I Thought It Was a Tom Cruise Tribute... Then It Took a Weird Turn

One of the unexpected highlights before my screening of Supergirl (2026) wasn't the movie itself—it was one of the previews.

It opens with one of the most recognizable movie moments ever:

"I feel the need... the need for speed."

Immediately, I thought, "This is going to be an homage to Tom Cruise."

The trailer starts with clips from his career, not just the blockbusters. It goes way back.

We're talking about movies like Taps, released before Risky Business. Then there's Risky Business itself, followed by All the Right Moves. I've seen both, and it was fun watching the montage remind me just how long Tom Cruise has been entertaining audiences.

As the clips kept rolling, I figured this was simply a celebration of one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Nope.

I was completely wrong.

After a couple of minutes of walking down memory lane, the montage suddenly pivots into about thirty seconds of footage from Tom Cruise's upcoming movie, Digger, scheduled for release in October 2026.

Talk about a plot twist.

The footage itself looked... odd.

Not bad.

Just... odd.

The kind of trailer that left me scratching my head and wondering, "What exactly did I just watch?"

Then it hit me.

Maybe that was the whole marketing strategy.

Instead of opening with an unfamiliar movie that audiences might ignore, they first remind everyone why they've spent decades watching Tom Cruise. They build excitement by revisiting the films that made him a global movie star. By the time the new footage appears, you're already invested enough to give it a chance.

If that was intentional, it's actually a pretty clever piece of marketing.

Whether Digger ends up being a hit or a miss remains to be seen, but that preview definitely got my attention—and that's exactly what a trailer is supposed to do.

If you'd like to see my full review of Supergirl along with my other movie reviews, head over to https://NielFlamm.com/videos and let me know what you think.

And Tommy... if we're really Scientology buddies in some alternate universe... thanks for the memories.