Tom Cruise’s latest film marks his return to genre acting, and his new role is as close as he might ever get to fleshing out Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman on-screen. It’s a bold swing that has divided critics, and now audiences have weighed in as well.
Digger, Tom Cruise’s hotly anticipated collaboration with auteur director Alejandro González Iñárritu, failed to impress critics ahead of its theatrical release. Premiering to heavily divided reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, the satirical dark comedy currently holds a mediocre 51% approval rating. Audiences are more forgiving, with many hailing Cruise’s performance and the story’s layered themes. The consensus among those who have already seen the film also reveals why it was such a tough sell to begin with.
Digger holds a 71% PopcornMeter score, and the reception is largely middling to positive. One audience review hit the nail on the head, advising anyone interested in the movie to come in with zero expectations. “I went into this film knowing that critics didn’t like it much and that I had seen the trailer,” they wrote.
“My expectation was ZERO. It earned every minute of my attention. I couldn’t look away. This film is engaging.”
Much of the contention around Digger stems from its jarring narrative shifts, the first occurring early in the film. While the trailers tease a modern-day homage to Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, Digger takes several hard pivots leading up to its bleak and dystopian ending. These moments run the risk of breaking viewers’ hard-earned engagement, but many did not mind the bait-and-switch.
“Movie is engaging from the start and everything makes sense as time goes. Must watch for all,” one viewer wrote, while another said the movie’s plot twists were refreshing. “Yes, there are twists and it’s so crazy that when it happens your jaw will drop,” they said. “Don’t listen to the critics that say it’s too ‘complicated.’ It’s funny and intriguing.” “I like that the movie was out there,” another wrote. “So out there like a Picasso painting with eyes and lips all over the place, hard and uncomfortable to look at, but at least it is something different rather than the same old [tripe] we normally get.”
Digger is Iñárritu’s third foray into meta-narrative filmmaking, after Birdman and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. Digger has a lot going for it, including a stacked ensemble led by an A-list actor whose name alone sells tickets, but Cruise’s latest venture is shaping up as a career miss. Its dismal opening earned only $3.4 million from 3,321 US theaters on Friday — and it’s already shaping up to be one of the biggest box office flops of 2026. The movie is headed for the lowest opening weekend for Cruise since 2007’s Lions for Lambs, which debuted with $6.7 million and ultimately grossed $65 million against its $35 million cost. Naturally, its prospects could be disastrous given its $180 million budget.
Release Date
October 2, 2026
Runtime
128 minutes
Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu