There Will Be Blood Trivia Quiz

Answer: he breaks his leg

Daniel Plainview is a man of relentless ambition, fierce independence, and (seemingly) deep distrust of most people around him. In the opening sequence, Plainview is mining for silver in a man-made cave. He uses dynamite to set the silver loose, and when he re-enters the cave to retrieve it, he falls to the bottom and breaks his leg.

This establishes one of his characteristic traits: for the rest of the movie, he limps as a result of the accident. Daniel Day-Lewis played this character fiercely to great critical acclaim, winning the 2008 Academy Award for Best Actor.

Answer: H.W.

H.W. was actually son to one of Plainview's workers in his first drilling company, who died after an accident. Plainview adopts him as his own and uses H.W. as his business partner, conveniently giving himself the title of "family man" to gain credibility in his commercial ventures.

The film intentionally makes some of these details murky (is H.W. really his son, or is he adopted?), so as to make Plainview's rejection of H.W. by the end of the film more shocking and unexpected.

Answer: there are oil deposits under his family's property

Paul Sunday reveals to Plainview and his business partner, Fletcher, that there are oil deposits sitting underneath his family's property, the Sunday ranch. Paul visits Plainview's offices and shows him where the ranch is located on a map. Plainview is intrigued by the information and decides to head out there with H.W.

His original plan is to purchase the ranch at bargain price, without mentioning the oil, but Plainview is slowed down by Paul's identical twin brother, Eli. Eli holds out for $5,000, which he wants to fund his own church. Paul Dano played both characters - Paul and Eli - but there is still debate about whether they were really twins, or just one person with multiple personality disorder.

Answer: Little Boston, CA

In actuality, there is no town or city called Little Boston in California (either then or now). Most of the film was shot on location on a ranch in Marfa, Texas. Additional shooting took place in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. In the movie, Plainview eventually purchases the Sunday ranch and then proceeds to buy property all around it, with the help of a local realtor. Plainview finds out about Little Boston when Paul Sunday shows it to him on a map (this happens during Eli's first and only visit in the beginning of the movie).

Answer: William Bandy

William Bandy is the most stubborn of the property owners in Little Boston. He doesn't acquiesce to Plainview until after the night Plainview kills Henry, the impostor masquerading as his half-brother. Bandy approaches Plainview the next morning by the campsite and seems to be aware of Plainview's crime. Bandy strikes a deal with Daniel, selling the property only after Daniel has agreed to change his ways (which he doesn't) and join the Church of the Third Revelation (which he does, at least for show).

(Fun fact: the incorrect answer "Robert Wistel" is actually an anagram of "Robert Elswit". Elswit was the cinematographer for this film, for which he won the 2008 Academy Award.)

Answer: he goes deaf

H.W. loses his hearing because he is too close to the well when it explodes. Plainview has no idea what to do with his adopted son after the accident. At first, he brings doctors to Little Boston to treat him. Once it becomes evident H.W. will be handicapped for life, Plainview sends him to a boarding school for the deaf in San Francisco.

Despite his deafness, H.W. eventually marries Mary Sunday, separates himself from his "father", and starts his own oil company in Mexico.

Answer: alcoholism

Plainview's alcoholism gets worse as the movie progresses and he ages. By the end of the film, when he has accumulated great wealth and is living alone in a lavish mansion, he frequently drinks himself into unconsciousness. When Eli Sunday returns to visit him in the mansion, Plainview is passed out in his bowling alley and must be awakened by his servant.

Answer: False

Eli visits Plainview because he finds himself in a dire financial situation. Eli asks Daniel to make a deal on Bandy's land, since Mr. Bandy has died. Plainview agrees only if Eli confesses repeatedly that he is a "false prophet" and that "God is a superstition".

After Eli is humiliated by saying these things, Plainview reveals he has already drained Bandy's land through surrounding oil wells.

Answer: beats him with a bowling pin

There is little actual "blood" in the movie until this final, epic scene. Plainview's rage comes to the surface (much like the oil he had extracted from the ground throughout his life) and he chases Eli around the bowling alley, finally beating him to death with the pin.

Answer: "I drink your milkshake!"

Plainview uses this line to explain the concept of "drainage": how oil from underneath certain land can be drained through the use of surrounding wells. In other words, Plainview drank everybody's milkshake (not just Eli's) by reaching into the oil as if with a very long, greedy straw. Paul Thomas Anderson has revealed that he stole the line from New Mexico senator Albert Fall, who used the "milkshake" phrase to explain drainage to Congress. This was after Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil drilling from major oil industry giants.