It starts with a single, dissonant cello note. Then another. Then the percussion kicks in, a frantic, ticking heartbeat that feels like a panic attack caught on film. If you saw the There Will Be Blood trailer back in 2007, you probably didn’t know you were looking at the definitive American epic of the 21st century. You just knew that Daniel Day-Lewis looked terrifying and that someone was about to get hurt.
Most movie trailers are basically "Greatest Hits" compilations. They give away the plot, show the best jokes, and ruin the third-act twist. This one didn't. It was a mood piece—a violent, oily, rhythmic descent into madness.
The Jonny Greenwood Effect
You can't talk about this trailer without talking about the music. Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) made a brilliant move hiring Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood to score the film. The track used in the main teaser is "Convergence." It wasn’t even originally written for the movie; it was part of Greenwood's score for a film called Bodysong.
It’s weird. It’s percussive. It sounds like oil derricks hammering into the earth.
While other 2007 trailers were using generic orchestral swells or licensed rock songs, PTA and his editors opted for something that felt primal. The rhythm dictates the cuts. Every time the wooden blocks clack together, we see a new image of Daniel Plainview’s descent. It builds an unbearable amount of tension without telling you a single line of dialogue for the first half. That’s how you sell a masterpiece. You don't explain it; you make the audience feel it in their chest.
Why Daniel Plainview Didn't Need to Speak
Daniel Day-Lewis is arguably the greatest actor to ever live, but the There Will Be Blood trailer is remarkably stingy with his voice. We see him covered in soot. We see him holding a baby on a train. We see him staring into a roaring fire with an expression that looks like a mixture of triumph and soul-crushing loneliness.
When he finally does speak, it's that iconic, gravelly mid-Atlantic growl: "I have a competition in me." Honestly, that’s all the marketing needed. It established the character's entire philosophy in six words. The trailer focuses on the physicality of the role. The way he drags his leg. The way he looms over Paul Dano. It’s a masterclass in visual storytelling. You aren't watching a movie about oil; you're watching a movie about a man who wants to eat the world.
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The Visual Language of Oil and Fire
There’s a specific shot in the trailer—the derrick fire at night. It’s a silhouette of Plainview against a literal pillar of hellfire. Robert Elswit, the cinematographer, won an Oscar for this, and you can see why in every frame of the promotional footage.
The color palette is strictly limited:
- Dusty browns of the California desert.
- The deep, viscous black of the "black gold."
- The blinding orange of the gas fires.
This isn't just "pretty" cinematography. It’s thematic. The trailer uses these colors to contrast the "purity" of the landscape with the filth of the industry. It’s messy. It’s gross. You can almost smell the sulfur through the screen.
Breaking the 2000s Trailer Mold
Back in the mid-2000s, trailers followed a very strict "Voice of God" narration or a three-act structure.
- The Setup (Life is good).
- The Conflict (Oh no, oil!).
- The Climax (Yelling and explosions).
The There Will Be Blood trailer threw that out. It’s more of a tone poem. It moves from slow, sweeping landscapes to rapid-fire imagery that borders on the avant-garde. It trusted the audience to be intrigued by the vibe rather than the plot points.
Remember, this came out the same year as No Country for Old Men. It was a year of "The Silent Protagonist." Both trailers relied heavily on ambient sound and heavy breathing rather than exposition. It was a golden era for film marketing because it treated movies like art rather than products.
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The Paul Dano Problem
In the early cuts and teasers, the marketing leaned heavily into the rivalry between Plainview and Eli Sunday. It’s a classic "Church vs. Capitalism" setup. The trailer shows Eli slapping Daniel, and Daniel dragging Eli through the mud.
What’s interesting is how the trailer hides the "Milkshake" of it all.
Most modern trailers would have put the "I drink your milkshake!" line right at the end as a "stinger." But the editors of the There Will Be Blood trailer were smarter. They left the most unhinged moments out, keeping the mystery alive. They showed the threat of violence, not the payoff. That’s why people actually went to the theater—they needed to see if Daniel Day-Lewis actually murdered that kid.
The Sound Design is a Character
If you strip away the music, the sound effects in the teaser are terrifying. The sound of the drill hitting the floor. The splash of oil on a face. The heavy thud of a body falling.
It’s tactile.
Most trailers today use "Bwaaaa" sounds (thanks, Inception) or pop covers. PTA’s team used the sounds of the period. The clanking of metal and the whistling of wind. It creates a sense of isolation. You realize that these people are in the middle of nowhere, and there is no one coming to save them from each other.
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What We Can Learn From the Marketing
If you're a filmmaker or a creator, there’s a massive lesson here. You don't have to show everything. In fact, showing less usually creates more engagement. The There Will Be Blood trailer worked because it asked questions it refused to answer.
Who is the boy?
Why is that man covered in mud?
Is he a hero or a villain?
By the time the title cards crawl onto the screen in that jagged, old-fashioned font, you’re hooked. It feels like you’ve just watched a historical document of a crime.
How to experience this film properly today:
- Watch the teaser first. Even if you’ve seen the movie ten times, go back to the original 2007 teaser. Notice the rhythm. Notice how it ignores the "rules" of modern editing.
- Listen to the score in isolation. Jonny Greenwood’s There Will Be Blood score is available on vinyl and streaming. Listening to "Convergence" or "Prospectors Arrive" gives you a deeper appreciation for how the trailer's "heartbeat" was constructed.
- Compare it to the "No Country for Old Men" trailer. These two films are forever linked. See how two different directors used silence and landscape to sell high-stakes drama.
- Look for the 35mm scans. If you can find a high-quality 35mm scan of the trailer on YouTube or a boutique Blu-ray (like Criterion), watch it. The film grain is essential to the "dirty" feel of the story.
The There Will Be Blood trailer isn't just an advertisement. It's a piece of cinema in its own right, a perfect two-minute distillation of greed, fatherhood, and the dark heart of the American dream. If you want to understand why we still talk about this movie nearly twenty years later, start with the music, the mud, and that single, terrifying cello note.