There Will Be Blood - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[frances]

Eli asks for $10,000 @ $6.00 an acre to buy the Sunday Ranch. That means that the Sunday Ranch is 1,666.67 acres. When Daniel Plainveiw tells Eli he will give him $3,700 for the ranch, he's offering to buy it at $2.22 an acre.

[jamie]

Daniel Plainview was modeled loosely after famous oil man Edward Doheny and his characteristics were based on Count Dracula. Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills was used at the end of the film; this house was built by Doheny for his son, Edward L. Doheny, Jr. (Ned).

[elmer]

The film takes place in 1898, 1902, 1911 and 1927.

[albert]

When Daniel Plainview first meets H.M. Tilford, he asks Tilford if he is going to change his shipping costs to which Tilford replies "We don't dictate shipping costs. That's railroad business.". This is a deceptive reply as Standard Oil under the leadership of John D. Rockefeller negotiated a 71% discount on shipping costs with Lake Shore Railroad which no other oil company could match. This agreement allowed Standard to enjoy a near monopoly on oil in the late 1800's which eventually led to the U.S. Government breaking up Standard in the early 1900's into 34 independent companies including Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, and Amoco.

[eli]

The town of Marfa near the Texas-Mexico border was used to simulate Bakersfield, California. A reason to support the use of the town is that there are many abandoned shafts dug at the early twentieth century. One of the shafts used in the film is a deep shaft, sixty to seventy feet that connects to a mechanically dug perpendicular tunnel at the bottom. Other sets like the church were built from there.

[norma]

The infamous "I drink your milk-shake!" is, in part, a real quote. Paul Thomas Anderson found the metaphor in congressive transcripts from the 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, in which New Mexico Republican Senator Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for oil drilling rights to various lands. According to Anderson, "I think it was Albert Fall, who was asked to describe drainage before Congress. And his way of describing it was, 'If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake, and my straw reaches across the room ...' I'm sure I embellished it and changed it around and made it more Plainview. But Fall used the word milkshake, and I thought it was so great. It was mad to see that word among all this official testimony and terminology - a fucking milkshake. I get so happy every time I hear that word."

[ruby]

A little-known band in Manchester, U.K. has adopted the name of Eli and The Third Revelation in homage to the film.

[sara]

As of 2012, with a $76 million world-wide gross (more than thrice the budget) this is the most profitable film Paul Thomas Anderson has made.