Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.vulture.com
Two Digger supporters.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Getty Images (Dia Dipasupil, Jamie McCarthy)
The Tom Cruise–starring Alejandro González Iñárritu movie Digger is on track to lose a ton of money for Warner Bros. Skydance at the box office. It reportedly cost between $160 and $180 million to make and, to date, has earned about $25 million worldwide. In the heady satire about elites causing worldwide climate destruction, Cruise plays the titular Digger Rockwell, an out-of-touch oil tycoon. Audiences thus far have not glommed onto the film, but Hollywood has a different stance: We’re into it. In the days since the film’s weak opening weekend at the box office, multiple A-listers have come out to defend Digger. Some of them are friends of Iñárritu, some are future Cruise co-workers, and some are Mandy Patinkin. Below, find all the Hollywood backlash to the general audience’s Digger malaise.
Hardly surprising that such a dedicated environmentalist/contrarian would be big into Digger. On his website, Neil Young called Iñárritu’s film “the best film I have ever seen.” It’s the highest praise he’s given a movie since Forrest Gump, which he said was “the best movie I’d seen since Star Wars” in 2014. “I do not view this film as a commercial venture,” Young wrote of Digger. “Rather it is an artful film of our times. The things that are said in Digger are a direct reflection of today’s political and social world. The film is so full of artful expression and radical change ups, that it may be too much to take in for those expecting a commercial film like we are used to today.”
The Death Stranding developer sees Digger as a tool one can use to deconstruct all future satire and political allegory. “It is a work that remains with the audience, provoking reflection and sounding alarms,” he wrote on Twitter. “As you absorb this film and carry it with you, a ‘tool (a digger)’ for delving deeper into the future will surely begin to take shape within you. This is a film that will stay by your side for years to come.”
Anne Hathaway supported Digger on Letterboxd, giving the movie five stars and the crowning achievement of being her first review ever. “I loved this brilliant movie. It’s smart and trippy and aggressive and funny and ambitious,” Hathaway wrote. “It’s worth making the time see and decide for yourself what you make of it. For me? 10/10.” Hathaway is currently slated to star alongside Cruise in a Days of Thunder sequel set to release in summer 2028.
Iñárritu’s longtime friend Guillermo del Toro has been defending Digger on X for multiple days now. When IGN posted a story about how it wasn’t necessary to see the film in theaters, del Toro replied directly. “Entirely Petty headline,” he wrote. “Love it or not. And, yes, I do. The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and Cinematically complex. Decidedly a Theatrical experience.” When someone posted that they were going to see del Toro’s masterpiece Pan’s Labyrinth in theaters, del Toro quoted it and added “Or DIGGER.”
Jane Fonda, known not just as an actress but as a climate activist, loved Digger. “The film finds an original and, yes, risky way to wake us up about the climate crisis and I hope and pray word of mouth will bring folks into this film because it is far out creatively and closer to the truth than any such film made thus far,” she wrote on Instagram. “Hugs, kisses and bravissimo to all involved.”
Mandy Patinkin (Homeland), who is seemingly not connected to Digger in any way other than as a viewer, is absolutely obsessed with the film. In an Instagram post, he praised the movie and lambasted anyone who didn’t get it. “This movie being slammed by reviewers is beyond comprehension,” he wrote. “Anyone who is dragging this piece through the mud should get a brain scan or see it again as they must not have been paying attention. This is one of the most daring, original, provocative pieces of art I’ve seen and bravo to every person that laid a hand on it. I’d have given my right arm to be an extra in this movie (I’m right handed).”
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