# Tom Cruise's Digger opens to praise for his daring turn as an oil tycoon

Published 2026-10-02T09:51:09Z

> Alejandro G Iñárritu's dark comedy Digger is out in theatres and IMAX, with early reviews hailing Tom Cruise's prosthetics-heavy turn as a greedy oil billionaire and fans praising his warm red carpet moment.

Tom Cruise's new film Digger, a dark comedy from director Alejandro G Iñárritu, reached theatres and IMAX screens on October 2. Early reviews are already calling his performance one of the most striking of his long career. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an eccentric oil billionaire whose actions set off a global catastrophe.

Under heavy prosthetics, Cruise becomes an ageing, balding, paunchy tycoon who lives in a vast, empty mansion. The only thing he truly loves is a cat that may or may not be dead, and he can barely stand his sister Emma, played by Sandra Hüller. The disaster at the heart of the story is a giant ice shelf drifting towards Europe.

The cast also includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Jesse Plemons and Emma D'Arcy. Ahmed plays Ganesh, an in-house climate scientist "from Kerala" whose warnings Rockwell bends to serve his own ends. Ahmed reportedly beat Fahadh Faasil and Vir Das to the role. Goodman appears as a US President who has little time for details. Iñárritu has said he and Sabina Berman began writing the screenplay in 2017, and that real events kept overtaking their fiction over the years.

One early review praises the film's staging, sets and sound, and its play-within-a-film format, which lets the director move between a stage drama and real life. The same review feels the satire offers little that is new, and that the film's mockery of its own lead weakens its most powerful scene.

Away from the screen, Cruise reportedly won fans over at the Los Angeles premiere. He stopped to talk with reporter Courtney Echerd, a 30-year-old hemipelvectomy amputee who was on the carpet with crutches, and told her it was an absolute pleasure to meet her. Echerd posted the clip on Instagram and TikTok and called it an evening she will never forget. Viewers flooded the comments praising the star's kindness.

## Related titles
- [Digger](https://clapnumber.com/movies/digger)

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Source: https://clapnumber.com/news/tom-cruises-digger-opens-to-praise-for-his-daring-turn-as-an-oil-tycoon
Retrieved: 2026-10-02