is tom cruise the best action star

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All Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked By Tomatometer

Top Gun: Maverick is back in theaters for Rotten Tomatoes’ 25th anniversary screening series at AMC — get tickets now !

From his teen idol days in the early ’80s to his status as a marquee-lighting leading man today, Tom Cruise has consistently done it all for decades — he’s completed impossible missions, learned about Wapner time in Rain Man , driven the highway to the danger zone in Top Gun , and done wonders for Bob Seger’s royalty statements in Risky Business , to offer just a few examples. Mr. Cruise is one of the few honest-to-goodness film stars left in the Hollywood firmament, so whether you’re a hardcore fan or just interested in a refresher course on his filmography, we’re here to take a fond look back at a truly impressive career and rank all Tom Cruise movies.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018) 97%

Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 96%

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) 96%

Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) 94%

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) 93%

Risky Business (1983) 92%

Edge of Tomorrow (2014) 91%

Minority Report (2002) 89%

Rain Man (1988) 88%

The Color of Money (1986) 88%

Collateral (2004) 86%

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) 84%

American Made (2017) 85%

A Few Good Men (1992) 84%

Jerry Maguire (1996) 84%

Magnolia (1999) 82%

Tropic Thunder (2008) 82%

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) 75%

The Firm (1993) 76%

War of the Worlds (2005) 76%

Mission: Impossible III (2006) 71%

The Outsiders (1983) 70%

Taps (1981) 68%

Mission: Impossible (1996) 66%

The Last Samurai (2003) 66%

Interview With the Vampire (1994) 63%

Jack Reacher (2012) 64%

All the Right Moves (1983) 61%

Valkyrie (2008) 62%

Top Gun (1986) 57%

Mission: Impossible II (2000) 56%

Oblivion (2013) 54%

Knight and Day (2010) 52%

Far and Away (1992) 50%

Rock of Ages (2012) 42%

Vanilla Sky (2001) 43%

Legend (1985) 42%

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016) 38%

Days of Thunder (1990) 38%

Lions for Lambs (2007) 27%

Losin' It (1982) 18%

The Mummy (2017) 15%

Cocktail (1988) 9%

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Tom Cruise’s 16 Best Performances: From ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to ‘Magnolia’

By Clayton Davis

Clayton Davis

Senior Awards Editor

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With six decades around the sun, Tom Cruise still feels the need for speed and has crafted himself into one of the most successful and undeniably talented movie stars of his generation.

Variety is ranking his 15 best film performances to celebrate the actor’s 60th birthday.

With a breakthrough that started in the coming-of-age film “Risky Business” (1983), the Syracuse, N.Y.-born actor became a darling of Hollywood and consumer audiences around the world. As Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick” still goes strong, making more than half a billion dollars domestically, Cruise has continued to etch himself into the cultural zeitgeist, crossing multiple generations.

Also a producer, Cruise has continued to elevate the entertainment medium with the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which began in 1995. With five very successful sequels and two more on the way, he continues to push the boundaries for himself as a fearless stuntman and an advocate for the silver screen.

A career that only the most daring actors and creatives can dream of, Cruise has worked alongside two best actor winners — Paul Newman (“The Color of Money”) and Dustin Hoffman (“Rain Man”) — and has earned himself three Oscar nominations in “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989), “Jerry Maguire” (1996) and “Magnolia” (1999). But it hasn’t been about the accolades for Cruise. In May 2021, he returned his three Golden Globe Awards after the expose on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s lack of diversity, specifically no Black members.

Cruise’s films have grossed over $10 billion dollars worldwide and there are no signs of slowing down. Will he ever win a coveted Oscar? That remains to be seen, but the narrative is there if the Academy rewards an upcoming project.

Read Variety’s list of Tom Cruise’s best performances below:

Honorable mentions : “Far and Away” (1992); “The Last Samurai” (2003); “Rock of Ages” (2012)

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Role: Major William Cage

Director: Doug Liman Writers: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth Distributor: Warner Bros.

The scene that proves it: Getting the device from Brigham

Kicking ass, taking names, then rinse and repeat. A military major goes through a “Groundhog Day” loop but it’s Cruise that ensures it’s not a gimmick, slithering into each scene with charm, raw magnetism and wonderful chemistry with an awards-worthy Emily Blunt. The science-fiction drama has been all too undervalued. Doug Liman’s thriller shows more than special effects and explosions. It also presents capable and talented stars at the helm, which makes all the difference.

Risky Business (1983)

Role: Joel Goodson

Director: Paul Brickman Writer: Paul Brickman Distributor: Warner Bros.

The scene that proves it: Dancing to “Old Time Rock & Roll”

All it took was a button-down shirt, briefs and a Bob Seger track to make Tom Cruise one of the defining movie stars of his generation. In Paul Brickman’s directorial debut, Cruise’s turn in the teen comedy was as culturally massive as it was monetarily successful. With lots of praise also going to his co-star Rebecca DeMornay, this is just as enjoyable as any film that ranks in the listing.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Role : Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell

Director : Joseph Kosinski

Writers : Peter Craig, Justin Marks, Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie (based on characters created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.)

