Rating: ★★★★☆ (Four out of five stars)

Includes major spoilers.

Digger is a film that can be difficult to fully appreciate while watching, yet its performances and challenging questions give viewers plenty to consider afterward. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Tom Cruise, it combines dark comedy, environmental disaster, and backstage drama to examine pride, power, responsibility, and humanity’s capacity for self-deception.

My four-star rating rests especially on the acting. A movie can challenge our patience or leave us wrestling with its structure while still earning our appreciation for the skill of its performers.

The story and the meaning behind it

Cruise initially appears as Digger Rockwell, a powerful oil tycoon whose drilling operation triggers an environmental catastrophe. Rather than immediately accepting responsibility, Digger becomes consumed with controlling the story and presenting himself as humanity’s potential rescuer.

Then the film changes our understanding of everything we have seen: Digger’s story is a theatrical production called Fossil Fools. Cruise also portrays Curtis Markson, the actor playing Digger. Eventually, we learn that the production dramatizes a disaster that occurred roughly 25 years earlier within the movie’s fictional world.

Iñárritu’s stated interests include the stories people tell themselves and the power of influential people to shape public understanding. The film also explores the importance and limitations of art in helping people confront reality. Its unusual structure asks viewers to examine both destructive leadership and their own responses to it. (filmcolossus.com⁠)

One interpretation is that the director wants us to recognize how easily explanations become excuses. People can grow so invested in defending their choices that they refuse to acknowledge the suffering those choices cause.

Why the ending matters

The play gives its audience an opportunity to confront Digger’s downfall. But when the performance ends, an emergency warning sounds. People put on breathing masks and leave the theater for a flooded, devastated city. Their emotional release has not removed the consequences of the catastrophe. (ew.com⁠)

That final contrast gives the film much of its force. Recognizing a villain, condemning wrongdoing, and feeling satisfied that someone faced consequences cannot restore everything that was lost. The theater still serves a purpose: people gather, remember, grieve, and share an experience. Yet the damaged world outside demands more than their applause.

Life lessons and Christian applications

These biblical connections are applications Christians can draw from the film, rather than claims that it presents a Christian message.

Pride can make us resistant to truth.

Digger’s determination to preserve his importance invites us to examine our willingness to receive correction. Proverbs 16:18 warns about pride’s destructive direction. Humility allows us to listen while there is still time to change.

Repentance requires more than protecting our reputation.

We may regret being exposed while remaining unwilling to confront what we have done. Proverbs 28:13 connects mercy with confessing and forsaking sin. Genuine repentance involves honesty, changed behavior, and efforts to repair harm where possible.

Our decisions reach beyond ourselves.

Other people can suffer from choices they never helped make. Philippians 2:4 calls believers to consider the interests of others. That responsibility applies in our homes, churches, businesses, and public leadership.

God entrusts us with stewardship.

Genesis 2:15 presents humanity as responsible for tending and keeping the garden. Christians can recognize a duty to care for creation, use resources wisely, and consider the people affected by waste and exploitation.

Forgiveness does not automatically erase consequences.

God’s grace offers forgiveness and restoration, but damaged trust and other effects may remain. Galatians 6:7 reminds us that actions bear fruit. Taking consequences seriously should deepen our commitment to responsible living.

Understanding must become action.

James 1:22 calls believers to put the Word into practice. We can hear a powerful message, agree with it, and still leave unchanged. As I often say, “Knowing is not the same as doing.”

Digger earns its four stars through performances and ideas that remain worth examining even when its storytelling is demanding. Its most personal challenge reaches beyond the characters on screen: When the truth exposes the harm in our choices, will we defend ourselves or accept responsibility and change?