There WIll Be Blood: Final Scene

The most unforgettable scene in There Will Be Blood was the last, in which Daniel Day Lewis’ character Daniel Plainview was fully exposed. Eli had entered Daniels bowling alley to a disturbed but calm Daniel. Eli immediately begins pouring a drink for Daniel and himself. Interestingly enough, Daniel responds quite politely saying, “No, thank you very much”. Daniel takes a seat and the two begin to converse. It is not until Eli asks for a favor, that Daniel goes mad. Daniel had been up that night and into the morning drinking away the fact that he believes his son is leaving him to become his competition. When he is awoken, he is immediately troubled with the fact that Eli has entered his home begging for assistance. This becomes the turning point. After building up the image of a cocky but somewhat calm man, he alleviates all of his distress on Eli. After being baptized and humiliated by Eli, Daniel decided to exact his revenge in the same fashion. Daniel made Eli admit that he “is a false prophet, and god is a superstition”. Daniel then admits to the fact that what he had promised Eli, the Oil under the church, has already been drilled. Daniel then moves into his milkshake rant. This is where his character is truly exposed. While Daniel always believed he was above everyone else and that everything in life was a competition, he was never outwardly competitive. He first shows this when he tells Eli, “I drink your milkshake”, essentially educating Eli on the fact that Eli is nothing to him. Although Daniel had killed before, he had never killed in such a brutal fashion, repeatedly hitting Eli over the head with a bowling pin. Then the movie fades into darkness and ends, summing up the crash and burn of Daniel Plainview. Daniel had all that he had needed and more, and unfortunately for himself and many others, greed engulfed his life.