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** Not to mention Eli Sunday (a ShoutOut to real-life preacher Billy Sunday).
** Also Paul.
** Also Paul.
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*** Sunday is a religiously-significant day of the week in Christianity, and the Sunday family also happen to be the most religious family in Little Boston.
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*** Sunday is a religiously-significant day of the week in Christianity, and the Sunday family also happen to be the most religious family in Little Boston. It also [[ShoutOut Shouts Out]] to real-life preacher Billy Sunday.
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*** Mary Sunday is a reference to the Virgin Mary.
**** Or Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus saved from stoning, just as Daniel saved Mary Sunday from further beatings.
**** Or Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus saved from stoning, just as Daniel saved Mary Sunday from further beatings.
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*** Mary Sunday is a reference to the Virgin Mary.
****Mary. Or Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus saved from stoning, just as Daniel saved Mary Sunday from further beatings.
****
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* KickTheSonOfABitch: [[spoiler:While this was a sure sign that Plainview had gone off the deep end, its hard to feel bad for the murder of Eli.]]
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* FauxAffablyEvil: While he can have some genuine moments of humanity, namely with his [[spoiler:fake]] brother and son, Plainview is this, hiding his sociopathic and greedy nature under a civilized demeanor.
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* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.aus
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* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.aus
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** It's more likely from that conversation that Daniel is not a standard textbook sociopath, but more a man so let down by others he feels nothing but contempt.
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Tropes cannot be averted/subverted/whatever \"tragically\"
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* SteelEarDrums: Tragically averted with H.W.
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* SteelEarDrums: Tragically averted Averted with H.W.
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adding an example
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* TheDanza: DanielDayLewis as Daniel Plainview.
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* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that speech is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually a big revelation that comes out in the very last scene.
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* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli (years after the fact, when Eli finally caves and tries to sell him the farm) by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that speech is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually a big revelation that comes out in the very last scene.
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* EnforcedMethodActing: During the baptism scene, Paul Dano is actually smacking Daniel Day-Lewis around.
** Although, knowing Day-Lewis, he probably told him to actually hit him.
** Although, knowing Day-Lewis, he probably told him to actually hit him.
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* EnforcedMethodActing: Daniel Day-Lewis, naturally, went to town. He hit Paul Dano earlier than the intended mark during the scene where Daniel screams at Eli to heal his son. The look of shock when Eli tumbles to the ground is genuine. His hatred of Eli, which he continued even off-camera, led Paul Dano to confess he thought he was actually die during some points of the filming.
** During the baptism scene, Paul Dano is actually smacking Daniel Day-Lewisaround.
** Although, knowing Day-Lewis, he probably told him to actually hit him.around, bringing it around full-circle.
** During the baptism scene, Paul Dano is actually smacking Daniel Day-Lewis
** Although, knowing Day-Lewis, he probably told him to actually hit him.
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** In the 16 year TimeSkip, Eli and Daniel seem relatively unchanged in appearance. Then you remember that [[MeaningfulName both characters represent God and the Devil respectively.]]
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*** YMMV: The first lied about [[spoiler: being Daniel's dead brother and trying to take advantage of his business profits without any intention of revealing the truth until matters forced him to.]] The other insistently tried to take advantage of Daniel's business and interfered with him all for the sake of aiding his Church and his own selfish ends. Even if they didn't exactly deserve to die, I think it's very clear that they were aware of the risks involved when getting in the way of Daniel and his oil industry, and when push comes to shove...
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**What did Eli do to deserve what he got?
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**"they had it coming, through" No they really didn't. Lying doesn't justify murder, neither does slapping people (which is what Daniel did first anyway, therefore is unjustified)
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!!This film ontains examples of:
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!!This film ontains contains examples of:
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**** Or Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus saved from stoning, just as Daniel saved Mary Sunday from further beatings.
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* CameraAbuse: When Plainview attacks Eli at the climax, he knocks over a bucket of water, some of which gets on the lens.
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** Eli also seems to be trapped in a perpetual villainous breakdown. Even when he's "winning", he comes across as desperately strung-out.
