Digger

GoMovieRevews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.8/5)

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Screenplay Written by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman

Story Written by: Sabina Berman, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Jez Butterworth

Produced by: Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Tom Cruise

Executive produced by: Joshua Grode

Starring: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons.

‘It’s the price of doing business.’

The film opens on a night sky of stars and sounds of the outback: crickets, birds.  A curtain rises on a scene of nature as an old man rests in bed.  Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) stretches and pets his ancient cat, Maggie.

It’s a caricature of a Big American Oil Idiot, hellbent on extracting all he can from the earth.  Before someone else does.  Before the Russkies or the Chinese.

But Digger isn’t an idiot, ‘It’s the price of doing business,’ he says.  He knows exactly what he’s doing.

Digger is a tale of destruction.  A comment on the very real threat of humans against nature and how small we are in comparison.  How very small.  And ignorant.  Where humanity is, ‘simply up against the reality of nature,’ says scientist, Ganesh (Riz Ahmed).

The tone and twists of Digger make the movie unique. A, you-have-to-see-it-before-you-can-talk-about-it-film.

An original film written and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman (2015), The Revenant (2016)) that has taken up the mantle Francis Ford Coppola attempted with his film Megalopolis (2024) that turned out to be a hot mess because of his attempt to fold all the crisis humanity is facing by quoting all the greats.  And ‘family dramas, love triangles and marriage – there’s a whole lot of silly.  Not funny.  Silly.’

Here, Tom Cruise stars as the enigmatic, described as psychopathic, oil barren: the most powerful man in the world whom the President of the United States (John Goodman) relies upon to fix what cannot be fixed.  Digger is friendly with all the powerful men surrounding the President – all white, middle-aged men who throw around ideas about how to run the country, the world, by blocking mention of any pending disaster because when disaster hits, no-one’s going to care where the disaster came from, they’ll be looking for help.  To be saved.  By the United States.   Some of the film is heavy handed.

But Digger is the best social comment I’ve seen so far on the incoming disaster that waits in what is looking like the not-to-distant future, because the film is cynical, dark and reflective of what has already happened: ignorance, cover-up, outcry, then adapting to the new norm.

I’m not saying Digger is the most entertaining film I’ve seen this year, but this is a clever way to have a deep and confronting conversation about humanity’s possible future.

I thought Jesse Plemons was going to steal the screen (I’m a big fan), but the entertainment that’s here is all Tom Cruise as his character, Digger.  Layered, funny, charismatic; the balance is pitch-perfect from Cruise.  He carries the weight of the film and plays a large part in the film’s success because he’s just so much fun to watch.

Overall, Digger is a satirically clever movie, with a message.  Take a look.  There’s much to discuss.