DIGGER
The Farce & The Furious
Wednesday 30th September 2026
Written by: Tom Wilson
“We’re not going to fix it in post. We’re going to fix it right now.” In doing my research for this review, I came across an interview that Digger star Tom Cruise did with a film Youtuber named Patrick Tomasso, which was so good I’ll embed it here. In talking about how advancements in filmmaking technologies have left some directors with lazy habits, Cruise made the above quote, and that tells you a lot about his approach to his craft, being involved in the filmmaking process right down to deciding what kind of glass to make lenses out of. What would happen if you paired that actor, with his John Wick level of “focus, commitment, and sheer fucking will”, with one of the greatest directors of his generation, Alejandro González Iñárritu?
You get one of the best cinema experiences I’ve had in my life.
The less you know about this film, the better, and I treat spoilers like a capital crime, so I’ll share only what’s already been included in the final trailer, and the rest will be your joy to discover. Cruise is Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon who is having a rough morning. His extremely elderly cat isn’t doing too well, and one of his oil rigs has just exploded and triggered an environmental catastrophe on a scale never before seen by man. Digger is more concerned about the cat, but is eventually summoned by the President (John Goodman), and they try to come up with a solution, with an emphasis on “try”.
An absolutely brutal satire about a global catastrophe that calls to mind everything from Dr. Strangelove to Don’t Look Up, the laughs are thick and fast, with early sequences using theatrical blocking to hilarious effect as Digger’s army of yes-men struggle to convey just how bad the situation is to a man who really doesn’t want to hear it. He’s a buffoon, but an impressive one, and in a sequence you’ve seen in the trailer of him confronting an angry mob, he launches into a monologue lasting several minutes, and even when he’s telling people to go fuck themselves, you can see how he got as far as he did. He’s our main character, but he’s not a good man by any stretch of the imagination, and you could argue that this character is one of Cruise’s rare villains, played with the intensity of his performance in Magnolia, and the volume and brawn of Les Grossman from Tropic Thunder. Hidden under his makeup, Cruise has gleefully inhabited the cowboy boots of his character, and his trademark commitment to the role is evident in almost every frame (it’s worth noting that Digger Rockwell is a smoker, but the famously health-conscious Cruise always seems to be interrupted before he can light one). The performances around him are fantastic, particularly John Goodman, who has shed a lot of weight but hasn’t lost an ounce of gravitas, even when he’s playing a complete moron. Jesse Plemons breaks his streak of being the best part of any movie he is in, not because he’s bad, but because everyone around him is working at such a high level that for once he’s not stealing the spotlight.
Calling to mind his film Birdman, Alejandro plays with your preconceptions of what a movie is, using his trademark long takes to put pressure on the actors and crew to be at the top of their game. Vistavision is pushed to the max with detail crammed into every inch of the frame. For moments where they need less colour saturation, they’re not leeching the colour out in post, they’re painstakingly constructing shots where the wardrobe and even the makeup is desaturated but it’s shot in full colour. This isn’t digital colour grading – this is the essence of cinematography, made by people at the very apex of their craft, calling to mind everything from Kubrick to the dreamlike weirdness of Terry Gilliam. The viewer is tricked from the very first shot, and that sets the tone perfectly for the story that unfolds. It is in your best interests to see this before someone spoils it for you.
Digger is many things. It’s a hyperactive farce of what happens when a catastrophe is handled by idiots. It’s a stunning achievement in filmmaking and also a clever dissection of what you think a “movie” is. It also might be the finest performance we’ve seen from Cruise yet. Digger is what happens when you don’t fix it in post.
Digger is in cinemas now.