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article buys too much of Daniel\'s own bullshit about being one-dimensionally evil - end was NOT what he actually wanted, and he didn\'t raise some kid as his own just to sell oil
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** Being completely alone was actually what he wanted all along, it might sound sick but this is more a case of EarnYourHappyEnding.
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** Being Of course, being rich enough to be completely alone was actually what he wanted claimed to want all along, it might sound sick but this is more we repeatedly see he still wanted a case of EarnYourHappyEnding.family and took their perceived "betrayals" with crippling pain and frustration.
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* StepfordSmiler: Daniel Plainview spends much of the movie in his public persona, trying to charm people into selling him the right to drill for oil on their land. [[spoiler: He even goes so far as to pass off the son of a deceased oil worker as his own.]]
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* StepfordSmiler: Daniel Plainview spends much of the movie in his public persona, trying to charm people into selling him the right to drill for oil on their land. [[spoiler: He even goes so far uses his own son as to pass off an appealing "face" for the son of a deceased oil worker as company and his own.]]image as a "family man".
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* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler: The murders of Henry and Eli]], but averted with the deaths of two workers down Daniel's wells.
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* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler: The murders deaths of Henry H.W.'s biological father and Eli]], but averted with the deaths death of two workers a worker down Daniel's wells.
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* IHaveNoSon: Justified. In the second-to-last scene, Daniel reveals to H.W that was the son of the worker that died down Daniel's his well at the beginning, and Daniel adopted him because he needed a pretty face to help him make business deals.
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* IHaveNoSon: Justified."Justified". In the second-to-last scene, Daniel reveals to H.W that was the son of the worker that died down Daniel's his well at the beginning, and Daniel claims to have adopted him just because he needed a pretty face to help him make business deals.
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* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.
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* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.aus
** An odd case, but plausible for the jump between late teens and early thirties, especially for somebody as dedicatedly clean-living as Eli.
** An odd case, but plausible for the jump between late teens and early thirties, especially for somebody as dedicatedly clean-living as Eli.
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** "You're just the afterbirth that ''slithered'' out of your mother's ''filth''! They should have put you in a ''glass jar'' on the mantlepiece. Stop crying you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense!"
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** "You're just the afterbirth that ''slithered'' out of on your mother's ''filth''! They should have put you in a ''glass jar'' on the mantlepiece. Stop crying you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense!"
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* TheSociopath: As has been mentioned, the film is less about the events that happen, and more about the character of Daniel Plainview, and realizing that this is what he is. At first, Daniel seems to simply not like social interactions because many of the people he deals with are quite petty, but in a discussion with his [[spoiler: fake]] brother, he has this rather revealing conversation with him:
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* TheSociopath: As has been mentioned, the film is less about the events that happen, and more about the character of Daniel Plainview, and realizing that this is what he is. At first, Daniel seems to simply not like social interactions because many of the people he deals with are quite petty, but in a discussion with his [[spoiler: fake]] previously estranged brother, he has this rather revealing conversation with him:
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Not a rock band
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->''I went to see that film,'' ThereWillBeBlood''. I mean, it's a fucking great title. Somebody says to you, "'d'ye fancy going to see a film?'" "'Oh well, I don't know, will there be blood?'" ''"'ThereWillBeBlood,'"'' right? "'I'm in, I'm in.'" I mean that is [[GoodNameForARockBand a fucking great title for a film]], I mean, you couldn't have a better title. Apart from maybe'' [[{{Fanservice}} There Will Be Tits]]''. You could have a cinema that just shows'' There Will Be Blood'', and ''There Will Be Tits'', and you don't need any other films! That's the end of cinema right there...Anyway, I went to see ''There Will Be Blood'' - and [[NonIndicativeName there wasn't any fucking blood!]].''
