When the people begin to question him rigorously and argue loudly among themselves, Daniel turns down the offer and leaves, knowing the community is a bit too smart to be taken advantage of. He also introduces his son as his partner and claims that his business is a family-run operation. At a meeting with local people of an unidentified town, Plainview lectures them on his business plan: he claims he does all the work himself, only hires men he can trust to complete the work and will eliminate the need for a 'contractor', a middleman of sorts that will collect more money from the community that Daniel believes should go back to the landowners themselves. (Dillon Freasier), travels the state to buy the drilling rights to private property. He has several productive wells around New Mexico and, with H.W. Nine years later, Plainview is a successful if still somewhat minor oil man. The young father dies in a drilling accident, Planview adopts the young boy as his own and names him H.W. He designs and builds a pump and recreates himself as an oil man. When the silver lode plays out, Plainview discovers oil in the mine. He hires a crew, including a man caring for an infant son. After finding the silver ore, he drags himself out of the mine and into town to sell it. After blasting out the small mine with dynamite, Plainview falls and breaks his leg. A man named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) works his silver mine. The story opens in 1898 in the New Mexico wilderness. The lives of the two competitive men often clash as Daniel pumps oil off the property and tries to acquire all the surrounding land at bargain prices to be able to build a pipeline to the coast, and as Eli tries to build his own religious empire. Eli, the local preacher and a self-proclaimed faith healer, wants the money from the sale of the property to finance his own church. Eli Sunday is one in a pair of twins, whose family farm Daniel purchases for the major oil deposit located on it. His business partner is his son H.W., who in reality he 'acquired' when H.W.'s biological single father, who worked on one of Daniel's rigs, got killed in a workplace accident. He works hard but he also takes advantage of those around him at their expense if need be. Miner turn oilman Daniel Plainview is a driven man who will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. The intersecting life stories of Daniel Plainview and Eli Sunday in early twentieth century California is presented.

There will be blood oil