We say it all the time, that we just aren’t minting Movie Stars like we used to, that even when a new one emerges, it’s not quite like how it was, because of the shattering of the monoculture. Nothing proves this point more than a Tom Cruise retrospective.

A teaser for Digger, Cruise’s upcoming film with Alejandro G. Iñárritu (as he is billed in the key art for the film), features a montage almost two and a half minutes long of Tom Cruise’s greatest hits, and holy sh-t that man has made so many great movies. I mean, hilarious to include Rock of Ages, but at the same time, you can’t say he isn’t always giving his all. Even when it’s deeply misguided, like Rock of Ages, Tom Cruise gives his all.

Digger is billed as a satire/black comedy, and in it, Cruise stars as a billionaire who maybe accidentally destroys the world. He is wearing a hairpiece—a gray combover—and old man makeup for the film. Tom Cruise is 63, I feel like he could just play 63, but Tom Cruise never plays his age. He’s either trying to be a kind of cinematically permanent 40-ish, or he’ll play older. If it was possible to freeze yourself at 39, Tom Cruise would have done it.

The little bit of his character, Digger Rockwell, that we see in the teaser is giving Tropic Thunder vibes. Maybe it’s the prosthetics, maybe it’s just that it’s been a while since Cruise has delivered a comedic performance, he’s been so focused on action movies for the last 25 years. He’s been focused on action since 1) he did not win an Oscar for Magnolia in 1999, and 2) the couch-jumping episode of the aughts wrecked his reputation. But thanks to his dedication to making awesome movies, not talking about his private life, and not talking about Xenu in public anymore, he’s put at least one of those things behind him—and it’s not losing an Oscar.

I don’t think he’s ever really gotten over that. I don’t even disagree with him! He SHOULD have won Best Supporting Actor for Magnolia! But he made “I don’t care about the Oscars” part of his public persona, even as he campaigned for the existence of the stunt Oscar, which will be awarded for the first time next year. He would also turn up for ancillary events, like the nominees’ luncheon in 2023 when he was nominated for producing Top Gun: Maverick, though he skipped the actual ceremony that year. And now he’s got an honorary Oscar, awarded last November. With Digger, maybe he’s coming for an acting Oscar, too?

If anyone could pull off an honorary Oscar AND an acting Oscar win in the same year, it would be Tom Cruise. I do think he’ll actually show up for the ceremony in 2027, partly because he is now an honorary winner, but also because I think he’ll be involved in introducing the first stunt Oscar. But could he get nominated for acting in Digger? Obviously, we won’t know for months, but it has been a long, long time since Tom Cruise took on a filmmaker-driven project, since he has thrown himself into a role as an actor first and foremost, and submitted to erasing his famous features for the sake of role.

It’s been literal decades since he has done any of this. That alone might be enough to get his peers’ attention. Maybe with his honorary Oscar in hand, it won’t feel as urgent to nominate him now, but I wonder if Tom Cruise engages in an Oscar campaign how compelling he might still be. If one of the biggest and last Movie Stars in the world lets it be known he still cares about being nominated, will the Academy be able to resist?

Photo credits: MEGA/WENN

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