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->''I went to see that film,'' ThereWillBeBlood''. I mean, it's a fucking great title. Somebody says to you, "'d'ye fancy going to see a film?'" "'Oh well, I don't know, will there be blood?'" ''"'ThereWillBeBlood,'"'' right? "'I'm in, I'm in.'" I mean that is [[GoodNameForARockBand a fucking great title for a film]], film, I mean, you couldn't have a better title. Apart from maybe'' [[{{Fanservice}} There Will Be Tits]]''. You could have a cinema that just shows'' There Will Be Blood'', and ''There Will Be Tits'', and you don't need any other films! That's the end of cinema right there...Anyway, I went to see ''There Will Be Blood'' - and [[NonIndicativeName there wasn't any fucking blood!]].''
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Crosswicking.
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!!Contains examples of:
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* DeniedParody: While the film is about the dual corrupting powers of capitalism (specifically oil-related capitalism) and religion, Paul Thomas Anderson maintains that it had nothing to do with the presidency of George W. Bush.
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-->'''[[ViolentGlaswegian Jamie MacDonald]]''', ''InTheLoop''
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-->'''[[ViolentGlaswegian Jamie MacDonald]]''', ''InTheLoop''''InTheLoop''
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* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that scene is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually the final scene.
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* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that scene speech is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually a big revelation that comes out in the final very last scene.
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* AllThereIsToKnowAboutTheCryingGame: [[spoiler: Daniel drains the oil from under Eli's farm without his knowledge, then mockingly reveals it to Eli by likening it to drinking a milkshake with a giant straw.]] Though that scene is the only thing about the film that many people know, it's actually the final scene.
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Added page-ender, because funny.
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----
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->''I went to see that film,'' ThereWillBeBlood''. I mean, it's a fucking great title. Somebody says to you, "'d'ye fancy going to see a film?'" "'Oh well, I don't know, will there be blood?'" ''"'ThereWillBeBlood,'"'' right? "'I'm in, I'm in.'" I mean that is [[GoodNameForARockBand a fucking great title for a film]], I mean, you couldn't have a better title. Apart from maybe'' [[{{Fanservice}} There Will Be Tits]]''. You could have a cinema that just shows'' There Will Be Blood'', and ''There Will Be Tits'', and you don't need any other films! That's the end of cinema right there...Anyway, I went to see ''There Will Be Blood'' - and [[NonIndicativeName there wasn't any fucking blood!]].''
-->'''[[ViolentGlaswegian Jamie MacDonald]]''', ''InTheLoop''
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Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes cleanup.
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* AntiHero: Daniel is a [[SlidingScaleofAntiHeroes Type V]]
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* AntiHero: Daniel is a [[SlidingScaleofAntiHeroes Type V]]NominalHero.
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* MisterDanger: [[RuleOfThree Daniel again]].
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Moving to trivia.
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* TheDanza: The main character is played by Daniel "Plainview" Day-Lewis, and the Eli's twin brother is named Paul, who are both played by Paul Dano.
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* NietzscheWannabe: Guess who??
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* NietzscheWannabe: Guess who??who?
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* PopStarComposer: [[{{Radiohead}} Jonny Greenwood]] composed the score, but also used classical cues and some of his own previous score from the documentary ''Bodysong''.
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* PopStarComposer: [[{{Radiohead}} [[Music/{{Radiohead}} Jonny Greenwood]] composed the score, but also used classical cues and some of his own previous score from the documentary ''Bodysong''.
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* SmugSnake - Eli Sunday is a great example of this trope. He can be charming and charismatic but when faced with a bigger bully than himself he breaks down [[DirtyCoward screaming and crying]]. He has no trouble beating up his dad but when Daniel drags him through a pool of mud he barely tries to defend himself.
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* SmugSnake - SmugSnake: Eli Sunday is a great example of this trope. He can be charming and charismatic but when faced with a bigger bully than himself he breaks down [[DirtyCoward screaming and crying]]. He has no trouble beating up his dad but when Daniel drags him through a pool of mud he barely tries to defend himself.
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* TrashtheSet: In that impressive, dramatic scene where the oil derrick burns, how do you think they made it look so real? They burned the derrick.
