I can't remember the last time I experienced a movie like Digger. One of the reasons I enjoyed it was because I went in unspoiled, so when I say there are spoilers in this article, know that I mean big spoilers.🛑 If you haven't seen the 2026 movie yet and plan to, I do recommend trying to go knowing as little as possible about the Alejandro Iñárritu movie. In which case, now's your chance to stop reading! 🛑
First and foremost, I liked Digger. I went into the movie with uncertain expectations, as reviews were mixed-to-negative, and there was already talk about the box office situation not being great (understatement). I ended up leaving the theater with a smile on my face, feeling pleasantly surprised to have experienced a film that felt truly one-of-a-kind. I can't remember the last time a movie surprised me like this one, and my enjoyment has only deepened in the days since. A big part of my enjoyment stems from that first jarring twist, and in retrospect, being kept in the dark at the start of the movie was more impactful than I initially realized.
The Twist In Digger
The movie drops a major twist that shifts the whole reality of the story. I'm talking about the moment in the film where there's a malfunction with one of the trees outside, and we realize that what seemed like an introduction to the movie's main character, Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise), is actually a rehearsal for a high-budget stage production, and that Tom Cruise is playing an actor. It actually took me a little bit to fully wrap my mind around what was going on at that point, almost as though I'd been abruptly woken up in the middle of a dream and couldn't figure out what was real.
Up until this reveal, Digger seemed to be more or less what the trailer showed. Tom Cruise's character is exaggerated and unlikable, and though I absolutely love cats, I wanted to vomit the moment he used his fingernail to feed his ancient kitty a bit of fish that he scooped out of a can from his nightstand. By the time it's revealed to be a play, we've already learned quite a bit about Digger, including that his drilling company is causing a possibly major environmental disaster, and that John Goodman's character, President Compson, is battling cancer.
Level 4 Conditions
It wasn't until days later that my mind made the connection between the opening act of the film and the final words spoken in the movie. I kept going back to wondering why they would hide the actual plot of the movie (the play) from us for so long. After all, there were even bigger reveals to come later -- like that the play is telling a true story, and this whole thing takes place years into the future in a world that's been devastated by the disaster that came as a result of Digger and Compson's choices. Why keep us in the dark about this all being a play for such a long time?
Then I thought about the announcement that comes in the final moments of the film, about the conditions being "Level 4." It happens after the credits have started and we've gotten a long look at the state of the area outside of the theater, illustrating just how bad things are in the world.
It's the same announcement that came up earlier for the play's audience, prompting them to put on their masks, except this time it's for the film's audience. It happens as we're preparing to leave the theater, and sure, we're not putting on masks to shield us from pollution and the fallout of a global disaster, but we did just have our own experience as an audience member, and that started with the very first scene. We weren't really in the dark in the first act, we were right where we needed to be, watching the events that started it all, and it works because it was told to us as the story.
Why That First Twist Was Important
If I'd known this movie was about a stage production from the start, I might not have felt the same level of investment in the play's story that I did by the time that first reveal took place. Part of the movie's story is Digger's story. It's tied so heavily into why the play exists in the first place and the circumstances everyone on screen is living in. I needed to be invested in that as much as I was the rest of the story.
Presenting the play as the actual movie put me into that mode my mind goes to when I watch a film. It activated my imagination, suspended my disbelief and set me up to buy into the outcome before I was allowed to know that I was actually seeing the aftermath of that outcome. My level of investment began to build before the first twist, and then continued to simmer, even when the story moved us back and forth between the play and the rehearsal.
I'm not sure I can remember a time when I felt my role as an audience member so clearly, but it clicked here, when thinking about that final announcement, and it made me appreciate the movie even more.
Digger is absolutely a movie I'm going to have to watch again when it's streaming. In the meantime, I'm eager to see more reactions to the film from people who appreciate it.
