“You want freedom. Freedom to bask in the comfort of your unsustainable lives.” is a quote by Rockwell Digger, the main character from Digger. In the movie, Rockwell United –Digger’s company, is exploring locations in Alaska and Greenland in the search for oil with the help of the US Government. Everything goes awry when an explosion happens after Digger ignores multiple warnings of a discovery of methane in Greenland, killing workers and dislocating a big ice shelf that starts moving towards Europe. This idea isn’t far-fetched as Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has tried to acquire Greenland twice: once in 2019, and for the second time in 2026. In October 2026, he announced plans of starting a “massive oil, gas and mineral exploration” in the territory.
Trying to solve the climatic issue, Digger met Dr. Nirav Ganesh, a scientist and Rockwell United’s head of environmental safety, Fitzgerald, the Military Chief of Staff, and Compson, the President of the United States.
Dr. Ganesh explains to the business man that, without an intervention, Judy – the ice shelf, will hit the coast of Norway, causing a tsunami that may displace many European citizens. If they are lucky, however, there’s a slight possibility that it will drift towards the Atlantic Ocean and melt there. Fitzgerald suggests that they bomb the shelf, to the disapproval of Ganesh, who says that it would cause even more harm. Dr. Ganesh’s worries are, however, ignored and they decide upon a suggestion made by Digger: enabling a firewall and blocking certain words from research, preventing people from finding information on the situation.
At a certain point in the movie, Rockwell United and the United States are then invited to make speeches at the European Parliament. Rockwell Digger states that no government wants them to stop drilling as it’s that oil that brings them the power to do their most basic daily activities. He later says the aforementioned quote: “You want freedom. Freedom to bask in the comfort of your unsustainable lives.”
The exploration of natural resources outside the fiction
Digger explores well the logic behind how global superpowers explore national resources around the world to maintain their power and how they affect the environment.
According to the National Oil Company Database, done by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), there are over 70 national companies from multiple countries, including Saudi Arabia’s SaudiAramco, Russia’s Gazprom and six Chinese enterprises, exploring oil and gas all over the world.
Besides them, there are the Seven Supermajor, the seven biggest private companies that extract gas and oil. One of them, ConocoPhillips, got involved in an oil rig destruction that spilled 4,600 gallons of fuel and oil in Alaska in January 2026 and the 2001 Humber Refinery explosion in England.
All of those countries and companies explore oil as it is the world’s primary fuel and as a result – such as mentioned by Rockwell Digger during the film, it is the power that enables people to have electricity, drive their cars, recharge their cellphones and make use of artificial intelligence.
How the quest for natural sources influences the relationships between nations
The search for oil doesn’t only affect the environment but also world politics. In January 2026, the US Government imprisoned Nicolas Maduro, the President of Venezuela – the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world and, a month later the USA started firing missiles and drones against Iran, the country with the third biggest reserves.
This was not the only time that the US Government interfered in the politics of countries with big oil control. The United States has invaded Iraq – owner of the fifth biggest reserves in the world, twice in the 21st century: once in 2001, starting the Iraq War, and in 2014.
More recently, in September 2026, the newspaper The Guardian released an article accusing president Donald Trump of pushing 175 million dollars to a far-right campaign in Brazil – right before the Brazilian presidential elections. Brazil is the 15th country with the biggest amount of oil reserves and is land to the biggest portion of the Amazon Rainforest.
Although all of those invasions and interferences were made with the same justification, to end terrorism, it is clear that the US Government has stronger intentions: having oil control means holding power of the worldwide economy.
This authority has been especially important in recent years with the economic growth of China threatening the US’s dominance – but China isn’t the only country that the United States is fighting an economic battle against.
Russia – world’s third biggest oil seller, has received sanctions from the US Government to suppress its oil selling to other countries. Besides that, they are both involved in the Russo-Ukraine War, with the US Security cooperating with Ukraine against the Russian invasion. China and Russia, two of the other main global superpowers, however, have a pretty contrasting relationship to one another in comparison to their relationship with the USA.
China and Russia have been part of the political alliance BRICS since 2006 and celebrated seventy-five years of diplomatic relations in 2024 although they had a border dispute for years that was solved in the 2000s. That political alliance doesn’t mean that they are treaty allies but Chinese president Xi Jinping has visited Russian president Vladimir Putin more than any other world leader. To many political analysts, Russia and China are part of a political alliance called CRINK (China, Russia, Iran and North Korea) that has gotten together to overpower the United States.
Taking control of the narrative
The dispute between the three countries is highlighted in Digger. After Rockwell’s speech, Dr. Ganesh mentions Kimberly, an iceberg that is leaving the Russian territory and going towards Alaska. Digger then tells Ganesh to call it Kremlinova instead of Kimberly, stating that the iceberg came from Russia and not from the US. Later, on the same scene, president Compson says that the Chinese and the Russian are teaming up to steal oil from the USA, calling them “a cancer”.
The movie shows beyond the political disputes, stressing how governments shape their speech to fit a specific ideal, preserving a good image. From the firewall to Kremlinova, “Words do matter. Words are perception and perception is reality.” – Rockwell Digger tries to take control of the narrative as a way to correct his mistakes –
By financing a far-right campaign in Brazil, Donald Trump is trying to take control of the world narrative like the USA did with Iraq and Venezuela. In both cases, national security concerns and claims of regional instability have been used to justify the United States’ involvement, while strategic interests, including access to oil and influence over energy markets, remain central to the geopolitical picture. That’s how almost half of Venezuela’s oil output is going to the US in 2026.
The characters in Digger show that the global superpowers aren’t in their position due to their genius politics, as president Compson barely makes decisions on his own, but because they use their tools to take spaces, explore resources and manipulate people’s thoughts about them and other governments. The quest is for land or oil but, most importantly, it is for the control of the narrative.
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The article above was edited by Ana Rita Rodrigues Fernandes.
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