Distributor : Paramount Pictures

The scene that proves it : “Maverick’s Test Run”

Cruise’s 80s high-flying sequel feels like it saved the movies. His return to “Maverick,” his beloved character has showmanship, charisma and the ability to shoot down planes with the enemy’s plane. Having great chemistry with his co-stars, particularly Miles Teller and Jennifer Connelly, Cruise is only getting better as he gets older.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Role: Lestat de Lioncourt

Director: Neil Jordan Writer: Anne Rice (based on “Interview with the Vampire” by Anne Rice) Distributor: Warner Bros.

The scene that proves it: “Claudia, you’ve been a very, naughty little girl.”

As the sinister and entrancing Lestat, Cruise hypnotized the audience with his soft-spoken flirtations with the living while persuading them to join the undead. Alongside memorable turns from Brad Pitt and a young Kirsten Dunst, Neil Jordan’s horror adaptation of the Anne Rice novel is still a popular selection.

The Firm (1993)

Role: Mitch McDeere

Director: Sydney Pollack Writers: David Rabe, Robert Towne, David Rayfiel (based on “The Firm” by John Grisham) Distributor: Paramount Pictures

The scene that proves it: “Did you ever think I would make a six-figure salary?”

Sydney Pollack’s invigorating legal thriller boasts an all-star cast and a dynamic Cruise as lawyer Mitch McDeere. While also featuring my personal favorite Tom Cruise signature run as he chases down his movie wife Jeanne Tripplehorn, the adaptation of the John Grisham novel was a box office success and even pulled in an acting nom for his co-star Holly Hunter.

Mission: Impossible (1995)

Role: Ethan Hunt

Director: Brian De Palma Writers: David Koepp, Robert Towne, Steven Zaillian (based on “Mission: Impossible” by Bruce Geller) Distributor: Paramount Pictures

The scene that proves it: “You’ve never seen me upset.”

The spy thriller from Brian De Palma still holds up almost 30 years later. Likewise, the action franchise that’s still going (with two more films on the way) keeps on delivering, thanks to Tom Cruise.

The cinematic remake of the classic television series has spawned multiple territories, generating massive revenue and showing Cruise’s defining action star beats, jaw-dropping stunts and magical smiles that have a way with the ladies as Ethan Hunt.

Keep dropping from those ceilings, Tom.

Rain Man (1988)

Role: Charlie Babbitt

Director: Barry Levinson Writers: Barry Morrow, Ronald Bass Distributor: MGM/UA

The scene that proves it: “You’re the Rain Man?”

The best picture winner of his arsenal, alongside an Oscar-winning turn from Dustin Hoffman, the film stands as one that hindsight has allowed us to rediscover as one of the bright spots of his filmography. If only Oscar were willing to recognize two leading actors as they did earlier that decade with “Amadeus.” Cruise would have made a fine addition.

Collateral (2004)

Role: Vincent

Director: Michael Mann Writer: Stuart Beattie Distributor: DreamWorks Pictures

The scene that proves it: Searching in the club.

At best a co-lead to Jamie Foxx (who was nominated for best supporting actor in one of the most recent cases of category fraud), Cruise’s silver fox Vincent in Michael Mann’s thriller is an underrated delivery. He sends chills down the spine, moving like a shark through a club and listening to his prey with a mischievous grin. He keeps us at the edge of our seats, before finally allowing us to exhale by the end of the credits.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Role: Bill Harford

Director: Stanley Kubrick Writers: Stanley Kubrick, Frederic Raphael (based on “Traumnovelle” by Arthur Schnitzler) Distributor: Warner Bros.

The scene that proves it: Listening to the story about Cape Cod.

Under the thumb of Stanley Kubrick and his final outing with his then-wife, Nicole Kidman, Cruise dives into the erotic drama that feels among the actor’s bravest character outings. Marking the last directorial outing of Kubrick, you can feel the ripple of his legacy hanging on the words of each of Cruise and Kidman’s interactions or in the defined stare as one pours their heart out to another.

Top Gun (1986)

Director : Tony Scott

Writers : Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr. (based on “Top Guns” by Ehud Yonay

The scene that proves it : Tossing Goose’s dog tags.

Cruise feels the need… the need for speed in Tony Scott’s pulse-pounding action flick — a cemented classic in the 1980s. His undeniable charisma led to the following post-release and now has the global cinematic world taking in its sequel “Maverick” to more than half a billion dollars. There’s always been something about Maverick tossing Goose’s (Anthony Edwards) dog tags overboard following his death that always struck a chord.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

Role: Les Grossman

Director: Ben Stiller Writers: Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller, Etan Cohen Distributor: Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks Pictures

The scene that proves it: “G5”

It’s a transformation of epic proportions in Ben Stiller’s classic comedy. While Robert Downey Jr. received the lion’s share of praise, earning an Oscar nom for supporting actor, Cruise could only muster a Golden Globe nom for his turn as Hollywood producer Les Grossman. Screaming one-liners and a dance finale that still makes the world chuckle, it stands as his single best comedic outing.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

Role: Jerry Maguire

Director: Cameron Crowe Writer: Cameron Crowe Distributor: Sony Pictures

The scene that proves it: “You complete me.”

