Tom Cruise’s Old Action Hit Is Trending on HBO Max Right as ‘Digger’ Splits Audiences

For most of the past decade, Tom Cruise has lived inside a handful of very specific worlds: cockpits, impossible missions, and the occasional desert runway. Between three “Mission: Impossible” installments and “Top Gun: Maverick,” the actor has rarely strayed from franchise territory. It has made the rare moments he does step outside that formula feel like genuine events for longtime fans of his work.

This week supplies exactly that kind of moment. Cruise stars alongside Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons in ‘Digger,’ the long-gestating passion project from Oscar-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu, and its release has been building toward a very public moment for weeks. Cruise even debuted a striking new look, complete with dyed red hair and height-boosting boots, at the film’s London premiere, which drew Prince William, Princess Catherine, and David Beckham.

That buzz appears to be sending viewers straight back to Cruise’s filmography, because ‘American Made’ has quietly resurfaced on HBO Max’s weekly top 10 movies chart, landing at number 6 alongside titles like ‘Supergirl,’ ‘The Revenant,’ and ‘The Last Samurai.’ The film has held steady on the list without climbing or dropping, but its presence there at all, right as ‘Digger’ dominates entertainment headlines, is hard to read as coincidence.

‘American Made’ remains the obvious touchstone for comparison. The 2017 crime comedy was directed by Doug Liman and also starred Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons, and Caleb Landry Jones. It told the true story of pilot Barry Seal, who ran contraband for the CIA and the Medellin cartel in the 1980s, and it went on to gross 134 million dollars worldwide while earning largely positive reviews for Cruise’s performance.

‘Digger’ represents an even bigger swing than that film did. Cruise plays the title character, a billionaire tycoon whose reckless choices trigger a global catastrophe he then has to personally fix, and the transformation required real physical work behind the scenes. He underwent a lengthy makeup and prosthetics process that initially took six hours per session before the team managed to shrink it down. “It took 40 years for me to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell,” Cruise told the crowd at CinemaCon, according to Variety, while introducing the film’s first trailer.

Reactions since then have been anything but unanimous. Critics and journalists have reportedly responded coolly to ‘Digger,’ while online influencers have been far more enthusiastic, with the phrase “bold swing” showing up repeatedly in social posts. That split has already dented the film’s awards chances, with its Oscar odds falling significantly on tracking sites since the mixed reactions began circulating. According to GoldDerby, the film’s Best Picture standing has slid as a result, even as its technical categories are still considered strong contenders.

None of that seems to be hurting curiosity about Cruise himself. ‘Digger’ carries a massive 125 million dollar production budget, making it one of the more expensive auteur-driven bets Warner Bros. has placed in years, and every bit of that spectacle is currently playing out in theaters. Whether audiences ultimately embrace ‘Digger’ or not, its rollout has clearly sent a segment of streaming viewers back toward safer, more familiar Cruise territory, and ‘American Made’ just happens to be sitting right there waiting for them on HBO Max.