, has its modern equivalents in televangelists, mega-church leaders, or cults of personality that use faith as a pathway to personal power and wealth. Eli’s charismatic but ultimately self-serving brand of religion brings to mind contemporary figures who prey on the faithful, promising salvation or prosperity while lining their own pockets. The film’s critical eye on Eli suggests a warning about any faith leader who might be more interested in fame or money than true spiritual guidance – a scenario all too familiar in modern scandals involving religious institutions.
Daniel Plainview’s entrepreneurial obsession is another aspect with modern resonance. In Silicon Valley boardrooms or Wall Street firms, we often hear of leaders who sacrifice family life, personal health, and moral considerations at the altar of business success. Daniel’s inability to balance human relationships with ambition is a narrative that still plays out today, where “workaholic” culture and the myth of the lone visionary can sometimes justify toxic behaviour. Entrepreneurs celebrated as visionaries today often mirror Daniel’s isolation and ethical lapses when their obsession with winning eclipses all other values. The film thus serves as a mirror to the cult of success in modern capitalist culture, prompting us to question what is lost when someone decides they must dominate their field at any human cost.
Final Takeaway
In the end, There Will Be Blood offers a searing examination of one man’s rise and fall as a parable of American greed. Its ending starkly reveals the logical conclusion of Daniel Plainview’s lifelong pursuit: he achieves material triumph at the cost of his soul. The final image of Daniel, alone in his mansion after murdering Eli, is a bleak portrait of success turned to ashes. For those pondering the film’s deeper message (the Paul Thomas Anderson film meaning) or wanting its ending explained, one interpretation is clear: There Will Be Blood is a cautionary tale about the corrupting power of ambition and the emptiness that awaits a life driven only by self-interest. The very forces that built modern America – fierce entrepreneurship, competition, and fervent faith – are shown here as double-edged swords that can just as easily destroy lives and communities when unleashed without conscience.
This warning is both timeless and timely. Daniel Plainview’s story mirrors the wider triumphs and pitfalls of modern capitalism, prompting us to ask what we value most: wealth for its own sake, or human connection and integrity. The film ultimately holds up a mirror rather than offering easy answers. We cannot help but admire Daniel’s titanic willpower and success even as we recoil from his cruelty and loneliness. In Daniel, we see the extreme of a mindset that society sometimes still idolises – the ruthless tycoon who “wins” at all costs. And in the end, the film leaves us with a final lesson that resonates in our era: if ambition is not tempered by humanity, one may find himself, like Plainview, wealthy but utterly alone – with nothing left to say but “I’m finished.”
