Tom Cruise Digger almost had the worst title of his career. And that’s saying something, because this is the guy who made Cocktail and Knight and Day. Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu revealed this week that he originally wanted to call the film Blah, Blah, Blah. That’s not a joke. That was the actual plan.
The title came from a thematic place. Iñárritu told IndieWire he was thinking about the way language gets weaponized, the way powerful people use words to distort reality. “Blah, blah, blah” is what you say when someone’s talking but you’ve stopped listening. It’s what you say when the truth has been buried under so much noise that it doesn’t matter anymore. That’s the entire thesis of Tom Cruise Digger. The film is a satire about a man who has everything and understands nothing. It opens October 2.
Tom Cruise Digger stars Cruise as Digger Rockwell, a character who believes he’s the only person capable of fixing a world that’s already broken beyond repair. Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, and Sophie Wilde round out the cast. Iñárritu wrote and directed. It’s his first English-language film since The Revenant.
The title change happened somewhere along the way. Someone at the studio probably looked at a poster that said Blah, Blah, Blah and had a minor cardiac event. That’s not a movie you can market. That’s an art installation. So they went with Digger, which is the character’s name and also a word that means exactly what it sounds like. A digger digs. Cruise’s character digs himself deeper. It’s not subtle, but it works.
Tom Cruise Digger has been in development for years. Iñárritu said he almost made a “massive”-budget version of the film with Cruise years ago, but the timing was never right. Cruise was busy jumping off buildings for Mission: Impossible. Iñárritu was busy winning Oscars. Now they’ve finally made it, and the early buzz is confusing. Some people say it’s a masterpiece. Some people say it’s a mess. Some people say Cruise is finally going to get that Oscar he’s been chasing for thirty years. Nobody knows anything.
The box office projections have been plunging, which is never a good sign. An R-rated satire about a delusional rich guy is a hard sell in 2026, even with Cruise’s name attached. People want to see him fly planes and run fast. They don’t want to see him monologue about the emptiness of success. That’s a tough sell.
But that’s also why Tom Cruise Digger is interesting. It’s a risk. It’s a director and a movie star deciding to make something that doesn’t fit into any box. If it works, it’s a career-defining moment for both of them. If it doesn’t, it’s a fascinating failure. Either way, you’re going to talk about it.
Blah, Blah, Blah would have been a better title. I’m just saying.
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