The first trailer for Digger, the upcoming collaboration between superstar Tom Cruise and Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu has already generated a host of questions and comments. Responses range from hope that Digger will finally get Cruise his Oscar to worries that the movie will be as ponderous as Iñárritu’s Babel or Bardo. But at least one person has to have had this thought: “Surely, Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning wasn’t that bad!”
It’s not just that The Final Reckoning was one of the many Tom Cruise pictures featured in the trailer’s first two thirds, a montage of shots from movies ranging from Risky Business to Top Gun: Maverick. It’s that by putting its attention on Cruise’s movie star career, the Digger trailer brings to mind Iñárritu’s most successful film, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). By juxtaposing Batman as the height of Michael Keaton‘s movie stardom to the fallow state of the actor’s popularity in 2014, Birdman revitalized Keaton’s career and cemented him as one of the greats. Does the metatextual trailer mean that Digger will do the same thing for Cruise, a man whose star has never fallen far, even after a lesser Mission: Impossible movie?
There’s no question that Cruise has had his ups and downs. Thanks to hits such as Risky Business and Top Gun, Cruise spent the ’80s and ’90s playing cocky and charismatic heroes. The movies of this period followed more or less the same plot line, with Cruise’s character beginning the movie thinking he’s the absolute best, running into people who don’t think he’s the best, and then proving to everyone at the end of the film that he was indeed the best.
By the end of the ’90s, Cruise demonstrated that he wanted to move beyond that limited character arc. He worked with auteurs such as Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), Steven Spielberg (Minority Report), and Michael Mann (Collateral), playing complicated characters, people whose abundant self-confidence betrays a deep brokenness. At the same time, Cruise revived his Mission: Impossible franchise, getting J. J. Abrams to direct Mission: Impossible III, which released six years after its predecessor dropped.
Interesting as that period was, it turned out that Mission: Impossible III would become the bellwether for the next decade. After his infamously weird behavior during an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2005, all of the more unsavory parts of Cruise’s life came to the fore: his relationship with the 16-year-younger Katie Holmes, the unpleasant end of his marriage to Nicole Kidman, and his connection to Scientology. These personal details made his screen persona less palatable, and while the Mission: Impossible movies continued to resonate with audiences, as did his outrageous and self-satisfied turn as studio executive Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, stinkers such as Knight and Day, Rock of Ages, and Oblivion entered his filmography.
Then, something strange happened. Maybe it was the incredible trailer for Mission: Impossible—Fallout, or maybe it was his insistence upon holding Top Gun: Maverick until theaters reopened after the pandemic. Whatever it was, people forgave Tom Cruise, at least on screen. No one forgot about his weirdness or his Scientology; but his eccentricities were leveled out by the his passion for cinema. Nobody was talking about him as a Hollywood heartthrob, but we did appreciate him as a billionaire who regularly risks bodily harm for our entertainment.
In that regard, Cruise isn’t that different from Michael Keaton, circa 2014. Despite the differences in their career trajectories and popularities, neither Keaton then nor Cruise today is seen as a respected actor. They’re both living pieces of pop culture ephemera; Keaton because he played Batman decades ago, and Cruise because he’s the strangest movie star of our era.
Birdman used Keaton’s star persona and career arc to tell the story of another actor, haunted by the superhero he once played. Despite its flashy formal decisions, its single-take conceit and intrusive jazz score, Birdman resonated with audiences and made them appreciate Keaton anew, helping to make him a on-screen favorite.
At this point, it’s impossible to know if Digger will do the same. The trailer only contains a few seconds of new material, mostly impressionistic shots of Cruise’s character facing a crowd of desaturated rioters or shouting gibberish in a wood-paneled office. Further, it’s important to note that none of the Academy Awards won by Birdman went to Keaton (though Iñárritu helped Leonardo DiCaprio net an Oscar the next year with The Revenant).
Yet, if Iñárritu can turn our complicated feelings about our generation’s biggest movie star into dark comedy, the Digger may change the way we think about Tom Cruise, adding one more layer to this deeply odd figure.
Digger releases on October 2, 2026.
