Digger: Film Review

"Digger"Directed by Alejandro G. IñárrituWritten by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina BermanStarring Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Michael StuhlbargRated R for pervasive languageRuntime: 128 minutesRelease Date: October 2, 2026

Final Thought

Digger is a deceptive film that is sure to be divisive, but I'm here for it.

Rating

★★★★ / 5

Logline

From Warner Bros.:

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.

Review: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

*Note: The underlined portions are hyperlinks.

I hate spoilers, but I love trailers. A good trailer entices a viewer to want to know more by revealing as little as possible. The worst kind of trailer is overlong; one that gives away a film’s entire story. The marketing for this film interested me because of how little its teaser trailer initially divulged about even its character’s appearance, but once its official two-and-a-half-minute trailer was released, I regretfully assumed that I had it all figured out.

There was much speculation around what kind of film Iñárritu’s new project would be after the releases of its trailers. Many even wondered if the shielding of key story points was because of the film secretly being a musical - dubbed “the Cruisical” online. While it is unfortunately not a musical, Digger turns out to be something much more interesting: a wildly creative takedown of this country’s fuckups and our response to them that is best entered, unexpectedly, as blindly as possible.

Digger follows Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) as the eponymous oil baron, primarily concerned with the health of his 30-year-old cat Maggie, finds himself at the center of an international catastrophe: oil drills owned by his company have cause an ice shelf from Greenland named Judy - five times the size of Washington, D.C. - to rapidly drift into the Scandinavian countries of Europe. An out-of-touch old man, Digger must work with President Compson (John Goodman) and a team of scientists to figure out how to fix the incoming natural disaster, or at least the PR around it.

Regardless of the Cruisical rumor, my baseline expectation for this film was a style of comedy similar to Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1964 war comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and much of this film delivers on that front. The four writers - Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Sabina Berman, and Nicolás Giacobone - craft an incisive farcical satire with Digger and its dystopic scenario. Cruise might not be playing three characters, but physical, slapstick, and screwball comedy are all baked into this satirical and oft-hilarious story. Two early extended exposition scenes drag the first act, but after a pivotal, you’ll-know-it-when-you-see-it sequence, the mystery of Digger becomes fiercely intriguing.

Digger also bears tonal similarity to another auteuristic exploration of American political idiocy and its dystopic effects, Bong Joon-ho’s allegorical 2024 film Mickey 17. Their styles of satire are alike. There’s a glibness to the authoritative characters in both films that favor each other, particularly in both films’ depictions of the American “leader.” Bong’s Kenneth Marshall in Mickey 17, played by Mark Ruffalo, is a bit more blatantly egomaniacal than Iñárritu’s President Compson, but both are presented as narcissistic buffoons, with Goodman’s character here being quite literally only concerned with what’s up his ass. Might I also note neither Iñárritu nor Bong are American, further corroborating my point made when reviewing The Drama earlier this year about non-American directors being the best at tearing down America due to minimal personal bias.

John Goodman in "Digger"

The ensemble of this film is quite notable, with multiple performances making a strong impact. Riz Ahmed as the expert Dr. Ganesh and John Goodman as President Compson are excellent partners for the rambunctious Cruise as both actors perform neuroses that balance those of Cruise’s Digger. Sophie Wilde makes an impression as well as her character butts heads with Cruise’s. Sandra Hüller’s performance as Digger’s sister Emma might be the only let down. Her work in Project Hail Mary earlier this year showed great comedic skill, but that felt lacking here, especially since her character felt so minor.

Digger, though, is the Cruise show, as the mostly unrevealing and deceptive early marketing suggests. The scientologist is in fine form here as the bombastic Texan - his screen presence is one thing you can’t take away from him. The greyed-out makeup and hairstyling (of every character, not just his Digger Rockwell) help the transformation as well.

Tom Cruise finds himself in a character that is supposed to have a plan, but as he is perpetually distracted, he maintains a state of ignorance. He’s in fact so ignorant that his first plan of action against the incoming disaster is to force ignorance on the masses by limiting searchable terms online. The cleverness of his character shines, though, when he, while proselytizing, calls out the public’s complacency in his ignorance; a moment that should serve as a wake-up call to any radical thinker or activist.

L-R: Tom Cruise and Riz Ahmed in "Digger"

There are an unexpected amount of emotions Cruise plays here as the film takes several unexpected turns, and he plays them well. The depth of his performance stems from a second storyline that I cannot describe in this non-spoiler review.

There’s an artistic swing almost 30 minutes into this film so massive that it begot confusion from me. It’s an almost baffling choice… that I loved. Once the revelation comes into play, every odd filmmaking and storytelling decision is almost immediately justified as the film becomes both reflective and reflexive. The film is what it is - a satirical look at now writ future, the end of the world - but it becomes also about what it is - the importance of satire and storytelling as a marker of resiliency. I will not divulge any details from henceforth about this ambitious maneuver, but I will say that the Birdman - Iñárritu’s 2014 Best Picture winner - influences will make or break the film for audiences. If you fuck with the swing, you’re going to love Digger. If not, you’ll be in for an annoying ride.

I understand why people wouldn’t like this film. It’s self-indulgent, self-insistent, obvious - a trait I've written about several times this year - and much more artful in its execution than any of the marketing has suggested. To make its ambitious execution and farcical through line coalesce, multiple monologues in this film, though poignant, make literal satirical commentary that is already understood - the main thing I’ll knock about the film is that it spells out too much of its humor. There are also multiple scenes that might appear wildly out-of-place, whether because of its content or the uncanniness of the film’s design, but directorial ambition this outsized must be respected.

It’s hard to write about Digger, a film shrouded in such mystery that its first teaser and poster censored the eyes of its main character. The film has more to say about the power of satire, communal art, and the duty of the artist than I expected, but to delve into how would spoil the film and effectively ruin the experience. Equal parts Dr. Strangelove and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s eighth film Digger is a film where, truly, the less you know the better.

Viewed on 9/28/26 at press screening

Published on 9/29/26

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