Digger channels Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove for the climate crisis – until its twist

Warning: this article contains major spoilers for Digger.

In director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s new film Digger, the eponymous Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) puts on his Stetson first thing in the morning. It’s an embodiment of his credo: “Rise early, work hard, strike oil.” He is rarely without it as he rides roughshod through the extinction-level environmental catastrophe his drilling company has caused.

As other critics have noted, Rockwell’s hat is borrowed from Major “King” Kong (Slim Pickens), a character in Stanley…

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