Digger

What’s it about?

Digger Rockwell is the most powerful man in the world. He's also the self-anointed saviour of humanity, who embarks on a mission to end a world-threatening disaster he unleashed. 

The facts 

• Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (The Revenant)
• Starring Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), John Goodman (The Righteous Gemstones), Jesse Plemons (Bugonia), and Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal)
• English language 
• Runtime: 129 minutes

Why did it get this rating? 

This film was classified by Te Mana Whakaatu, Classification Office. You can find out more about classification process and ratings here.

Content that may disturb

A very sick cat is kept alive through intense suffering, and its owner ignores veterinary advice. The cat is clearly animatronic.

Most of the cruelty in the film is political and systemic, done by politicians and oil company executives. Examples include: 

• Instead of warning people there is a potential catastrophe and tsunami coming, they set up a firewall that blocks any mention of it. 
• Continue oil extraction despite ongoing warning signs that indicate imminent threat
• Being indifferent to the lives of the workers who may have died in an explosion and instead are focused on the infrastructure. 
• A person in power yelling at another character, “You f*cking dim a**hole”.

The film is set in a dystopian future, and shows climate and natural disasters. The horror is mild and uncomfortable as opposed to scary. Some examples of this content includes:

• There is fictional news footage of bodies floating in water and lined up in body bags in the aftermath of a tsunami. 
• Armed guards stand in flooded streets, while drones fly overhead as people walk on raised footpaths. 
• People must put on gas masks when outside. 
• A dead body is shown frozen in a freezer.

A theatrical dramatization of a suicide is shown, in the context of a stage play. A man in the play stands on a railing above the ocean (which is clearly a theatrical set) and jumps in.

Offensive language

Offensive and coarse language includes ‘f**k’, ‘sh*t’, ‘c*nt’, ‘dick’, ‘a**hole’, and ‘bloody’. This language is used casually, yelled in heated arguments, used as insults, and in times of stress.

Some racist and discriminatory comments are made about minority ethnicities. These are intended to characterise and satirise the people who say them and the film clearly does not support them.

Youth Advisory Panel comments

Three members of the Youth Advisory Panel attended the examination screening. They felt the strongest content was the language. They said that was strong and it used frequently. 

The Panel members felt the film was disturbing but not scary. The satirical context reduced the impact of the film, but they thought that younger teenagers and children would not understand the context. 

They said the violence was not detailed and not impactful. They thought the treatment of the cat was cruel, but the impact was reduced because it was clearly animatronic. The horror content was satirical, but they thought younger people may not have the political context of the satire and would take the film more seriously. 

They thought the suicide scene was not strong and was clearly a performance rather than depicting an actual suicide so did not need to be warned for. 

When content stays with you

We all have our boundaries, and it’s completely okay if something you’ve watched is weighing on your mind. If certain content lingers with you, consider having a chat with friends or whānau to debrief about what you’ve just seen. But if you’re still feeling affected, please reach out to any of the following helplines for support.  

• 1737
• Safe to talk
• Lifeline
• Youthline

Further information 

• Why are ratings and content warnings important for me and my whānau?