Tom Cruise has given us a lot in recent years, so it doesn’t really matter that he’s effectively retreated into franchises of his own making. For the past decade, the movie star has mostly been concerned with IP, helming Mission: Impossible sequels, reviving the world of Top Gun with stellar results, and starring in a few other misguided reboots. That effort makes plenty of sense for an actor who spent years delivering such an incredible filmography — and it helps that most every film he’s starred in lately (save for Universal’s disappointing Mummy remake) has been thrilling in its own way.
Still, as distractingly good as Cruise’s stunt-heavy output has been, it’s hard not to miss a time when Cruise alternated between those amazing actioners and quieter films that focused on his acting chops. Some of his best roles have weaponized his intensity and zany gravitas — think Collateral, Magnolia, even Rock of Ages — but Cruise is just as capable of disappearing. There’s a reason Tropic Thunder is such an iconic entry to his oeuvre: he committed to the character of Les Grossman like few others could, donning hammy prosthetics, a fake belly, and a bald cap to bring a film executive to life. (And he did it all again to create one of the best performances to ever come out of the MTV Awards, too.) It’s been a while since Cruise has gotten that crazy, as roles like Les don’t exactly grow on trees. But leave it to Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the director behind Birdman and The Revenant, to see the vision with Digger.
Cruise hasn’t made a film quite like Digger — a balls-y character study that’s sure to get awards notice — since American Made in 2017, and it’s been even longer since he made something that’s felt quite so weird. There’s a Dr. Strangelove vibe to the misadventure his title character, regarded as “the most powerful man in the world,” is forced to embark on here. Cruise’s Digger Rockwell is an aging magnate with a bunch of precarious plates spinning over his head. While he really only seems to care about the imminent demise of his pet cat (who has between “two weeks and five minutes” left to live, according to his vet), Digger might also be to blame for the end of the world. For some yet-unknown reason, his latest project in Greenland has caused an iceberg to shift off its plotted course. It’s now headed straight for civilization, inciting a tsunami that will level catastrophic damage on a nuclear plant in the Scandinavian peninsula.
Per the official synopsis, Digger must embark on “a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior” before his own greed destroys the world as he knows it. Just as Cruise is tapping into familiar levels of camp, Iñárritu seems to be back in his Birdman bag, tackling the destructive power of one man’s ego with icy-grey visuals and some over-the-top worldbuilding. This is an actor-director pairing that could deliver the strangest satire of the year, but with both Cruise and Iñárritu tapping into what they do best, it’s also a welcome one.
