Tom Cruise's First Original Movie in 9 Years Is Officially the Most Divisive Movie of His Career

Image via Warner Bros. Published Sep 22, 2026, 5:40 PM EDT Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts. For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider's news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch. He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him. His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan's work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes. Sign in to your Collider account Tom Cruise has spent the better part of the last decade saving the world, saving movie theaters, flying fighter jets, and repeatedly attempting to kill himself for our entertainment, so playing an eccentric oil tycoon who accidentally screws over the entire planet counts as taking it easy. The thing is, having spent that time giving us the most crowd-pleasing entertainment imaginable, now people can't seem to agree on whether his latest movie is a masterpiece or an absolute disaster. In Digger, Cruise plays Digger Rockwell alongside Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), John Goodman (The Big Lebowski), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Michael Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man), Jesse Plemons (Civil War), Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me), Emma D’Arcy (House of the Dragon), Robert John Burke (RoboCop 3), and Burn Gorman (Pacific Rim). Alejandro G. Iñárritu directs from a screenplay written with Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman, with a story credited to Berman, Iñárritu, and Jez Butterworth. The movie also reunites the director with Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, and was shot entirely in VistaVision. Early reactions to Digger have officially landed ahead of its October 2 release, and “mixed” doesn’t really cover it. The first wave ranges from calling the movie “audacious” and “powder keg cinema” to describing it as “a mess” and saying it simply “wasn’t enjoyable.” Cruise’s performance is getting similarly fascinating reactions, with some already throwing around the words “Academy Award” while another reaction calls him the “least interesting actor” on screen. That’s a pretty dramatic response for Cruise, whose recent career has been dominated by broadly acclaimed blockbusters including Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission: Impossible movies. Warner Bros. itself has described Digger as Cruise’s first original film in nearly a decade, with the actor playing Digger Rockwell, the world’s most powerful man, who desperately attempts to prove he can save humanity from a catastrophe he caused himself. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ Is 'Digger' Worth Watching? Well, it certainly seems like it isn't boring. Jake Kleinman praised the movie while warning that its biggest swings aren’t going to work for everyone. He compared its sensibility more to Charlie Kaufman than Stanley Kubrick and suggested some of its major twists are almost designed to annoy audiences: “Digger is definitely not for everyone, but I loved it. The big twists are going to piss off a lot of people, but the payoff is worth it. The vibe is much more Kaufman than Kubrick. Cruise is great, but he’s the least interesting actor onscreen next to John Goodman and Riz Ahmed.” Joey Magidson landed firmly on the other side. While praising Cruise and Riz Ahmed, he argued that Iñárritu’s enormous swing simply doesn’t come together: “Digger is a mess. Tom Cruise and Alejandro G. Iñárritu are taking a massive swing here, but despite some great production design and a commitment to their big choices, not a whole lot works here. Cruise is good and Riz Ahmed is a highlight, but man this wasn’t enjoyable.” And somehow, those aren’t even the furthest apart these reactions get. Hoai-Tran Bui came away “very mixed” on the movie, praising Cruise while saying other parts were “absolutely insufferable.” Bui even joked that she hadn’t previously considered herself a devoted Iñárritu hater, “but now I kind of get it!” Meanwhile, Jake Hamilton called Digger his favorite movie of 2026, which is quite the distance from “absolutely insufferable.” Hamilton deliberately avoided spoilers before seeing the movie and said its surprises consequently landed particularly well: “Digger is my favorite film of ‘26 — I avoided spoilers, so the surprises had an incredible impact. A bit Kubrick, a bit Black Mirror but also feels original — a surreal, weird, funny study on (human) nature and storytelling. Tom Cruise’s performance ranks among his career best.” Jana N Nagase was similarly enthusiastic, describing the movie as “funky & wild” and highlighting another enormous twist that apparently shouldn’t be spoiled before audiences see it. Nagase reserved most of the praise for Cruise, who seems to be going somewhere very different from Ethan Hunt or Pete Mitchell: “Digger is funky & wild, with bold visuals & an outstanding production design! There’s a huge twist I wasn’t expecting. Tom Cruise proves once more he’s the best at what he does; he’s unhinged, wonderfully chaotic, unrecognizable. He’s phenomenal in the role!” Courtney Howard was just as effusive, describing what Iñárritu has made as “powder keg cinema”: “Digger RIPS! Iñárritu creates powder keg cinema, exploding in blistering heat & dazzling fireworks. A masterfully compelling, electric & audaciously assured satirical farce. Tom Cruise gives a brilliant, boldly invigorated, tour de force performance. Riz Ahmed, a standout!” Simon Thompson, meanwhile, called the movie an “audacious vision executed on a grand scale,” but argued that its sociopolitical satire is “far from a home run.” Mike Ryan praised Cruise’s commitment while finding several plot decisions “baffling” and the movie generally unpleasant, while Kristen Lopez called the whole thing a “very mixed bag.” Then there’s Jim Hemphill, who called Cruise’s work his best performance since Magnolia and described Digger as “one of the most visually inventive, conceptually audacious, and unpredictable studio movies ever made.” So, yeah. Good luck working out a consensus from that lot. Digger arrives in theaters and IMAX on October 2, 2026. 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