Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood

E125495

Daniel Plainview in *There Will Be Blood* is a ruthless early-20th-century oil prospector whose obsessive pursuit of wealth and power leads to moral and psychological ruin.

All labels observed (1)

Label Occurrences
Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood canonical 1

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (48)

Predicate Object
instanceOf fictional character
film character
adoptiveFatherOf H. W. Plainview
antagonisticTowards Eli Sunday
appearsIn There Will Be Blood
basedOn Daniel Plainview (loosely inspired by characters in Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!)
businessMethod exploits local communities for oil
uses deception to acquire land and drilling rights
businessRivalOf Standard Oil
surface form: Standard Oil representatives
characterArc descent into isolation and madness
rise from lone prospector to powerful oil tycoon
conflictType conflict between capitalism and religion (with Eli Sunday)
createdBy Paul Thomas Anderson
familyRelation adoptive father of H. W. Plainview
filmGenreContext drama
period drama
firstAppearance There Will Be Blood
surface form: There Will Be Blood (2007 film)
hasChild H. W. Plainview
injures H. W. Plainview (indirectly, through oil rig explosion)
kills Eli Sunday
moralAlignment morally corrupt
nationality American
notableAwardContext performance by Daniel Day-Lewis won Academy Award for Best Actor
notableQuote I drink your milkshake!
I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed.
I’m finished.
notableScene baptism scene at the Church of the Third Revelation
final bowling alley confrontation with Eli Sunday
oil derrick fire sequence
notableTrait physical limp from early mining accident
occupation businessman
oil prospector
oilman
personalityTrait ambitious
manipulative
misanthropic
obsessive
ruthless
violent
portrayedBy Daniel Day-Lewis
primaryMotivation pursuit of power
pursuit of wealth
psychologicalState deeply misanthropic
increasingly paranoid
religiousStance atheistic or anti-religious
residesIn California (fictional settings in early 1900s)
setIn American oil boom era
timePeriod early 20th century

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Daniel Day-Lewis notableRole Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood