‘Digger’ is Divisive, and You May Need to Look at Yourself to Understand Why

The plot of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s Digger was kept largely under wraps. Its first teaser gave viewers little more than an introduction to Digger Rockwell, played by a Tom Cruise that has not taken this sort of major acting leap since 2008’s Tropic Thunder. Cruise is the type of actor who excels when he’s given creative freedom in an out-there type of role, and it’s largely his performance that helps keep Digger together in the moments where it would otherwise fall apart.

The vague marketing was a smart choice, even if it may not feel like it. Digger relies on the shock the viewer gets as the curtains are pulled back on what it is really about. It is, ultimately, two layers of satire with a center of introspection that many people are not going to like
— that is precisely why people don’t like the film. Having your own flaws pointed out to you is hard to swallow, and that’s the whole point.

“Is This Play About Us?” (Spoilers Below)

Digger seemingly is the real-time story of a major natural disaster. However, soon into the film it shifts, revealing that these specific characters are nothing but characters in a play. But an even more shocking revelation is that this play is based on true events, and that the film itself is taking place twenty years into a dystopian future where two icebergs named Judy and Kimberly caused global catastrophe.

The crowning jewel moment of the film comes from Cruise’s monologue at a post-flood hearing. Everybody is looking for somebody to blame, and it seems like Digger, who knew for decades how dangerous everything was and still let it keep happening, is the perfect target. A more shallow version of this film could stop there and blame big corporations and greed for the worsening planet crisis. However, Digger takes it a step further.

Complacency, he says, is just as dangerous. The finger is pointed at the people who take sustainability and freedom for granted. Those who sit and watch TikTok and YouTube on their phones, using up the energy of the world without actually doing anything about their own overconsumption. They can blame the government and the oil tycoons, but they are still putting their own mark on the worsening state of the climate.

Can We Help? Probably Not! But It Doesn’t Mean We Stop Trying

Conversely, the film’s message highlights a sense of hopelessness that we all feel right now. We’ll watch the film, and we’ll laugh at it and understand the severity of our own precarious position, but then go home and go right back to continuing the cycle. The art of it all is pointless, but it doesn’t mean that it’s meaningless. Arguably, art is more important than ever, but we need to adjust our approach to it and stop creating stories that are palatable to a wider audience.

At a key moment in the film, Cruise stops rehearsal to vent his frustrations about how stupid the whole production is because of its satirical nature. It’s ridiculous, he says, because these were all real people who had real, difficult decisions to make. Iñárritu is pointing the camera at us, the audience, for being there in the theatre, for laughing while we ignore the crises happening around us. We are all guilty of deleting a notification or closing out of a difficult article because it’s better to remain ignorant than face the awful truth of the fragile mortality of humans.

If you’re looking for a catharsis, or to feel better about your own guilt, Digger isn’t going to give it to you. It’s going to laugh in your face and force you to acknowledge that the world runs on more than your own self-servitude. We are all accustomed to a certain way of things, as Digger pointed out. Enacting any major sort of change would require sacrifices that people just simply would not want to make. But the fact that Iñárritu refuses to coddle viewers is what makes it possibly the most effective political climate change film yet.

Perhaps, if Fossil Fools can become a cult classic twenty years later, then Digger can, too. Hopefully by then it’s not too late.