Will Sorg-

People recycle. People watch documentaries about dying coral reefs and disappearing animals. People turn to veganism or environmental activism. People install solar panels and drive electric cars. Some people blow up pipelines because in the seemingly never-ending fight for a livable planet, it starts to feel like nothing else can even make a dent. How to Blow Up a Pipeline follows a group of environmentalists as they plan, and then execute, direct action against the fossil fuel industry. This film is based on a nonfiction book by Andres Malm which primarily argues that sabotage is required to further the causes of climate activists, the film forming the rhetorical work of the book into a narrative feature. As a result, the film is a fictional account but also partially based on real-life cases of environmental sabotage. This all adds up to a heavily political and incredibly entertaining film.

The film intercuts between the actual day of the pipeline bombing and other scenes that provide context as to why this group is being this violent in the first place. The tension of the preparation and execution of the bombing is incredibly gripping, but even more fascinating is the way each character is shown to have a variety of reasons as to why they want to commit this radical act against the fossil fuel industry. Among the group, there is Xochitl, a woman whose mother was killed by a heat wave, Theo, whose terminal cancer was caused by the air pollution put out by refineries, Dwayne, a Texan landowner who was pushed out of his family’s land because an oil company used eminent domain to take his property, and many other characters. Each character is distinct and their diverse reasons for wanting to take action against the fossil fuel industry build up the countless ways in which climate change has hurt the lives of real people.

The film understands the sweeping harm climate change has done to not only the environment but also to the people. An early scene that shows a character scrolling through a climate post on Twitter shows off highly realistic comments of how defeated most young people feel about climate change. Throughout the film, there is so much that feels refreshingly in touch with the realities of climate change. The film harbors no illusions about who is to blame for climate change. It lays the blame rightfully on giant corporations and the governments that either refuse to hold them accountable or actively defend the corporations. The whole idea behind pipeline sabotage is that it has the potential to cause the only disruption that corporations will listen to – and that is a disruption of their cash flow. The film also acknowledges that the characters’ actions will directly cause turmoil for many low-income people who already struggle to pay for fuel. Economic inequity and the moral gray zone of what the characters are doing adds to an already tense film.

Tension is, of course, an essential part of the film. The danger of the group getting caught, the chance their improvised bomb will literally blow up in their faces, and even the inherent tension that comes from the different backgrounds and conflicting ideologies of each character. Every layer of tension is put on top of each other until the movie is practically groaning under the weight of the things that could go wrong. Even with the multitude of ways this film works as simple entertainment, it also works as a political statement. This easily has some of the more explicitly progressive politics I’ve ever seen on climate change. For a movie like this to get even a limited release in the states is incredible. The fact that it’s also available on Hulu and Gustavus’s own streaming service, Swank, means that there is a very good chance that this will be able to reach a lot of people that it might not otherwise. It does not matter whether or not the filmmakers truly believe in radical direct action – legally I think they can’t say so even if they are. I think that the most powerful piece of this film is the way it portrays this form of political activism in a way that is truly exceptional. How to Blow Up a Pipeline gives its viewers a chance to see the catharsis of agency. The film shows that ordinary people are able to fight against injustices perpetrated by the modern ruling class and that this fight is not only possible but very well may be necessary.