The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity's savior before the disaster he's unleashed destroys everything.
WHAT I LIKED: Everyone knows that climate change is an existential threat to humanity, but it's all too easy for people to bury their heads in the sand and pretend it's nothing to do with them. That's what makes Alejandro González Iñárritu's 'Digger,' such a bold piece of storytelling, as it broadcasts the effects of climate change, then crucially points its finger not only at the people at the top, but at its culpable audience as well.
The script - penned over many years by a whole bunch of talented writers - follows a super-rich oil baron called Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) as his reckless drilling in Greenland causes a giant iceberg to head for Europe, so he teams up with his friends in the US government to plan their response.
That begins as a Dr Strangelove style disaster satire in which everyone is obsessed with projecting American strength so they can keep up their drilling and money-making. The president (John Goodman) is a hideous Donald Trump type with "ass cancer," who overcompensates with machismo and relgious fanaticism, surrounding himself with pathetic weasels (Burn Gorman, Michael Stuhlbarg) and dangerous yes-men (Robert John Burke). They spend their time in claustrophobically stylised, oppulent rooms, spectating what's happening, and ignoring the warnings of petrified scientists (Riz Ahmed). And then there's Rockwell himself; an exceptionally hateful Capitalist caricature complete with eccentric appearance, manic personality and a careless obsession with profit, all brought to life masterfully by Cruise in his most interesting performance in years.
It's all brilliant satire, but what takes the film beyond that is the middle-act centrepiece in which Rockwell makes a speech to European leaders where he plainly states "you don't want me to stop digging," because it would mean everyone giving up their lives of comfort and convenience. Even for those in the audience who make an effort to limit their use of fossil fuels, it would be hard to argue that he's not at least partially right, and that's a chilling but vital message.
Then, to drive the point home even further, the rest of the story is basically all about proving him right. During the first act, it's cleverly revealed that the whole thing is a Birdman-esque "play within a movie," as we see premadonna actor Curtis Markson playing Rockwell behind the scenes of a big theatre production. But the key reveal is when we learn that it's being performed in a dystopian near-future as a reconstruction of real events, paid for and comissioned by Rockwell's own nephew Kenny (Jesse Plemons). The packed-out audience are all too willing to go see a show they know is funded by blood money, and Markson is even happy to employ Kenny's services to help him with a family matter.
As the audience walk out of the theatre at the end of the show into a polluted hellscape, the message couldn't be clearer. Yes, Big Oil and Government are responsible for climate change, but we are the ones who make use of the luxuries they afford us, and if we carry on indulging this system, the future on show at the end will become our reality before we know it.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Some of the "play within a movie," storyline feels a little tangential and half-baked, and the intended theme there about the catharsis of storytelling pales in significance against everything else. Then, within the main storyline, it does drive its points home rather aggressively, and the attempts at more comedic satire mostly fall flat because of how horrific and real everything ultimately feels.
VERDICT: A chilling, urgent warning about the systems that facilitate climate change and everyone's complicity within them, for all of its flaws, 'Digger,' might be one of the most important films of its age.
