10 Movies That Tricked You Into Believing Heroes Were Evil

Upon first viewing, Daniel Plainview is a despicable figure who lies and kills his way to success and eventually his greed and appalling personality leave him a bored, lonely old man.

When you dig a little deeper though, his actions such as ripping off the Sunday family and using the orphaned son of a dead worker as a prop to appear a family man actually have a depth to them.

The Sunday Family were horrible people who pretended to be church-goers despite their services barely relating to scripture, they hurt children with beatings and tricked an entire town into giving them a boatload of money for false promises.

Daniel, on the other hand, gave the town everything he promised. It might have been a bad deal, but they agreed to it and the aggressive salesman delivered. He saw right through what the family was and didn't let them continue abusing people's faith and children.

Despite outward appearances, he cared for H.W the best way he knew how to and shows initially he is good at heart, comforting H.W when he goes deaf and teaching him the ways of business.

There Will Be Blood is commonly called a modern masterpiece, and part of that title is down to how brilliant a character Daniel Plainview is written. Not a nice man by any account, but a flawed hero who succumbs to madness and loses sight of himself after a lifetime of work finally brings him power and riches.