Plainview discovers silver, at the cost of breaking his leg.
After his father is killed in an accident, H.W. is adopted by Plainview as a "fresh face" for dealings.
Paul meets with Plainview to discuss the oil on his family's property.
Plainview visits the Sunday property to investigate Paul's claims.
Eli preaches at his church, showing Plainview his true colors.
Plainview watches as the well burns after the gas blowout, knowing there's an ocean of oil under his feet.
Plainview lies with H.W., who is now deaf from the blowout. He hums to try and hear his voice.
After Eli demands the money again, Plainview pushes him into the mud and admits to not wanting to pay the money.
Eli gets his revenge by publicly shaming Plainview for abandoning his deaf son at his baptism.
Eli asks about the money one last time. Now a broken man, Plainview humiliates him, forces him to renounce his faith, then murders him in rage.
After a silver prospector nearly dies finding a silver claim, he starts his own drilling company after discovering oil. After an accident kills one of his workers, Plainview adopts the worker’s now orphaned son H.W. and, driven by greed, uses him as a negotiation tool in his dealings.
Eventually a man named Paul Sunday approaches Plainview to discuss the plentiful oil on his family’s land. Plainview pays the man $500 to tell him about it, and he soon heads out to investigate. While there, he does not discuss his plans for drilling with the family. On the property he discovers not only the oil Paul spoke of, but his brother. Paul’s twin brother Eli, who runs the church on the property, confronts Plainview about his intentions and demands money for the church for the rights to the land. Plainview agrees, and starts building drills on the land.
Before drilling starts, Eli asks Plainview to bless the well. Plainview goes against his wishes, and messes up the blessing. After this, the drill experiences a gas blowout and deafens H.W. Eli blames the incident on the butchered blessing. Not wanting to deal with the issue, Plainview sends H.W. off to a school for deaf children. After this, a man named Henry approaches Plainview claiming to be his brother and the two become close. When it’s found out that it’s all a lie, and his brother died of tuberculosis years prior, Plainview kills Henry.
A man named Bandy, who owns the last piece of land on the property needed for Plainview’s new pipeline, witnesses the murder and confronts him about it. In exchange for the rights to one last piece of the property to build a pipeline and to atone for his sin, Bandy requires him to get baptized at Eli’s church. At the church, Eli publicly shames Plainview for abandoning his son. After some time, H.W. visits Plainview to discuss splitting from the company to start his own. Insulted by this, he tells H.W. about how he was orphaned and that he wasn’t a real son to him, while insulting his deafness.
Plainview, now a drunkard in his mansion, is visited one last time by Eli, now a preacher. He admits to making some bad financial decisions, and that he needed the money Plainview owed him for the church. Plainview snaps, and insults Eli. He forces Eli to renounce his faith and humiliates him before killing him with a bowling pin. He turns to his butler, investigating the commotion, and remarks, “I’m finished”.
Words: Oil, Greed, Power, Deceit, Manipulation
Statement: An Oil tycoonist must fight through his and others' greed to build up his oil business and power.
