Tom Cruise's actually going to have to act in Digger; we'll see how that's gonna work out

Right, Digger is shaping up to be a much-needed curveball in Tom Cruise’s career, and honestly, about time. For the better part of twenty years now, Cruise has been the absolute poster boy for big-budget stunts and straight-down-the-line action heroics. If it involved running across a rooftop, hanging off something moving at 100mph, or pulling yet another stunt his insurance company hated, he was there, typically with a Mission: Impossible ringtone playing somewhere in the background. It’s been fun (in its way), don’t get me wrong – but let’s call it what it is: Cruise has been in a bit of a rut, style-wise.

Digger sees Tom Cruise playing a villainous, prosthetic-caked tycoon, throwing him further out of his comfort zone than anything he’s done since smartphones had buttons.

Now, along comes Digger, and from the latest trailer, it’s looking like Cruise might finally be ready to risk something faintly resembling actual vulnerability. Instead of another ‘hero saves the world on a motorcycle’ routine, Cruise is buried under prosthetics, playing Digger Rockwell – a swaggering, egotistical big shot who’s so powerful he’s basically got world-ending potential at his fingertips. The official pitch has him scrambling to clean up the disaster he started before it levels everything. And here’s the kicker: no mad dashes across speeding trains, no climbing up the Burj Khalifa in the rain. Instead, we’re getting Film Star Cruise turning into Bad Guy Cruise – the sort of character who tries to talk his way out of a mess rather than physically brawling with it. That’s more interesting, frankly, than anything he’s done since the last time you paid for a DVD.

Digger is the first non-action film Cruise has led in 14 years.

You need to go all the way back to 2012’s Rock of Ages to find Cruise in something that isn’t built entirely around his death-defying stunts and blockbuster charisma. For those who remember him from his Eighties and Nineties run (the original one, with the actual haircuts), this pivot to prosthetics and moral ambiguity will feel more like a homecoming than a one-off experiment. This is the Cruise of Rain Man, Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire – someone willing to risk looking like a prat or the villain, or even play against his own myth. It’s a side of him we genuinely haven’t seen in ages, and one that won him three acting Oscar nods (still zero wins though – the Hollywood version of a penalty shoot-out curse).

For the first time in yonks, Cruise can’t just dash through a film on muscle memory and audience goodwill alone. He’s actually going to have to act in this one – and whether it’s a win or a car crash, he’s finally taking proper chances again. Quite honestly, I wouldn’t mind if Digger is the thing that finally nabs him the Oscar he’s been chasing nearly as long as he’s been running on screen.