Bang, bang bang! Warner Bros. has released the first full trailer for Digger, revealing Tom Cruise’s transformation into an oil billionaire attempting to save the world from a catastrophe of his own making. Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, the black comedy stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a powerful oil baron with a thick Southern accent, thinning grey hair and a growing global problem.
The trailer begins with Digger worrying about how little time his elderly cat may have left before one of his employees raises a slightly bigger concern. A project connected to his company has caused a glacier in Greenland to shift, potentially setting off an ecological disaster that could push the world towards nuclear conflict. Digger initially appears unimpressed by the warning, questioning why he should close a billion-dollar operation over a movement of five feet. That attitude becomes harder to maintain when the cost of fixing the situation is estimated at $18 trillion. Not exactly pocket change, then.
John Goodman plays the sitting US president, who decides that the man responsible for the crisis must also be the one to solve it. “Digger here got us into this mess, and Digger’s gonna dig us out again,” he declares. The proposed solution seems to involve firing a missile at the iceberg, which is about the point where it becomes clear that nobody has a clue what they are doing.
Cruise looks almost unrecognisable as Rockwell, with a heavier build, prosthetics and thinning grey hair, and he completely commits to the character’s blunt confidence. He says it took him 40 years to be ready for the role, while Iñárritu has called the transformation astonishing.
The trailer also offers a closer look at the film’s ensemble cast, which includes Sandra Hüller, Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy and Michael Stuhlbarg.
Digger marks Iñárritu’s first English-language feature since The Revenant. He directs from a screenplay written with Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris and Sabina Berman, reuniting with several of his Birdman collaborators. The film was shot in the UK over six months using VistaVision, with The Revenant cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki returning to work with Iñárritu.
For CultureCues, this trailer is a bit nuts, and we loved it. Cruise looks completely transformed, and his performance is clearly going to be the main talking point when the film arrives. The whole thing looks completely deranged, from the $18 trillion disaster to that creepy, possibly dead cat… Whatever Digger turns out to be, we are very intrigued to find out. Consider us fully dug in.
Digger will be released in UK cinemas on 2 October 2026.
Nikki Murray is a UK-based writer, screenwriter and founder & editor of CultureCues, covering film, television, music and pop culture. Her work focuses on storytelling and the moments shaping modern entertainment.