Tom Cruise is trading impossible missions for a catastrophe of his own making. His latest movie, Digger, pairs him with Alejandro G. Iñárritu for a comedy about a powerful man trying to convince the world he can save it from the disaster he unleashed. It’s a premise that gives the actor plenty of room to cause trouble, with Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons joining him for the fallout.
Guillermo del Toro has called out IGN’s Digger review headline as “Entirely Petty,” while throwing his support behind Cruise and Iñárritu’s movie. The wording that drew his response argued that seeing the movie in theaters wouldn’t change viewers’ minds and that its laughs would remain available when it arrives on HBO Max. Del Toro’s objection came with an enthusiastic endorsement of the movie’s ambition and a pointed defense of experiencing it on a theatrical screen. “Entirely Petty headline. Love it or not. And, yes, I do,” del Toro wrote.
“The film delivers in scale, ambition and reach at a theatrical screen level. Daring, bold and Cinematically complex. Decidedly a Theatrical experience.”
Collider Exclusive · Villain Personality Quiz Which Criminal Mastermind Would Be Your Nemesis? Lecter · Joker · Moriarty · Chigurh
Four of the finest criminal minds ever put on screen. One of them would look at you and see something worth their time. Eight questions decide which one comes for you, why they picked you, and what they would want when they arrived.
🍷Lecter
🃏Joker
♟️Moriarty
🪙Chigurh
01
What would a criminal mastermind notice about you first? Great villains choose their opponents carefully. Something about you got their attention.
02
How do they make first contact? The introduction tells you everything about what is coming next.
03
What do you actually believe about right and wrong? Every nemesis is really an argument about the thing you believe most.
04
What finally gets under your skin? Everybody has a pressure point. Finding yours is the whole plan.
05
They have made their move. How do you fight back? This is the part of the film where the audience finds out who you are.
06
What would they use against you? A good villain never brings a weapon you have not already handed them.
07
What do they actually want from you? The money is never the point. Something else always is.
08
How does it end between the two of you? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who comes for you.
The Case File Is Complete Your Nemesis Is…
Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.
The Silence of the Lambs · Hannibal · 1991–2002
Hannibal Lecter
Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.
Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
is exactly the door he would knock on.
The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.
Batman · The Dark Knight · 1989–2019
The Joker
Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.
The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
you would normally reach for.
His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
the rest of your life proving him wrong.
He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.
Sherlock Holmes · The Final Problem · Since 1893
Moriarty
Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.
Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
has already built the room.
This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
the game to be worth playing.
It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.
No Country for Old Men · 2007
Anton Chigurh
Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.
Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
interest in how capable you are.
No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
Call it. He will wait.
Guillermo del Toro Says ‘Digger’ Deserves the Big Screen
Image via Warner Bros.
The disagreement centers on whether the theatrical presentation is enough to recommend a movie that might otherwise leave a viewer unconvinced. IGN critic Michael Calabro gave Digger a 6 out of 10, praising its performances and some of its comedy while finding its satire less effective. The review also recognized the theater as the best place to experience the artists’ work, but ultimately advised skeptical viewers to save their money. Del Toro puts considerably more weight on that presentation, singling out the scale and cinematic complexity as reasons to see it theatrically. His endorsement gives audiences another perspective to consider before deciding whether to buy a ticket. It also comes as Warner Bros. is making disagreement part of the pitch, using contrasting reactions in its advertising to encourage viewers to reach their own conclusions.
There’s a concrete reason the conversation keeps returning to the screen itself. Digger was shot entirely in VistaVision, with Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki behind the camera, and will receive a theatrical and IMAX release. Whether its comedy connects will be up to each viewer, but del Toro has firmly backed the ambition of what Iñárritu and his collaborators have put on that screen.
Digger opens in theaters and IMAX on October 2, 2026.
Release Date
October 2, 2026
Runtime
128 minutes
Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone
Producers
Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Mary Parent, Michael Sharp, Tom Cruise
