Digger Gives Tom Cruise a Rare Role: A Man Who Fails

Tom Cruise has spent decades playing characters who refuse to accept defeat. Ethan Hunt always finds a way. Maverick completes the impossible mission. Even his less heroic roles burn with unshakable confidence.

His new film "Digger" is different. Cruise plays Digger Rockwell, the world's richest man, whose oil companies may have triggered the apocalypse. Unlike every other Cruise hero, this one is meant to fail. Collider reports that the film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, has no interest in painting Digger as a hero or proving him right. Instead it exposes how money and ego aren't enough to fix the damage.

Reviews have been mixed and box office returns are worse, Collider notes. But seeing Cruise play so far outside his usual type is magnetic. He's buried under prosthetics, nearly unrecognizable, a tactic not seen since his turn as Les Grossman in 2008's "Tropic Thunder." One scene features Cruise, dressed as a stereotypical Texan oilman and speaking with a Southern accent, delivering a monologue to angry politicians that Collider says should already place him in early Oscar discussions.

Cruise's intensity usually fuels heroic determination. Here that same relentless energy becomes unsettling. Digger acknowledges his fault in the crisis but asks, "What's in it for me?" Collider describes him as embodying modern political philosophies that focus on personal impact rather than global consequences.

Some critics find Iñárritu's satire too heavy-handed, arguing that parodying real-world figures is nearly impossible in a post-satire world. But Collider says Cruise's over-the-top portrayal works because it fully embraces how egregious the character's positions are.

For years Cruise has played characters who save the day. "Digger" shows us that he can't. Collider calls it the most radical thing a movie could do with Cruise, and a compelling demonstration of unexplored potential in his range.

• Alejandro González Iñárritu
• Digger
• Mission: Impossible
• Oscars
• Tom Cruise
• Tropic Thunder