HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE - Mark Reviews Movies

How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Neon

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Review by Mark Dujsik | April 6, 2023

How to Blow Up a Pipeline takes the proposition of its title as a given. This isn't a film that questions the moral legitimacy of such an act of sabotage, and it isn't one that wonders whether or not its activist protagonists should perform such an action. That approach almost certainly will make director Daniel Goldhaber's film a target of much ire from people across and around the political spectrum. Just as certainly, they will all miss the bigger picture of the global crisis that has led these characters, each of them from various walks of life, to the same conclusion.

This film's central assumption—that a team of activists and ordinary people from across the country would and, perhaps, even should engage in this kind of sabotage to make the point that everyone seems to be missing—is one of its greatest strengths as a piece of political filmmaking, as well as one of its unfortunate weaknesses as a piece of drama. There is such simplicity to the case being made here. As a result, one becomes caught up, not in the moral debates that occasionally rise and quickly fall by the wayside, but in the planning and assorted processes undertaken by these characters.

Goldhaber, who co-wrote the screenplay with star Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol (inspired by Andreas Malm's non-fiction book of political theory), essentially makes the audience an accomplice to what's happening. If that notion makes one feel uncomfortable or curious or outraged or inspired, it is at least making us feel something. These characters already know exactly how they feel about the problem at hand, so they are working purely on the level of logic and strategy. It's tough to argue with their emotional conclusions, and as the full extent of the plan comes into focus, it becomes increasingly difficult to argue against their strategic ones.

The film is sure to make the usual suspects angry, because it values people and the planet over property and profit. It'll likely make those who would sympathize and agree with the basic sentiment that climate change, pollution, and a general reliance on fossil fuels are killing us, while asserting that the usual course of policy debates and legislation and elections are the only viable options, angry, as well.

Such statements, of course, aren't intended to be an endorsement of what these fictional but relatable characters in a fictional but believable situation do. It is to say, though, that the filmmakers are ahead of the curve of a reality that—as politics-as-usual continue to come up short in addressing environmental issues and as younger generations that will have to deal with the consequences directly realize that fact—we'll be reckoning with for a while. If that consideration is going to start anywhere, a pretty straightforward thriller is as good and safe a place as any.

The structure of the script is wholly simple and right to the point. We meet an octet of players who are gathering as individuals and in pairs at a spot in the middle of the desert somewhere in West Texas. Their plan, obviously, is to sabotage an oil pipeline in the region by way of improvised explosive devices.

The de facto leaders of the crew are Xochitl (Barer), a young woman from California who grew up near an industrial area, and Shawn (Marcus Scribner), one of her college classmates who's intrigued by Xochitl's suggestion at a campus environmentalist group that destruction of property might be the only way to enact any real change for the cause. Before we learn about any of these characters' backgrounds, though, we simply follow them figuring out logistics, mixing chemicals, and assembling makeshift devices. Michael (Forrest Goodluck), a young man of Native American origin who watches as companies take up land and spew all sorts of waste in North Dakota, is the explosives "expert," and everyone else hopes he doesn't blow up or himself or anyone else as he puts his homemade skills to the test on such a large scale.

The flashbacks are vital to us understanding how and, more importantly, why these assorted people have come together for this action. Theo (Sasha Lane), Xochitl's childhood friend, and her girlfriend Alisha (Jayme Lawson) are here because Theo was recently diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia after living her entire life near industry.

Dwayne (Jake Weary) is a local man, whose family property for generations was scooped up by way of eminent domain for the construction of the pipeline, leaving him, his wife, and their newborn baby to live in a cramped mobile home with his mother. As for Rowan (Kristine Froseth) and Logan (Lukas Gage), they seem to be unserious screw-ups, but their flashback adds another layer of tension to the proceedings.

None of these background details is particularly deep, which means the human drama exists purely on a superficial level. For the filmmakers' intentions, though, that's more than enough to make the point of the human toll from the environmental crisis and to give us a reason to connect with most of these characters on an emotional level. From one perspective, that's a deficit to the film, which becomes entirely about explaining the basics of these characters and this scenario for the purposes of generating and maintaining suspense.

From another point of view, though, the simplicity of all of this stops us from digging too deeply into motives, questioning any sense of morality (especially since the plan actively avoids the loss of life and causing an ecological disaster), and wondering if some other option is possible under the circumstances. As established by the narrative, there is no other option in How to Blow Up a Pipeline, and this film wants and effectively forces us to confront that notion.

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