DIRECTOR
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
The Revenant, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Babel, Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Biutiful.

STARS
Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons.

After more than a decade of successive and very successful action movies, I for one did not expect to see a non-action film starring Tom Cruise to be dug up again. As it turns out, Digger is the movie that bucks the trend and reminds everyone that Cruise is equally capable at being a commanding and convincing lead when not operating aircraft in a Top Gun film or executing another assignment in a Mission: Impossible movie.

Now, as someone who is no stranger to strange movies, I do think it would be fair to label Digger as unconventional, but I didn’t find it to be outlandish or absurd as its trailer may give the perception. At worst, it goes a little over the top with some of its eccentricities. This is to say expect Digger to engage just as effortlessly as it entertains.

The filmmakers are intentionally keeping any specific plot details under wraps and needless to say, so too will I. The most that is necessary to know is a little about the character that Tom Cruise is playing and the almighty catastrophe coming his way. Oh heck, and a little about John Goodman’s input too, because one cannot discuss Digger without Goodman’s character coming to mind!

A deathly-looking Tom Cruise is Digger Rockwell, an excessively wealthy and powerful man courtesy of his oil digging company inherited from his father. All the money in the world won’t be enough to dig Digger out of a hole he finds himself buried deep inside. An alarming call from another part of the world informs Digger of a rapidly evolving emerging disaster at one of the sites where oil drilling occurs. The likely consequences of what is unfolding are so significant, the American President (John Goodman!), his VP (Michael Stuhlbarg) and a scientist (Riz Ahmed) all converge with Digger to understand the conundrum and figure out their best solution.

Satire at its sharpest.

When this is what Digger unearths courtesy of its characterisation, dialogue and acting that manifests and multiplies from the scenario depicted, it is a delight to watch. The script is enjoyably unapologetic and brash in its derision of greedy tycoons who consider and prioritise their hip pocket over all else and of a clueless and awfully irresponsible political administration “led” by a dictatorial President. The make-up department do not need to shade John Goodman’s skin tone orange to make clear whose sheer madness he is emulating! Furthermore, the screenplay’s criticisms of white American supremacy whose men in positions of power dismiss facts, lean on evangelism and will shoot at literally anything technically should produce absurdist humour but are too familiar to be far-fetched!

Digger has a couple of surprising twists in store for viewers, which of course I will not be revealing the nature of. The first, arriving earlier in proceedings, presented some challenges that distanced me to the movie and took some time to become re-invested. Admittedly, it may completely lose some viewers altogether. If you’ve enjoyed the film to this point, however, I would encourage you to stick around and devote yourself to its narrative revelation. Even once its change arrives, the writing draws a few interesting developments and enables its actors to broaden their performances, especially Tom Cruise, before it concludes strongly.

Digger is showing in cinemas across Australia from October 1st, 2026.

Moviedoc thanks Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures for the invitation to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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