Tom Cruise has spent decades convincing audiences that he will run faster, hang higher, fly harder and generally treat gravity like a studio note he is choosing to ignore. But his next movie, the 2026 calendar release Digger, looks like a very different kind of swing. And now J.J. Abrams has made me even more curious about what he is cooking.
Abrams, who directed Cruise in the third Mission: Impossible film entry, shared his reaction on X after seeing only part of Digger. He was responding to the actor’s own post about the film, which included a career-spanning video celebrating his 46 years in movies before teasing his next big-screen role. Abrams wrote:
My dear friend is no doubt about to blow our collective mind with Digger. What an undeniably spectacular career. What a bold and wild next step. Only seen a taste of the film… cannot wait for October to see the rest!
That is the kind of quote that immediately makes my ears perk up. Celebrity praise for projects can sometimes seem like polite Hollywood confetti, but this one feels more significant because of who it is coming from. Abrams knows the American Made lead as both a collaborator and a filmmaker. He has seen the Top Gun franchise star up close, and even he seems struck by whatever Digger is doing.
The phrase that really jumps out is “bold and wild next step.” At this stage in his career, that means something. His recent public image has been built around impossible stunts and franchise spectacle. When people think of modern Tom Cruise, they often think of Mission: Impossible, fighter jets, motorcycles, cliffs and that very specific movie-star intensity that suggests he might personally fight the concept of insurance if it got in his way. But at 63 years old, how much longer can he keep putting himself through that kind of stunt danger? Or stunt torture, depending on how you look at it.
Digger does not sound like another straightforward new action movie vehicle for Cruise to get lost running around in. The movie comes from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind Birdman and The Revenant, and early descriptions have framed it as a strange, satirical black comedy. The Jack Reacher performer reportedly plays Digger Rockwell, an over-the-top oil tycoon connected to a global catastrophe who tries to present himself as humanity’s unlikely savior.
That is already a pretty juicy setup, but the early footage has made the role sound even stranger. We recently got a glimpse of Cruise in character, and it’s pretty clear we are about to get something loud, physical and possibly unhinged in a way that calls back to his beloved Tropic Thunder role without necessarily repeating it.
Frankly, I want more of that Tom Cruise. The action-star version is still great. I will happily watch him sprint through another airport, desert, alley or burning train until the sun finally taps out. But there is something especially exciting about watching a performer with that much control and precision step into a role that sounds messy on purpose.
Abrams has only had a taste of Digger, but his reaction makes the October 2 release feel much more intriguing. If Cruise really is about to blow our collective mind, I would like to be there when the fuse hits the dynamite.
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