How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a twitchy, tension-racked thriller and an incendiary statement about global inaction on the climate crisis. Released in 2023 but with an almost nonexistent theatrical presence in Australia apart from festivals, this film – loosely based on Andreas Malm’s book of the same name – is angry, overlooked and provocative.
College student Xochitl (Ariela Barer) is compelled to drop out and pursue a life as an environmental activist following the death of her mother and the diagnosis of her best friend, Theo (Sasha Lane), with terminal leukaemia. Xochitl and Theo form a group with six others, among them Michael (Forrest Goodluck), a self-taught Native American explosives expert who’s furious at the destruction of North Dakota land. There is also Texan family man Dwayne (Jake Weary), who has been driven to extreme measures by the government’s forced acquisition of his home, through which the recently constructed titular pipeline runs.
Together, the eight plot to blow up a remote section of oil pipeline and bring destruction down on vital infrastructure. The intent is to halt oil supply, damage the market and make a statement.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline asks audiences to consider if action alone is justified. If the oil-fuelled leviathans of capitalism are threatening public safety and putting lives at risk, is this sabotage or, as the group argues, self-defence?
Make no mistake, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is not sitting on the fence. But it’s hard to find fault in the deeply sympathetic motivations of its characters, who are driven to extremes by intense personal experiences that leave each of them feeling like they have little other choice.
It’s harder still to muster any sympathy for the fossil fuel industry, which at this very moment is acting like celluloid villain in real life. Writing this in a country where a protest obstructing one lane of Sydney Harbour Bridge traffic sent leaders into spasms of hand-wringing apoplexy, Australia feels like a place that needs to hear this film’s message loud and clear.
There’s always a danger that such a polemical movie could lean towards diatribe over entertainment. But fear not – despite its forthright point of view, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is first and foremost an exciting thriller with a riveting drama at its core. It has much in common with classic heist movies such as Heat and Reservoir Dogs, or criminal mastermind films such as In the Line of Fire, as we accompany the group through their meticulous planning stages and attempts to stay one step ahead of the authorities.
Director Daniel Goldhaber has crafted a devastatingly effective procedural, telling the story via flashbacks interwoven with a tense, time-critical present. It never slows down and we always have a clear sense of both the task at hand and the stakes involved. It’s propelled further by the urgent, pulsing electronics of Gavin Brivik’s score and the believably authentic performances from a mostly unknown ensemble cast.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline feels refreshing in its refusal to judge its law-breaking protagonists as villains or misguided kids. The film doesn’t necessarily need you to agree with their choices, but it wants you to carefully consider the questions they are asking. This is fierce protest film-making – and easily my favourite movie of 2023.
• How to Blow Up a Pipeline is available on Kanopy and Stan. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