Writer and director Cameron Crowe pulled a movie star performance out of Tom Cruise for his sports agent dramedy. As the titular character, he lights up the screen with his Oscar-winning co-star Cuba Gooding Jr. and the Oscar-snubbed Renée Zellweger in a finale that had people quoting it for decades. And let’s not forget “Show me the money” and its stapled place in movie history.

A Few Good Men (1992)

Role: Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee

Director: Rob Reiner Writer: Aaron Sorkin (based on “A Few Good Men” by Aaron Sorkin) Distributor: Columbia Pictures

The scene that proves it: “I want the truth…”

Cruise is entitled to answers in Rob Reiner’s courtroom drama, maneuvering prominent personalities and moments alongside Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack. Although nominated for best picture, Cruise’s work was passed over in lead actor. His defender of marines standing trial, under the words of Aaron Sorkin and one of his finest writing efforts, Cruise soars to new heights.

Minority Report (2002)

Role: John Anderton

Director: Steven Spielberg Writers: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen (based on “The Minority Report” by Philip K. Dick) Distributor: 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios)

The scene that proves it: Listening to Abigail about Sean’s life.

It’s a quiet and commanding standout in Cruise’s filmography when looking back on Cruise’s work in Steven Spielberg’s futuristic drama. However, as John Anderton, a police officer trying to clear his name for a murder he has yet to commit, it’s Cruise’s precise choice of listening to Abigail (played by a magnificent Samantha Morton) that breaks the heart in two.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

Role: Ron Kovic

Director: Oliver Stone Writers: Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic (based on “Born on the Fourth of July” by Kovic) Distributor: Universal Pictures

The scene that proves it: “I love America.”

Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone introduced what Cruise could achieve beyond sliding floors and jet planes. His Vietnam veteran spans years, with each chapter feeling authentic and layered. The film was nominated for best picture and earned Cruise his first Oscar nom for best actor.

Magnolia (1999)

Role: Frank T.J. Mackey

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson Distributor: New Line Cinema

The scene that proves it: “I hate you.”

Pouring in every ounce of himself, Cruise’s Oscar-nominated performance is (currently) the last time he’s been recognized by the Academy, and it stands as his finest hour in Paul Thomas Anderson’s mosaic drama. Full of life, energy and heartache, he invites the viewer on the journey, fearless in his interpretation and perfect in his execution.

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Opinion: Tom Cruise Is The Greatest Action Movie Star Ever

He’s just one of a kind..

Top Gun: Maverick was released two weeks ago and has been enjoying great success both critically and commercially. The film currently has a 97% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and has made over US$500million so far.

It also broke a US box office record when ticket sales only fell 32 per cent from its debut — the smallest week-to-week decline ever for a movie with a US$100 million opening weekend.

This is a colossal achievement for a non-comic book or huge franchise movie. Needless to say, Top Gun: Maverick is a phenomenon but a movie like this could only have happened thanks to the actor Tom Cruise’s unrivalled passion for Top Gun.

The movie made minimal use of green-screen or CGI trickery. Cruise made it clear that he would only reprise his role as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell if real fighter jets were used in the sequel.

Cruise’s penchant for authenticity and practical filmmaking is just one of the few reasons why this writer believes he is the greatest action movie star ever.

More than an actor

For many years now, Cruise has played a pivotal role in the production process of all of his films. Besides being the lead actor in those movies, he also serves as one of the producers, meaning he always has a say in all aspects of the films’ production.

Producing movies is something near and dear to Cruise’s heart ever since he began his career in the movie industry. In an interview, he said during the production of one of his first movies Taps (1981), he would visit every single department of that film’s production to study how each of them worked so he could better understand the process of filmmaking.

From the very beginning, Cruise is not merely an actor who shows up, says his lines and goes back to his Hollywood mansion; he is also a student of cinema and is always learning ways to make his next project the best theatrical experience it can be for audiences worldwide.

A natural-born leader

If you plan on acting alongside the Mission Impossible star, you have to be prepared to be pushed to your physical limits because in every one of his recent films, Cruise not only expects the best out of himself but also everyone around him. Top Gun: Maverick is the latest example of Cruise’s leadership skills, which were put on display both on- and off-screen.

All the fresh-faced actors on Top Gun: Maverick, such as Miles Teller, described the intense training they underwent to prepare for the movie, including getting used to being inside extremely fast jets. Cruise was able to push his fellow co-stars because he understands what it takes to fly a fighter jet, seeing as how he has a pilot license.

Cruise makes the effort to actually know what he’s doing and talking about, so that people around him respect his authority and are inspired to follow in his footsteps.

Has the acting chops to boot

Another reason why I believe Cruise is the greatest action movie star of all time is that apart from exuding a charismatic presence in his movies like most known stars, he’s also a highly versatile actor who possesses a wide range of emotional expressions in his performances.

And I mean no disrespect to other Hollywood legends like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, and Keanu Reeves, who have all given Oscar-worthy performances.

Despite Cruise having some stinkers over the years such as The Mummy, Mission Impossible II and Legend, Cruise still boasts an overall better and consistent filmography in his career compared to his peers, especially in the last decade with masterpieces such as Edge of Tomorrow and every Mission Impossible entry since Ghost Protocol.

