Digger (2026)
Digger Review: Tom Cruise’s Boldest Swing Is Also His Most Divisive Film in Years
Digger is not the Tom Cruise movie anyone expected—and that’s precisely the point. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant) in his first English-language feature in a decade, this satirical black comedy casts Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an eccentric Southern oil tycoon whose reckless drilling in Greenland triggers a methane explosion and an ecological catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions. It is audacious, unwieldy, and deeply polarising—a film that critics either admire for its ambition or dismiss as a self-satisfied misfire.
The numbers reflect a film that has confounded expectations on every front. On Rotten Tomatoes, Digger holds a 51% critics score based on over 230 reviews—Cruise’s worst-reviewed film since 2017’s The Mummy—while its audience score sits at 71%, a clear split between critics and moviegoers. Metacritic shows a 46 out of 100 from critics against a 66 from users. Commercially, the film was a significant disappointment: it opened in fifth place at the North American box office with just $8 million against a production budget that ballooned from $125 million to between $160 and $180 million, with marketing costs estimated at around $100 million. Worldwide, it managed only $20 million in its opening weekend, making it one of the year’s biggest box-office flops.
Critics have been sharply divided. CBC‘s Jackson Weaver wrote that “Digger is a comedy in the way one could find their own funeral funny,” praising Cruise’s performance while noting that the film “unravels into something stranger, more confusing, more barbed and angry and ultimately defeatist.” Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman criticised the film’s comedy, writing that although it feels like a comedy, “it failed to actually be funny” and that it is “so top-heavy with importance.” USA Today was more appreciative, calling it an “unorthodox, complicated narrative with colorful archetypes” that “leans amusing and a little depressing.”
What almost every critic agrees on is Tom Cruise’s performance. Unrecognisable beneath prosthetics, a grey combover, and a pronounced Southern accent, Cruise delivers what many are calling one of the boldest and most committed performances of his career. ComingSoon noted that “while the film’s humor hasn’t landed with many critics, most reviews have commended Cruise’s dedication to playing an outlandish role.” Metacritic user reviews describe it as a “career best performance” and “one of the most ambitious, messy, stupid and absurd film[s] I have ever seen.” Even Guillermo del Toro came to the film’s defence, writing on X that “Digger delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and cinematically complex.” Whether Digger is a misunderstood masterpiece or an overindulgent misfire is a debate that will rage for years—but Cruise’s fearlessness is undeniable.
Digger Cast: Tom Cruise Leads an Extraordinary Ensemble
The film assembles one of the most impressive ensembles of 2026, bringing together Oscar winners, nominees, and rising stars:
Tom Cruise delivers a career-defining performance as Digger Rockwell, an eccentric, self-mythologising oil tycoon who believes he is humanity’s saviour even as his own negligence destroys the planet. Cruise transforms himself with prosthetic makeup, a grey combover, and a thick Southern accent, disappearing entirely into the role. Metacritic users have called it “a career best performance,” while ComingSoon noted that critics unanimously commended his “dedication to playing an outlandish role.” Iñárritu himself described Cruise’s turn as “another kind of fearless.”
Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal, Rogue One) plays Dr. Ganesh, Digger’s top scientist whose dire warnings about the Greenland disaster fall on deaf ears. John Goodman is President Compson, the U.S. leader who arrives at Digger’s rig just as the crisis escalates—and who privately reveals his own terminal illness. Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest) plays Emma, a key figure in Digger’s orbit. Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, and Sophie Wilde deliver strong supporting turns, while Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman, and Pip Torrens round out the ensemble. Iñárritu called the process of assembling this cast “the film’s great gift to me.”
Digger Plot: An Oil Tycoon’s Desperate Quest to Save a World He Destroyed
Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is an eccentric, ageing oil tycoon who has built a global empire on fossil fuels. His grandfather started the business with a 10-cent shovel, and Digger has steered it to unprecedented heights—making himself, by many measures, the most powerful man in the world. He lives in opulent isolation, cared for by staff, his only companion a dying 30-year-old cat named Maggie.
But Digger’s empire rests on reckless foundations. When his company’s drilling operations in Greenland crack a massive ice shelf, a methane explosion follows, triggering a chain reaction that will eventually send a chunk of ice five times the size of Washington, D.C., drifting toward Europe—a catastrophe that could drown Norway and beyond. Digger’s top scientist, Dr. Ganesh (Riz Ahmed), warns of the impending disaster, but Digger refuses to shut down operations. When President Compson (John Goodman) arrives at the rig, he reveals that the situation is far worse than anyone imagined—and that he himself is terminally ill.
What follows is Digger’s frantic, increasingly desperate campaign to reverse the damage and preserve his reputation as the only man capable of saving humanity. He meets with world leaders, delivers self-aggrandising speeches, and wages a media war to convince the public that he is the solution, not the problem. But the film takes a destabilising narrative twist that reshapes everything: the story we are watching is not a film at all, but a stage play called Fossil Fools, dramatising the real Digger’s catastrophic legacy. In the play’s final scene, Digger is exiled with his family to an abandoned oil rig, cut off from supplies by a new American president, and eventually takes his own life by jumping into the ocean. The film ends with a stark warning: turning a disaster into art does not undo the disaster itself. It is a bleak, confrontational conclusion that transforms Digger from a straightforward climate satire into a story about the limits of storytelling itself.
“The most powerful man in the world races to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything.”
