Screenplay Structure Analysis

There Will Be Blood

Written by Paul Thomas Anderson · Period Drama · 130 pages · 123 scenes · 3-act natural structure · linear organization

A ruthless silver prospector transforms into an oil tycoon in turn-of-the-century California, where his ambition and misanthropy lead him into conflict with a young preacher, ultimately destroying everyone around him including his adopted son.

Tone
Dark, operatic, relentless, increasingly nihilistic

Tension curve

Dramatic intensity across There Will Be Blood from first page to last, sampled at 40 points on a 0–10 scale. Values: 5.4, 6.1, 6.4, 6.4, 5.7, 5.2, 4.8, 5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.2, 4.9, 5, 5.7, 5.8, 6, 6.4, 6.9, 7.6, 7, 6.4, 5.4, 4.9, 5.2, 5.9, 5.8, 4.9, 4.9, 5.9, 7.2, 7.3, 6.8, 5.8, 5.9, 6.7, 8.6, 9.4, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9.

Structure at a glance

Inciting incident
Page 13, 10% of the script: A young man named Paul Sunday arrives at Daniel's office in the Bankside house and tells Daniel he knows a place with oil where land can be bought cheaply; Daniel questions him about the location and what he knows, and Paul reveals it's his family's ranch, asking what the information is worth and requesting five hundred dollars plus ten percent of profits.
Act 1 break
Page 32, 25% of the script: Daniel arrives in Little Boston and begins his campaign to acquire the Sunday ranch land, shifting from lone prospector to calculating businessman.
Midpoint
Page 59, 45% of the script: Men battle the blazing gusher as Daniel barks directions; they snap guide wires to topple the burning derrick, then approach with metal sheets to bang dirt into the cellar wall.
Act 2 break
Page 80, 62% of the script: Daniel sends H.W. away on the train after the fire, severing his primary human connection and fully embracing isolation.
Climax
Page 121, 93% of the script: Eli finds Daniel passed out drunk in his bowling alley and wakes him, then reveals he needs money because his congregation has abandoned him and asks Daniel to help him drill on the Bandy tract, but Daniel mocks him, forces Eli to renounce God and admit he's a false prophet, then beats Eli to death with a bowling pin.
Peak tension
9.9 out of 10, reached about 100% of the way through; the script averages 6.3.
Average scene length
1.5 pages

Structural personality

This script operates as a character descent structured around Daniel's progressive dehumanization. Act One (scenes 1-32) establishes Daniel as a brutal but functional capitalist—he's violent, calculating, but still tethered to H.W. and capable of partnership. The arrival at Little Boston marks the shift into Act Two (scenes 33-84), where Daniel's empire-building collides with Eli Sunday's religious ambition, creating the central rivalry. The oil gusher that deafens H.W. becomes the catalyst for Daniel's emotional collapse. Act Two ends when Daniel literally abandons his son on the train—the moment he chooses oil over humanity. Act Three (scenes 85-123) tracks Daniel's complete moral disintegration: he murders the imposter Henry, is humiliated into baptism by Eli, achieves total business victory, and finally commits murder in his bowling alley tomb. The structure mirrors Daniel's arc: methodical accumulation, explosive crisis, hollow triumph.

Pacing

The script's pacing is deliberately patient in Act One, using nearly wordless sequences (scenes 2-5, the silver mining prologue) to establish Daniel's solitary brutality. Act Two accelerates once drilling begins (scene 43 onward), building tension through the rivalry with Eli and culminating in the catastrophic gusher (scene 57). The Henry Brands subplot (scenes 78-102) creates a false hope of connection before the murder sequence, which is given extraordinary space to breathe. The final act moves in fits—long stretches of time pass between scenes 111-120, then the script slows to excruciating real-time for the final confrontation (scene 123), which occupies nearly 9 pages of a single location.

Themes

Similar shapes

Screenplays whose tension curve most closely matches There Will Be Blood.

Scene summaries and structural markers are generated by AI analysis of the screenplay text and may contain minor inaccuracies. ScriptGraph analyzes structure and does not reproduce screenplay text.

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