The Digger reviews do not hold back.

The positive reviews contain strong superlatives praising Alejandro G. Iñárritu‘s bold new film starring Tom Cruise, and the negative reviews are utterly scathing.

Is Digger a 5-out-of-5 “audacious, risky, terrific fun” — like The London Evening Standard says?

Or is Digger a one-half-of-a-point out of 5, “a film full of mostly talented people doing the worst work of their careers” — as Slant says?

Right out of the gate on Rotten Tomatoes, the Warner Bros. film is hovering around a dead even 50 percent split.

In Digger, a nearly unrecognizable Tom Cruise plays an oblivious oil tycoon whose drilling in Greenland dislodges an ice shelf from a glacier that’s going to cause a global disaster. He must race to prove that he’s humanity’s savior before the ecological accident wreaks havoc on the planet. The film also stars Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons.

Here are some of the official reviews of Digger from top critics:

The Hollywood Reporter: “A climate crisis satire so smug and bombastic it makes Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up seem almost innocuous. Digger is basically what happens when you put two outsize egos together with nobody holding the reins to keep their most self-indulgent impulses in check … so meta that you watch in excruciating weariness as [the film] disappears up its own ass and then realize to your dismay that there’s another eardrum-shattering hour left to endure …It’s difficult to imagine mainstream audiences ever wanting to be a part of this bludgeoning ordeal.”

IndieWire: “Digger is a mega-budget Dr. Strangelove riff so detached from human truth that its most believable character is a one-eyed animatronic cat named Maggie — a VistaVision satire so high-concept that it would be more accurate to measure its running time in altitude than minutes …Digger is a hat on a hat on a hat on a hat, with Iñárritu frantically hoping to pile them tall enough that they stand on their own without tipping over … If Digger bombs as hard as I fear it will, it may prove to be a more damning portrait of self-delusion than Iñárritu ever intended.”

New York Post: “[Cruise’] first real stinker in nearly 10 years … Audiences will urgently want to leave after the first five minutes … this is not simply a case of poor Tom being trapped in a lousy movie. He’s just not very good, even as a cartoony caricature with no depth. Cruise did this kind of thing vastly better when he played Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder. I would’ve rather seen Nicholas Cage or Woody Harrelson as Digger.”

Empire: “This is the film’s chief problem — that it appears more concerned with itself than with the audience. Its apparent message — that the planet’s dying and we’re complicit, as much as we crave villains to blame — is delivered in almost hectoring terms, often in loud monologues …If the whole isn’t successful, elements are. Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography and Dennis Gassner’s production design achieve the Kubrickian grandeur Iñárritu clearly intends. Cruise emerges with a win, reminding us how riveting he can be as an actor, not just as a movie star.”

Deadline: “For me it is like a return to the kind of adventurous films in cinema’s groundbreaking era of the 70’s, but it isn’t easily defined … [Cruise’s] range is undeniable but here it is off the charts, especially in a stunning 10 minute monologue Digger delivers that admits guilt but seeks to place the blame collectively on all of us… Iñárritu again proves he is one of the most original and fascinating filmmakers working today. Digger is the kind of movie we don’t see often on this scale, an ambitious satire that entertains, takes chances, sparks arguments, but is thrillingly alive as cinema designed to make us look at ourselves, hopefully wake up before it is too late, and ask the question: ‘what the hell are we doing?”

BBC: “Most people won’t go to see it – and some people who do will walk out halfway through. But that doesn’t mean that Digger is a failure …Personally, I loved it. Some of its excesses are, well, a bit too excessive, and most viewers will wish it was shorter. After about 90 minutes, you get tired of close-ups of Goodman yelling while snake-sized veins bulge out of his forehead. But when Cruise is clambering all over the set, delivering thunderous lectures on the oil industry, I couldn’t help grinning at the gargantuan scale of his performance, the conviction of the script’s grim environmental message, and Iñárritu’s antic style.”

The Wrap: “Digger is what happens when you give the week’s worst Saturday Night Live sketch an inexplicably large budget and delusions of grandeur … In Digger, Tom Cruise also plays a villainous Foghorn Leghorn, but his version is a seductive, intriguing enigma that takes center stage. It’s the kind of movie about evil billionaires that evil billionaires would enjoy, which makes it the worst kind of movie about evil billionaires.”

The Los Angeles Times: “Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger is a bizarre stunt made on a big studio budget, a climate change satire that’s a self-conscious hybrid of Stanley Kubrick and Bertolt Brecht … But the horrible hijinks in Digger are so close to reality that, exiting the film, I was less sure than ever that humanity will still be around. There’s no hope in Digger, only a seductive, mischievous malevolence that, by design, feels empty as soon as the end credits… while I don’t entirely love this strange comedy, I’m giddy that it’s lurched into existence.”

USA Today: “Digger crafts an unorthodox, complicated narrative with colorful archetypes that reflect the power players in our own world, so their goofy semi-villainy leans amusing and a little depressing. It might also prove divisive for audiences, which could keep a deserving Cruise out of an ultra-competitive Oscar race … Iñárritu does give the movie heart, however, and with his star really going for it in a fashion he hasn’t in quite a while, one can at least appreciate its earnest aims.”

The Guardian: “As with Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up, there may be a tacit consensus, understandable at some level, that at least we have a big mainstream movie which is talking about the biggest issue of our time, and we have a duty to suspend critical objection. Digger certainly resonates with Donald Trump’s greedy urge to despoil the Arctic and everywhere else. Yet there is something glib and overblown here. This film finds itself in a postmodern hole. And what do you do when you’re in a hole?”