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* TrashtheSet: TrashTheSet: In that impressive, dramatic scene where the oil derrick burns, how do you think they made it look so real? They burned the derrick.
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A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring [[DanielDayLewis Daniel Day-Lewis]], for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by PaulThomasAnderson, ''ThereWillBeBlood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.
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A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring [[DanielDayLewis Daniel Day-Lewis]], for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by PaulThomasAnderson, ''ThereWillBeBlood'' ''There Will Be Blood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.
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[[redirect:ThereWillBeBlood]]
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->''"What's this? Why don't I own this? '''Why don't I own this?'''"''
A controversial but critically acclaimed 2007 film starring [[DanielDayLewis Daniel Day-Lewis]], for which he won the AcademyAward for Best Actor. Written, directed, and co-produced by PaulThomasAnderson, ''ThereWillBeBlood'' was nominated for seven other {{Academy Award}}s including Best Picture. It also won Best Cinematography for Robert Elswit. Loosely based on the first half of the novel ''Oil!'' by Upton Sinclair.
The story takes place in the late 19th century and early 20th, during the Southern California oil boom. It centers on Daniel Plainview, an oilman who travels the state buying people's land to drill. He is accompanied by his young adopted son and "business partner", H.W. One day he gets a tip from a young man named Paul about undiscovered oil fields on his family's land in Little Boston. As he buys up land in the town and starts drilling, tension builds between Daniel and Paul's twin brother Eli, a young charismatic evangelist who runs the local Church of the Third Revelation.
Despite much difficulty during the drilling, including H.W.'s injury and resulting deafness; Daniel's humiliating baptism at the hands of Eli; and the ''long'' process of building an oil pipeline to avoid shipping costs (which is more dramatic -- and traumatic -- than it sounds), Daniel pulls it off and makes a fortune. But by the end of the movie, it is clear that [[MoralEventHorizon his morality has completely eroded]], and has been dissolving throughout the film.
It is a complex and even confusing movie. Many left the theater asking themselves, "What was that about?" Unlike most Hollywood films, it eschews conventional plotting in order to focus almost entirely on exploring a character. One might say that in this case, the character ''is'' the plot.
Which is not to suggest that not much happens. Plenty happens. And [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin there "is" blood]]. [[Website/{{Cracked}} (But very, very little.)]]
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!!Contains examples of:
* AbusiveParents: Daniel and the Sunday father.
* ActingForTwo: Paul Dano, originally cast as Paul Sunday, took the larger role of Eli Sunday (making the brothers twins) after Kel O'Neill departed the production.
* TheAlcoholic: Daniel.
* AluminumChristmasTrees: Milkshakes aren't a random, unexpected example of AnachronismStew: Milkshakes (at least whiskey and whiskey cream-based ones) have been around by that name since the early-to-mid 1880s, and are appropriate for a metaphor by an alcoholic oil baron.
** PTA also based that line off of an actual quote from U.S. Senator Albert Fall during an oil-related Congressional hearing in the 1920s; it amused Anderson that a term such as "milkshake" would be used as an analogy in a senator's testimony.
* AmbiguouslyGay: The effeminate Eli Sunday, who at the end praises Bandy's grandson's physical beauty, then breaks down crying about having sinned in ways he'd never thought existed. [[spoiler:He may just have been crying about having lost all his money in bad investments.]]
* AntiHero: Daniel is a [[SlidingScaleofAntiHeroes Type V]]
* ArcWords: Played with; Daniel Plainview's name as an interrogative apostrophe serves the role of ArcWords, ''but'' the characters use different variations rather than always the same form ("Mister Plainview?", "Daniel Plainview?", "Daniel?", "Mister Daniel?"…)
* BadassMoustache: Daniel's got one.
* BerserkButton: Don't ever tell Daniel how to run his family. ''Ever''.
** "One night I'm going to come to you, inside of your house, wherever you're sleeping, and I'm going to cut your throat."
* BlackAndGrayMorality: There aren't many sympathetic characters in this movie. H.W. and Mary Sunday are probably the only ones.
