The audience at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas did a double take when Tom Cruise walked on screen. The 63-year-old action star looked completely different. He was nearly impossible to recognize. Cruise showed the first footage from his new movie Digger on April 14 during the Warner Bros. presentation. The room gave him a rare standing ovation.
The video revealed Cruise as Digger Rockwell, an older oil tycoon. He had thinning gray hair combed over. He sported a large beer belly and spoke with a Southern accent. The character also had a soft spot for cats, holding a white cat in one scene inside a mansion full of stuffed animals. This is not the Ethan Hunt or Maverick that fans know. This version of Cruise looks like a regular older man dealing with a huge problem.
Cruise told the crowd in Las Vegas that this role took him 40 years to get ready for.
“It took 40 years to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell and play the many, many layers of this character. The movie is wild, it’s funny, and I can’t wait for you all to see it.”
A Dangerous Job for a Different Kind of Hero
The movie’s plot is serious even if the character looks funny. Digger Rockwell runs an energy company that causes a big problem. He accidentally starts an ecological disaster. The situation gets so bad that the whole world comes close to nuclear war. Rockwell then has to try and fix the mess he made.
The film comes from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who won Oscars for Birdman and The Revenant. Iñárritu said he first had the idea for Digger nine years ago. He talked to Cruise about it seven years back when Cruise was filming Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise said he has been a fan of Iñárritu since 2000. He watched the director’s first movie so many times that he wore out the DVD.
Iñárritu praised Cruise for taking on this kind of role. Everyone knows Cruise does his own stunts with planes and buildings. But the director said this was different.
“We know that he’s fearless — the stunts, the planes, the jumps — but I have to say, embodying this character, this is another kind of fearless. This role could possibly be the most challenging.”
A Strong Cast and Release Plans
Digger has a strong group of actors. John Goodman plays the President of the United States. The cast also includes Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde, Riz Ahmed, and Emma D’Arcy. The movie filmed over six months in the UK. This is Iñárritu’s first English language movie since The Revenant came out in 2015.
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Warner Bros. will release Digger in theaters on October 2, 2026. The movie cost about $125 million to make. It is Cruise’s first non-franchise movie in nine years. His last film that was not part of a series was American Made in 2017. This is also his first project with Warner Bros. since Edge of Tomorrow ten years ago.
Fans in the CinemaCon room gave Cruise a standing ovation for the footage. The actor said he had a great time at the event.
“I had a lot of fun at CinemaCon seeing so many friends. The year has already gotten off to a great start for cinema,” Cruise wrote on social media after the event.
Cruise said the movie was made specifically for the big screen experience.
“Audiences want things that are original and engaging,” Cruise added during the presentation.
The actor drove his motorcycle to meet Iñárritu when the director first reached out seven years ago. “That’s my way of getting around, it’s faster, and you don’t have to worry about traffic,” Cruise said about that meeting. That late night talk led to this new project where one of Hollywood’s biggest stars looks like a regular older man trying to save the world from his own mistake.
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