Essay by Eric Worrall
About five years too late Mr Cruise.
Tom Cruise tackles climate change in new film ‘Digger’
BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE – AFP
PARIS, FRANCE SEP 29, 2026 – 3:20 PM GMT+3
Tom Cruise is taking on one of his riskiest roles in decades, tackling the politics of climate change and corporate greed in the new film “Digger.”
Backed by a reported budget of $130 million and an advertising blitz, the dark comedy from multi-Oscar-winning Mexican auteur Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu opens Wednesday and stars Cruise as an embattled, aging tycoon.
Taking a break from his usual action movie roles, Cruise is barely recognizable as a mining and oil magnate facing an environmental crisis – in this original screenplay, audiences will see him wrestle with his own conscience and critics of his wealth and business.
“It is the culmination of all my skills,” Cruise, 64, told GQ magazine earlier this month. “It’s the most challenging character ever.”
…
The embargo on critics’ reviews lifts at 4 p.m. GMT Tuesday.
…“I think that, like Leonardo DiCaprio, I think he’s concerned about climate change and the environment,” Hamrah, author of “Last Week in End Times Cinema” and critic at n+1 magazine, told AFP.
Read more: https://www.dailysabah.com/arts/cinema/tom-cruise-tackles-climate-change-in-new-film-digger
…
Tom obviously hasn’t kept up with the news. Even Bernie Sanders appears on the brink of abandoning the climate crusade.
Seriously Tom, stop flogging the climate dead horse. Don’t create another “Don’t look up” box office flop, or a sad remake of “On Deadly Ground“. If you want to create an impactful film, do what everyone else is doing, and play on people’s fear of artificial intelligence.
I used to not-quite-sneer at Tom Cruise, his Scientology and his sorta-squeaky-clean image. But doing his own stunts and owning and flying his own P-51 gave him more credibility than I would have expected a few years before.
I haven’t been to a movie theater in ages. Sticky floors, idiots on cell phones, and the capper was the woke crud from Hollywood. I won’t make an exception for this. But I am curious how independent the story is and how much he’s swallowed the woke hook, line, and sinker. I may go back to sneering at him more loudly.
His church, Scientology, has used it’s pet law firm to push both anti Roundup and Global Warming lawsuits.
They’ll want a suitable leading lady with influence-
Alix Earle says she’s never read a book
Maybe Greta can have a bit part.
Tom could have nightmares of her screaming “How DARE you!” at him every night.
“It is the culmination of all my skills,” Cruise, 64, told GQ magazine earlier this month.
Well, there you have it . . . admission right from the horse’s mouth! “All of my skills” . . . I like that!
Not to pile on, but it is noted:
— Cruise was married to Katie Holmes for about 5 and a half years,
— before that, Cruise was married to Nicole Kidman for about 10 years,
— before that, Cruise was married to Mimi Rogers for just under 3 years.
All the marriages ended in divorce.
From Google’s AI bot:
“Scientology views marriage as an essential component of a stable family life and the fundamental building block of society.”
Well, of course Cruise is woke. He should show some courage and play the role of a climate threat skeptic. All he needs is a script- somebody here should write it. 🙂 Or let AI write it.
Better yet, take the lead in Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear”. That would make a great flick, not to mention cause nuclear detonations in a plethora of heads!
That was such an awesome book and would make a great movie but who in Hollywoke would make such a flick. Crichton died way too early because we needed his clear thinking and writing for a lot longer.
What is it about vertically challenged people?
Always something to prove.
Putin. Or as I like to call him, Putler. And sometimes, Pukin.
I wonder, is he greedy or is he doing this movie for free.
Knowing nothing but what’s reported here, a movie about oil execs and climate change sounds little in need of stunts or explosions. If the movie cost $130 million to make, I bet a large part is his salary. His opportunity cost alone is probably high. He’s not doing it for free.
I know, he needs to call it “Top Gun Climate Hero!”
verticallyloftiness challengedOi, Strat!
You mean “some vertically challenged people”
I’m a short arse with nothing to prove and a tall, ex-model ex-wife to prove it.
The Times has a review of this film in the paper today. 1 star. Very poor film and the worst thing in it – Tom Cruise. Kills every scene he is in.
Show it to the ultra lib supreme court justices deciding on the future of us all and Boulder too. Then maybe they could recuse from the idiotic show trial case.
Why treat the movie so “gently”? Here is a quote from the NY Times review published this morning:
” ‘Digger’ is such a lumbering white elephant of a movie that it almost makes you sorry for everyone involved.”
Even better, this no-holds-barred review from the Hollywood Reporter:
“A climate crisis satire so smug and bombastic it makes Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up seem almost innocuous. Digger is basically what happens when you put two outsize egos together with nobody holding the reins to keep their most self-indulgent impulses in check … so meta that you watch in excruciating weariness as [the film] disappears up its own ass and then realize to your dismay that there’s another eardrum-shattering hour left to endure … It’s difficult to imagine mainstream audiences ever wanting to be a part of this bludgeoning ordeal.”
Enough fear.
Maybe we should give hope a chance.
An ounce of common sense is what’s needed.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Maybe a pound is more effective.
He should have made Edge of Tomorrow 2
instead of
How I learned to stop warming and started love the Scam.
Edge of Tomorrow was such a great movie! I want a sequel, but I’d love it to center around Tom’s relationship with Emily —he has to convince her that they belong together but Emily is so much the warrior that it’s a tough sell. Plus she doesn’t remember their previous escapades together. I know it needs more action, although not as much as the original. I loved the plot of the original but the two stars relationship got shortchanged. A sequel is a pipe dream at this late date, but it’s my #1 favorite wish!
