Digger, 2026.
Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu.
Starring Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Robert John Burke, Emma D’Arcy, Burn Gorman, Sophie Wilde, Pip Torrens, Mercedes Hernández, Danny Kirrane, James Dryden, Corey Johnson, Ross Hatt, Teddy Hawley, Linxi Doël and R.A. Donnelly.
SYNOPSIS:
The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.
Unlikable, egotistical protagonists and even ones that hit too close to home in the world we currently inhabit aren’t necessarily an issue. However, co-writer/director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger‘s problem is that the impending disaster dramedy is somehow even more intolerable than its lead character, oil tycoon Digger Rockwell, played by none other than Tom Cruise under layers of prosthetics and makeup (a build so steeped in it that not even ten minutes pass before the character is disrobing, as if to inside joke that this is the real body of Mission: Impossible‘s Ethan Hunt).
The physical transformation also extends to Tom Cruise putting on a thick Southern accent, but beyond a full-throated display of arrogance, unchecked hubris, narcissism, and rampant vulgarity, it’s a one-note performance that not even halfhearted attempts at redemption or an admittedly rapturously riveting speech firing back about society’s hypocrisies while implicating them in current ongoing disasters can fully salvage. That’s not to say there isn’t another aspect to the performance and, by association, the film itself, because a major spoiler dynamic regularly reframes and recontextualizes what we are watching. It is one that perhaps could be picked up in the trailer (no, it’s not a musical), but if not, it should have many catching on during the opening 25 minutes, as long as they are paying attention to certain creative choices.
The answer to what’s happening here doesn’t actually matter; what does is that it paves the way for a scene that, if the film weren’t abrasive enough at this point, seems to exist as a metaphor for Alejandro G. Iñárritu (writing alongside Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman, coming up with the story alongside Jez Butterworth) getting ahead and doubling down on the criticisms that were always going to come this film’s away, not necessarily in a pretentious fashion but with dialogue that can only be described as self masturbatory, practically shouting at the audience why what audiences have been watching for almost an hour now is actually brilliant, regardless of what they think to this point. Necessary even!
All that Digger amounts to is characters of various American government importance swearing and yelling at one another, searching for somewhere to place the blame or spin the story (which is not the same as the facts, in one of the sparse bits of memorable and cynically provocative dialogue). Chief among them is John Goodman as U.S. President Compson, who isn’t Donald Trump even if actions such as pulling out of the Paris Accord are mentioned here, but could certainly be considered as such in the realm of satire, in a turn so reliant on megalomaniacal yelling and the actor straining and contorting his facial expressions while doing so, one might actually begin to feel concerned for what his heart rate must have been while shooting the scenes. Over-the-top and hollow don’t even begin to cover it, even if that is meant to be part of the point and appeal.
As Digger and the president work together with environmental specialist Ganesh (Riz Ahmed) to plan a course of action for the former’s colossal screw-up that was brought about by ignoring every global and safety concern, which has now resulted in icebergs the size of metropolises headed toward the European coastline, the cartoonish nature of the characters appears to be the point. Alejandro G. Iñárritu seems to believe that people need to be able to laugh at such planet-dooming incompetence as a sort of coping mechanism (we do, but not like this), while also interested in questioning if making exaggerated laughingstocks out of such individuals is a worthwhile move or if it puts a sheen over real-life that could be detrimental for anyone in the future looking to learn from the world’s past mistakes. It’s also concerned with those in such families who aren’t problematic and how they wrestle with being born into a tarnished, ugly clan.
In between this are scenes of Tom Cruise’s Digger Rockwell desperately trying to keep his sickly cat of over 30 years (yes, that’s not a typo, and is also further evidence that something is off about the world as it’s presented here) alive (a nifty animatronic) and John Goodman’s U.S. President comparing the cyst in his ass as a metaphor for bearing the weight of the world’s sins and calamities. Sure, they want to solve the potentially devastating dilemma Digger has created, but they care more about their own legacies and how to navigate the impending storm, with only the faintest glimmers of humanity and empathy. Fittingly, even the military advisors surrounding the president egotistically believe that bombing the iceberg will solve the problem. Owners of supposedly environmentally progressive corporations, such as Digger’s half-sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), are also taken to task, but it’s a nothing role with little time and depth. Occasionally, this is amusing. More often than not, it is insufferable, and one just wants to leave the theater to avoid the never-ending shouting.
Gorgeously shot by regular Alejandro G. Iñárritu cinematographer collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki, the painterly imagery captures equally striking production design, decorating each set with environmental murals or vast shots of the outdoors from oversized windows, properly keeping in mind what’s at stake not just for the film but the real world as well. That said, it’s not the satire that sinks Digger like quicksand, but the excessively unsubtle bluntness, pompous narrative reveals, and even a story that isn’t as compelling or as funny as it thinks it is. Again, there are entire key aspects of the film that can’t be discussed, but they assuredly don’t amount to much insight or emotion. If anything, it raises more questions elsewhere that aren’t interesting enough to unpack. Digger is a film so far up Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s ass that you couldn’t dig it out with a shovel.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
