Tom Cruise Plays an Oil Tycoon in Iñárritu’s New Film Digger

Digger, the first film from Alejandro González Iñárritu since Bardo, reaches cinemas on 2 October. It also gives Tom Cruise his first role in years in which he does not save the world but comes close to wrecking it. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, an oil tycoon and the most powerful man on the planet. The world premiere takes place in London today, 22 September.

Warner Bros. bills the film as “a comedy of catastrophic proportions”. Judging by the trailers, it is a biting satire about wealth, power and the art of convincing the whole world that you are right.

What the film is about

Drilling by Rockwell’s company accidentally destabilises a vast ice shelf in Greenland. Instead of owning up, the tycoon launches a frantic campaign to persuade humanity that he is its saviour — and he has to succeed before the disaster he caused turns into a global conflict.

The official synopsis fits into a single line: the most powerful man in the world races to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he unleashed destroys everything. Iñárritu describes his hero as a man who “seduced reality into agreeing with him”.

A Cruise you will not recognise

The talking point of every trailer is how Cruise looks. Make-up and prosthetics have aged him: thinning grey hair, a visible paunch, heavy features and a thick Southern accent. For an actor who has spent decades playing action heroes and doing his own stunts, it is the sharpest change of image in his career.

Cruise says he had wanted to work with Iñárritu ever since seeing his 2000 debut Amores Perros. They started talking about a project together in 2019, while Cruise was shooting Top Gun: Maverick. The director brought him an idea he had already been developing for a few years, and from there they built it together. Cruise is also one of the film’s producers.

Who else is in it

The supporting cast is packed with big names:

• Riz Ahmed as Ganesh, a scientist and aide to the President;
• John Goodman as President Compson, an American leader with dictatorial instincts;
• Sandra Hüller as Emma Rockwell, Digger’s half-sister and business partner;
• Michael Stuhlbarg as the Vice President;
• Jesse Plemons as Kenny;
• Emma D’Arcy as Lina;
• Sophie Wilde, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman, Pip Torrens and Mercedes Hernández.

Iñárritu wrote the screenplay with Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Nicolás Giacobone. He had already worked with the last two on Birdman, which won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Playwright Jez Butterworth also contributed to the story.

Ten years of an idea, six months of shooting

Iñárritu came up with the story right after The Revenant (2015) and calls it “a relentless, recurring obsession” that stayed with him for about a decade. The project was officially announced with Cruise attached in February 2024.

Filming began on 7 November 2024 at Pinewood Studios in the UK and wrapped in early May 2025, roughly six months in all. The working title was Judy. In March 2025 the set had to shut down for two days while John Goodman underwent hip surgery.

The cinematographer is Iñárritu’s long-time collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki, who won three Oscars in a row, including for Birdman and The Revenant. The film was shot on 35mm in the VistaVision large format and will also play in IMAX. Industrial Light & Magic handled the visual effects, and British musician Cosmo Sheldrake wrote the score — his first for a feature film.

Budget and expectations

The film cost around $125 million. It is produced by Iñárritu, Mary Parent and Cruise, with Legendary Pictures behind the production. The running time is 129 minutes.

Footage shown at CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April was described by The Hollywood Reporter as among the best of the whole event. There are no reviews yet at the time of writing: the press will see the film at the London premiere. For Cruise, Digger is a test of whether audiences will accept him in a role that turns his saviour image upside down; for Iñárritu, it is his first English-language film in ten years.

When to watch

The film opens in the US on 2 October through Warner Bros. Pictures. Cast, stills and trailers are collected on the Digger page in our AMDB database.