Steven Spielberg says Tom Cruise “saved Hollywood” with Top Gun: Maverick.

Cruise, now 64, blazed a new path for celebrity A-listers. Avoid politics at all costs. Thank fans for coming to movie theaters. Be an ambassador for an industry that too often looks down on its customers.

And don’t flinch while creating all-American movies like Maverick. It’s not his fault that most of his peers didn’t follow his lead.

It’s why some call Cruise “the last movie star.” Now, it appears he wants an Oscar for Best Actor. And his best chance to hoist that golden statue starts this October.

The problem? He might sell out his red-state base to make it happen.

Cruise is the star of Digger, the latest film from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant). The movie shows Cruise looking older, grayer, and more pot-bellied than in any film since his hilarious cameo in 2008’s Tropic Thunder.

Cruise plays an oil billionaire navigating an eco-crisis, according to early information tied to the film. Yes, yet another Hollywood feature warning us to treat Mother Nature with care… or else. Throw in a clichéd, southern-fried oil magnate for good measure.

The first trailer suggests Cruise’s character is the film’s antihero, at best. At worst, he’s the puffy face of Big Oil and one reason Al Gore was right all along.

Maybe the final moments have him driving an electric vehicle into the sunset. Just not a Tesla, of course.

Did Cruise turn on his apolitical base for the movie? It’s still hard to root against him, given what he’s done for the film business (and audiences). If anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, it’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

Then again, this is the kind of product Hollywood produces, especially when it comes to Oscar-tier talent. Cruise won’t get a script about a stricken father who lost his daughter to an illegal immigrant. Nor will he play a wily capitalist who risks it all and ends up saving the family business.

Those stories aren’t produced in today’s La La Land. That leaves even a superstar like Cruise hungry for Hollywood scraps.

The other question looming over Digger, set for an October 2 release, is how far the film’s eco-message will go. Is it merely the backdrop for a wacky character study, one that lets Cruise showcase more than just his movie-star mug?

Or is this another woke extravaganza, filled with finger-wagging speeches and heavy-handed plot twists? Iñárritu’s politics aren’t a secret. He loathes Trump and supports open borders.

The one bone for right-leaning audiences? John Goodman plays a Biden-esque president who takes a catnap in one sequence in the film. Deadline says Goodman’s character combines elements of both Trump and Biden.

Here’s betting Cruise’s fan base won’t judge him too harshly based on Digger alone. That goodwill investment would take more than one Oscar-bait lecture to disrupt.

But… if Cruise uses the film’s publicity tour to push climate change alarmism or other standard-issue Hollywood lectures, audiences may feel the need for speed… heading straight past theaters where Digger is playing.