* BlackComedy: Though not a comedy itself, the film is filled with darkly comic moments and scenes that are simultaneously absurd and horrifying.
* TheCaligula: Daniel.
* TheChessmaster: Daniel.
* ConversationCasualty: Daniel Plainview wakes up the man who claims to be his brother, and forces him at gunpoint to say who he really is. During the man's confession, Daniel puts away the gun. When the man is done explaining himself, however, Daniel unexpectedly draws the gun again and kills him.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Daniel Plainview, of course.
* TheDanza: The main character is played by Daniel "Plainview" Day-Lewis, and the Eli's twin brother is named Paul, who are both played by Paul Dano.
* DayOfTheWeekName: The Sundays.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: Daniel's half-brother, Henry, who shows up all of a sudden [[spoiler: later turns out to be an impostor. He knew Daniel's real half-brother, who died of tuberculosis, and took his identity so he could get work with Daniel.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: When Mr. Plainview buys the Sunday Family land, the women are dismissed from talking business. Surprisingly, Mr. Plainview is actually less dissonant than the rest of the community.
* DevilInPlainSight: Daniel is the devil in ''plain view''. Get it?
* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Deaf actor Russell Harvard as an older H.W. Plainview.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: H.W. and Mary, presumably, and they're the only characters that deserve it.
* EnforcedMethodActing: During the baptism scene, Paul Dano is actually smacking Daniel Day-Lewis around.
** Although, knowing Day-Lewis, he probably told him to actually hit him.
* EnthusiasmVersusStoicism
* EvilVersusEvil: Let's see, in the left corner we have an (in the beginning) indifferent to life, determined miner who just wants to earn a living. In span of two hours he cheats folks in California to basically work for him like oxes and give him oil to sell, personally kills few people (they had it coming, through), abandons his son because he.. failed him, takes pleasure from dominating everybody and generally perceives the world as much more evil than he is. In the right corner, we have a cowardly, hypocritical preacher who bullies his father and manipulates members of his church. Also, he ultimately sells his soul to Daniel in the end, complete with swift one-way ticket to Hell. Gentlemen, place your bets.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Anderson adapted only the opening chapters of Sinclair's novel. The book ''Oil!'' actually is about the life of H.W.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Daniel Plainview starts out as a dirtied gold-seeker just trying to find some rare minerals without blowing himself up with his own TNT. By the end of the story he has stepped on anyone he has needed to in order to advance his own goals, exploited just about anyone with a speaking role, and killed anyone who betrayed him.
* GoodColorsEvilColors: Oil equals corruption, milk equals kindness. (or "evil" and "good" if you prefer)
* GoryDiscretionShot: [[spoiler: The murders of Henry and Eli]], but averted with the deaths of two workers down Daniel's wells.
* HamToHamCombat: Pretty much any exchange between Daniel and Eli.
* HappyFlashback: A couple of quick, heartbreakingly affectionate moments between Daniel and young H.W., right after Daniel casts adult H.W. out of the house.
* {{Hypocrite}}: Daniel ensures that Mary Sunday is no longer hit by her father for not saying her prayers (for whatever motive, see PetTheDog below,) but when one of his competitors makes a suggestion about spending more time with H.W Daniel furiously demands "[[BerserkButton Did you just tell me how to run my family?]]" and tells him he'll cut his throat. He reminds the man of this moment when he humiliates him in the restaurant later, pointing out how he ''is'' spending time with H.W (who has just that day come back from being sent away to boarding school for ages).
** Daniel actually has a lot of moments of this, as he manipulates and bullies people into doing what he wants by faking care. For one example, there's the way he gets the townsfolk to sell them his land; he makes an impassioned speech about how "it is an abomination to [him], that in this great country of ours, any child should look upon a loaf of bread as a luxury" while promising to bring them wealth. His oil ''does'' bring them wealth, but Daniel couldn't care less about any of them, and holds them in total contempt.
* IHaveNoSon: Justified. In the second-to-last scene, Daniel reveals to H.W that was the son of the worker that died down Daniel's his well at the beginning, and Daniel adopted him because he needed a pretty face to help him make business deals.
