20 Things You Somehow Missed In There Will Be Blood
19. Daniel's Narcisssitc Humiliation Of Eli In The Climax
The world pushes you harder when you are down. At your worst, you get worse treatment from others. This hard fact of life comes out in a brief, narcissistic Plainview moment in the climax. When Eli's brother Paul brother visited Plainview's office at the beginning of the film, he was offered $500 for the location. A caveat was so attached: "If I find out that you're lying to me, I will find you and take more than my money back".
Plainview gave him the money and it turned out pretty well for him. But when Eli visits him in the climax and Plainview is just getting started with getting it all out, he is ruthless. There is no cap on him. He begins by fooling Eli to say he's a false prophet and God's a superstition. If ripping away his identity and faith was not enough, he falsely claims he paid Paul "$10,000 cash in hand".
He even claims that Paul now has three wells producing. Although its veracity cannot be confirmed because it is never told to us, this humiliation comes naturally to Plainview. You do not think about these things in the moment: they just come out.
The joy and delight in his eyes stare out at you in an intentionally insulting way. He relishes destroying Eli emotionally. That is the kind of man Daniel Plainview is. Says everything about him.