In 1898, Daniel Plainview is doing some prospecting in New Mexico when he finds silver.
Excited, he puts some dynamite to create a bigger hole, but when he re-enters it after
the explosion, he falls and breaks his leg. This isn't enough to make him give up though,
he puts the silver inside his shirt and climbs out while dragging his broken leg.
Then he drags his body through the dirt all the way to town to sell the valuables he has found.
In 1902, he has changed to the oil business and started his own drilling company.
While drilling in Los Angeles, an accident with the machinery kills one of his employees and
leaves an orphan baby. Daniel decides to adopt him as his own son, H.W. Plainview, who becomes
his nominal business partner. From then on, Daniel goes from town to town with a heartwarming speech
for people to choose him other big companies when it comes to leasing their land for drillings,
using his son to convince them he is a family man that works with honest local workers and
doesn't cause trouble, unlike corporations. Whenever someone asks him about his wife,
he just says she died in childbirth. One day in 1911, Daniel is approached by Paul Sunday,
a young man that claims his family's property in Little Boston, California has oil underground.
Daniel tries to get the details out of him, but Paul proves to be a tough negotiator and ends
up getting five hundred bucks in exchange for the location of his family's goat ranch,
where he swears plenty of oil will be found. Many days later, Daniel and H.W. show up there,
pretending they are merely hunting for quail. They meet Paul's father Abel Sunday, who offers
them his hospitality, including some water and some goat milk, brought to them by one of the
daughters, Mary Sunday. While setting up camp, they also meet Paul's twin brother Eli Sunday,
a pastor that promises to bring them dinner. While investigating the area, they discovered Paul had
been telling the truth and there is oil in his land. Daniel thinks this is a great spot to build
a pipeline, take it to the beach, and strike a deal with Union Oil, therefore avoiding the costs
of railroads and shipping. Later, after having dinner with the family, Daniel tells Abel that
he wants to buy his land because he loves hunting for quail and his sick son needs the fresh air.
He offers him a very lower number, but Eli knows about the oil and asks for a bonus: ten thousand
dollars for his church. Daniel changes it to five and only if the business goes well, then pressures
Abel into accepting it. The next day, Daniel goes to see a realtor to ask for information
about all the landowners around the Sundays so he can look into buying them as well, he also
calls his business partner to tell him to bring all his employees to the area to start working.
H.W. begins spending time with Mary and learns that his father hits her if she doesn't pray.
As days pass, the business slowly but surely begins growing. Daniel manages to buy all
the surrounding land except the one belonging to William Bandy, who wants to speak with him face to
face. Daniel thinks it's all a ruse to get him to offer him more money, so for now he ignores him,
thinking he'll come himself asking to sell if he thinks nobody wants his place anymore.
He also gives the local town a speech about how oil drilling equals an opportunity to grow,
because his employees come with their families, so they'll start schools, wells, new roads, and lots
of cultivation, and all of that means employment. After days of building, the well is ready to get
started. Eli comes with his church group to give all workers a welcome, then he has a talk with
Daniel, requesting to bless the well before the drilling starts. Daniel accepts, but when the
time comes for the opening, he offers a few words with Mary by his side, including a quick blessing,
and never allows Eli to participate as well. H.W. is the one to pull the lever and the driller
begins working without issues, so afterward, the town has a big celebration. Right in front
of Abel while he is eating, Daniel talks to Mary and promises her dad will not hit her anymore.
Not too much time passes before one night, there is an accident in the well and they lose
an employee. Daniel scolds his men for not warning each other correctly when someone goes down there,
then makes sure to safely put away his possessions in a chest. The following morning, he goes to the
church to talk to Eli and sees him give one of his sermons, which is quite dramatic and even
includes some miraculous healing of an old lady's arthritis. After the mass is over, Daniel asks
Eli to say some words when they bury the employee and to make sure his possessions reach his family,
which Eli agrees to, but they still argue over faith. Eli thinks it is dangerous for
the men to work on an unblessed well, but Daniel refuses to give time out to his employees to go
to church and their free time should be spent resting so they can work twelve-hour shifts.
The church is also going through renovations because Eli has more followers now so they
are building a bigger space. Many days later, the workers find a gas leak that causes an explosion.
H.W. is there when it happens, and Daniel rushes to rescue him before the fire begins,
but by the time they go back to the house the damage has already happened: H.W. is now deaf. The
drilling tower eventually crumbles down, but the fire continues, so the next day they use dynamite
to put it out, because it forces the burning fuel and oxygen away from the fuel source. That night,
Daniel sleeps cuddling his son. But as days pass, H.W. continues to stay in bed depressed,
so Daniel begins working on finding him a teacher from the city. Sometime later, Eli approaches
Daniel in front of his employees and demands the money he owes him. Daniel answers by slapping him
and throwing him on the ground, hitting him as he calls him out for not healing his son as he
does with his believers. He also drags him by the hair and drops him on a pool of oil, telling him
not to even try to ask for that money. Later in the evening, while the Sundays are having dinner,
Eli gets angry with Abel for having let Paul tell strangers about the land and for trusting Daniel,
even going as far to jump on him and throw him to the floor while insulting him. Days later,
a mysterious man appears at Daniel's door claiming to be Henry Plainview, Daniel's half-brother from
another mother. Daniel doesn't believe him at first, thinking he is just here for the money, but
Henry proves himself by showing him a letter from their sister where she tells him their father died
three months ago. Henry tried to do some drilling in the past too, but never was as successful as
his brother, he also got into some trouble and was in jail for a while. After Daniel puts H.W.
to sleep by making him drink milk mixed with liquor, the siblings share some cigarettes and
Henry swears he hasn't come for the money or any favors, he is just looking for honest work, and
Daniel allows him to stay. They spend the evening drinking and sharing their pasts, although Daniel
keeps many details to himself, he does admit he is very competitive and doesn't want anyone to
succeed because he hates most people. That same night, H.W. starts a fire inside their house.
