Tom Cruise collaborating with Fortnite would send me into the stratosphere. Anything goes in Epic Games’ battle royale these days, so it’d be wicked to see a roster of Mission: Impossible cosmetics in the Item Shop. An emote based on Cruise throwing away his glasses to a nu-metal rendition of the M theme? You can take my V-Bucks now. But that’s not what’s happening here. Instead, Cruise’s latest movie leads us into a Fortnite Digger crossover.
If you’ve been to the movies lately, you might have seen Cruise’s face buried beneath layers of makeup as he takes on the appearance of the shovel-wielding Digger Rockwell in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s brand-new comedy. The movie represents one of the biggest creative swings of Cruise’s career, though you could also forgive anyone for calling it award-season bait. Either way, Digger feels like one of the last movies I’d expect to see pop up in Fortnite.
Here’s the thing, though: unlike other movie tie-ins such as The Odyssey or One Battle After Another, Digger doesn’t even get a tailor-made Fortnite experience. Instead, Warner Bros. dropped Digger-themed items and set dressing into two pre-existing Creative maps: The Pit (4590-4493-7113) and Winter Rockets vs Cars (0105-1573-8859).
Both maps feature a replica of Digger Rockwell’s desk, complete with his cat and a handful of props from the movie. You can unlock these items in either mode, and they provide buffs while you play. You can also press a button on Digger’s desk to trigger an animated version of the movie’s trailer.
I hope you like hearing the phrase “bang, bang, bang” over and over, because Winter Rockets vs Cars plays it repeatedly as you grab various Digger-themed items. Outside of that, though, Fortnite’s Digger crossover offers very little. Epic and Warner Bros. have essentially added a handful of movie-themed assets to two existing maps.
It might just rank among Fortnite’s laziest crossovers yet. At least the One Battle After Another collaboration brought characters from the movie into the game. Given that Cruise reportedly takes a particularly hands-on approach to keeping his likeness away from games and merchandise, his absence from Digger’s Fortnite crossover doesn’t come as a huge surprise. He also notably doesn’t appear in Battlefield 6’s recent Top Gun: Maverick seasonal content.
Sorry, Tom Cruise, but if this is Fortnite’s idea of a Digger crossover, I’ll keep my V-Bucks in my wallet.
