In this period epic, Daniel Day Lewis stars as Daniel Plainview, an intense and driven prospector who builds up his own oil empire with his bare hands in early 20th century California. Daniel graduates from a mere success to a magnate when he aggressively buys up land around the small community of Little Boston and taps into the "ocean of oil" dwelling beneath the town.
Daniel's growing power and dismissive treatment of Little Boston's local church leader Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) brings the two into a years-long power struggle, one which can only end in blood...