Henry wakes up just in time to put it out and H.W. tries to run away, but Daniel goes after him and
catches him before he can escape. The following day, Daniel takes H.W. with him to board a train,
pretending they're going on a trip together. When the train is about to leave however,
Daniel tells him he needs to have a word with the conductor and gets off, leaving the kid alone.
H.W. realizes he is being sent to the city on his own and tries to get off as well, but the train
is on the move and it is dangerous, so a man pulls him back to make him stay. Sometime later, Daniel
and Henry have a meeting with some representatives from Standard Oil, who want to buy his entire
business and land. Daniel seems to be willing to listen at first, but he is not sure what he would
do if he didn't work. The representatives keep mentioning he could spend more time with his son,
and Daniel takes it as a perceived slight and turns down the offer, leaving while feeling
very offended. H.W. is away but Daniel tries to ask for news about his life every now and then.
Eventually, Daniel makes a deal with Union Oil to build that pipeline to the coast he wanted.
The only issue is the last bit of land belonging to William Bandy, whom he never visited to talk.
He goes to see him today, but he is not at his house, only his grandson is there and tells
him they will never allow him to drill in their property. Daniel says he doesn't want to drill and
promises to talk to Bandy later, then he goes out with Henry to put various metal stakes on specific
spots around the land. After an afternoon spent swimming with his brother, Daniel tells him some
stories about their old neighborhood, and Henry's answers make him suspicious. Later in the evening,
he lends Henry some money so he can hire a girl, and when he comes back, Daniel confronts him with
a gun. Henry admits he is a nobody that met Henry in the city and they became friends while working
together for months. The real Henry did want to visit his brother, but they didn't have enough
money, and he eventually died of tuberculosis, so this nobody used the stories he heard from Henry
and his dairy to pretend to be him. He swears he means no harm, but Daniel shoots him in the head
anyway, then digs out a grave to hide the body in. Afterward, he reads his brother's diary and cries.
The following morning, he's found by William Bandy, who knows what he did to the fake Henry.
Bandy turns down the money offers Daniel throws at him and tells him he will let him build the
pipeline through his property if he gets baptized, which Daniel has no other choice but to accept if
he doesn't want to lose money with his project. Bandy takes Daniel to church and during mass,
Eli brings him to the front to make him kneel and admit he has sinned and abandoned his child. After
slapping him multiple times to get the devil out, he pours holy water on his head and officially
baptizes him. The whole town welcomes him, happy for him to be one of them, including young Mary.
The construction of the pipeline begins with no issues, and Daniel makes H.W. return home, telling
him he loves him when he arrives and letting H.W. hit him as an answer. A teacher has also come with
him so he can continue learning sign language. Daniel takes H.W. out for lunch, and in the
restaurant, they come across the men from Standard Oil. Daniel can't help making a scene to show them
he is being a good father that takes care of his son while having a successful deal with Union Oil.
Meanwhile, Eli leaves their town to do missionary work. In 1927, a now-adult H.W. marries Mary,
who has learned sign language too to communicate with him. Daniel is rich
thanks to his oil pipeline business and lives in a mansion with servants, and one afternoon,
H.W. visits him together with an interpreter. He tells his father that he loves him but he misses
working on the fields, so he and Mary are leaving for Mexico to start their own drilling company.
Daniel isn't happy to hear this, claiming this makes H.W. his competitor, no matter how his son
denies it is not like that. He also keeps using demeaning vocabulary to refer to his sign language
and demands H.W. to use his own words, so he repeats he's going to Mexico with his own voice.
This is still not enough to calm Daniel down, who now tells him he is destroying his image
and admits he is not his son, just an orphan baby from a basket in the desert that he picked
up to look good while making business, he also says he is less than a bastard that has nothing
of Daniel in him. Hurt, H.W. tells him he is glad there is nothing of Daniel in him before leaving.
Daniel keeps yelling insults at him while watching him walk away, but he also can't help remembering
their time together. Depressed and alcoholic, Daniel falls asleep in his bowling alley.
A servant wakes him up when Eli comes by to visit him, who tells him about his work as a missionary
and at a radio station while continuously reminding him they are family-in-law.
He also tells him Bandy has died and now his grandson is the owner of the land.
That grandson is also part of Eli's church, so he offers himself as an intermediary if Daniel
is interested in making business with him to drill that land. Daniel tells him he would be interested
in doing business with Eli, but first, he must admit he is a false prophet and God doesn't exist.
It seems Eli really needs to get this deal going, because after some hesitation and asking for
one hundred dollars, he accepts to yell those words in the room, the same way he made Daniel
admit his sins in church years ago. After he is done, Daniel confesses that area actually
doesn't have oil anymore, he stole it by draining it through neighbor areas when he built the pipes.
As he begins crying, Eli finally confesses he is living in desperate times, he lost money in
the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and has strayed morally, so he asks Daniel for help. But Daniel
doesn't feel pity for him, he taunts him telling him Paul is the real chosen one by the Lord,
he is a successful man now thanks to the business he opened with the ten thousand Daniel paid him
for the information. He keeps on insulting him and calling him names, so when Eli asks him to please
stop, Daniel grabs him, throws it in the middle of the alley, and after tossing some bowling balls
at him, he hits him with a bowling pin on the head, killing him. The servant hears the noise
and calls his name from the other side of the door, to which Daniel answers that he's finished.