Over three years ago, my family and our community were suddenly inundated by floodwaters. They engulfed parts of the city we lived in, as well as other parts of the country.

 

Along with hundreds of others around us, and many thousands since, we experienced just how quickly and ferociously a changing climate can upend ordinary life. It felt as though our community were canaries in the coal mine, crying out that something was wrong while much of the world had yet to feel it in the same lived, immediate way.

 

Digger taps into that unease. It takes something global and makes it uncomfortably intimate. But it does a great deal more besides. Artistic, filled with flourish, and completely original, it has moments that make you second-guess where the narrative is going. It will leave you floored for more than one reason.

 

Tom Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, a man of immense power who sets out to prove he can save humanity from a disaster he himself has unleashed. That is about as much of the story as I want to give away. You need to experience it for yourself. 

 

If there is one thing you can say about Tom Cruise, it’s that he promotes the heck out of his films. For a seemingly indie, arthouse kind of film, Digger has been everywhere, across social and traditional media. Yet it may be one of the strangest films Cruise has ever starred in, in the best possible way.

 

It begins like a fairly straightforward film, then starts to deviate, throwing its audience off kilter to wondrous effect. I’m not going to spoil those turns. I’d rather let you enjoy the ride. And Digger sure is a ride.

 

That is true of the story Alejandro G. Iñárritu is telling, but it is also an intensely character-driven film. The humour, narcissism, flaws and hunger for power emerge through people who feel fully formed. You would struggle to find a two-dimensional character here, even among those with only a little time on screen.

 

There are moments in Digger that I suspect people will still be discussing decades from now. One scene brings powerful men together to make a decision, and what unfolds is a searing critique of Western power, particularly white Christian nationalism. It works as critique, fable and allegory all at once.

 

Then there is a monologue from Cruise that is simply astounding. He holds the audience in the palm of his hand, but it is the subject of that speech that really stays with you. It leaves no comfortable seat in the cinema, whether you are the richest person in the room or someone who counted their coins to buy a ticket. It sears itself into your soul and remains there for days.

 

This is more than a political film, or a critique of political structures. It takes aim at the consumerism and hypocrisy woven through Western civilisation, and asks what each of us might change. It does not leave us without hope. If you could call a film a cinematic sermon, one that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable, Digger would be it.

 

And then there are the performances. Cruise has transformed himself before. Think of Tropic Thunder, though that was a supporting turn. We have also seen his dramatic range in Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia.

 

Here, he carries the film through an electric, transformative performance. Digger is one of the most loathsome creatures to ever appear on the silver screen, and yet, in a strange way, you find yourself slightly warming to him. That is down to how completely Cruise inhabits the character. If this does not win him a competitive Oscar, I don’t know what will.

 

John Goodman is phenomenal too. His role is smaller, but his presence is enormous, and I would put him firmly in the conversation for Best Supporting Actor.

 

Bonkers, breathless and brilliant, Digger will bury itself deep in your soul and stay there for days. It is a cinematic sermon that eviscerates and offers hope all in the same breath. One of the best films of 2026 and one of the most consequential of the last decade, all anchored by a triumphant, Oscar-worthy performance from Tom Cruise.