Tom Cruise Takes 128-Minute Gamble in 'Digger' as Eco-Satire Risks Box-Office Flop
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Sep 29
Tom Cruise Takes 128-Minute Gamble in 'Digger' as Eco-Satire Risks Box-Office Flop
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Sep 29
Summary
Tom Cruise’s new film "Digger," due in US and UK cinemas on October 2, casts him as a prosthetics-heavy Texas oil baron in what reviewers call the strangest and riskiest role of his career.
Alejandro G Iñárritu’s 128-minute satire centers on an Alaska drilling disaster that splits a glacier, sends a country-sized iceberg toward northern Europe and triggers a US crisis meeting focused as much on blame as rescue.
The film pairs Cruise with Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and John Goodman, then adds two unrevealed high-concept twists that push it beyond straightforward climate satire.
Reviewers say the politically blunt, deliberately excessive project is likely to divide audiences and could flop commercially, even as it is praised as a daring departure from Cruise’s action-blockbuster image.