Promised Land (2012) on Netflix
Steve Butler tries to buy drilling rights for a natural gas company. He and his partner Sue Thomason arrive in a Pennsylvania farm town, where teacher Frank Yates questions the drilling.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.6/1041,209 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
Steve Butler works for Global Crosspower Solutions, an energy company that extracts natural gas, and he has a record of persuading landowners to sign leases for drilling rights. He and his partner Sue Thomason reach a Pennsylvania farming town hit by economic decline, where residents take pride in family farms handed down through generations. Butler, who grew up in a similar town that died when its factory closed, presents the offer as the town's last chance. The community leans toward accepting until Frank Yates, a retired engineer and high school science teacher, questions whether the drilling is safe. A vote is set for a few weeks away, and the arrival of Dustin Noble, an environmental advocate who blames the company for his family's lost Nebraska dairy farm, brings resistance to Butler's work.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Promised Land (2012)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The industry group Marcellus Shale Coalition bought a 16-second onscreen advertisement to be shown in 75 percent of Pennsylvania's cinemas at the same time the film was released there.
- In September 2012 a group of residents of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, where the film was shot, formed a Facebook group to protest against it, saying the film had been made in their backyard after they were told it would be fair to drilling, and that they were angry.
- Co-writer John Krasinski said the screenplay originally centered on wind power, and the story was rewritten to use fracking instead once it became the more topical issue in the news.
