(For the record, I wanted to write a spoiler-inclusive review, but seeing as almost no one has watched this movie yet, I have chosen not to)
Some movies try and say a lot of things and end up saying nothing. Others aim for nothing and hit it. Digger is a movie that wants to say a lot, and it does, though it’s not what you think. Digger opened this weekend to mixed reviews from critics and a certified box office catastrophe. Having waited until after viewing to read other reviews, I walked out of the theater confused as to whether I had seen the same film critics were mostly panning.
The movie tells the story, seemingly, of Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise), an oil baron tasked with saving the world from natural disaster caused by his aggressive drilling and refusal to heed scientists’ warnings. At first, it sounds like a Dr. Strangelove-esque disaster satire, a black comedy designed to criticize the wealthy climate deniers and incompetent government officials who put us in an apocalyptic position for personal gain. It sounds alright if not a little uninspired in this day and age (consider Don’t Look Up, Mountainhead). But Digger is not that at all. In fact, it mocks those types of films for their one-note heavy handedness, lecturing audiences on obvious points so blatantly that they have no real impact or resonance. The film ends up delivering something much more original, interesting, and profound.
The first twenty minutes are straightforward, introducing the story that the trailers and marketing present. Digger in his sprawling estate receives news that his oil rig in Greenland exploded and a massive glacier has formed, hurtling towards Europe. He briefs the ailing president (John Goodman) and his cabinet of Bible-thumping sycophants, whose possible solutions to the apocalypse range from prayer, bombing the glacier, and blaming Al Gore. It’s a fine start to the film, but in terms of timely satire, it plays no better or worse than an average SNL cold open.
Then the film does something that, initially, feels like it changes everything. I won’t call it a “twist”, because it doesn’t function the way classic story twists do. The Usual Suspects, The Prestige, The Sixth Sense and other films revolve nearly entirely around their plot twists, shocking reveals at the end of the film on which the entire story hinges. (What, really, is Usual Suspects about other than the reveal of Keyser Soze’s identity?) This story development in Digger comes early and at first offers promise. But almost immediately after, I felt frustrated. The story felt cheaper, the development unearned and seemingly pointless, and whatever momentum it had been building disappeared.
After languishing for another thirty minutes, Cruise’s character delivers a speech to the European Commission in what has to be one of the best scenes of the last twenty-five years. He storms around the auditorium, verbally and physically fighting the crowd, and criticizing the bureaucrats for their hypocrisy. The nearly single take used could feel like a theatrical gimmick, but given what we know about the story unfolding, it’s not. The film starts to give us more and more information, building on the surprise development. And quickly, it starts to fall into place.
Digger isn’t a superficial, ‘rich people are bad, look at how silly they are’ film like the aforementioned examples or White Lotus. It actually has tremendous contempt for those types of works, whilst still endorsing their obvious and true message. At one point, Cruise’s character mentions how cliché the film’s events feel. He describes his own actions as exaggerated, critiques the trope of the hapless vice-president (Michael Stuhlbarg), and explains that at least some of the people involved are actually a lot more competent and sinister than just ignorant buffoons. The film is even critical of audiences who revel in these stories—not the film’s own audience, but rather those who delight in such easy and broad criticisms and how unproductive they can be.
Jesse Plemons’ character gives a monologue that highlights the tonal line Digger walks. In it, there’s a positive, compelling interpretation that art is important, it can bring people together under the worst of circumstances and, if done right, can tell powerful stories. Simultaneously, his character also provides an argument that those powerful people responsible for tragedy can feign magnanimity and still escape the consequences of their actions.
It feels like in most reviews I’ve read, the critics must have left somewhere before the hour mark. Up until that point, the film was frustrating and aimless. But as the credits roll, it’s clear why and all is forgiven. This is a great movie, and the last film that Warner Brothers will ever make as an independent studio before its imminent absorption by Paramount Skydance on Tuesday. The box office disaster is someone else’s problem now; Digger is a worthy note for such a storied studio to go out on, one sure to undergo serious critical re-evaluation in the coming years.