* JerkAss: Daniel, though Eli isn't much better.
* LargeHam: Who do you think? Daniel is the very ''definition'' of this trope. More memorable scenes include Daniel [[spoiler: murdering his impostor half-brother]], yelling with a napkin over his head in a posh restaurant, [[spoiler: killing Eli]], [[spoiler: "disowning" his son and taunting him for being a]] '''"bastard from a basket!"''' and of course the ''"I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!"'' lines, along with the visual acting out of the analogy. (''*slurrrrp!*'')
** Eli Sunday is a pretty LargeHam himself, first seen when he appears to exorcise a woman with arthritis at the start, and again when he puts Plainview though his embarrassing 'baptism' experience.
** '''I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I AM HE WHO THE LORD HAS CHOSEN! BECAUSE I'M''' '''''SMARTER''''' '''THAN YOU! I'M OLDER, AND BECAUSE I'M NOT A FALSE PROPHET, YOU SNIVELLING BOY! I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I AM THE THIRD REVELATION! I TOLD YOU I WOULD EAT YOU! I TOLD YOU I WOULD EAT YOU UP!'''
** '''DRAAAAAAAAAINAGE! DRAINAGE, ELI, YOU ''BOY!!!'''''
* LeaveTheCameraRunning: There are a lot of long, uninterrupted shots in the film, especially during the opening sequence.
* ManipulativeBastard: Both Daniel & Eli.
* MeaningfulName: Daniel ''Plainview''. Just in case you don't quite get it, it's referring to the saying "Devil in plain view."
** Not to mention Eli Sunday (a ShoutOut to real-life preacher Billy Sunday).
** Also Paul.
** H.W. is never given a full name, because Daniel never sees him as a complete person.
** The entire Sunday family
*** Sunday is a religiously-significant day of the week in Christianity, and the Sunday family also happen to be the most religious family in Little Boston.
*** Paul Sunday is named after Paul the Apostle. The biblical Paul received a revelation of Jesus and then spread the gospel. Similarly, Paul Sunday receives oil money from Plainview and then uses that to spread out into new oil fields. Also, Paul the Apostle claimed a distinct separation from the church in Jerusalem, just as Paul Sunday is separate from the rest of his family.
*** Eli Sunday is named after Eli, which is both the Hebrew name of God as well as a Biblical Israeli judge. There is irony in the divine interpretation of the name, because although Eli Sunday starts his own church to preach his own gospel (as if he were God) he is shown to be instead incredibly immoral and powerless, unable to heal H.W. and easily physically subdued. The Biblical judge Eli dies suddenly after learning that his power has suddenly been stripped from him, a close parallel to Eli Sunday's powerless desperation after the Great Depression.
*** Abel Sunday is named after Abel, a son of Adam and Eve who was murdered by his brother Cain. Both Abels are shepherds. Abel is regarded as the first victim of evil in the Bible, and the cinematic Abel is the first one to sell his land to Plainview.
*** Mary Sunday is a reference to the Virgin Mary.
* MindRape: Daniel lays a truly savage one on Eli in the climax, reducing the man to tears. For bonus points, we only have Daniel's word on [[spoiler: Paul's success and the drainage of Eli's land]], but his delivery is strong enough that the victim doesn't question it. [[spoiler: and then he bashes Eli's brains out with an old-timey wood bowling pin.]]
** [[spoiler: While he could be telling the truth, he did lie to Eli to twist him up with brother/jealousy issues. He said he gave Paul $10,000 dollars for the information, when really he only gave him $500. Eli has spent much of the film trying to get paid $5000 for selling his land, while Daniel has made a disgustingly large fortune off of it.]]
* MisanthropeSupreme: Daniel does ''not'' like people.
* MisterDanger: [[RuleOfThree Daniel again]].
* MoodDissonance: For some people, the final scene goes from hilarious to utterly horrifying when [[spoiler: Daniel murders Eli]]. [[TropesAreNotBad Yes, the narm actually makes the film better.]]
