A group of environmental activists are gathered in Texas with a common goal: blowing up a pipeline. They have all suffered as a result of climate change and the industry that causes it – the group’s leader, Xochitl, is recently orphaned after her mother lost her life in a heat wave. Years of demonstrations and protests have led nowhere, and the group is convinced that more dramatic measures are necessary.

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is based on the manifesto of the same name, published by Swedish environmental activist Andreas Malm in 2021. There, he argues for sabotage as a tactic in the fight against global warming. Director Daniel Goldhaber uses Malm’s themes as the base for a nail-biting suspense film – a heist movie in a similar vein as Ocean’s Eleven, although this film has far more serious matters at heart – that follows the activists’ perilous road to their explosive objective.