Tom Cruise is trading his usual blockbuster machinery for something considerably stranger.

The final trailer and poster for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Digger” have arrived, revealing Cruise in one of his more unusual roles: Digger Rockwell, an ageing oil tycoon whose own destructive legacy leaves him with an inconvenient new responsibility, saving the planet.

Cruise is almost unrecognisable beneath heavy prosthetics and makeup as Rockwell, a petroleum magnate whose fortune has been built around the very industry now threatening global survival. When the United States president, played by John Goodman, turns to him to prevent an ecological catastrophe of his own making, Rockwell is forced into a frantic attempt at redemption.

The premise gives Iñárritu plenty of room for the darker side of his humour, placing an enormously powerful man in the ridiculous position of having to repair the damage created by his own ambition.

Iñárritu wrote the screenplay with Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone, his collaborators on “Birdman”, alongside playwright Sabina Berman. The ensemble brings together Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman and Michael Stuhlbarg.

The film’s official synopsis keeps its central joke suitably severe: the most powerful man on the planet sets out to convince humanity that he can save it before the disaster he unleashed reaches the point of no return.

For Cruise, the role marks a rare excursion into comedy after decades dominated by action franchises and increasingly elaborate physical stunts. For Iñárritu, it lands in more familiar territory: a blackly comic story about power, ego, consequences and a man discovering that influence becomes considerably less useful once the world starts falling apart.

“Digger” opens in UK and Republic of Ireland cinemas on October 2.

The following two tabs change content below.