* MoralityChain: It doesn't stop him from [[spoiler:murdering his fake brother Henry]], but his relationship with H.W. seems to be the only tenuous link keeping Daniel attached to the rest of the human race.
** And [[spoiler: before he found out that he was a fake]], Henry, too; as he mentioned that the man's arrival gave him "a second breath of life."
* MuggingTheMonster: The baptism scene. One can argue that Eli knew damn well what he was doing, especially considering how he emphasizes the [[BerserkButton child abandonment]], but slapping and humiliating a man like that in front of god and company was not the wisest decision Eli Sunday ever made.
* NiceHat: Daniel's got one.
* NietzscheWannabe: Guess who??
* OlderThanTheyLook: Despite the 16 year TimeSkip, no makeup is used to make Paul Dano look any older in the final scene, for... some reason.
* OscarBait
* ParallelPornTitles: There exists one called ''There Will Be Cum''.
* {{Parody}}: There will be ''Bud'', a Youtube trailer for a film about a man's rise to power among the hippies of Southern California.
** ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HflLVEWbigI Darth Vader vs. Daniel Plainview]]''. Guess who comes across as more sinister?
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' I've ''broken'' you and I've ''beaten'' you. You are '''''not''''' my son. ('''Luke:''' No...)
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' It's true. You're not my son. You're an-- ORPHAN from a ''basket'' in the middle of the '''''desert.'''''
-->'''Luke:''' That's not true! That's ''impossible!'' NOOOO!
-->'''Darth Plainview:''' Stop crying, you snivelling ''ass''. Stop your nonsense. Whoo-hoo... ''Look at'' me! You're lower than a bastard. You're nothing but an... afterbirth that crawled out on its mother's filth. ''([[GlovedFistOfDoom grasps fist]])''
* PetTheDog: The film is peppered with these moments, but Daniel's motives are ambiguous, the film often offering darker explanations.
** Daniel is kind to the youngest Sunday daughter and ensures that she is no longer beaten by her father for not praying. However, even this act of kindness could be a tainted act for Daniel. While asking the girl if her father still hits her, Daniel's glance at said father suggests a motive of dominance.
** One of the main points of the movie is just how much H.W. is or is not a PetTheDog / MoralityPet for Plainview. In their final confrontation Plainview tells H.W. that he was exactly this: Daniel adopted H.W. because he believed posing as a family man would help him talk people into selling their oil rights to him. Yet the movie seems to suggest that Daniel did in fact love his son as much as he could love anything. Note the embrace when H.W. comes back from school, or Daniel's rage when his parenting skills are questioned, or Daniel's anguished "I abandoned my boy" when Eli makes him confess in front of the congregation. Most poignant is the quick flashback at the end, after Daniel has disowned H.W., when we see affectionate moments between father and son, followed by Daniel drinking heavily.
*** Also, when H.W loses his hearing, Daniel's frantic questions of where he got hurt, and that he has to tell them if his head got damaged, his fear looks genuine. While it's true that he then seems more concerned with the oil than H.W's health (calmly replying "No, he isn't" when someone asks if H.W is OK,) that moment suggests that he does care to some extent.
* PopStarComposer: [[{{Radiohead}} Jonny Greenwood]] composed the score, but also used classical cues and some of his own previous score from the documentary ''Bodysong''.
* PsychoStrings: That's pretty much the whole soundtrack.
** With the occasional DroneOfDread to enforce the point.
* PunctuatedForEmphasis: [[MemeticMutation "I! DRINK! YOUR! MILKSHAKE!"]]
* PutOnABus: Daniel abandons his son on a train to a boarding school, and he doesn't appear again until the last few scenes.
* PyrrhicVillainy: Daniel, though unbelievably rich, gave up what morals he had, disowned his son, lives in isolation, is hated by most everyone, and kills a few people in the timeline of the movie.
** Being completely alone was actually what he wanted all along, it might sound sick but this is more a case of EarnYourHappyEnding.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: The milkshake speech is this, combined with some general EvilGloating.
