Tom Cruise has been dangling off skyscrapers and airplanes for so long that I’ve come to treat his movies as a workout for my blood pressure. Digger doesn’t work that way at all. The most dangerous thing Cruise does in this one is open his mouth, and that turns out to be plenty.
So far, though, the reception at the box office has been tepid, at best. Digger opened October 2 to about $8 million in North America, which is a rough start for a Tom Cruise movie, and the audiences who did show up gave it a C+ on CinemaScore. I think they got it wrong. It’s an excellent movie, and it has more to say about the world right now than most of what I’ve watched this year.
I’m not the only one who feels that way. Anne Hathaway, whose own movie Verity beat Digger at the box office that same opening weekend, gave it five stars on Letterboxd and called it “smart and trippy and aggressive and funny and ambitious.” That’s a pretty generous review from someone whose movie just took the top spot.
What You’re Getting Into
Digger is directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a billionaire oil tycoon whose drilling operation in Greenland sets off an environmental catastrophe. Rockwell then sets out to convince the world that he’s the one man who can save humanity from the mess his own company made.
That’s what the trailer tells you, and it’s all I’m going to tell you. Picture an arsonist who shows up at the fire wearing a firefighter’s helmet and expecting a parade, and you’ve got the general idea. Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, and John Goodman round out a strong cast.
Go in knowing it’s a dark comedy. The trailers mostly sold a goofy Tom Cruise in a cowboy hat carrying a shovel, and if that’s what you’re expecting, the movie is going to catch you off guard. It’s weirder and meaner than that, and it isn’t in any hurry to make you comfortable. I suspect that gap between the trailer and the movie explains a lot of those C+ grades.
Tom Cruise Playing Against Type
If you’re used to Cruise as Ethan Hunt, give yourself a few minutes to adjust. Under a fat suit, thin gray hair, and a fake nose, he plays Rockwell loud and petty and needy, like a man who has never once been told no and wouldn’t recognize the word if he heard it.
He is brilliant as Rockwell, though. There’s something about seeing a guy who usually plays the hero go all in on playing a spoiled, self-important billionaire. Even people who didn’t care for the movie seem to agree that Cruise is great in it, and I’d say he’s the main reason it works as well as it does.
Why It Stuck With Me
When I heard Digger was about an oil tycoon, I figured the energy business would be the punchline. The movie is more interested in how people with enormous power tend to respond when something they built goes wrong, which usually means getting in front of a camera and casting themselves as the solution before anyone asks too many questions about the cause. At one point, Rockwell more or less admits that if he can’t control what nature does, he can at least control the story people hear about it. You could swap the oil rig for a social media company or a big bank, and that playbook wouldn’t change much.
It also gives off strong Wes Anderson vibes, which is not something I expected from a Tom Cruise movie. There were stretches where I honestly wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh or be worried (or both?), and I think that’s on purpose.
Worth the Ticket Price
Digger runs a little over two hours. If you want to watch Tom Cruise save the day, wait for the next Mission: Impossible. If you’re up for a dark comedy that leaves you a little uneasy about the world waiting for you outside the theater, it’s worth the price of a ticket.
Given how it’s doing at the box office, though, I wouldn’t wait too long to go.
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