By Jake Kleinman Published Oct 1, 2026, 9:01 PM EDT Opinion Let's talk Digger spoilers...
Image: Warner Bros. Add Us Jump links Jump Links Digger's first big twist ruins the movie Digger's second big twist saves it One final reveal So wait, is Digger a musical? Like Like follow Follow followed Followed Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap Digger is many things. It’s the first Tom Cruise movie in over a decade not to feature recognizable IP, fighter planes, or both. Its director Alejandro Iñárritu's biggest swing yet after divisive, high-brow films like Birdman and The Revenant . It’s a brutal condemnation of late-stage capitalism. It’s also a pretty clever magic trick.
Digger contains three big reveals that reshape our understanding of the movie in various ways. To really understand what Digger is about, you need to grapple with all three, and the way they fit together (both successfully and unsuccessfully) to tell a complex story about finding meaning at the end of the world.
(Also, if you're wondering whether Digger is a musical , you've come to the right place.)
Warning: full spoilers for Digger below.
The first big reveal comes about 30 minutes into Digger . After meeting the aging oil baron Rockwell Digger (Cruise), we quickly learn that his Greenland drilling operation has accidentally dislodged a massive hunk of ice into the Atlantic Ocean, and it’s heading straight for Northern Europe. The U.S. President (John Goodman) and his cabinet show up at Digger’s mansion to discuss their best options (there are none). Then, as Digger and President Compson step aside into a private room to discuss other matters, Iñárritu plays his first trick: The majestic tree outside slowly tips over in front of them… and then a giant hand reaches out from behind the horizon to grab it.
Turns out, nothing we've seen up to this point is real. We're actually watching actors in the middle of a final rehearsal for an elaborate new play, which stars an actor named Curtis (Cruise) as Digger Rockwell. After a brief reset, the rehearsal continues, but from this point on, the scenes from the play are intercut with behind-the-scenes drama as Curtis clashes with his director and deals with a personal family crisis.
Image: Warner Bros. Discover While Curtis prepares to take the stage in a starring role for what seems to be a major theatrical event, his daughter is flying home from Jamaica. They speak via FaceTime before she takes off, and she mentions a storm might delay the flight. Later, we learn the flight was diverted completely, and nobody knows where it landed. Curtis considers abandoning the play and heading home, but his wife convinces him to stay the course while she attempts to track down their missing daughter.
None of this really adds much to Digger 's main plotline, which is the play within the movie. The story of Digger Rockwell still occupies most of the runtime and is mostly shot by Iñárritu to feel like some sort of heightened reality. You can sometimes see the seams of a theatrical production (like when an angry crowd in one scene is clearly filled out with life-sized dolls), but most of the time, it makes zero sense that this is ostensibly happening on a physical stage in an actual theater.
Image: Warner Bros. I'm not sure what the secondary plotline about Curtis' family is really meant to add to Digger . The de…