How to Blow Up a Pipeline (2022)

How to Blow Up a Pipeline review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

With environmental terrorism narratives, How To Blow Up A Pipeline is a messy entry for this subgenre. At its best, the film evokes the anger and desperation that comes with the problems of the climate crisis that affect those at the bottom. The rage boils and explodes in a deeply cathartic way. At its worst, the film plays like a Baby’s First Environmental Revolt story, complete with the most easy-to-read depictions, even the grittier aspects as the heroes tread through sludgy waters of activism.

Told in a non-linear fashion, the film centers around the plight of those who have nothing left. Xochitl has lost her mother to pollution and doesn’t find much of a future for herself, with none of the refineries being held accountable for the pollution. Dwayne is furious with his land being acquired for extracting more oil. Michael has grown equally as bitter for living on a reservation and finding little hope amid his knowledge of explosives. Together, they gather other concerned citizens who have had enough of the oil companies ruining their lives and desire to do something beyond just screaming “vote” into the void.

As the title implies, they go about assembling a bomb that will destroy an oil refinery’s pipeline, which will further damage the Midwest. In terms of direction, the film is thrilling for how it builds. Director Daniel Goldhaber breaks up the intensity by dipping in and out of giving us the backstories on the characters, similar to Andreas Malm’s book in how it divides the story into chapters. There’s stellar cutting at just the right moments when there’s fear that the bomb won’t be ready or they’ll be caught. We also spend just enough time with the characters to appreciate their plight and hope they make it through, even if making it through ends in blowing up the pipeline and evidence.

Regarding the film’s messaging, there’s undoubtedly some criticism about how effective the film would be to inspire action. The film becomes almost too lost in its characters and tactics of their explosion to fully recognize the gravity of the climate crisis. Somewhere around the third act, it stops looking at a climate activism picture and more like a decent thriller. While there’s still some intensity and drive in these nail-biter scenes - ranging from a cover story at a bar to a violent exchange with guards - the ultimate weight of this dire cause comes off more like a motivation for some exciting moments rather than a bitter reaction to a world that has left people behind. This type of staging makes it hard to feel more for a film with injured and compromised climate change activists.

This starkly contrasts the book, which went out of its way to argue more for the sabotage of oil companies amid the fatalism with the environment. As climate change worsens, activism will rise, but it’s still alarming how little there is now. That level of outrage and concern seems lacking in this film, which reduces the fight to a handful of activists who might make the news but only hinder pipeline operations for a short time. The truth is that those still unconvinced about the climate change situation will merely scoff at this film and state that all these people deserve to be imprisoned. Even when the characters admit they’ll be perceived as terrorists without remorse, that level of realization and admittance will fall on deaf ears for those not all already convinced of the issue.

How To Blow Up A Pipeline is a decent thriller but takes its material too lightly considering the topic. For those who haven’t given much concern for climate change, there might be some curiosity to inspire more activism. For those who can already see the writing on the wall, this film feels more like a standard review on climate change activism, and it's profoundly concerning how little of a dent this will leave.