I clocked the message of The Rig when the philosophical Alwyn (Mark Bonnar) says, “We keep punching holes in the Earth, eventually it’s going to punch back.” Prime Video’s new series is set on an oil rig off the coast of Scotland and appears at first to want viewers to sympathise with how hard it is for mining corporations to make money now that the “woke mob” has gone mad with “cancel culture”. But in fact, this setup is cleverly subverted in the first episode and thoroughly debunked throughout the rest of the six-episode series. The Rig is a speculative fiction about reaching the tipping point and finding humans can’t endure the consequences.
WELCOME ABOARD
The show follows the crew of the oil drilling platform Kinlock Bravo when they’re cut off from the mainland and neighbouring rigs by a mysterious fog that appears out of nowhere. Led by the installation manager Magnus (Iain Glen), the crew must put aside their frustrations and work together to call for help, but things quickly get worse for them.
Thanks to Rose (Emily Hampshire), a scientist from the rig’s managing company Pictor and one of the only women onboard, they discover that their drilling into the Earth’s core awoke something that had been buried for a myriad. Now that it’s awake, it’s wreaking havoc.
Some people see it as an attack – “Nature isn’t a balance, it’s a war!” – and some certainly are injured; but the situation is better summarised when Murchinson, the rig’s tough-as-nails chef, says it’s the same thing as humans choosing to mine the Earth even though they know it’s harmful.
THREAT DETECTION
The brilliance of The Rig is that the entity isn’t hellbent on our destruction. The big bad monster in The Rig isn’t actually big, bad, or monstrous. It’s simply an extension of nature’s defence mechanism kicking into overdrive. The fact that it makes life inhospitable for humans is an unfortunate coincidence.
The show pays due respect to other natural phenomena that have wiped out entire populations. Alwyn teaches the crew about the Storegga Slide, an underwater landslide that triggered a tsunami that obliterated the coast of Norway and Scotland, and Rose learns more about the entity by investigating mass extinction events. The message is clear: even the worst things that happen in nature aren’t planned or malicious, but the way humans treat nature is.
SHIFT THE BLAME
Series creator and screenwriter David Macpherson took great care to not villainize the everyday people working on the rig. They’re not here because they want to mine, they’re here because they need money.
His attitude is mirrored in Rose, who is climbing the ranks of Pictor to change it from the inside. “This industry needs to change, but it doesn’t have to die if I can get to the board. I can get them to reposition. Carbon capture, renewables, tidal – that’s the way to keep everything moving, and everybody working.
“When the first [oil drilling] company started in the North Sea, they were told that it was impossible and then they went and they built one of the most complex construction projects on the face of the planet. So you don’t think they could help build a better future if they wanted to?”
The message of The Rig is clear: stop destroying the environment. But in this way, it assigns culpability to the right people – the same way you and I switching to reusable straws won’t repair the damage done by global mining companies and private jets.
The Rig works by way of juxtaposition; it uses its isolating, pro-mining setting to create a claustrophobic thriller there’s no escape from; one that keeps you guessing every episode and always has something new, bigger and more shocking in store.
Every episode of The Rig is now streaming on Prime Video. Start your free 30-day Prime Video trial today.
