| Director | Paul Thomas Anderson |
|---|---|
| Genre | drama film |
| Runtime | 138 min |
| Country | United States |
| Budget | $35 million |
| Box office | $28.3 million |
In early 1950, Freddie Quell is a sex-obsessed alcoholic Navy veteran struggling to adjust to post-war society in the wake of World War II. Prone to violent and erratic behavior, he is fired from his job as a department store photographer after getting into a fight with a customer. He works on a Filipino-American community farm in California until an elderly colleague collapses after drinking Freddie's moonshine. Freddie is accused of poisoning him and flees.
In San Francisco, Freddie stows away on the yacht of a follower of Lancaster Dodd, the charismatic leader of a philosophical movement known as "The Cause." When he is discovered, Dodd describes Freddie as "aberrated" and claims to have met him in the past but cannot remember where. He invites Freddie to stay to attend the marriage of his daughter, and to make more moonshine for which Dodd has developed a taste. Dodd begins an exercise with Freddie called "processing," in which he asks Freddie a flurry of disturbing psychological questions. Freddie breaks down at the end of the exercise while recalling his past relationship with Doris, a girl from his hometown to whom he promised to return.
Freddie travels with Dodd's family as they spread The Cause along the East Coast. Dodd's family consist of his wife, Peggy, his adult children, Val and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's new husband, Clark. While at a dinner party in New York, a man accuses The Cause of being a cult. Dodd berates him and asks him to leave. Freddie pursues the man and assaults him, to Dodd's dismay. Dodd's wife Peggy starts having misgivings about Freddie's presence.
Freddie criticizes Dodd's son, Val, for disregarding his father's teachings, but Val says Dodd is making it up as he goes along. Dodd is arrested for practicing medicine without qualifications; Freddie attacks the police officers and is also taken into custody. In jail, Freddie erupts in an angry tirade, questioning everything Dodd taught him, and accusing him of being a fake. Dodd calls Freddie lazy and worthless, claiming nobody but Dodd likes him. Upon release, they reconcile, but members of The Cause have become suspicious and fearful of Freddie, believing him to be deranged, an undercover agent, or simply beyond help. Dodd insists Freddie's behavior can be corrected with rigorous conditioning, which Freddie struggles to internalize.
Freddie accompanies Dodd to Phoenix, Arizona, to celebrate the release of Dodd's book. When Dodd's publisher criticizes it, Freddie assaults him. Dodd loses his temper with acolyte Helen Sullivan after she questions inconsistencies between the new book and Dodd's previous publications. Dodd takes a group to a salt flat for a game consisting of picking a point in the distance and riding towards it on Dodd's motorcycle. Freddie takes his turn but does not return, disappearing into the horizon.
Freddie returns home to Lynn, Massachusetts, to visit Doris, but learns from her mother that she has married and started a family. Sleeping in a movie theater, Freddie receives a phone call from Dodd begging him to visit him in England, where he now resides. Deciding to go, Freddie finds The Cause has grown ever larger. The previously skeptical Val is now a high-ranking member of The Cause, while Elizabeth and Clark have been expelled from the organization. Peggy rebuffs Freddie as being a lost cause, but Dodd is still hopeful that he can sway Freddie back to the fold. Dodd recounts that, in a past life, they had worked together in Paris sending balloons across a Prussian blockade. Dodd gives Freddie an ultimatum: devote himself to the Cause for life, or leave and never return. As Freddie suggests that they may meet again in the next life, Dodd says that if they do, it will be as sworn enemies. Dodd sings "On a Slow Boat to China" as Freddie weeps. Freddie leaves and picks up a woman at a pub, repeating questions from his first processing session as he is having sex with her.
On a beach, Freddie curls up to a crude sand sculpture of a woman he and his Navy comrades sculpted during the war.