The London Evening Standard: “Tom Cruise is back with a bang in the Oscars ring in his best performance since 1999’s Magnolia … There are beautiful aftershocks to Iñárritu’s cinematic coup as this gallops towards a heartbreaking warning about where the real world is right now with fossil fuels and climate change … Audacious, risky, terrific fun and — for at least half the planet — the wildest ride you’ll get this year.”

The Austin Chronicle: “Ever heard that old saying, this meeting could have been an email? Similarly, rather than being a film, Digger could have been a burning bag of dog poop delivered to Adam McKay’s doorstep … A seeming broadside at heavy-handed Hollywood advocacy flops like Don’t Look Up, it’s a scathing pastiche of everything that makes such movies insufferably sanctimonious. Yet Birdman director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s obvious technical genius as a filmmaker cannot overcome the plain fact that Digger is both insufferable and sanctimonious.”

The Globe and Mail: “All these preening, obnoxiously self-satisfied moments, and so many more, add up to a movie so convinced of its own brilliance that it cannot see it is in fact the most banal variety of idiot: loud, ugly and forever oblivious to its own shortcomings …There is no overarching strategy to Digger, just endless scheming from a cinematic charlatan who should have been buried by Hollywood two or three movies ago.”

Slant: “…a film of ideas, a rambunctious gathering of mostly talented people doing the worst work of their careers … Digger is González Iñárritu’s purported cri de coeur against our wealth-and-resources-hoovering overlords, but somehow it still manages to be a shameless Tom Cruise ego stroke. The actor shrieks, preens, and postures. He spits bilious remarks at anyone in his line of sight, particularly during a gaseous monologue about mankind’s reliance on fossil fuels. And, of course, true to both Digger and the man playing him, everyone but himself is the problem … Digger’s teeth are about as sharp as a decades-old pair of dentures.”

Digger opens in theaters Oct. 2.

EXCLUSIVE: The Hangar, the digital asset management platform from exhibitor and distributor theatrical marketing corp PaperAirplane, has clocked over 2 million downloads.

The Hangar is a first-of-its-kind digital interface that connects exhibitors with studio partners whereby the former can access movie marketing materials. Lionsgate distribution vets Mike Polydoros and Will Preuss opened the doors to PaperAirplane and launched The Hangar at the height of the pandemic in October 2020 when only a handful of cinemas were open.

Their mission was to solve a longstanding challenge for exhibitors: to quickly and efficiently access approved marketing materials from studio partners. The company works with every major studio, exhibitor and theatrical content provider in North America as well as Imax, Dolby, CJ 4DPlex (ScreenX), DBox and Coca-Cola. Since its creation, The Hangar’s volume of digital marketing assets has increased more than fivefold.

“When we launched The Hangar back in 2020, we had no idea we would be creating a vital piece of industry infrastructure,” said Polydoros, Co-Founder and CEO of PaperAirplane Media. “We were simply trying to solve a very real problem exhibitors faced in accessing approved marketing materials. Seeing the platform surpass two million downloads is a testament to the collaboration between studios and exhibitors, and to the industry’s commitment to making theatrical marketing more efficient and effective.”

“Our studio partners immediately recognized the value of having greater visibility into how marketing assets were being utilized,” added Preuss, President and Co-Founder of PaperAirplane Media. “For the first time, they could clearly see which assets were driving engagement and which materials were not being used. That insight has helped create more efficient campaigns, stronger collaboration, and better outcomes across the theatrical marketplace.”

“Our mission remains simple,” added Polydoros. “We want to simplify workflows, strengthen campaigns, and provide studios and exhibitors with the tools they need to maximize theatrical attendance. Crossing the two-million-download milestone validates that vision and motivates us to continue innovating for the industry we love.”

Other services offered by PaperAirplane include The Tower, a group sales management platform that centralizes communication, streamlines lead management, and provides real-time visibility into group sales activity. To date, The Tower has managed more than 10,000 group sales leads and helped facilitate millions of dollars in theatrical group sales revenue across multiple film campaigns.

The company also has Flight Plan, a theatrical distribution campaign dashboard designed to give distribution and marketing teams a centralized view of every component of a theatrical release, and make more informed decisions throughout a title’s theatrical lifecycle. The platform aggregates campaign activity across several channels and initiatives, providing studios with instant visibility into key marketing, promotional, exhibitor, media, and performance metrics through a single interface.

In addition, PaperAirplane has produced nearly 75,000 studio-approved digital marketing assets for major studio campaigns and has worked directly with independent distributors to support exhibitor marketing initiatives for more than 250 theatrical releases. Those films have collectively generated nearly a half billion in domestic box office.

Earlier this year, PaperAirplane expanded further with its National Radio & Media Ambassador Division, connecting theatrical campaigns with local radio personalities and media ambassadors in North America.

The company has also introduced The Kiosk, a grassroots audience activation platform that empowers moviegoers to serve as advocates within their communities, helping studios generate word-of-mouth awareness and attendance.

News about PaperAirplane’s milestone with The Hangar comes during Cinema United’s Fall Summit conference with exhibitors.

Other stats about The Hangar:

–Social media videos repped the most downloaded asset this summer, repping 27% of all downloads. Social Media Graphics followed at 23%, while Digital Lobby Posters comprised 19% of downloads. Web Banners accounted for 12%, and Production Stills represented approximately 8%, underscoring the growing importance of digital audience engagement and localized marketing efforts.

–Annual asset additions increased from 2,454 assets in 2020 to more than 61,000 assets in 2025.

–Industry partners increased from 11 to more than 105 studios, distributors and content partners between PaperAirplane’s launch and today. The company covers 27 global territories with The Hangar now averaging around 360 unique users daily, 1,000 weekly users, and 1,800 monthly users.