“I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people ... 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 ... I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built my hatreds up over the years, little by little ... I can't keep doing this on my own with these ... people.”

If you’ve experienced Boogie Nights, Magnolia, or Punch Drunk Love, then you know what to expect out of a P.T. Anderson film — an expansively deep motion picture equipped with a violently epic climax. With this in mind, you’d think that There Will Be Blood would contain a copious quantity of red liquid — especially considering the title. However, There Will Be Blood does not contain bucket after bucket of crimson-colored fluid, but rather pail after pail of inky black oil.

Based on the first 150 pages of Upton Sinclair’s Oil! and the life of famous oilman Edward Doheny, There Will Be Blood is an early 20th century account of one man’s ruthlessly competitive attempt at success.

From 1898 to 1927, Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) goes from a hard-working trench digger to a dominant player in the increasingly gung ho world of oil drilling. Daniel strikes it big in a town called Little Boston. There he meets a young man named Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). As Eli attempts to thrive at becoming the town pastor, Daniel and his son H.W. (Dillon Freasier) establish an oil empire. Yet, while both the religious head and the oil boss are driven by the need for triumph, both succeed and spiral downward in their own ways. In the end, we arrive at a profound understanding of who Daniel Plainview really is.

Plainview is the type of man that relies on no one but himself; he possesses a drive to succeed and a passion to watch the weak squirm. He controls his surroundings by removing the freeloading links from his chain and selfishly abandons those who appear to hold him back. Plainview is unafraid to spit in any man’s face who interferes with his control and tries to make him look a fool — be it pastor, partner, or family. Most of all, he will stop at nothing to be on top of the world.