It certainly looks like Tom Cruise is moving on out of the Mission: Impossible era of his career. While The Final Reckoning did leave off on a note that could one day be revisited, everyone involved has said it is the last movie in that franchise. While it’s definitely sad that the best action franchise is no more, all good things must come to an end.
For Cruise, it means he can move out of the action blockbuster stuntman legend role he’s inhabited for a very long time. Newer moviegoers might not realize that there was a time when Cruise was not remotely known for action movies and that he was one of the most talented, unique, and interesting actors out there.
Well, with Digger from Alejandro G. Inarritu, Cruise seemed poised to return to that era of his career, the one in which he did weird and unusual roles with top-flight directors. Now that the first trailer for the movie is officially out, we can confirm that the old Cruise (yes, that is Tom Cruise, as unrecognizable as he is) is back.
Tom Cruise Shares First Official Trailer for Digger
Tom Cruise is back. If you weren’t familiar with Cruise’s projects or hadn’t heard of Digger, then you might not have realized that it is, in fact, Cruise. He looks unrecognizable as Digger Rockwell, a parody version of the world’s most powerful CEO.
With the trailer, we finally get a glimpse at what the movie is actually going to be about. The world is at risk thanks to a natural disaster created by Rockwell’s company, one he initially doesn’t even buy (sound familiar?), and the eccentric CEO sets out on, as the synopsis so aptly says, “a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.”
This appears to position the movie as a satire. Imagine if one of the real-life CEOs, perhaps Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk, set out to try and undo the damage they’ve done to the world. The natural disaster brings up themes of global warming, which is as prevalent as ever today.
We also get a good look at plenty of the other characters. John Goodman is playing the ancient United States president, while Riz Ahmed appears to be an advisor to both the president and Cruise’s Rockwell. It’s unclear who Jesse Plemons is playing, as we only got a brief glimpse of him in this trailer. Sandra Huller’s character is also only briefly shown off in the two-minute-and-change trailer.
2026 has already been an incredible year for movies, with cultural phenomena like Obsession, Project Hail Mary, and Backrooms dominating the first half. Next week, The Odyssey is surely going to join that conversation, and potentially Spider-Man: Brand New Day two weeks after that. It’s been a really good few months of movies.
But the back half of 2026 still has plenty to offer. Dune Part Three is coming, as is Avengers Doomsday. Digger is one of those exciting second-half films, along with Resident Evil, The End of Oak Street, It Ends, The Social Reckoning (speaking of Zuckerberg), Clayface, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and so many more.
Cruise’s pre-Mission: Impossible career was full of roles just like this. He’s really had three phases so far: initial stardom as a leading man, unique character actor working with auteurs, and action star doing his own stunts. Phase four looks to be a return to phase two, but it could also bring about something new entirely. Whatever it is, we’re all very excited to see what he continues to do.