Beyond the stunts

Some might think that Cruise is only a Hollywood great because he does the craziest stunts on his own like hanging out of a plane in Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation but in reality, his daredevil behaviour is only the icing on the cake. What truly makes him stand out from all the other Hollywood stars is his unrivaled passion to give audiences the most genuine, authentic and memorable experience they will ever have in a theater.

There has never been someone like Tom Cruise and it is unlikely there ever will, so let’s appreciate the man while he’s still capable of giving us these memorable movies.

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Cannes diary: why tom cruise is our biggest — and most elusive — movie star.

The 'Top Gun: Maverick' star is in a class by himself as a genuine Hollywood legend, but will we ever meet the person behind the larger-than-life persona?

By Rebecca Keegan

Rebecca Keegan

Senior Editor, Film

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When asked at Cannes on Wednesday, for the umpteenth time, why he insists on performing his own stunts despite the danger, Tom Cruise answered by referencing a screen legend from a bygone era. “No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’” Cruise said, at the tribute conversation moderated by French journalist Didier Allouch. “Why do you do your own dancing?’”

Cruise likening himself to Kelly, one of the best athletes of Hollywood’s golden era, is a fair comparison. From the star sliding across the floor in his underwear at age 21 in 1983’s Risky Business to buckling into jets and withstanding g-forces in his late 50s for aeronautical maneuvers in Top Gun: Maverick , which premiered at the festival Wednesday night ahead of its global opening May 25, Cruise has always thrown his body into his work.

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But for someone who lately reveals so little of the person behind the persona, Cruise’s comparison to Kelly was telling in another way: It shows how he sees himself today, as akin to a species of entertainer that is now endangered, if not nearly extinct. Cruise is a movie star who does no TV and no comic book movies, who’s never sharing an “authentic” moment in the weight room on Instagram or a quickly dashed-off political rant on Twitter. In a movie business grappling with the dizzying change of streaming and social media, Cruise is now playing by rules that worked in Kelly’s era: Tap dance your ass off and get them into the theater. Audiences don’t want to know the “real” you; give them the gorgeous archetype.

The release for Maverick was pushed back several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lest there be any confusion about Cruise’s commitment to the business model that made him a star, his most emphatic and, frankly, nearly the only direct answer of the tribute conversation came in response to Allouch’s question about whether Paramount would ever have sold the Top Gun sequel to a streaming service rather than wait for theatergoing to resume. “That was not going to happen ever,” Cruise said. “That was never going to happen.”

Cruise, like Steven Spielberg, Chris Nolan, James Cameron and a handful of other Hollywood holdouts, almost all of them directors, sees theaters as part of the definition of what makes something a movie. “I understand the business,” Cruise said. “But there’s a very specific way to make movies for cinema, and I make movies for the big screen. It is a different skill writing a movie than something for television. It’s a whole different skill set.”

Even by the extravagant standards of Cannes, the festival’s reception of Cruise and his movie was wildly over-the-top. Eight French fighter jets zoomed above the premiere, expelling smoke in red and blue to match the colors of the French (and American) flag. Before the film screened, festival director Thierry Frémaux introduced a 13-minute clip reel of the star’s filmography, eliciting a standing ovation, and then presented him with a surprise Palme d’Or, inspiring another. A third, six-minute ovation followed the film, along with an explosion of fireworks over the beach.

Cruise, the consummate showman, had come to the festival that delivers spectacle like no other, and it was clear that both festival and star needed each other. People were clapping for Cruise, but also for what he represents — glamour, escape and the discipline of an old-fashioned movie star, now 59 and still carrying a flame for a business that nearly flickered out during the pandemic.

As gracious as he was at the premiere, Cruise was also frustratingly evasive during the conversation with Allouch, returning to the same two or three anecdotes and phrases in response to nearly every question. Talking extemporaneously has not always worked out well for the star, as when he jumped on Oprah’s couch in 2005, ecstatically proclaiming his love for Katie Holmes and appearing, to many, completely unhinged. Cruise’s advocacy of Scientology and opposition to psychiatry have alienated him from some of his audience, and he is no longer talking about these topics publicly, perhaps because he’s getting some excellent advice from his publicist.

The Cruise we got at Cannes is not the one who jumps on couches, but the one who gets us off of ours and back into movie theaters. The Cruise we got at Cannes is still dashingly handsome at a photocall and charming in a soundbite. But it surely wasn’t the real Tom Cruise. That man may never show himself to us again, if he ever did. Instead, Cruise seems inclined to just keep on tap dancing.

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By Mike Fleming Jr

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Top Gun : Maverick ’s Cannes Film Festival premiere marks another high point in the movie star career of Tom Cruise . The actor turns 60 on July 3, and unlike most leading men of that age who become quicker to call for the stunt double, Cruise shows little evidence of slowing down after 43 films. If anything, his Mission: Impossible stunts seem to grow more ambitiously dangerous, not to mention the fact that he and director Doug Liman will become the first to actually shoot a space film in space for real—aboard one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX crafts with the cooperation of NASA.

So how does Cruise continue to carve such a path?

