Tom Cruise spends much of Digger trying to convince people that a terrible man should be trusted. As Digger Rockwell, a rich oil businessman, he talks with the confidence of someone who expects every room to agree with him. His company has helped cause an environmental disaster. He still wants everyone to see him as the person who will save them.
That is a good starting point for a comedy about powerful people avoiding responsibility. Cruise makes Rockwell entertaining without making him a good person. But after a while, the arguments become too similar. We understand his selfishness long before the film stops explaining it. Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Digger has individual scenes we enjoyed more than the complete film.
What kind of disaster movie is this?
Rockwell's drilling operation in Greenland causes a huge piece of ice to break away. It moves toward Europe and threatens a disaster that could kill enormous numbers of people. Government leaders arrive at his mansion to work out what to do. A scientist called Ganesh, played by Riz Ahmed, tries to explain the danger.
The emergency should be the priority, but the people in charge keep thinking about themselves. Rockwell wants to protect his business and reputation. President Compson, played by John Goodman, is more interested in his own problems than in being a useful leader. Their meetings are meant to be absurd: people have the money and authority to act, yet use their time finding excuses.
Digger is not a Tom Cruise action movie about a capable hero solving one dangerous problem after another. Much of the film is about talking, arguing and trying to control what other people believe. Knowing that before you buy a ticket matters. The environmental disaster starts the story, but the movie is more interested in these people's behavior than in a straightforward rescue mission.
Cruise makes a selfish man worth watching
Before the emergency, Rockwell is deeply concerned about his very old, sick cat. He wants the animal kept alive even when its condition is plainly terrible. That worry sits beside his refusal to take the drilling warnings seriously. He can be attentive to his cat while ignoring the danger to other people. The difference tells us more about him than another speech about rich people would.
Cruise changes how he looks, moves and speaks. Gray hair and a heavier appearance help, but the performance is not interesting just because he looks different. Rockwell is used to getting attention. Cruise lets us see how quickly he turns a conversation back toward himself. His confidence is funny because it is so badly matched to the situation.
His strongest scene has him addressing a packed auditorium. The camera follows a lengthy stretch of his performance rather than breaking the speech into lots of short shots. He talks and moves around the audience with the same certainty he brings to the private meetings. The long speech gives Cruise something difficult and specific to do, and watching him sustain it is genuinely enjoyable.
There are also quieter moments when he seems less certain. We preferred that contrast to having every exchange played at maximum volume. It gives us a reason to keep watching Cruise beyond the makeup and the accent. The film needed more of those changes in mood.
Ganesh has facts; everyone else has an excuse
Ganesh's job is to explain what the environmental damage means and what can realistically be done. This should make him essential to the discussion. Instead, he has to deal with people who want an answer that will protect them. Ahmed makes the scientist's growing frustration easy to understand. He is trying to discuss a threat to people's lives with men who keep turning it into a problem about their image.
That difference produces some of the better comedy. Rockwell can sound completely sure of himself while Ganesh sees how little that confidence is worth. Ahmed makes the conversation feel urgent even when the other characters are behaving ridiculously. We wanted more exchanges where one person's reaction changes how the meeting unfolds.
Goodman's president is deliberately unpleasant and loud. The problem is not that a president should be likable. Too many of his scenes make the same joke about a powerful man who will not listen. Once we know that, another shouted interruption needs a new consequence or a better joke. Often, it just makes the meeting longer.
The mansion is more interesting than another argument
The meetings take place in rooms full of expensive furnishings and displays of dead animals. Rockwell's home is not a neutral background. It shows someone who likes to own and arrange things, including nature, while expecting other people to admire the result.
The rooms give us details to notice without another explanation. Their size, decorations and carefully arranged furniture help establish how separate his life is from the people threatened by the disaster. A wide view can tell us something about his priorities before he says a word.
In these large rooms, it helps to be able to see the decorations as well as the people. The film gives us plenty of time to look at both. The visual detail is one of Digger's strongest reasons to see it on a large screen. It does not fix the repetitive conversations. We sometimes found more to enjoy in the things around these people than in what they were saying.
The change in the story helps less than it should
Digger makes an early change that is best discovered without knowing the details. It gives the film more to discuss than an oil businessman facing a disaster. We liked the chance to see Cruise be less certain of himself. But the change also makes the environmental threat feel less immediate, and the movie does not always give us an equally strong reason to care about what comes next.
The problem is not simply that the story is unusual. It is that its more personal concerns get less time than the loud confrontations. We spend so much time hearing people state their views that we do not get enough smaller moments showing what they are afraid of losing. When the film wants a more emotional response later, those missing moments matter.
At about 129 minutes, the repetition becomes difficult to ignore. A joke about denial can be funny once and still become tiring when the next scene reaches the same conclusion. More shouting does not make the situation funnier or the characters more interesting. We needed the conversations to change the story more often.
Who should watch Digger?
Digger opens in North American theaters and IMAX on October 2, 2026, with international releases beginning September 30. It is rated R in the United States, so this is not a family-film recommendation. You do not need to know Iñárritu's other work to understand Rockwell's behavior, but you do need to enjoy deliberately exaggerated performances and a story that changes direction.
If Cruise's strange businessman and the unusual storytelling are your main interests, there is enough here to consider a ticket. If you want an urgent disaster thriller, the movie spends too long on other concerns. If you mainly want a comedy that keeps making you laugh, several long stretches are likely to disappoint.
Pixel Twelve verdict: 6/10
We give Digger a Pixel Twelve score of 6/10. Cruise's auditorium scene, Ahmed's frustration and the detailed mansion deserve real credit. They make the film more enjoyable than its repeated arguments suggest. But those strengths do not remove the need for better jokes and more convincing personal scenes.
Viewers who love the exaggerated behavior may get more from it than we did. Our lower recommendation comes from how much of the running time repeats the same conflict, not from the film taking an unusual direction. We can admire the work in an individual scene and still wish the complete movie were funnier, shorter and more interested in its people.
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