How to Blow Up a Pipeline

The stakes are high but the cost of sitting idle is higher for a group of environmental activists who band together to disrupt the oil industry.

Eight young Americans hatch a plan to detonate explosives in the Texan desert to destroy an oil pipeline, with hopes of sending shockwaves through the fossil-fuel industry. Brought together by their compulsion to act, each member has their own catalyst: from sustained health issues sparked by toxic chemicals, to compulsory acquisition of farmland for an oil pipeline, to the loss of a parent from a heatwave. Will the escalating pressure and their competing motivations ultimately mar their mission?

Alongside co-writers Ariela Barer (who also stars) and Jordan Sjol, director Daniel Goldhaber (Cam) adapted the screenplay for this gripping drama from author Andreas Malm’s nonfiction book of the same name. Tehillah De Castro’s compelling cinematography juxtaposes natural backdrops of snow and desert with belching smoke and oil rigs, while the plan’s immediacy is broken up with cleverly paced flashbacks of each individual’s personal story. Earning widespread acclaim after its Toronto premiere, How to Blow Up a Pipeline plays out like the most thrilling of heist movies – yet, at its core, it’s a rousing journey into the fiery beating heart of the climate-justice movement.

“Fine-tuned pacing and unbearable suspense … How to Blow Up a Pipeline’s galvanising, uncompromising approach is thrilling to witness.” – Empire