Spoilers ahead: Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger contains two major twists that transform Tom Cruise’s apparent environmental disaster thriller into a story about a play, its actors and the legacy of a real-world catastrophe.
Cruise plays oil magnate Digger Rockwell, who is forced to confront the consequences of drilling in Alaska and Greenland. After methane beneath a Greenland field ignites, an ice shelf the size of Maryland breaks away and begins drifting towards Europe, threatening to trigger devastating tidal waves.
Digger and US President Compson, played by John Goodman, choose to gamble that winds will push the ice into the Atlantic, where it will melt. Riz Ahmed plays Dr Nirav Ganesh, an environmental safety chief who warns of the danger.
The first twist in Digger
Roughly half an hour into the film, the apparent disaster gives way to an entirely different reality. During a conversation between Digger and the president, a tree falls outside and a large figure enters the scene to repair it.
Background chatter then reveals that the audience has been watching the final rehearsal of a play called Fossil Fuels. Cruise, Goodman, Ahmed and the rest of the cast are not the characters they first appeared to be, but actors performing in the production.
Cruise’s character is actually Curtis Markson, the actor playing Digger Rockwell. As the rehearsal continues backstage, a storm rages in the real world and Curtis learns that his daughter has disappeared after boarding a flight.
The play’s real-life origins
The second major revelation concerns the wealthy man producing the play. Jesse Plemons plays Kenny, who initially tells Curtis that his security company may be able to help find his missing daughter.
Near the end of the rehearsal, Curtis breaks down and argues that the play’s version of events does not reflect what would have happened in real life. The director, played by Sophie Wilde, then reveals that the story is based on actual events.
Digger Rockwell was a real person, and the disaster depicted in the production happened 25 years earlier. The play has been staged as a satire intended to help survivors cope with the trauma.
Kenny is also revealed to be Rockwell’s nephew. He financed the production to expose how his family’s greed contributed to the climate crisis.
Within the play, President Compson dies from an illness, while his family and Rockwell’s are exiled by the new US president. They are sent to one of Rockwell’s former oil rigs and cut off from supplies, before Digger jumps into the water and dies by suicide.
The scene prompts a standing ovation from the audience, with some spectators in tears. Backstage, Curtis discovers that Kenny has located his daughter and that she is expected to arrive home safely within a few hours.
After the curtain call, an alarm sounds in the theatre. The audience puts on gas masks before the doors open, revealing a world still devastated by the disaster 25 years later.
The film has divided critics and audiences. It has a 51% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with 71% from audiences, while its poor box-office performance means it could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
