There’s been a lot of chatter about Tom Cruise’s newest movie, Digger. After all, the trailers for Digger offered glimpses that left us befuddled but excited about the story that could unfold on our screens. In a couple of words, we thought the movie looked “real weird.” And we weren’t the only ones… Internet conspiracy theorists insist that Digger is actually a musical in disguise. Ultimately, Digger is NOT a musical, but it DOES have a twist. Let’s dig into what’s really happening in Digger, delve into what the twist of the movie is, and explain what it really means. As we said, Digger is not a musical, but…
Digger’s Twist Explained: Digger Is Actually a Play
Surprise. Digger is actually a play. It’s a play within a movie! That is to say, Digger tells the story of a play rehearsal in a dystopian future where climate change, world war, unchecked greed, and oil drilling has wrecked the world. In the context of this reality, actors are putting on a parody play about the historical figure, Digger Rockwell, the man who destroyed the world. In the movie Digger, we see both sequences that take place in “the present” and “the past.” In the present, we follow actors living in a dystopia as they try to put on a play and survive. Then, we also see the play they are putting on about the past, as though we are the audience watching the play itself. But the play is screened to us as a movie, the trappings of the stage falling away.
In other words, we see Tom Cruise playing an actor who is playing Digger Rockwell in Digger. Whenever we see Tom Cruise as Digger, we are immersed in the world of the play about Digger Rockwell. That play is a parody history of the world the play takes place in. And whenever we see Tom Cruise break character, we flash to the present of that world, where Digger’s actions have destroyed life as we know it.
Digger‘s Two-Part Twist: First, We Learn Digger Is Actually a Play
Digger actually reveals its twist very cleverly. From the start, it’s clear that things aren’t 100% real in the “play” scenes of Digger, which run for quite a while before finally zooming out to reveal the backstage of a theater and that Tom Cruise is actually an actor playing Digger Rockwell. We see that Digger’s beloved cat is clearly an animatronic in the very first scene, for one thing. For another, visual cues like the overly picturesque and expansive view out of Digger’s window just LOOK fake. But at the start of Digger, it’s hard to know whether the movie was just aiming for something slightly surreal.
Digger doesn’t keep us in suspense too long, though, and very overtly reveals the first part of its twist. The camera pans out, and we find ourselves on the set of what we are told is a play. We follow Tom Cruise as he falls out of Digger Rockwell and into the actor who is playing Digger Rockwell. (Who is something of a drama queen.) And we get to peer into the behind-the-scenes world of the play being put on. The movie then flips between showing us the play and showing us the actors in between scenes.
Digger’s Two-Part Twist: Digger’s Play, Fossil Fools, Is a Historical Parody of Past Events That Actually Happened, It Is Being Performed in The Future/Present
But the fact that Digger is a play is only a part of the movie’s twist. As the movie intercuts through the “play” sequences and the “behind-the-scenes” sequences, we start to understand that Digger‘s play is being put on in a very specific world. Namely, we learn that the play about Digger Rockwell, titled Fossil Fools, is actually a parody of historical figures and events that really happened in the world. The world in which the play is being put on is actually a dystopia wherein Digger Rockwell’s refusal to stop drilling for oil started a chain reaction that led to climate change, world war, and the overall destruction of the planet. The Fossil Fools play now parodically retells these historical events for an audience who has lived through them and their consequences.
Little clues throughout Digger hint at this twist, as it becomes clear the “past” play is converging with the present storyline. For example, as we see Digger digging the world into a deeper whole with melting icebergs and bombs, we hear about a “Category Six” hurricane, something that doesn’t yet exist in our world, but hints at immense climate catastrophe. And we see the actors using futuristic technology to communicate and perform the play. Ultimately though, it’s a very well-delivered monologue by Jesse Plemons’ mysterious character that reveals all to the audience.
It Is Actually Digger’s Nephew, Played By Jesse Plemons, Who Is Putting on The Play
Surprise! Yes, another Digger twist: it’s actually the real Digger’s nephew, Kenny Rockwell, played by Jess Plemons, who is putting on the play in the first place. Plemons’ Kenny survived his family’s exile after the role they played in massive world destruction (although they were never technically punished) and his uncle’s suicide to come out on top. Kenny Rockwell seemingly took over the “Green Energy” company run by Digger’s sister and Kenny’s mother, Emma Rockwell, played by Sandra Hüller. Digger, of course, never cared about this “Green Energy,” just as Emma never truly cared that Digger was destroying the planet.
Either way, Plemons’ Kenny Rockwell saw the parody play Fossil Fools about his family and decided to turn the idea into something bigger, giving it funding and a major stage. He claims he applauded the play mocking his Uncle Digger. He saw how the play gave the audience catharsis and a place to put their feelings of pain, sadness, and anger. Kenny Digger wants the play to allow its audience to escape the horror of their lives, created by his Uncle, and find some kind of peace. And that’s why he’s put on the play in Digger. (Yeah, okay.)
Nerdist Take: Digger’s Play Both Promises Communal Catharsis Will Always Exist and Cautions That If We Don’t Take Action, We’ll All be Inert as the Rich Get Richer
Ultimately, the Digger play twists highlight two contrasting ideas. First, obviously, Digger warns us that the stupid rich control our lives. And that even when they utterly tear down everything and make the world a living hell, they will escape true consequence. Digger Rockwell might have killed himself, but Kenny Rockwell was able to use his family’s fortune and status to not only survive, but thrive in a dystopia. He does a couple of nice things in Digger, like helping Digger’s actor to locate his daughter after she is lost in a hurricane, and insists on putting on the play Fossil Fools to give the masses catharsis. But instead, he could be using his money to actually help people.
At the end of Digger, we see every single person in the audience put on a high-tech gas mask before exiting. No doubt the people bought these gas masks from the Digger family, who forced them into this mess in the first place. Ultimately, Kenny Rockwell helps Digger’s actor save his daughter from a catastrophe his family helped cause and now profits from. The selfish rich continue to enact the actions of the selfish rich, and the cycle continues.
At the same time, we do see that Digger‘s play does bring a rare moment of entertainment and community to the people forced to live in this horrible world. And in a sense, Digger the movie does the same in ours. Entertainment will always be important. We’re glad communal catharsis can exist into dystopia. But frankly, we’ll take the first lesson more to heart. Let us not allow ourselves to fall into the future Digger paints in the first place.
Final Thoughts: Even Though Digger Isn’t a Musical, We Feel Like the Internet Got it Right on This One
Our final thoughts on Digger? We have to give it to the internet on this one. Digger is not a musical, but really, aren’t a play and a musical practically the same thing? Same genre anyway. We feel like the internet got it right and called the Digger twist! But that also speaks, we suppose, to how Tom Cruise and the rest of Digger‘s actors successfully played their parts as if they were in a play. They managed to get the sense of theater across even in snippets of the trailer without context. Job well done by all!
The post DIGGER’s Twist, Explained—Not a Musical, But… appeared first on Nerdist.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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