** "You're just the afterbirth that ''slithered'' out of your mother's ''filth''! They should have put you in a ''glass jar'' on the mantlepiece. Stop crying you sniveling ass! Stop your nonsense!"
* SceneryPorn: There's a reason it won an Oscar for cinematography.
* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Eli.
* ShownTheirWork: As it turns out, the milkshake-drinking-as-oilfield-drainage metaphor is actually paraphrased from the 1924 testimony of Sen. Albert Fall, who was convicted of bribery for selling off oil-drilling rights in what became known as the Teapot Dome scandal. One of them men who bribed him was Edward Doheny, the real-life inspiration for both Plainview and his fictional precursor in ''Oil!'', James Arnold Ross.
* SinisterMinister: Eli Sunday is obsessed with his church, and is probably just as power-hungry as Daniel. The weird part is that, even though Eli is greedy, very unforgiving, a mooch, extremely over-the-top, and clearly a wackjob, his church has many followers and grows throughout the film.
* SissyVillain: Eli Sunday.
* SmugSnake - Eli Sunday is a great example of this trope. He can be charming and charismatic but when faced with a bigger bully than himself he breaks down [[DirtyCoward screaming and crying]]. He has no trouble beating up his dad but when Daniel drags him through a pool of mud he barely tries to defend himself.
* SocietyIsToBlame: Arguably one of the major points of the movie, although there is some question as to whether this is [[spoiler: A man with questionable morals being forced down the path to becoming a villain by his peers, who never seem to prove him wrong in his belief that all humans are horrible people that should be shunned or profited from, or whether he was evil to begin with, and society is to blame because it allows him to prosper so much.]]
* TheSociopath: As has been mentioned, the film is less about the events that happen, and more about the character of Daniel Plainview, and realizing that this is what he is. At first, Daniel seems to simply not like social interactions because many of the people he deals with are quite petty, but in a discussion with his [[spoiler: fake]] brother, he has this rather revealing conversation with him:
--> '''Daniel''': "Are you an angry man, Henry?"
--> '''Henry''': "About what?"
--> '''Daniel''': "Are you envious? Do you get envious?"
--> '''Henry''': "I don't think so. No."
--> '''Daniel''': "I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people."
--> '''Henry''': "That part of me is gone... working and not succeeding- all my failures has left me... I just don't... care."
--> '''Daniel''': "Well, if it's in me, it's in you. There are times when I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone."
* SociopathicHero: Daniel.
* SoundtrackDissonance: In the end, the movie lives up to its title. Civilized men return to their animal selves, brutality reigns, blood is had--blackout to credits with a rollicking performance of a Brahms Violin Concerto so you can dance your way out of the theater.
** Done earlier in the film for the opposite effect - seemingly mundane scenes are accompanied by a relentlessly foreboding soundtrack.
* SteelEarDrums: Tragically averted with H.W.
* StepfordSmiler: Daniel Plainview spends much of the movie in his public persona, trying to charm people into selling him the right to drill for oil on their land. [[spoiler: He even goes so far as to pass off the son of a deceased oil worker as his own.]]
* StupidStatementDanceMix: Type "There Will Be Blood" in the Website/YouTube search box, it is ''guaranteed'' at least half of the results are "I drink your milkshake!" videos.
* TragicMistake
* TrashtheSet: In that impressive, dramatic scene where the oil derrick burns, how do you think they made it look so real? They burned the derrick.
* TimeSkip: The last half-hour jumps to 1927.
* VillainProtagonist: Plainview.
* VillainousBreakdown: The second half of the movie is essentially a very long breakdown for Daniel, as he becomes more and more unstable as time goes on. He has a few moments which definitely count by themselves, though, in particular, him slapping the hell out of Eli because Eli couldn't [[spoiler: cure H.W. of his deafness]], his telling H.W. [[spoiler: that he's not his son]], and finally, his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Eli at the end of the film, culminating in [[spoiler:him brutally murdering Eli]].
* ZigZaggingTrope: Good vs. Evil... which is which?
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