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Everyone Hates ‘Digger.’ It’s the Perfect Climate Movie
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- DeepHorus
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Digger is on track to become one of the biggest box-office failures ever. The critically panned, exorbitantly expensive satire stars Tom Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a loud American oil billionaire. After an oil-drilling platform breaks loose a massive iceberg and triggers a huge methane leak, Digger must alert the president, John Goodman.
The trailers sell a broad satire of oilmen and a Trumpian religious-right administration facing climate disaster. Iñárritu soon reveals that the story is a play within the movie, staged in a leaky theater that keeps losing power. Cruise is not Digger but an actor playing Digger. The play, Fossil Fools, depicts events from decades earlier.
That framing creates two audiences: moviegoers in 2026 and dystopian future theatergoers. Every joke and villainous portrayal becomes part of a darker commentary. The film asks what kind of characters audiences are most comfortable making into climate villains.
Digger contrasts with Adam McKay’s 2021 Netflix hit Don’t Look Up. McKay argued that better communication about climate risks could make people less tolerant of leaders’ inaction. Digger instead takes a nihilistic view: the truth has no value. It explores misinformation through a president who deploys a “firewall” censoring all mentions of the climate crisis.
Riz Ahmed plays Dr. Ganesh, Digger’s long-suffering environmental expert. Ganesh tells European Union leaders the truth about the company and climate change, making a rare major-movie reference to the “Exxon Knew” investigation. Digger then admits that oilmen knew their product would cause runaway climate change. He insists that knowledge does not matter.
The film is deeply uncomfortable, and that is the point. Despite terrible reviews and huge costs, Digger rewires expectations for what a climate movie can be. It questions the purpose of art and truth amid climate disaster.
