How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Daniel Goldhaber creates Ocean’s Eleven for Gen Z by boldly adapting How to blow Up a Pipeline into an ecothriller heist with real life stakes that causes discourse on what type of activism is effective.
The film isn’t a direct adaptation of its nonfiction source material. Director Daniel Goldhaber takes the ideas of the book and converts them into a fictional scenario that raises conversations about what is at stake. It puts into action what the book’s author is arguing. Goldhaber wastes no time placing his audience amidst a group of climate activists in the middle of their scheme to blow up a pipeline in West Texas. A brief background is given through carefully placed flashbacks for each member of the group so the audience can understand their point of view and what brought them to this dire moment, but the real action is the task at hand.
At the center of the group is leader Xochitl who sets the tone from the beginning of the film by sabotaging a car and leaving a note explaining why. Her friend Theo is suffering from a terminal illness brought on by exposure to contaminated environments during childhood. Dwayne is the only Texas native of the group who has been in a legal fight with the government over a pipeline running through his property. The flashbacks provide a moment to flesh out each character to avoid reducing them to archetypes within a group setting. They all possess such distinct differences in their personalities that perfectly play off one another when needed to break up the tension, add comedic relief, or question their actions. Everyone in this ensemble has their breakout moment and understands the stakes of making sure they are all acting in the same film together which often many ensembles miss the mark on.
The entirety of the film is built around tension that feels like a bomb ready to explode. This is due to an anxiety-inducing score of Gavin Brivik that feels reminiscent of many high-concept action films that came before this small but powerful indie. The film is a classic procedural by taking time to show how a detonator is created through the delicate process to the worry over transporting a heavy barrel that could blow up our characters at any second. By focusing on these details of creation, the film invites you along on the ride as you feel a part of the cause. Goldhaber succeeds in making his audience feel a range of emotions as something could go wrong at any moment. The film never loses steam as it rides to the end, with every moment thought out leaving a sense of satisfaction that often comes with any well-made heist film once the job is done. The reward in this case isn’t money but giving a little bit more time to live on a scorched Earth.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline is effective in its call to action because it is not focused on whether the actions taken by the group are right or wrong. After spending time with the group this course of action is their most plausible option in a world run by corporations. The filmmakers are aware that such an urgent societal problem needs to be addressed with productivity without making it feel nihilistic or that this is the ultimate solution. It is aware of who is most at risk by doing nothing or doing something by bringing a sense of realism to the story. Its ability to get people on both sides to agree a problem is at hand is what makes it so powerful.