“I’ve gotten to work with a number of actors who’ve had great success and long careers, Tom being at the top of the heap,” says Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski. “He approaches every day with the enthusiasm that it’s his first movie, and at the same time puts the effort into it like it’s his last movie. That’s a good attitude to have; never take it for granted, give 110 percent every single day. Constantly push the crew and yourself to achieve excellence. I’m amazed by that, that he’s 40 years in and still loves what he does and isn’t slowing down at all. It seems like he’s accelerating, which is pretty amazing.”

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Here, a group of directors, producers and actors look back on their Cruise experience and why Hollywood won’t see another global superstar quite like this one.

Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick

“Tom was our first and only choice for Top Gun , that’s who Tony Scott liked, and Don and I really pursued him,” recalls Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced the original hit with late partner Don Simpson. “I don’t think he was a pilot back then, but he just had the charisma and we loved what we saw in his film career. You could tell he was a terrific actor and that is so much of what it is all about.”

It was to become Cruise’s signature immersion into the process of preparation. “He went down to Miramar in advance and hung out with a lot of the pilots, found out what they liked and why they did what they did. He just cares so much, and not only about his character but the whole movie. A lot of actors walk into a role and just worry about themselves and how they’re perceived. Never Tom. That was the way he was back in ’85 when we made the first one, and he showed it again this time.”

On the first film, Cruise was the only cast member who didn’t lose his lunch while filming dialogue scenes inside those roaring jets. Mindful of that unpleasant experience, he made it his mission to make sure the new crop of actors playing Top Gun pilots in the sequel fared better.

“We learned on the first one,” Bruckheimer says. “He was the only one we got good footage on; we couldn’t use the footage on the other actors because he was the only one who didn’t throw up. So, Tom designed a flying program for all the actors this time. It took months to do this. First, they went up in a single engine prop plane, just to get a feel for flying. Then, an aerobatic prop plane, and then a jet, and once they were comfortable in that jet, he put them in the F-18. Tom designed [the process] himself to acclimate the actors to the G forces they would experience.”

Kosinski previously directed Cruise in the 2013 sci-fi film Oblivion . In the Top Gun sequel, the director says Cruise put so much into mentoring the young actors on set who were in awe of him. “Tom is an actor that, if you can get him interested in your project, then you can do almost anything,” Kosinski says. “When you combine that with something beloved like Top Gun , it becomes an unstoppable force when you go to make it. We needed that on this movie because what we were doing was very intense and there were a lot of things that hadn’t been done before. Having Tom there to push through the ideas and techniques we were going to use was really helpful. Tom knew just how difficult capturing those images would be, just how physically grueling it would be for the actors.

“I remember one day on the carrier, when Tom was sitting with these young actors, most of them just starting their careers,” Kosinski adds. “Miles Teller has a lot under his belt, but the rest were new. For them, every day was like a master class, and he would make time for them every day. He would sit down and have these impromptu sessions with the actors, either to talk about the scenes we were shooting that day, the technical aspects of shooting an aerial sequence, or broader advice, like how to build a career. I remember Tom asked Glen (Powell), what kind of career do you want? Glen said, ‘I want your career, Tom.’ So, Tom said, ‘How do you think I got that?’ Glen said, ‘By choosing great roles.’ And Tom said, ‘No. That’s not how I did it. I did it by choosing great films. Then, I took the roles and made them the best I could.’ That advice blew Glen’s mind. If you look at Tom’s career, that’s exactly what he did. He chose great films and directors he admired. Regardless of the size of the role, especially on a movie like Taps . And then he created something with it, made the role his own. That’s something these younger actors hadn’t thought about and can only get from someone who spent 30 years as a movie star. I thought it was really interesting to watch.”

Jerry Maguire

Cruise’s turn as the star sports agent who loses his throne after an existential crisis would mark his second Oscar nomination and one of his best-remembered performances.

Cruise shows a different side in the romantic comedy. Writer-director Cameron Crowe wrote many lines that were execution-dependent, that would be the difference between heartwarming and cringe-worthy, and Cruise embraced all of them. That includes the climactic scene, when Maguire pleads with his estranged wife (Renée Zellweger) to give him another chance, a plea delivered in a crowd of pessimistic women who’ve all had their hearts broken by cads.

“Oh, Tom couldn’t wait for that scene,” Crowe says. “I was a little nervous about some of the lines, like, ‘You complete me.’ It’s a slippery slope; if you lean wrong into a line like that, it’d probably be the first thing you cut. But he said, ‘I want to say I love you in this movie, and I want to say it with that line.’ And by the time he got to it, it was two in the morning, at the end of a long week.

“Tom surprised the women because we didn’t tell them that he would be there to do the scene with them that day. In he comes, and in the most loving way, this heavyweight was ready for the knockout. He gently crushed it. The ladies were crying. The crew members were crying. And Renée was a mess. He just took great pleasure in being able to deliver a line that he knew I was on the fence about. He’d said, ‘Just give me a shot, man. You’ll see if I got it, or if I didn’t.’ And, you know, I’m still just so proud of it.”

Crowe recalls other ways that Cruise endeared himself to those around him, from one late night when an In-N-Out Burger truck showed up, courtesy of the actor, or the way he handled the first young actor who pulled out of the precocious child part that eventually went to Jonathan Lipnicki.

