The trailer for How To Blow Up A Pipeline is pretty self-explanatory
The film based on Andreas Malm’s revolutionary book of the same name, hits theaters on April 7
Film News Daniel Goldhaber
TIFF stunner How To Blow Up A Pipeline brings elements of a heist thriller to a drama about a group of young environmental activists trying to put a stop to the construction of an oil pipeline in West Texas.
The younger, predominantly Gen-Z cast is comprised of The White Lotus’ Lukas Gage, as well as Kristine Froseth, Forrest Goodluck, Sasha Lane, Jayme Lawson, Marcus Scribner, and Jake Weary. As the group works together to put their dangerous and illegal plan in motion, they have to avoid causing further environmental damage in the process.
The film from Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol, Daniel Goldhaber, and Daniel Garber is based on Andreas Malm’s 2020 non-fiction book of the same title, in which the climate scholar pushes against the deeply-entrenched pacifist approach to environmentalism, and asserts the need for escalation tactics (violence and property destruction) in the face of corporate greed. Namely, it’s a manifesto for blowing up oil pipelines. It’s a radical look at activism that opposes climate fatalism and argues for more intense action in the face of ecological collapse.
Barer, who also stars in How To Blow Up A Pipeline, says the book entered their lives at the right time.
“We were all to varying degrees, dissatisfied with the world in our lives, and we felt incredibly disempowered and just you know, how we can affect the world. And this book kind of came onto our lap,” Barer tells IndieWire. “We all just kind of became obsessed with it. It was so just invigorating. It felt like it put a fire in us again.”
She adds, “Our worldviews were shaped by very different eras. And that was an important dialogue that we had as we wrote it.”
In a chat with Collider, Goldhaber explains:
“The movie is based on a manifesto by climate activist Andreas Malm, who basically writes about the fact that every single social justice movement in history has, at the very least, been predicated on the destruction of property, and that climate change poses an existential threat to human life on Earth and is kind of questioning whether or not property destruction is necessary to move away from fossil fuels and preserve human civilization and society as we know it, and so we adapted these ideas. The book has no story. It’s just kind of political theory. We adapted these ideas into essentially a heist thriller film about young climate activists who blow up an oil pipeline in rural Texas. The movie kind of walks you through, in pretty exacting detail, how they build the bombs and how they do it and in kind of classic heist fashion, they have a very complex and exciting plan.”
How To Blow Up A Pipeline arrives in theaters on April 7.
26 Comments
Now this is the kind of revolutionary cinema golden agouti gerbils across the globe have been clamoring for! Viva!
It’s a call for an irredeemably stupid act of sabotage that would create a massive environmental calamity so trust fund kids can feel better about themselves. And it looks boring as fuck.
Life on the arid Mongolian steppe is pretty dull; we have exceedingly low standards for entertainment.
you’re arguing with a gerbil account genius
shoeboxdivinity you’re a smelly little bitch
I’m sure this will be released without any complaints from megacorporations or their lapdogs servants political allies.
As the group works together to put their dangerous and illegal plan in motion, they have to avoid causing further environmental damage in the process.I am legit curious how you go about blowing up a pipeline without getting whatever the pipeline carries all over the place and making things much, much worse.
I would expect the best plan would involve damaging it after construction but before it’s put into service.
You’d also need to do significant damage, probably to multiple points in the line. A single break is too easy to fix (which would necessitate assembling a large crew of saboteurs,
acquiring more bomb-making material, and doing it all in a way that wouldn’t
attract undue attention).
I guess I’ll have to read the damn book.
Look at us, ironing out the action sequences for How To Blow Up A Pipeline 2: Pileline Boogaloo
It’s a better thought experiment than practical exercise when it comes to stopping a pipeline. Blocking a permit for a new install is much more effective than physically damaging something that is backed by insurance. Once they have the rights to operate, it is essentially game over for stopping them. It would require a very widespread effort to do enough to damage to stop an active line and likely require completely ignoring the impacts of the leaks in reality. Even then, most of these lines get their money back within a few years of operation. While building a new one right next to the old one would out them millions to billions, they would get it back in <5 years and likely have very strong public support. Anything to get one of these shut down for a long time (outside stopping the legal rights), would most likely involve loss of human life, as those critical facilities have a lot of stuff on 24/7. In reality, the best way to get a pipeline shut off is to either make the product in it less valuable or block the legal rights of it to operate across a large enough region.
The movie kind of walks you through, in pretty exacting detail, how they build the bombs and how they do it Seriously???That doesn’t sound good.That doesn’t sound good for anybody.
Like martial arts, they’re teaching audiences how to build bombs so they never have to use them!
My exact thoughts. Oh, it’s that easy! Mom, going to Home Depot…
Climate Change is a scam.
climate denialism is a scam
no
yes
shoeboxdivinity eats his own mother’s shit
I can see the FBI not liking the plot of this. Back in 1986, there was this movie, The Manhattan Project, about a teenager building a crude atomic bomb, and it was at the height of the Cold War, so I bet those movie producers had the attention of the FBI too.