Climate change is dead. It’s all ball bearings these days.
No, it’s all data centers and AI these days.
Wrong.
Never let a good crisis go to waste
just because you created another one.
That is probably the best post you have ever written, of all those I have read.
We already have a supply of AI fear films.
Colossus
Terminator 1, 2, 3, …..
2001
Tron
Matrix
Demon Seed
Wargames
Do we need more fear inspiration?
uh…. 2001? My favorite film. Where’s the fear in it? It’s more about the naked apes finally rising enough to find the monolith- a step in their evolution. That film blew my mind. I haven’t recovered. 🙂
HAL 2000
HAL9000
https://photos.google.com/album/AF1QipM2sCG9JYR7MwdxQpEZjO9KW0qEHf5y-L8ds7cm
*Open the climate bay door.
Ref: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5lsExRvJTAI.
“This sort of thing has happened before and it has always been due to human error.”
I stand corrected. 2 is not equal to 9. 🙂
The point remains even if the name is misspelled. 😉
When an AI starts killing the crew – that’s the fear.(this part was more intense than all 140 minutes of shining)
For those who were not in the cryo sleep chambers it was a scary situation.
And the Ligetty music on top can really freak people out )
But as with our current AI the 2001 AI went only rogue because of deliberate human manipulation to follow through the mission no matter what and to keep certain things a secret from the crew – thus the lying etc.
An alternative explanation is that you only need to move to the next letter of the alphabet of HAL to realise why the failure was inevitable.
It was an unintentional programming contradiction with both of the highest priority, something no AI could have resollved.
Yes, but that wasn’t revealed until the sequel.
Yes. A good thing they kept that easter egg at ready or the sequel would have flopped.
Digger is tracking to be the biggest film bomb of 2026. Cost about $180 million to make. After marketing, is estimated to require about $350 million global revenue to break even. Is on track for a $12 million opening weekend. More salt in the climate change wound.
When Bernie Sanders has moved on, it is OVER.
Darn! I was planning to go see it! NOT
Is Disney involved? 😎
He aught to be making environmental films of onshore and offshore wind and hailed out solar fields; instead of old pump-jacks where the overburden pressure has expired to require lift; or Power generating plants filming the water vapor releases from the opposing side from the sun to make the vapor look dark and sinister.
Really? I thought cooling towers were where all the nasty CO2 was being emitted. It sure looks dark enough.
I thought only Greta could see CO2?
Thats a shame as I liked him in the Mission Impossible films. Funny how you can lose respect for people.
Tom showed up at some film event in his Bugatti and he hopped out and went around to open the door for his wife and it was locked and she did not know how to unlock it…very embarrassing and Bugatti said no more cars for Cruise due to this screw up.
When you can save the world twice a year
but can not open a car door.
It has to be better than Top Gun Maverick.
Even if it’s just a blank screen for 2 hours.
Ha. But a movie about global warming…I mean climate change..oops climate extinction has to be dumber. I mean the story gets crazier and crazier.
Dumb and dumberer.
How many engines will be employed in the production and how many shiny new engines will be purchased from the gains? Oh and how many tax credits will underwrite the production with all those engines?
Will he be a cartoonish super-villain swimming in his billions like Scrooge McDuck?
I would’ve gone with ‘Mission Implausible’ on the sign in the background.
Is it just my imagination or has DiCaprio stepped away from CC promoting?
I read a while back that DeCaprio and other ‘celebrities’ were being advised by their publicity agents that they needed a “public concern / outrage” issue to get behind and comment on at every opportunity to keep themselves in the public attention sphere.
I reckon what the publicists forgot to tell Leo et al was that spruiking ‘concern’ about AGW was not a credible look when you’re constantly flying around the globe in a private jet with entourage or lazing on your crew-positioned luxury super-yacht in exotic places season to season.
It’s hard to give any films with an environment-promoting twist that much credibility since they’re inevitably produced and acted by people whose lifestyles are hardly the types designed to save the planet. They usually have some sort of sky-is-falling theme built in so that they’re usually not in touch with reality.
“…play on people’s fear of artificial intelligence.” Skynet going rogue and making Terminator movies.
How many seaside villas will be purchased from these proceeds?
Was this a compliance movie in California like the low volume compliance cars for that CARB market mandate?
I could never understand why actors and entertainers ever got the notion that anyone should turn to them for guidance on anything except pretend things in the case of actors. I don’t give a damn what any of them think.
Why in the hell would I want to watch a far left woke emoting bullshit movie…….
The prospect of a Rocky Horror Picture Show phenomenon attracts them financially and culturally.
NOPE!
He was far better actor in his early years before he went crazy over outlandish action movies.
His career is so stellar it marked him as a deserved legend by the time of Rain Man and A Few Good Men. Be sure to watch his lesser-known brilliant movie called Knight and Day! It’s action, but much more fun than MI movies because of Cameron Diaz! Women can appreciate Knight and Day just as much as men. He has made some turkeys like this new one, but even Paul Newman did too. Tom is the best actor in the business. I ignore his personal life. Just like I ignore my favorite rock stars their personal lives. Focus on their body of work. Tom gives viewers endless wonderful entertainment. Would that we all could touch so many lives positively!
NO, his best acting days were in his earlier years when he was sensational while box office success isn’t a valid measure of acting ability.
Last academy nomination was in year 2000
Last Golden Globe nomination was in 2009
I wonder how much of the $130 million budget originated from NGOs subsidized by Neville Roy Singham.