Tom Cruise's much-anticipated Digger gets early Rotten Tomatoes score revealed following first reviews

All year, one of the most hotly-anticipated films among cinephiles has been Alejandro González Iñárritu's Digger – with fans desperate to see what the mysterious Tom Cruise-starring movie is all about.

Well, if the film's early Rotten Tomatoes score is anything to go by, the hype levels may have to be adjusted somewhat.

The review embargo for the film lifted yesterday (Tuesday 29 September) and so far the satirical black comedy has been met with a rather negative – or at the very least, decidedly mixed – response.

At time of writing, Digger sits on a score of 52 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes from 113 reviews – meaning it is currently listed as "Rotten" on the site – while on Metacritic, it has an even lower score of 44.

Given the film had clear hopes of awards season success – including Cruise's attempts to launch a best actor campaign – that's a pretty disastrous start, which could very well spell an end to its Oscar chances before they've even begun.

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Among the publications to award negative reviews were The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, Empire Magazine, Rolling Stone, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, IndieWire and Roger Ebert.com.

Meanwhile, it also has the unfortunate distinction of being given an unusual 0/4 rating by two different publications – with both The Boston Globe and The New York Post handing it that score.

However, not all of the critics skewed negative, suggesting that Digger could be something of a marmite proposition that may yet win some devoted fans.

Positive verdicts were given by the Daily Telegraph, BBC, Vulture, Time Out, the LA Times and the Evening Standard – with the latter even going so far as to award it a full 5-star rating.

The official synopsis for Digger simply reads: "The most powerful man in the world races to prove he is humanity's saviour before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything."

However, it appears that the marketing of the film has been deliberately holding back certain twists within the movie – even if rumours that it may be a musical would seem to be wide of the mark.

In addition to Cruise, the starry ensemble cast for the film also includes key roles for Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons and Emma D'Arcy, among others.

Iñárritu is a two-time best director winner at the Oscars – claiming back to back awards for The Birdman and The Revenant just over a decade ago – but it now looks unlikely he'll be adding to that total any time soon.

Digger is released in UK cinemas on Friday 2 October 2026.

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Authors

Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.