Cinema has brought us so many visions of the apocalypse across the decades. We’ve seen the human race face towering infernos, asteroid armageddons, icebergs ahead, marauding martians, and climate deep-freezes, to name but a few. But with Digger, filmmaker Alejandro G. Iñárritu is preparing a different kind of disaster movie. Already, he’s sent Michael Keaton into an existential tailspin in Birdman, and stranded Leonardo DiCaprio in the icy wilderness in The Revenant (both to Oscar-winning effect). And now, he’s got Tom Cruise – as you’ve never seen him before – at the heart of a story about the thing that might be the world’s greatest threat: humans.
“The disaster isn’t a comet or an earthquake, or an alien invasion. The disaster is us,” he tells Empire of his new movie, in which Cruise’s oil tycoon Digger Rockwell unwittingly unleashes ecological hell, and is charged with trying to undo the damage he’s wrought. “Most disaster movies ask, ‘What if something terrible happened to humanity?’ Our question was much simpler: ‘What if humanity happened to humanity?’”
In true Tom Cruise movie style, the stakes couldn’t be higher. And yet, Iñárritu worked with the Hollywood legend to try and conjure a wild and unique presence at the centre of the movie – someone who could represent the best and the worst of us, all at once. “I knew exactly this guy,” says Iñárritu of creating the character. “Reality gives us the events, but imagination lets us recognise ourselves in them. Literally, this film is about us. The film revolves around these three ancient forces, which are grief, power, and responsibility.” Here’s hoping Digger Rockwell can shovel us out of the end of days.
Read Empire’s world-exclusive Digger cover story – speaking to Tom Cruise, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and more – in the October 2026 issue, on sale Thursday August 27. Pre-order a copy online here. Digger comes to UK cinemas from October 2.
