An effective thriller needs little to be successful, especially in terms of things like locations and props. The Standoff at Sparrow Creek showcases this concept in a highly specific setting but with so much force and an equally strong effect on the viewers. How to Blow up a Pipeline takes that notion to an even bigger level, using a deserted house (as compared to a huge warehouse in The Standoff at Sparrow Creek), set in a southern US backwater to create a gripping story of the modern capitalistic trajectory of environmental destruction and the inevitable but unclear backlash.
In this tale, that backlash comes in the form of a group of environmental activists who are now seeking to take radical action and blow up a part of the pipeline on US soil in Texas. The film, masterfully directed on a knife edge by Daniel Goldhaber, showcases all of their previous lives and the courses of some type of suffering at the hands of the present political and economic system which led to this point. Finally, all of that culminates in a very effective and bold ending, which could also sadly prove to be very prophetic in the years to come.
