Film tip: Digger turns environmental disaster into black comedy

Tom Cruise swaps fighter jets and impossible missions for prosthetics, cowboy boots and an oil empire in Digger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s wildly ambitious black comedy about power, ego and environmental catastrophe. The result appears to be one of autumn’s most divisive films, with critics agreeing on very little except that Cruise has rarely looked, sounded or behaved quite like this.

Film details

• Title: Digger
• Premiere date in the Netherlands: 1 October 2026
• Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
• Runtime: 128 minutes
• Genre: Comedy, drama, satire
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Dutch
• Age rating: 12+
• Cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman and Sophie Wilde
• Where to watch in Rotterdam: KINO, LantarenVenster and Cinerama

What’s the vibe?

Digger Rockwell is an oil tycoon with enormous wealth, spectacular self-confidence and the unfortunate distinction of having helped cause an environmental catastrophe. When the consequences threaten to spiral into something even worse, Digger decides that the obvious person to save humanity is Digger.

Cue a frantic journey through corporate power, international politics and increasingly absurd attempts at heroism.

This is very different territory for Tom Cruise. Iñárritu buries the familiar movie-star image under prosthetics, a Southern accent, an expanded waistline and the personality of a man who has never encountered a room he did not immediately assume belonged to him.

The film plays the crisis as a feverish black comedy rather than a conventional disaster movie. There are shades of Dr. Strangelove, absurdist theatre and screwball farce, all photographed by Emmanuel Lubezki with enough visual ambition to remind you that subtlety was never really invited to this particular emergency meeting.

Trailer

Check out the trailer below.

Why you might like it

• Eyes: Emmanuel Lubezki shot the film entirely in VistaVision, giving its political rooms, industrial landscapes and surreal set pieces a rich large-format look.
• Heart: Cruise is playing directly against the heroic image that has defined much of his recent career, which makes Digger’s desperate need to be admired unusually interesting.
• Mind: The film pokes at billionaire saviour complexes, fossil-fuel dependency, political spectacle and humanity’s talent for demanding solutions without giving up the systems that created the problem.

Critical reception

Digger is proving sharply divisive.

The full review embargo lifted on 29 September, and the first wave ranges from enthusiastic admiration to outright hostility. Because the major aggregator scores were still changing rapidly as reviews arrived, any percentage published today should be treated as provisional rather than a settled verdict.

The Associated Press gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, praising its operatic scale, striking imagery and Cruise’s ability to push the character beyond caricature. The review compared its climate-crisis satire with Dr. Strangelove, while acknowledging that not every joke lands.

The Guardian went in almost the opposite direction, awarding 2 out of 5 stars and describing the satire as shallow, laborious and self-congratulatory. Its review praised some of Lubezki’s imagery but found the film’s political and environmental arguments muddled.

Vanity Fair landed somewhere in the middle. It admired Cruise’s willingness to take a strange dramatic swing after years dominated by action roles, but found the film loud, uneven and less profound than its ambitions suggest. The Houston Chronicle was warmer, highlighting Cruise’s transformation and the film’s extraordinary visual design while still finding it emotionally distant.

That split fits the early reaction from press screenings, where Digger was variously described as brave, baffling, fascinating and unpleasant.

Tom Cruise is receiving considerably more consistent attention than the film around him. Even reviews that dislike Digger often acknowledge that it gives him his most unusual acting showcase in years.

No major awards or nominations have been announced yet. The film is arriving at the beginning of awards season, so its critical division will make the next few months particularly interesting.

Scene to watch for

Watch Digger’s major speech to an international audience.

Several early reviews single it out as the moment when Cruise’s performance, Iñárritu’s satire and the film’s environmental argument collide most directly. Digger attacks the hypocrisy of societies that condemn fossil-fuel billionaires while remaining deeply dependent on the products they sell.

Whether you find the scene sharp, self-important or somewhere between the two may determine how you feel about the entire film.

Recommended pairing

Go big before this one. A hearty burger, loaded fries or something similarly excessive feels spiritually correct before spending two hours with a billionaire who considers moderation a character flaw.

Afterwards, walk somewhere quiet and green. Trees are useful reminders that nature can exist without a board meeting, press conference or man in cowboy boots explaining why he is personally going to rescue it.

Need-to-knows

Digger is Iñárritu’s first English-language feature since The Revenant. He developed the character with writer Sabina Berman for almost a decade before the film reached production.

The screenplay is credited to Iñárritu, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone and Berman, with a story by Iñárritu and Berman. Dinelaris and Giacobone previously collaborated with Iñárritu on Birdman.

The film was shot entirely in VistaVision by Emmanuel Lubezki. The format runs 35mm film horizontally through the camera, producing a larger image area than conventional 35mm photography. It is one reason the film has been repeatedly singled out for its visual scale, even in negative reviews.

Cruise underwent an extensive physical transformation created with prosthetic make-up. Kazu Hiro, whose previous work includes transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill for Darkest Hour, was involved in the prosthetic design.

John Goodman plays the fictional President of the United States. KINO describes the character as "Trumpian", while reviews have also noted the resemblance as part of the film’s broad political satire. The character remains fictional rather than a portrayal of a real president.

The environmental catastrophe at the centre of the film begins with Digger’s oil operation in Greenland, setting off consequences that threaten Europe and eventually international security. Despite the scale, Iñárritu treats much of the situation as absurdist comedy rather than a conventional disaster spectacle.

One warning before reading too much about the film online: reviewers have mentioned a significant late-film twist. Warner Bros. has asked critics to avoid revealing it, and knowing as little as possible beforehand is probably wise.