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Rest assured, we’re not here to rehash the weekend’s blockbuster box office story—hell, the year a big box office story – about the extraordinary excitement of Alejandro González Iñárritu with Tom Cruise’s satire “Digger.” Well, not exactly.
After pulling in just $8 million at the domestic box office during its opening weekend, any chance of recouping its cost is buried under six feet of dirt and oil (good thing: the film officially cost $125 million to produce, although sources put the actual price tag between $160 million to $180 million, so they need to make around $350 million theatrically to break even). For an auteur like Iñárritu and a star like Cruise, this kind of modern “Ishtar” will not end his career, but what they choose to do next is still very important.
We have some ideas, at least as they relate to a movie star who never ran (haha) from the opportunity to make something old, something new, something borrowed, or even something blue. Ahead, five IndieWire staff share their ideas for a cruise that’s right.
“Days of Thunder 2”
A recent trend? Yes! But I’m not just saying “Cruise should make a ‘Days of Thunder’ sequel next” because a) I like to be right and b) he’s already announced the damn thing, but because I’m one of the “Top Gun: Maverick” faithful. I know what it’s like to wait decades for a sequel that’s poised for disaster and then be blown away by its end result. Cruise did it once, and he can do it again.
As I’ve noted (before, and endlessly): what made “Maverick” work was that it didn’t shy away from the DNA of the original. – Hello, beach volleyball! – that too introducing bigger, bolder ideas into the story. That’s probably the easiest and most obvious way to build a sequel (especially a legacy-quel), but looking around the film’s brethren, it’s clear how unique that formula is. The secret sauce of a Tony Scott movie was always that we really cared about Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and that his high-flying adventures were a way to get closer to him, not just an excuse for big and loud action. Next: we have to do that for Cole Trickle.
Tap into the same regenerative spirit that made “Maverick” a tool for star analysis and get really clear about the cost of a racing car for decades. Cruise’s Cole had already suffered losses and injuries in the first film, so that stuff? Of Cruise’s early films, this is the best for “Maverick”-level success, but it has to be done right. — Kate Erbland
“Digger 2”
Tom Cruise after the strength of “Digger” with “Days of Thunder 2” fills me with sadness only because of what I experienced when Hilary Duff released the theme song for the new movie “Cat in a Hat” hot on the heels of her excellent album “fortune…or something”. I would have preferred to see Cruise continue with the ambition and danger he once again introduced in “Digger”, a film that reminded me that not only is Tom Cruise one of our best movie stars, but he is one of our best actors, period.
Cruise may have something special to bring back Cole Trickle, but if he’s going to return to an old IP, I’d be much more curious about where Joel Goodsen (“Risky Business”) is these days (have the Trump years and the rise of tech been good to him?), or how TJ Mackey (“Magnolia”) is doing in the manosphere. What is the wife number of Dr. Bill Harford (“Eyes Wide Shut”)?
Hell, Tom, if you’re going to continue making series, give us “Digger 2” and continue meta – make a movie about a movie star playing an actor in a play about an oil tycoon in a movie that’s an artistic triumph but a commercial disaster, and dive into what it means to you as our cinema deity! I know that the new system at Warner Bros. will not be. is being funded, but you can register yourself – just put some of that Ethan Hunt money into something truly glorious for all of us who saw “Digger” not as a pile but as a climb. — James Hemphill
Double down
As Cruise navigates how “Digger” panned out at the box office, it would be wise to consider the wisdom of his own character that we only have the facts right now… the story hasn’t been told yet. If Cruise and his crew treat “Digger” as a failure by returning to the comfort of legacy sequels and action blockbusters, that’s how we’ll remember it. This will be seen as evidence that Cruise did not know his audience and that he got involved in making the kind of film that he does not have to make. Perhaps the best way to change the statement is to have these results and do another project in the same way as soon as possible.
If Mr. Cruise asked me for my advice, I would say: Find another top-notch author who doesn’t bother with commercial stories and make another a film that is equally strange and incomparable. Even if it’s another “Digger”-level flop (and it probably won’t be!), you’ve suddenly added another reason why we should celebrate you as Hollywood’s Savior. You are a movie star who can do anything he wants, and yet you choose to spend your time and capital to help auteurs get the budgets they need, and your box office appeal will be ruined. And it’s unlikely that you’ll run into your other opportunities – you’re still Tom Cruise, and “Top Gun” and “Mission: Impossible” will always be there for you when you need them.
“Digger” didn’t produce the results Cruise was hoping for, but his next actions will determine whether his obituary writers end up canonizing him as an ill-advised footnote or the start of a wonderful new chapter in a career that was already filled with them. – Christian Zilko
Get rid of the practical stuff and go back to Sci-Fi
Part of the appeal of Tom Cruise in his time “Savior of Cinema” is that, between “Top Gun Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible,” he has been making modern action films with practical effects and stunts, pushing his body to new limits with each film in a way that few other actors dedicate themselves to do. He suggests that it might be a sequel to “Days of Glory” as well, doing the “F1” thing and connecting Cruise to the real NASCAR. But if it’s been a long time since Cruise had to show that he can still act in a character-driven film for adults, it’s been just as long since Cruise has done something more surprising or with a bigger concept and selling point than “Tom Cruise Does Insane Thing.”
“Edge of Tomorrow” came out way back in 2014, and it is probably one of his favorite films that are not so popular, and before that it was the first time he teamed up with Joseph Kosinski on “Oblivion”. It’s been even longer between “War of the Worlds” and “Minor Report,” and frankly we wouldn’t mind seeing him team up with Steven Spielberg again. So we’d like to see him take on another sci-fi, something where he’s in service to a high concept that might not work without it. “Groundhog Day” won’t work with an alien invasion if you don’t have Cruise’s determination (and Emily Blunt’s non-effs toughness) anchoring “Edge of Tomorrow.” Honestly it might help him in the long run to do a little more green screen work and find himself in another special effects heavy role.
Just, please, not another “Mummy” movie. – Brian Welke
Take seriously the role of elder statesman
If there’s one improvement Tom Cruise has made behind the scenes that has felt like a big difference from his glory days, it’s that he’s brought young talent under his wing. With “Top Gun: Maverick” alone, there were stories of him putting his young colleagues through movie star boot camp, getting them in military-grade shape, and teaching them how to fly. Co-star Glen Powell even said that he sat in a theater alone for six hours listening to Cruise deliver a pre-screening seminar on acting for the screen.
One of the actor’s most iconic moments was opposite Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men,” a true generational game-recognizing game. Although Cruise is now ten years older than Nicholson was when they shot that movie together, he hasn’t quite embraced his elder statesman status in the same way. The only films he has since “Collateral” that have been close to two-handed are those with romantic interests like “Knight and Day” or “Edge of Tomorrow”.
While it would be important for Cruise to star in a film opposite Miles Teller or Lewis Pullman on a more equal footing, the dynamic that would be more interesting for Cruise would be to appear in a film written or directed by one of his supporters. For example, Powell proved himself as a talented screenwriter with “Hit Man,” a film that completely it could have been Tom Cruise’s car 20 years ago. Him and Cruise working together in a deeper capacity would be really interesting.
“Top Gun: Maverick” star Danny Ramirez also just wrapped his directorial debut “Baton,” so Cruise doesn’t even have to look any further to find a stable of young filmmakers he works well with (and respects) who might have more interesting ideas about what roles audiences might want to see next. -Marcus Jones
