DIGGER

Director
Alejandro G. Iñárritu

Starring
Tom Cruise
John Goodman
Riz Ahmed
Sandra Hüller
Jesse Plemons

After a catastrophic methane explosion sends an iceberg directly towards Northern Europe, oil tycoon Digger Rockwell [Cruise], is held accountable by the US President, and told to get the situation under control – least of all because his company is responsible for the drilling that caused the incident. Despite the advice of experts around him, and outraged ministers and citizens calling for his head, Digger stays the course, believing oil is the life blood of the human race and cannot be sacrificed for anything. Not even the end of the world. Except, that’s not entirely the story, but to get into it, we’ll need some heavy spoiler tags.

On a technical level, the film is ambitious and sweeping. There’s undeniable beauty in the often absurd presentation, the intentionally bizarre production design, and Emmanuel Lubezki’s masterful cinematography. Similarly, the sound design feels like an intentional assault and the score is a mix of whimsical wheezing and animal noises, giving us an almost medieval jester’s folly, that’s both mockery and lament.

While there are plenty of powerful and engaging performances, this is a Tom Cruise movie in every sense of the word. He is the star, the focal point, and his portrayal of the titular Digger is one of the most interesting and exciting from him in many years. A man often wildly confident but also wildly incorrect “When you’re running from a house on fire, no one cares who left the toaster on.” We all know that bullish confidence and the marketable platitudes from powerful men who’re essentially saying nothing as they do unspeakable damage – see the entire AI sector. But I’ll come back to this performance later, because it’s more than it seems.

The message at the heart of this film is beyond pertinent and yet the satirical efforts are frankly struggling. Much like Don’t Look Up or Mickey 17, there are wonderful vignettes and segments but, as a rounded experience, it never gains sufficient traction or cuts deep enough. Sure, we have comic jabs like “please watch the language, there are women present” and then laughing at the thought of a woman at such a high level but that feels sophomoric, obvious, and essentially low hanging fruit. It’s not inaccurate by any means, nor is it lazy per se, it’s just unoriginal.

**spoilers from here until the end of the review**
However, while I was trying to get into the symbolism and the meaning at this movie’s core (starting with the importance of Digger’s decomposing, half dead cat over the fate of the planet) and how the puppetry was impressive in its reserved grotesquery, I was hit by the film’s true angle. See, while there’s plenty of absurdity to decipher, half an hour in, the walls come back and we learn that the film is actually a theatrical piece. Not only that, it’s a monumental 25th anniversary production of a cult play named “Fossil Fools”, put to stage some 40-50 years in the future. And while a retrospective scathing take down of the selfish architects of the world’s slow decline into ruin sounds like a wonderful development, it’s the single creative decision that could be the movie’s biggest mistake. In the same divisive way audiences love or hate Asteroid City.

To pick up where I left off, Tom Cruise’s performance is in fact a dual one. Not only Digger, but Curtis Markson, the actor playing this heightened, half-remembered caricature. Meaning his random eccentricities are possibly accurate or possibly artistic licence. Digger telling a story about WWI, for example, and how this motivated his grandfather to start digging for oil. Any time a war is mentioned, we’re conditioned to expect a heroic, aggrandising anecdote, yet it devolves into another selfish, tone deaf, corporate brag.

But Curtis isn’t Digger and he’s arguably the only performer we get to glean the surface of. Because while this elaborate technical rehearsal is going through the motions, there’s a potential real world tragedy concerning Curtis’ daughter Hope, whose flight is thrown into confusion and uncertainty. And I get the grounded, simple impact and importance of these intervals (“Hope being lost or dead” well done but that’s very on the nose) but it’s too disconnected and buried. To the extent that I didn’t ever really care about her fate.

And, as a viewer, I also became less trusting of the narrative. I started looking for a third curtain pull, like what if Jesse Plemons’ character was the devil or something. And then we eventually get there only to discover that he was in fact the little boy we’d seen earlier – Digger’s nephew, Kenny Rockwell. Again, it fails to land. Much like Hope, this revelation seems to exist solely to head off critical analyses and arguments about the efficacy of this approach. Leaving us with a self deprecation and doubt that this movie honestly doesn’t need. What it needs is to be confident, bold, and most importantly angry. It comes close on occasion yet falters, making for a manic fever dream of an experience, but one that lacks teeth.

All of which culminates in a denouement with a jeering, braying crowd as Digger leaps to his death, hitting a somewhat self congratulatory tone. As if to highlight the absurdity and pointlessness of our current satirical jabs and observations. Only for the leads to ascend from under the stage for their curtain call to uproarious applause, holding up a mirror as we pat ourselves on the back as a coping mechanism in the face of calamity and disaster. It also doesn’t help that a hollow handful of lines reveal that Hope has been found off-screen by Digger’s nephew. Confusing the metaphor somewhat and making the message and meaning of his character even more confusing.

The maxim is simple: the old men running our world are pathetic, short-sighted morons. That’s been the case since Dr Strangelove and yet it offers little new, other than substituting nuclear war and imperial posturing with AI, evangelicals, rampant unchecked capitalism, and global warming. In other words, it will feel obvious and somewhat redundant to those already in the know, and indecipherable arty farty gibberish to the unconvinced.

As a chamber piece filled with panic, denial and urgency, it should have hit like Downfall. Illustrating a world in disrepair and collapse, we should have had a Children Of Men premonitory wake-up call. And as a comedy, the script should have skewered as magnificently as The Death Of Stalin. I have nothing but praise for wanting to tackle this subject with the biggest megaphone Iñárritu could build, but the result is disappointingly insufficient.

Release Date:
02 October 2026

The Scene To Look Out For:
While the broader experience doesn’t quite hit the mark, there are plenty of standout moments and scenes – usually in the form of a one-shot diatribe. One that stood out to me was President Compson’s [Goodman] rant about his colon cancer and the world’s decay being linked, before descending into a mad rambling tirade about nuking China, disowning God, and having a minor tantrum that there isn’t a little red button but in fact a reading assignment in a briefcase.

Notable Characters:
In terms of supporting performances, I have two to highlight. The first is Sandra Hüller as Digger’s younger half-sister Emma. She has a force of nature presence that is commanding, fantastic, and feels reminiscent of Cate Blanchett’s early work. The second is Riz Ahmed, whose fury and passion are brilliant. He also gets some of the most important lines of dialogue, such as “You don’t need reports, your bodies know the evidence” and delivers them perfectly.

Highlighted Quote:
“Tell me, Dr Ganesh, are you a scientist or a fortune teller? Because all I’m hearing are ifs, possibles, and coulds. And I’m fucking sick of ifs, possibles, and coulds!”

In A Few Words:
“What use is a witty, contemplative musing on the end of the world if it doesn’t connect?”

Total Score: 2/5

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