“Tom stayed in touch with the mother of the kid who had asked to be replaced,” Crowe says. “Tom wrote him and called and sent him stuff. I only knew this because his mother called to say, ‘Thank you for everything Tom Cruise has done to make my son feel good about even being in the movie and working with him as much as he did.’ I went to Tom on the set and said I couldn’t believe what he’d done, spending the last few weeks making sure his spirits were high. Tom just said, ‘Well, I just don’t want that guy growing up, looking at movies and feeling disappointed about what happened. I want him to love movies.’ Wow.”

When Russell Crowe changed his plan from playing the assassin who conscripts a cab driver to drive him to a series of murders in Collateral , director Michael Mann went right to the doorstep of Cruise, even though it would be a decided departure from the actor’s résumé of hero roles.

“In Tom, I saw Lee Marvin,” Mann says. “When Tom zeroes into a certain kind of person, if they are far enough away from him so that it’s a turn-on for a man of adventure, to be on some kind of a frontier with a character he can get to know but is very different from him, I could tell that within him it becomes a real adventure. To play Vincent, this solipsistic sociopath, who has all the f*cking answers and is so methodical and good at what he does, it felt like Tom was a perfect fit. He’s a perfectionist about knowing how to do the things he is supposed to do, which is why he does his own stunts in Mission: Impossible . The sociopathy of this guy was so unique, in his cosmic indifference and outrageous statements that still crack me up when I see some of the scenes with Jamie Foxx in the taxi cab. ‘You ever hear of Rwanda? So, what do you care about one fat guy who gets thrown out the window?’ Or answering Jamie’s accusation of ‘you killed him’ with, ‘I didn’t kill him. The bullets killed him and then he fell out the window.’ The flat irony of Tom’s delivery on those lines is so perfect. It was a very different character for him, and I knew Tom would throw himself into whatever I needed to take him through to become that assassin.”

When I mention the memorable shootout scene in the nightclub and that Cruise’s proficiency with weaponry is reminiscent of the acumen shown by Keanu Reeves in the John Wick films, Mann is quick to correct the record.

“ John Wick’ s are not real techniques,” he says. “What Tom did, those are real techniques and there was a lot of training with my friend Mick Gould, who was the head of close-quarter combat training for the British SAS. The scene in the alley, there’s no cut in that scene… It came down to doing the work. There was nothing he was doing that wasn’t established close-quarter combat moves that came from months of training. That included blending in. Obviously, people know Tom, but I wanted him to feel what it would be like to blend in, to mix with people and have conversations. He went to Central Market and trained to be a FedEx delivery guy. He said to me, ‘They’re gonna know it’s me.’ I said, ‘No, they’ll see the sign that says FedEx, and you’ll wear sunglasses and a cap and carry that portable computer that drivers used to have when they made deliveries.’ Tom went in and delivered something to a liquor stand and sat down and struck up a conversation with a couple people and insinuated himself into the lives of others. There was a lot of psychological training he did. Tom is a dream. He sees the adventure in what we do, just the way I do, and I imagine other directors do. He just goes for it.”

Mission: Impossible

After scripting the Cruise World War II thriller Valkyrie , Christopher McQuarrie became the actor-producer’s creative partner on the Mission: Impossible franchise with 2015’s Rogue Nation , 2018’s Fallout , the recently completed Mission: Impossible –  Dead Reckoning Part One and the eighth installment currently in production. Cruise had stepped up his commitment to outrageously ambitious stunts right before McQuarrie got there, when Brad Bird directed Ghost Protocol , and Cruise scaled the glassy exterior of the world’s largest skyscraper in Dubai, 123 floors up. But it was on McQuarrie’s watch that Cruise hung from the exterior of a flying Airbus A400M in midair for Rogue Nation , and when Cruise broke his ankle after a leap during a chase in which he crashed into a wall. It was a rare mishap, and McQuarrie feels that Cruise is so meticulous in his stunt prep and so confident in his ability to walk away unscathed, that the director swallows hard and says yes.

“I was asked once by a film student: ‘How do you know when you’ve made it?’” McQuarrie says. “I said, ‘You don’t make it. You’re making it. Actively. All the time. May you never make it. May you always be making it. May you look back one day on all you’ve made and go right on making more.’ Tom embodies that. There is no finish line, no pinnacle, no summit. He applies all he’s learned to something new, then studies it with brutal honesty: Where did we go wrong? Where did we go right? How do we apply it to the next thing? How do we push the limits of what is possible? How do we create the most immersive, engaging experience for the widest possible audience? How do we do all that with an emphasis on character and story first? Tom’s not still here by accident.”

McQuarrie could not recall a stunt Cruise insisted on doing that the filmmaker tried to talk him out of. “I get asked that a lot,” he says. “Honestly, no. Is there anything I wish I hadn’t suggested? Absolutely. When I’m sitting in an A400M with the engines running and my friend is strapped to the fuselage, I’m thinking, Maybe I should have kept this one to myself. The truth is, that stunt seems tame now. What we’ve done since, I still can’t believe. If my hair could get any whiter, it would… Tom understands how all of the individual parts function. His level of preparation is exceedingly present and aware. The bigger the stakes, the higher the awareness. That awareness is contagious and enormously clarifying.”

