‘Digger’ Trailer: Tom Cruise Goes Unrecognizable in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Awards-Season Drama

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Jul 13

Tom Cruise says ‘Digger,’ opening Oct. 2, is the culmination of his 40-year career and unlike anything he has done before.

Tom Cruise is stepping into unfamiliar territory with ‘Digger.’

Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s upcoming drama, which stars Cruise in one of his most dramatic physical transformations in years. The first footage shows the actor nearly unrecognizable under makeup and prosthetics, signaling a major pivot from the franchise-driven spectacle that has defined much of his recent career.

The film is set for release on Oct. 2, positioning it directly in the fall awards-season corridor.

Cruise previewed the trailer during an event on the Warner Bros. lot, where he spoke about the unusual creative process behind the film. According to Cruise, Iñárritu spent several days reading the script aloud to him so the actor could better understand the filmmaker’s vision.

“Alejandro took several days during which he was just reading the script to me and I’m listening to everything that’s in his mind, so that I can understand that, and then I know how to contribute to it, and bring that collaboration together,” Cruise said.

During the event, Cruise described ‘Digger’ multiple times as the culmination of his 40-year career. That appears likely to become a central part of the film’s campaign as Warner Bros. prepares to position the movie as both a major acting showcase and a prestige awards contender.

For Cruise, ‘Digger’ represents both a departure and a return. Over the past decade, he has been most closely associated with franchise filmmaking, from the billion-dollar success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to the physically demanding ‘Mission: Impossible’ films. Those projects reinforced his reputation as one of the last traditional movie stars and one of Hollywood’s most committed action performers.

But ‘Digger’ appears to be aiming at a different side of Cruise’s career: the dramatic actor behind performances in ‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ ‘Jerry Maguire’ and ‘Magnolia,’ all of which earned him Oscar nominations. He was also nominated as a producer on ‘Top Gun: Maverick.’

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Iñárritu did not attend the Warner Bros. event in person, but sent a video from London, where he is finishing the film. The director said the idea for ‘Digger’ came after ‘The Revenant,’ which earned him his second consecutive Oscar for directing. He spent years developing the project before approaching Cruise roughly seven years ago.

Iñárritu praised Cruise’s transformation, saying the actor told him the role took decades to reach.

“The transformation he went through was astonishing,” Iñárritu said. “‘Alejandro, it took me 40 years to become this character,’ he told me once. And I think we both know what it means to carry an entire career into a single moment like this. We both knew that throughout our journeys, we had never done anything even close to this.”

Cruise also emphasized that the film pushed him into new creative territory.

“I have never had something that could challenge me in this way and neither has Alejandro when we went in, ever,” Cruise said. “And when you see this film, it’s totally original.”

The collaboration brings together two major names who have long admired each other from a distance. Cruise said he became an immediate fan of Iñárritu after seeing the director’s 2000 film ‘Amores perros,’ even inviting people to his home to screen it before the two had formally met.

‘Digger’ also marks Cruise’s first major character-actor-style transformation since his prosthetics-heavy turn as Les Grossman in ‘Tropic Thunder.’ But unlike that scene-stealing comedic performance, this new role appears designed as a serious dramatic showcase.

That makes the film one of the more intriguing entries of the fall. Cruise has spent years carrying giant theatrical spectacles on his back, but ‘Digger’ could remind audiences that before he was jumping off cliffs and flying jets, he was also one of Hollywood’s most ambitious dramatic actors.

Audiences will see the full transformation when ‘Digger’ opens Oct. 2.