Before Tom Cruise’s ‘Digger,’ Fans Must Watch ‘Eyes Wide Shut’

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Tom Cruise is famous for the Mission: Impossible films, but he’s proven he can do more than just action. He’s now signed on to star in Digger, a darkly comedic satire from director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is known for critically acclaimed, award-winning films like Birdman and The Revenant. Though Iñárritu’s filmmaking approach is different from Stanley Kubrick’s, Digger’s edgy tone might give Cruise a chance to play a similarly complex character, something he hasn’t done since Eyes Wide Shut.

Though it’s often overlooked, Eyes Wide Shut was Stanley Kubrick’s last film – he passed away just months before it came out. Starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, who were nearing the end of their highly publicized marriage, the movie allowed Kubrick to delve into the delicate balance between longing and closeness. In the end, Eyes Wide Shut challenged boundaries and revealed uncomfortable truths.

Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut Turned Marriage Into Psycho-Erotic Horror

Often seen as a steamy drama, a mind-bending mystery, or a cold look at relationships from the late 1900s, this work is also arguably his most disturbing.

Despite its beautiful and festive appearance, the film is actually a disturbing and psychologically intense horror story. Eyes Wide Shut takes the idea of intimacy and twists it into something frightening, filled with a deep sense of anxiety that almost overshadows its stunning visuals. In the end, the movie presents desire not as something comforting, but as a powerful force that can break down relationships and even change who we are.

The film centers on the marriage of Bill and Alice Harford, which seems perfect on the surface. They have wealth, a good social standing, and a comfortable life, creating an impression of happiness. However, this normalcy is fragile, and begins to fall apart when Alice admits to having brief, imagined encounters with another man. Even though nothing physical happened, her confession causes a deep emotional break in their relationship.

The film’s horror comes from the unsettling idea that you can be attracted to more than one person. As Bill struggles with intense jealousy, he spirals into panic while desperately trying to regain control of his life in New York City. Each encounter he has is a distorted mirror of his own fears, masking any potential attraction with a sense of unease.

The disturbing masked orgy scene marks the absolute worst moment in Bill’s downward spiral, even though he doesn’t realize how far he’s fallen. It reduces sex to a cold, emotionless act, turning it into a strangely detached ritual. By completely separating love from physical desire, Bill risks losing his own humanity – and the masks symbolize the breakdown of his identity and the loss of what makes him unique.

The story’s title hints at a troubling connection, and its ambiguity heightens the overall sense of dread. Warm lighting creates a strange contrast – the scenes feel both inviting and suffocating. At its core, the film suggests the city isn’t just a setting, but a reflection of the main character, Bill’s, inner state.

The ending of Eyes Wide Shut shows Bill and Alice remaining a couple, but not because they’ve truly worked through their problems. Alice essentially admits the solution is just physical intimacy. This suggests their connection has always been about fleeting moments rather than deep understanding. By prioritizing sex – or what Alice calls “something very important” – they choose to continue their relationship without actually understanding each other.

Eyes Wide Shut Pushed Tom Cruise Further Than Any Action Movie

Tom Cruise has starred in many genres, like science fiction, romance, comedy, and thrillers, but he’s most famous for action films. Throughout his career, he’s usually played characters who are confident and in control. However, Eyes Wide Shut completely breaks from that pattern, showing a character whose doubts and anxieties quickly get out of hand.

Bill Harford isn’t really the hero who makes things happen in this story; he’s more of a person things happen to. Unlike the characters he usually plays, Bill simply moves through the film, confused by the events around him. He mostly watches and takes it all in, letting other, more typical heroes – like Ethan Hunt or Jack Reacher – handle the action and solve the problems.

Let me tell you, watching Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut is… unsettling. His character, Bill, undergoes a total breakdown after a shocking confession, and Cruise plays it with incredible restraint. He doesn’t rely on his usual charm at all, and that’s the genius of it. The movie actually uses our expectations of him – builds them up – just to completely shatter them. What we get instead is a raw, often uncomfortable portrayal of a man spiraling as his world comes undone. Bill’s anxiety and awkwardness aren’t just present, they consume everything, and it’s a truly captivating, if disturbing, performance.

Bill Harford, though handsome and privileged, is actually a very ordinary man. He doesn’t experience significant personal growth or any life-changing events; instead, he’s constantly aware of his own flaws. Eyes Wide Shut features one of Tom Cruise’s most demanding roles, showcasing a level of emotional vulnerability he hadn’t displayed before. The performance is strikingly honest, dismantling the image of a man in control and revealing a difficult truth: he was never as self-assured as he appeared.

Digger Could Mark Tom Cruise’s Boldest Role Since Eyes Wide Shut

The upcoming film Digger, described by its director as a hilariously disastrous comedy, is already generating buzz as a potential standout of 2026. While director Alejandro Gñárritu’s films are often unusual and dreamlike, they rarely fail to impress. The first glimpse of the movie features Tom Cruise, seemingly with less hair, dancing with a shovel – a move reminiscent of his famous dance scene in Risky Business. The brief teaser reveals little else, but it’s enough to pique interest, particularly given Cruise’s previous performance as Bill Harford in Eyes Wide Shut.

According to a recent Deadline report about a longer trailer shown at Cinemacon, the film Digger centers on an industrialist attempting to repair an environmental catastrophe he created. Tom Cruise shared that making this type of movie is his primary motivation as a filmmaker, and director Alejandro Iñárritu believes this role may be Cruise’s most demanding yet. Iñárritu also stated he’s never seen such a wide range of performance from an actor, which is high praise coming from a two-time Academy Award-winning director.

If the new film Digger lives up to even a small part of its potential, it could remind us of what Eyes Wide Shut showed us years ago: that beyond impressive visuals and strong characters, there’s a much more complex and mysterious area where even critics can find something to appreciate.

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Unmasking Desire: Test Your Insight into Eyes Wide Shut and Cruise’s Bold Turns
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2026-04-26 21:37