Tom Cruise turns oil titan in Iñárritu's climate satire Digger
Tom Cruise is almost unrecognisable as a swaggering oil tycoon in Digger, the new film from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu that received its full review in Variety on 29 September 2026.
Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a Texas fossil-fuel titan. The character is billed as the world’s most powerful man, a billionaire left trying to clean up his own mess.
The story is a climate-change satire built around a countdown to disaster. A methane release cracks open the plot, with a 400-mile-wide ice shelf splitting off and sending a tsunami toward Europe. The clock is ticking.
Warner Bros. lists Digger as an original film from Iñárritu and dates it in theatres on 2 October. The studio names a cast of Cruise alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons, according to Warner Bros.
The film held its global premiere in London on 22 September 2026. Catherine, Princess of Wales attended the premiere, which drew a star-heavy guest list to the red carpet, as shown in Deadline’s gallery.
Early response has been divided. First reactions were split over Cruise’s performance, with some calling it baffling, reported Variety. Press screenings brought very mixed notices for what has been called an eco-epic and an absurdist comedy.
He is hard to spot. The first trailer showed a transformed Cruise, and footage shown to cinema owners presented him as a cat-loving billionaire. The actor cut his prosthetics and make-up time from six hours to under one hour during the shoot, reported the Hollywood Reporter.
Cruise has called the character “totally outrageous” and unlike any role he had met before, reported Reuters. He told theatre owners the film is “wild” and funny, describing it as a dark comedy. He said he joined after Iñárritu read him the script aloud over several days. Iñárritu himself has called it a “brutal comedy”.
What makes this stand out is the pairing. Cruise is known for action heroes who race to save the world. Here he plays the man who helped endanger it, with Iñárritu directing a large ensemble around him.
