‘Digger’ Gives Tom Cruise the One Role He's Almost Never Played

Published Oct 7, 2026, 11:03 PM EDT

Conor Sheeran is a Movies and TV features writer for Collider. He has a deep passion for cinema and watches everything from the biggest blockbusters to the smallest indies. While he specializes in movies and television, he has also written about politics, culture, and sports throughout his career.

Based in New York City, Conor is also a massive fan of the New York Jets, Mets, and Knicks. He is still waiting for any of those teams to bring home a championship in his lifetime.

A member of the National Writers Union and the International Federation of Journalists, Conor is a strong proponent of press freedom and collective action.

For much of his long and storied career, Tom Cruise has played characters who refuse to believe that something cannot be done. Mission: Impossible, which may be his most famous film series, is based on his character Ethan Hunt doing, well, the impossible; he will always find a way to stop the bomb, prevent the war, rescue the hostage, or do whatever he must, no matter the cost. Maverick from the Top Gun films will always complete a mission that no one else thinks can be done. Even when he does play characters who are arrogant or even morally compromised, they are defined by their overwhelming confidence that anything can be done. These roles are what give the star's movies such an allure, and help make them so popular.

Which is what makes his newest starring vehicle, Digger, such an unusual Tom Cruise movie.

In Digger, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, the world's richest man. His oil companies may have inadvertently triggered the apocalypse, so the job then falls on him to fix the problems facing the planet and save the day. In stark contrast to his other movies, Digger and its director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, have no interest in painting Digger as a hero or in proving him right. Like many capitalists of the day, he believes throwing money, when paired with his influence and bombastic personality, will solve the problem and repair the damage. Instead of turning that determination into another celebration of Cruise-style heroism, Digger exposes its limitations. For the first time in years, Cruise plays a man destined to fail.

Digger Rockwell Isn’t the Hero, Even If the World Needs Him to Be

While reviews for Digger have been mixed and box office returns even worse, there is an undeniable magnetism to seeing Cruise play so far outside his comfort zone, while buried beneath prosthetics to make him look nearly unrecognizable (something not seen since he played Les Grossman in 2008's Tropic Thunder). Though it's a sharp turn for anyone looking for a classic Tom Cruise performance, it's refreshing to see him embrace his inner thespian again. One scene in particular, which sees Digger address a room of angry politicians, is where Cruise is at his very best. Dressed as a stereotypical Texan oilman and speaking with a Southern accent, he delivers a monologue that should already place him among early Oscar discussions.

It's perhaps here that Digger differs most from Cruise's other heroes. Ethan Hunt and Maverick are more than willing to step in and save the day because it's the right thing to do; Digger acknowledges his fault for the crisis at hand but also asks, "What's in it for me?" He embodies many modern-day political philosophies, which hinge on one's inability to look at how an action could affect the world, and focuses only on how it affects them. The world could be falling apart around them — in this case, due to their own actions — but unless it affects them personally, they have no interest in fixing it properly.

That's why Digger has also come under fire, as many see Iñárritu's attempt at mockery to be too heavy-handed and lacking nuance. Some argue we live in a post-satire world, where parodying real-world figures is nearly impossible. But Cruise's portrayal of this fictional oligarch works because it is so over the top and embraces how egregious his positions are.

‘Digger’ Shows Why Cruise Should Play Against Type More Often

Image via Warner Bros.

Cruise remains one of Hollywood's greatest movie stars, but we haven't seen the full range of his talents in years. It's a joy to watch him play against type after years of seeing his characters achieve the impossible in their efforts to save the day. Digger demonstrates that there is so much unexplored potential for him to dive back into roles that people, particularly younger audiences, don't know him for.

It's particularly compelling watching one of the movie industry's biggest control freaks, known for his intensity on set, portray someone trying to confront a situation he cannot control. Digger's failure doesn't make Cruise less compelling; it just gives his intensity a new focus and a different dimension. The same relentless energy that makes Ethan Hunt inspiring becomes vastly unsettling when attached to someone like Digger, a man who cares not for the world but only his immediate circle.

He makes this archetype so convincing because it matches the image the audience has built of Cruise. Few modern movie stars are more closely associated with control and preparation, so playing someone like Digger, who loses that control, feels so against what we know, we can't help but be engrossed by the performance.

Ultimately, this is what makes Digger such an interesting entry in Cruise's filmography. After years of watching Cruise save the world, the most radical thing a movie can do is show us all that he can't.