J.J. Abrams made his feature directorial debut on Mission: Impossible III , the one in which Phillip Seymour Hoffman went mano a mano with Cruise after kidnapping the agent’s wife (Michelle Monaghan). Abrams says the stunts weren’t as eye popping as the ones in the films directed by McQuarrie and Bird (Abrams is a producer of all of those films). While Abrams was a hotshot TV director and showrunner with Alias , Cruise pushed for him to direct, despite his being untested on the big screen.

“I blame Tom Cruise entirely on my having a career,” Abrams says. “He did all the impossible heavy lifting I don’t think anyone could have done to give me a shot. I will be forever grateful for everything he did.”

They met when Cruise and Steven Spielberg wanted Abrams to script War of the Worlds (scheduling didn’t work) and they cooked up a Mission: Impossible movie different from the one Paramount thought it was going to make. “While I was shooting the Lost pilot, Tom watched Alias and asked if I would be interested in Mission: Impossible . They were meant to shoot that other version of Mission . Steven was meant to shoot Munich and then War of the Worlds , and somehow Tom convinced both Steven and the studio, and it seemed like a herculean task only Tom could do, but he managed to reorder the films. Steven agreed to do War of the Worlds first, and Mission: Impossible got moved to after. What I remember is that I had a meeting with Tom and Sherry Lansing, who was high on this other version of the movie. I remember Tom basically saying, that he and I were going to do Mission: Impossible together. I remember Sherry saying she liked the other script and Tom saying, ‘This is the one we’re going to do.’ And she said, ‘OK.’ I’m sitting there, watching him take a wild chance on someone who had never directed a feature before, and I couldn’t believe it was me. I came to learn that kind of thing is a normal Tuesday for Tom.”

Any fear Abrams had that the film’s star and producer would impose himself on a young director was quickly allayed. Abrams says Cruise had a clear understanding of the lanes each occupied, and that he relied on good directors to push him to do his best work.

“Any first film is a surreal experience,” Abrams says. “To have it be something where the first day you are filming in Rome with Tom Cruise on a Mission: Impossible set, now that is incredibly surreal. On the second film I directed, which was Star Trek in 2009, I remember getting to the set the first day and feeling the palpable sense of the absence of Tom Cruise. Which is to say, I had only known shooting a movie with Tom, which was a kind of gift you can’t find anywhere else. You have someone who you always know is working as hard — if not harder — trying to make something work, and he is number one on the call sheet. It’s an incredible rarity.”

American Made

Doug Liman, who directed Cruise in the fact-based American Made , the sci-fi Edge of Tomorrow and the upcoming film they’ll shoot in outer space, got to see more than most filmmakers what it is that makes Cruise tick.

“I lived with Tom when we made American Made ,” Liman says. “When you work with Tom, it’s a seven-days-a-week job. No matter how hard a worker you are, and I consider myself that, it’s nothing compared to Tom. After 40 or 50 straight days, we were coming up on July 4 weekend. It happens his birthday is July 3 and I’m thinking that since his birthday happened to fall on a holiday, maybe Tom will want to have a long weekend off to celebrate his birthday somewhere. I mention to Tom, ‘Are you thinking of going away for your birthday?’ Tom says, ‘No. I was thinking since we have the day off on July 3, we can use that time to have the eight-hour aviation meeting that we’ve been having trouble scheduling.’ I am beyond tired and I’m like, ‘You want to have an eight-hour meeting on your birthday?’ He said, ‘Yes, that’s what I want for my birthday. I want to be making a movie. That’s the best birthday present.’ There was no blowing out candles, either.”

“Cake? No, Tom doesn’t eat cake. You don’t get to look the way he looks, by eating birthday cake. You have to make a life choice there. You know the suit of armor, the exoskeletons he wore on Edge of Tomorrow ? They were extremely heavy, cumbersome, took 10 minutes to get on and off and was too heavy for him to sit in between takes. He would get out of the armor and go, we’re wasting all this time, me getting in and out of this suit. So, Tom gets this idea that, between setups, it would save time if, instead of getting in and out of his suit, we converted a child’s swing set into something with hooks that he could hang from, in between setups.”

For the result, picture the gangster Carbone, hanging from a meat hook in the freezer truck in Goodfellas .

“Yeah, that is the visual,” Liman says.

“Living with Tom on American Made , I came to the conclusion that it would be like if you imagined a premise for a high concept movie, where you got to wake up and be Tom Cruise for the day. He gets up with so much energy. He was a real taskmaster when it came to chores in the house. We didn’t have a housekeeper, for security reasons, and we had to clean the house. He would constantly pull out a pot that I had already cleaned and put back, and say, ‘This is not clean.’”

Liman is circumspect about timing and the story he and Cruise will film in space, but not the intent. “The thing both of us have in common is, we’re not interested in the gimmick of shooting a movie in outer space,” he says. “For Tom and me, it’s a challenge to make sure we make a movie that is so frigging good it can survive the inevitable criticism, ‘Did they really have to go into space to shoot that?’”

