Digger first reviews: Tom Cruise takes a wild turn in divisive new satire

The first reviews for Digger, Alejandro G Inarritu’s new political satire starring Tom Cruise, are in – and critics can't quite agree on what to make of it. Ahead of its India release on October 2, 2026, the film has been described as everything from an audacious piece of cinema to an overstuffed misfire.

At the centre of that divide is Cruise, who plays fictional oil billionaire Digger Rockwell. Buried under prosthetics and padding, the actor leans into an exaggerated performance that has already become one of the film's biggest talking points. So has the film itself, particularly its echoes of Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove.

Some critics have welcomed those comparisons. Others think Digger lacks the sharpness that made Kubrick's satire endure.Critics can't agree on Inarritu's big swing

Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman felt the film borrows the end-of-the-world framework of Dr Strangelove without matching its sly humour. He was more impressed by the sheer scale of Inarritu's filmmaking, pointing to its elaborate sets and near-monochrome visual style.

Gleiberman also found Cruise's performance carefully constructed and entertaining, particularly because it allows the actor to move away from the kind of straight-faced heroics audiences know from his biggest blockbusters. But he felt Inarritu is reaching for something more substantial than a broad comic performance.

Pete Hammond of Deadline was considerably warmer. He described Digger as a disaster satire built around the idea that humanity itself may be the real catastrophe. Hammond deliberately kept the film's ending and major turns under wraps, arguing that the payoff is best experienced without knowing where the story is headed.

For him, the film's comedy doesn't cancel out its darker ideas. And Cruise's transformation is a major part of the fun. Hammond noted that the actor hasn't attempted a character quite like this before, despite a career that has taken him from Top Gun and Mission: Impossible to more dramatic films such as Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July.The twists are where things get complicated

At The Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney was less convinced. He found it difficult to separate the film's environmental concerns from the real-world politics surrounding fossil fuels and deregulation, but said the bigger issue was the screenplay's attempt to keep surprising the audience.

Rooney argued that the story becomes tangled in its own cleverness, particularly around one of its major twists. He was more enthusiastic about a sequence in which Cruise addresses the European Parliament as Digger, allowing the actor to switch between charm and confrontation.

The BBC's Nicholas Barber had perhaps the most curious response. He called Digger the strangest film of Cruise's career and suggested its unusual approach could make it a difficult sell. But he also saw that strangeness as part of its appeal.

For Barber, this isn't a film that's trying to be another Mission: Impossible. It's an abrasive, unconventional eco-satire with multiple high-concept turns – the kind of movie that's likely to divide audiences as much as critics.A satire that isn't subtle about its politics

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw was considerably less impressed. He found the characterisation too loud and the film's later developments unconvincing, arguing that the story eventually loses interest in some of its own characters.

Bradshaw also saw an obvious connection between Digger's hunger for fossil fuels and Donald Trump's publicly expressed support for expanded drilling. But for him, the film's political point is sometimes buried beneath an approach that's simply too broad.

That leaves Digger in an interesting position before its theatrical release. Even the more positive reviews acknowledge that Inarritu isn't interested in making a particularly easy film to digest. And the less enthusiastic ones don't dismiss its ambition so much as question whether all those ideas come together.Tom Cruise plays an oil tycoon who wants to save the world

The film follows Digger Rockwell, an immensely wealthy oil businessman who believes he can solve an environmental crisis – including one his own industry has helped create. The character is fictional, rather than a direct portrayal of any real person, but the film draws from familiar debates around fossil fuels, climate change, wealth and political influence.

Cruise's transformation is central to the conceit. Rather than playing another impossibly capable action hero, he appears as an eccentric billionaire whose confidence may be his greatest strength and biggest weakness.

Inarritu, the filmmaker behind Birdman and The Revenant, directs Digger from a screenplay written with Alexander Dinelaris, Nicols Giacobone and Sabina Berman. Both of Inarritu's earlier films won multiple Oscars, with the filmmaker taking home Best Director for each.

The ensemble includes Riz Ahmed, Sandra Huller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Emma D'Arcy, Sophie Wilde, Robert John Burke and Burn Gorman.- EndsALSO READ | Digger final trailer: Tom Cruise is the villain who wants to save the world