The fact that Tom Cruise, who is 64 years old, is still the best reason to go to the movies seems just plain silly. Not because he’s becoming a wise old man in a good way. Not because he’s becoming calmer. But because he keeps leaning in more, taking bigger swings, and refusing to fall into the comfortable late-career slump that most stars fall into by the time they are fifty.
His new movie, Digger, which is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu and comes out on October 2, is the latest proof of this. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an ugly, old, plum-suited oil billionaire with prosthetics, white hair, a southern accent, and what seems like a completely crazy energy. He has caused an ecological disaster that could be nuclear in scale and is now desperately trying to convince the world that he is its savior. It’s a darkly funny satire. VistaVision it is. This is Iñárritu. And it doesn’t sound at all like what anyone thought Tom Cruise would do next.
So far, the video that has come to light is short but hard to shake. Rockwell, played by Cruise, paces back and forth in an office and mutters to himself before telling the room, “When all else fails, you hit ’em with the truth.” Tell them the harsh truth. “Just bang, bang, bang!” The character’s desperation, bluster, and complete lack of self-awareness make it strangely funny. That’s not quite like Tom Cruise, but more like a character study from someone who spent months thinking about power and delusion.
Digger is interesting for more than just the change, though the change in appearance is very noticeable. It’s the setting. Cruise hasn’t been in a movie series other than Mission: Impossible or Top Gun since 2017. There was really great franchise work for nine years, the kind that kept theaters open when Hollywood was having a rough time. And now this. A satirical comedy about a man who destroys the world and says it’s the fault of everyone else. The change in tone is shocking, and it was probably done on purpose.
For his part, Iñárritu has been honest about how he felt about the project. He told Deadline at Cannes, “Making this movie was scary.” “I don’t like to repeat myself, and every film should scare you a little.” Birdman, The Revenant, and back-to-back Best Director Oscars for the director add a level of expectation that the movie has to live up to whether it wants to or not. Warner Bros. has already marked it down as a serious contender for awards, which is fine.
Riz Ahmed, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, and John Goodman are also in the movie, along with Emma D’Arcy. She said that seeing Cruise and Iñárritu work together was “one of those career moments where the whole time it’s happening, you can’t believe it.” It means something when an actor who works and knows what good set work looks like says something like that.
A bigger question lies beneath all of this, and the behind-the-scenes video that came out with the Digger teaser raises it subtly. It’s been 46 years. I already have the honorary Oscar. From Risky Business to Rain Man to Jerry Maguire to Magnolia, the last movie for which he was nominated for an award as an actor, and then twenty years of great work in franchises that never led to any awards recognition. There’s a chance that Digger will finally close that gap. All of that might not matter to Cruise at this point, either. It’s possible that the chase is what matters.
He’s not coasting, that much is clear. Action hero, 60 years old, has dropped the motorcycle and picked up something stranger and tougher. He is still hurt from his own stunts. The instinct behind Digger feels right, no matter if it works or not.
