Digger is not the movie it appears to be at first glance. And if you walked out of the theater feeling baffled, we’re here for you.
Co-written and directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger begins as a political satire in the vein of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
Funny enough, Iñárritu has previously mirrored such title structures with films like BiRDMAN or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. But here, he goes with just Digger.
Tom Cruise, almost unrecognizable in masterfully applied head-to-toe prosthetics, stars as Digger Rockwell, a third-generation oil tycoon who is more concerned with the health of his festering cat than the environment.
The film’s first act follows Digger as he learns that a drilling site of his in Greenland has caused an enormous ice shelf to break off, which could result in devastation to a European coastline. However, as Digger takes a moment to talk man-to-man to a snarling president (John Goodman), something strange happens that turns the movie on its head.
What’s the big spoiler in Digger?
Though the trailer makes Digger seem like a fairly straightforward narrative feature with farcical humor, a bit of production design reveals its truth. As the president and Digger talk about the former’s rectal cancer diagnosis, a tree in the view of the bay window falls. Then, a voice comes over loudspeaker, and an enormous man appears over the horizon to grab the tree and place it back where it stood.
Just like that, the artifice in Digger reveals that Cruise is not playing Digger Rockwell but an actor named Curtis. It is Curtis who is playing Digger Rockwell in a play, and that play is called Fuel Fools.
The man on the horizon is not a giant, but seems so as he fixes the model backdrop that’s projected on a green screen behind the stage’s setting of Digger’s home. While that happens, Curtis will storm offstage to check his phone (a futuristic bauble that can project video calls onto his dressing room mirror). Like Iñárritu’s Birdman, this film’s actor anti-hero has a strained relationship with his wife and daughter, the latter of whom has left him a phone message before her flight takes off.
Curtis is the star of the 25th anniversary production of Fuel Fools, which will be described as a “cult hit” that was originally produced on a black box stage with three actors performing a series of monologues. However, as the enveloping setting of Digger suggests, this revival production is going to unusual extremes to immerse the audience in this farce.
The film’s sets often appear to have four sides, standard for a narrative feature. So, once the theatrical production element is revealed, you may well wonder where the in-world audience is supposed to be. Iñárritu breaks from the story of the play throughout Digger to reveal just that, exposing one set after another, along with more details about why this production is this garish.
Jesse Plemons’ role in Digger is another spoiler.
Credit: Seoju Park / Warner Bros. Entertainment
During Curtis’ first break from the play, he is intruded upon by a stiff, redheaded man (Plemons), who commends him for really understanding the complexity of the character. Curtis understands this is one of the investors in the show, and so tries to be cordial about the intrusion.
In future breaks, where Curtis argues with the play’s director Hannah (Sophie Wilde), it’s made clear that Digger is not a fictional character within the world of this film. Instead, he was a historical figure who did cause an ecological disaster that did catastrophically impact the world. This play was presumably written after the dust settled, slightly more than 25 years ago. Fuel Fools was conceived as a farce that would invite the audience to laugh at the wealthy and powerful men who traded the future of the planet for money, without regret or restraint. They made the world worse, but at least, the film seems to suggest, we can laugh at them now that we’ve survived them.
In Digger‘s climax, Plemons is revealed to be not just a producer of the play, not just a fan of Curtis and his portrayal of Digger, but the real-life Digger’s nephew Kenny. Previous to this, Kenny (as played by a child actor) appears in the play in a living room scene, cuddling Digger’s decrepit cat. Plemons’ Kenny recalls to Curtis seeing the play when it first premiered, and how it felt to see an audience cheer at his late uncle’s downfall. He wanted to bring that back, but on an epic scale, sparing no expense (and generally ignoring how theater and film function differently).
While it’s possible the Rockwell fortune endured even Digger’s world-changing mistakes, a subplot involving Curtis’ daughter going missing suggests that Kenny has made a fortune with a mysterious security firm. Kenny might be independently wealthy now. But in any regard, he’s wealthy enough to remount a satire about what a complicated clown his uncle was.
What happened to the real Digger and his world?
Credit: Seoju Park / Warner Bros. Entertainment
The end of Fuel Fools sees Digger, his sister Emma (Sandra Hüller), her young son Kenny, Digger’s mother, and the president’s widow all living on an oil rig in the middle of the ocean. At this point, Digger still employs his assistant (Emma D’Arcy) and a kitchen staff to cook his meals. But as we see his maid skedaddle with a suitcase, a new reality settles in for the tycoon. Portions of his staff have raided the place, making off with provisions and gold bars.
Far from the opulent (and tacky as hell) home from the first act, Digger ends up remote and powerless to boss people around with his affluence any longer. So, the play ends with him leaping into the ocean in an act of suicide. Special effects allow for the theatrical audience to watch Curtis-as-Digger as he sinks to the bottom of the sea, at which they cheer wildly. The bubbles of his breath through the water echo the methane he carelessly released through his drilling to horrendous ends.
Then, after the curtain call, where Curtis takes to the stage dripping with make-up meant to look like oil, the audience puts on gas masks as the PA system warns of the threat level outside.
Digger ends outside the theater, with audience members walking out into lower Manhattan, where the streets are flooded knee-deep. People scavenge in the dark water for resources, while those on the sidewalk go about their own business. Cars are abandoned in the muck, and military squadrons patrol. This is the ravaged world left behind by Digger Rockwell, where he is remembered as a powerful clown.
Digger is now in theaters.
