Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Reveals a High-Stakes Mission Where He’s the Problem and the Solution in a New World Cup Promo
Tom Cruise has spent decades building one of the most recognizable brands in Hollywood, and his newest project is doing everything possible to break away from it. Fresh off a trailer drop that left fans doing a double-take, Cruise is now using one of the biggest sporting stages on the planet to keep the buzz going for his most unexpected role in years.
That role belongs to ‘Digger‘, a film that has nothing to do with fighter jets or impossible missions. Directed by Oscar winner Alejandro Iñárritu, the film marks Cruise’s first starring role outside the ‘Top Gun’ and ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchises in years, and it debuted its first trailer with the actor looking almost unrecognizable. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a balding, overweight oil tycoon with a thick Southern drawl who is responsible for an ecological catastrophe that pushes the world to the brink of environmental collapse and nuclear war.
That transformation is now getting a very public boost tied to soccer’s biggest event. A new World Cup promo for ‘Digger’ has been released, continuing the film’s marketing push around the tournament’s closing stretch. Cruise is reportedly set to perform at the World Cup Final on Sunday, though details about what exactly that performance will entail have remained deliberately vague.
The mystery around that appearance has fans speculating wildly. Some initially expected Cruise to pull off a death-defying stunt as part of the closing ceremony, while others have wondered whether he might show up in character as Digger Rockwell rather than as himself. FIFA has confirmed that several celebrities are attending the closing ceremony, adding to the uncertainty over exactly how Cruise’s involvement will play out on the day.
Cruise himself has been leaning hard into the film’s originality during recent press stops. Speaking at a Los Angeles Q&A event, Cruise said he had never had a project that challenged him the way this one did, adding that the same was true for Iñárritu when they first began working together, and promising that audiences would find the finished film to be something totally original.
The tone of the project itself has drawn early comparisons to classic satire. The story follows Digger as he’s ordered by the sitting president, played by John Goodman in a performance described as a blend of recent real-world commanders in chief, to fix the very disaster he caused, with critics already likening the premise to Cold War-era political satire updated for a modern audience. The ensemble surrounding Cruise is stacked as well, featuring Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Wilde, and Emma D’Arcy.
How excited are you for Digger?
‘Digger’ isn’t due in theaters until October, meaning Cruise’s marketing campaign is running unusually far ahead of the release date. Whether Sunday brings a stunt, a character cameo, or something else entirely, Cruise appears determined to make sure Digger Rockwell is impossible to ignore long before the film actually opens.
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