Tom Cruise Officially Hits the End of an Era With Divisive New Movie

Image via Dave Starbuck/Future Image/Cover Images Published Sep 29, 2026, 12:36 PM EDT A cinematic obsessive with the filmic palate of a starving raccoon, Rob London will watch pretty much anything once. With a mind like a steel trap, he's an endless fount of movie and TV trivia, borne from a misspent youth of watching monster movies on TV, perusing the sun-faded goods at the local video rental shop, and staining his fingers with ink from the Video Movie Guide. Areas of interest include science fiction, film noir, horror flicks, '70s disaster pictures, Bond movies, '90s action, giant robots, dinosaurs, super heroes, and the exuberantly schlocky output of Cannon Films. He also enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars when they're good, and maybe even more when they're bad. As a Canadian, he also has a vested interest in Canadian movies and TV shows, especially the cheesier ones dubbed "Canuxploitation." An expert on Marvel Comics, he has also written for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, and is a member of the Marvel Research Team. He can frequently be found pontificating on comic-book continuity or bemoaning the misfortunes of the Toronto Maple Leafs on his Twitter account. Sign in to your Collider account Digger is a big swing for Tom Cruise. A satirical comedy from auteur director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman), it's in a different galaxy from the audience-friendly action spectacles Cruise has specialized in for the last two decades. Now, with the film set to hit theaters this Friday, and the review embargo dropping, we finally know what the critics think of the film. Digger stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an aging oil billionaire who accidentally unleashes a disaster that threatens to destroy the world. Now, he's determined to do his best to save it, in concert with his half-sister and business partner (Sandra Hüller), a harried scientist (Riz Ahmed), and the blowhard US president (John Goodman). Oh, and there's a big twist, which reviewers are keeping buried for now. Digger currently holds a 50% Rotten rating at Rotten Tomatoes, with 60 reviews tallied, meaning it's perfectly split down the middle between critics who dig it, and critics who want it buried in a shallow grave. That's the lowest score ever for an Iñárritu film, and also Cruise's worst score since 2017's disastrous would-be franchise-starter The Mummy. It ends an almost decade-long streak of critical hits for Cruise, including American Made, Top Gun: Maverick, and the final three Mission: Impossible movies. Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived. 🍷Lecter 🃏Joker ♟️Moriarty 🪙Chigurh MEET YOUR NEMESIS → 01 What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention. AMy manners, and everything I am careful not to say. BThat I still believe people are basically decent. CThat I am clever, and quietly enjoy proving it. DThat I handle things myself, and always have. NEXT QUESTION → 02 How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next. AA polite letter. Beautiful handwriting. Quietly wrong. BSomething on fire, with a message left beside it. CA puzzle, left where only I would look. DNo contact. Just the aftermath, and a coin. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most. AThere are lines. Mine are private and absolute. BRules are the only thing keeping us from being animals. CMorality is a system, and systems can be solved. DThings happen. Most of it was never up to me. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan. ABeing seen clearly by somebody I cannot read. BWatching good people do something ugly. CLosing to someone who was simply better prepared. DHaving no move left that changes anything. NEXT QUESTION → 05 They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are. ACarefully, and never where they expect to be touched. BLoudly. I would rather lose than play their game. CWith a better plan. I can out-think this. DDirectly, once, with whatever is closest to hand. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them. AMy privacy. I have kept far too much to myself. BMy conscience. I will not cross the line they want. CMy ego. I cannot resist a worthy opponent. DMy certainty that I can handle it alone. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is. ATo understand me better than anyone ever has. BTo prove I am no better than they are. CTo finally be beaten by someone worth the trouble. DNothing at all. I stepped into the wrong path. NEXT QUESTION → 08 How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you. AA conversation I will be replaying for years. BA choice forced on me that has no clean answer. COne final move, and the better mind wins. DA coin in the air, and nothing I can say. REVEAL MY NEMESIS → The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours. Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from the encounter. Hannibal LecterYour nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the conversation is. Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He never raises his voice, because he has never needed to. You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve is exactly the door he would knock on. The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence. It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person. He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part. The JokerYour nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on. The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence against him. It is the entire reason he showed up. He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool you would normally reach for. His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend the rest of your life proving him wrong. He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life. MoriartyYour nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time. Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from: a mind the equal of the hero's, pointed the wrong way. You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he has already built the room. This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs the game to be worth playing. It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down. Anton ChigurhYour nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way. Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the answer was decided long before you opened your mouth. You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no interest in how capable you are. No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work. Call it. He will wait. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ What Are the Critics Saying About 'Digger'? Collider's own Victoria Luxford is in the positive camp for the film, calling it "Cruise's best work in years." It’s a movie that challenges, disorientates, and hammers home its message in an occasionally jarring way. Some will love it, some will leave the theater scratching their heads, others will feel bruised by watching a satire of something that feels like it’s unfolding in real time. One thing’s for sure, however, and that’s that no one will leave Digger feeling indifferent. Meanwhile, CBR's Rachel Leishman, in a rave review, cautioned audiences to watch the film unspoiled: Not that spoiler culture should exist for a movie like Digger, but because the "twist" is so captivating to watch throughout the movie, everyone should get to experience that magic and witness what Iñárritu and Cruise built. Polygon's Jake Kleinman was more mixed, calling the film "funny, but not necessarily fun," and suggesting that the big twist may be to the film's detriment: It's a pitch-black comedy with an even darker message that may just knock the wind out of you — even if some of those spoilery twists I'm not allowed to talk about actually do more to undercut Iñárritu's main point than reinforce it. Digger will be released in theaters on Friday, October 2. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates. Release Date October 2, 2026 Runtime 128 minutes Director Alejandro González Iñárritu Writers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone Producers Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Michael Sharp, Tom Cruise Cast