Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger’ Is Already Dividing Critics, and That Rotten Tomatoes Score Says It All

Tom Cruise is used to making movies that get people talking. Usually, that means huge action scenes, dangerous stunts and Cruise running at full speed. His new movie, Digger, is taking a very different path, and the early reaction could not be more divided.

Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Digger stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a strange and wealthy oil tycoon who causes an environmental disaster and then decides he needs to fix it. The cast also includes Riz Ahmed and John Goodman. The movie is rated R and was filmed entirely in VistaVision. According to reports, it also has a production budget of around $125 million.

The first Rotten Tomatoes score did not exactly give the movie an easy start. Digger opened with a 52% Tomatometer score from 17 reviews. That made it Cruise’s lowest-rated movie on the site in about a decade. The audience score had not been posted yet.

The movie initially opened at 49 %. That number did not stay there for long. As more reviews arrived, the score moved to 50% from 50 reviews. Another report said the film had reached 60 reviews and was sitting right in the middle, with critics almost evenly split between liking the movie and rejecting its strange style.

There are some strong supporters. Los Angeles Times critic Amy Nicholson gave Digger a positive review and described Digger Rockwell as Cruise’s “riskiest role in eons.” Another critic praised Cruise’s performance as his best since Magnolia.

But the negative reviews are not holding back either. The Wrap’s William Bibbiani compared the movie to a weak Saturday Night Live sketch with a giant budget. Variety’s Clayton Davis praised the cast and the film’s ambition, but felt that some of the ideas did not come together.

The disagreement was already clear after the movie’s London premiere on September 22. Early reactions shared online were all over the place. Some viewers praised the film as bold and unusual, while others thought it was messy and too self-important.

IndieWire’s Anne Thompson was among those who liked what Iñárritu was attempting. She called the movie a “brave and gorgeous art film” and suggested that it could have more appeal with awards voters than with a general movie audience. Cruise’s performance and the film’s production design have also received attention from early viewers.

Now the big question is whether audiences will feel the same way as critics. The movie reportedly needs to make more than $300 million worldwide to cover its costs once marketing is included. Early box office tracking has been less exciting, with some reports putting its domestic opening below $20 million.

A new trailer for ‘DIGGER’ has been released.

In theaters October 2. pic.twitter.com/kTEeFZI14E

— Film Updates (@FilmUpdates) September 9, 2026

Warner Bros. will release Digger in North American theaters and IMAX on October 2, with international releases beginning September 30. That gives the movie plenty of time to find its audience, but the mixed reviews mean word of mouth could play a major role.

For Cruise, the movie is also an interesting career move. He is stepping away from the kind of massive action blockbuster that has become his trademark and taking on a much stranger character in a movie that clearly has something unusual to say.

The Rotten Tomatoes score may continue to change as more reviews arrive. For now, though, Digger has created exactly the kind of debate that can make people curious enough to buy a ticket. Whether audiences embrace Cruise’s bizarre new character or leave the theater wondering what they just watched could decide how this very unusual movie plays out.

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