Barry Levinson, who directed Rain Man with Cruise, saw the film win Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Dustin Hoffman’s turn as the autistic savant. Cruise wasn’t nominated for playing Charlie Babbitt, the hustler who kidnaps his brother Raymond and drives him to L.A. to claim an inheritance, but in Levinson’s mind, “Tom had the harder job,” he says. “It was a difficult role because he basically had to drive the movie. Otherwise, Raymond would just be content to sit in a motel. His obligation is to continually drive it and push him, and at the same time not exhaust the audience with a one-beat, ‘C’mon, we’re going.’ It was a very hard role, and he never got the credit he deserved for that film.”

Levinson got the job after Martin Brest, Spielberg and then Sydney Pollack were in and then out because of the tricky nature of the material. Levinson says they found the movie while shooting on the road trip, and what surprised him was Cruise’s skill in improv, and willingness to try most anything they could think of.

“When Sydney dropped out, we were seven weeks out from shooting and we hit the road and kept working on dealing with the relationship between the two of them as we went along,” Levinson says. “We did an extensive amount of ad-libbing and improv work for that film, and Tom jumped in there and ran with it. It was at that point very different for him, not only to be that type of character, but also because the movie was a two-hander. It’s just these two guys basically, and they’ve got to carry the movie. Tom was never resistant to the idea of, well let’s just see what happens if we do this. I said to him once, ‘Let’s get in a car, I wonder if the audience is thinking, the brother hasn’t done anything for Raymond. I think he needs to do something so at least he has made an attempt to deal with him.’ He said, ‘Well, what about if I gave him fresh underwear? That will lead to an argument. Raymond can’t wear that because he gets his underwear in Cincinnati.’ That was the basis of the idea to just have a little something, riding in the car. The two worked really well with each other. I know it sounds like it can’t be true, but it was as good a relationship between the two guys and in terms of what we were trying to accomplish. They were both contributing, and Tom was the one who had to push this movie all the time and I think Dustin would acknowledge that. You keep slowly seeing the changes, as he becomes more emotionally attached to his brother.”

A Few Good Men

To A Few Good Men director Rob Reiner, there is just about nothing Tom Cruise can’t do as an actor, and so he was not at all surprised by the way he went toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson in his prime during that electric courtroom scene.

“I’ll tell you something. He’s a great actor,” Reiner says. “I know in the last many years he has been doing his Mission: Impossible movies and different things. It seems every really good actor, whether it’s Chris Evans or Mark Ruffalo, they are all in these big action pictures. The thing Tom used to do is, he used to balance that out. I would love to see him do some things that aren’t the franchise films. I’d seen him do things like Taps , Risky Business , and I never worried about him going up against Nicholson because Tom has an incredible work ethic. At that time, I’d never met a young actor with as much dedication as he had to the process. He worked his ass off in rehearsals. He was not only on time, but early every day, and always had his lines nailed. Never had I seen a young actor with a work ethic like this guy. He may tell you behind the scenes that he was intimidated by Jack, but I never saw it.

“When Jack came and we had the first reading of the script, he came fully loaded to work, with a performance at the table. In a table read, you’re usually just kind of marking it. And when Jack got into his performance, it just sent a message to every other young actor. Kiefer Sutherland, Tom, Demi (Moore) and Kevin Bacon and Kevin Pollack, everybody involved knew, you better step up here. We’re not messing around. Tom was always right there with it. I would love to see him play more complex characters than the ones he’s doing now because people don’t realize how great an actor this guy is.”

The Outsiders

When Francis Ford Coppola adapted the S.E. Hinton novel The Outsiders , he wound up with a cast filled with the most promising young actors in the business, from Patrick Swayze to Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio and C. Thomas Howell. Cruise’s role was smaller by comparison, but Coppola had an inkling he might be special based on how the rest of the cast buzzed about how it was Cruise who got the starring role in Risky Business , while the rest of them were confined to ensemble work.

“It’s hard for me to remember that time since I was so focused on casting all of the boys’ roles, of which there were many,” Coppola says. “In those days, I was very experimental about the way I handled auditions. I felt strongly that everyone who showed up be given a chance to show their strengths, so we held them in an open arena where everyone was able to watch the other actors’ auditions for the same roles. The method was as new to them as it was for me. Through that process, I discovered a wealth of talent from which to choose. It’s the luck of the draw I guess, but certainly Tom more than justified his promise. Risky Business was a great showcase for him, and as I recall, he left our set a few days early in order to begin production on that film.”

What stood out to Coppola was the young actor’s openness to messing with what would become his signature thousand-watt smile, to fit the character.

“I was impressed by his willingness to go to extremes in creating a character,” Coppola says. “If the role called for a chipped tooth, he would willingly chip his tooth. He is also very athletic, which you can clearly see in the scene where he backflips off a car. He did not go light or easy in his commitment. I liked his look, and I liked his performance in Taps . He might have been suitable for the older brother role, except he was a little young compared to Patrick Swayze.

“I can’t say that I would have predicted [what was to come for Cruise] at the time, but back when we worked together, he did impress me as a very committed actor with many gifts. Certainly, the incident of the self-inflicted chip in his tooth is an example of his whole-hearted commitment to character.”

Born on the Fourth of July

Oliver Stone badly wanted to tell the story of wounded Vietnam vet Ron Kovic’s transformation from gung-ho soldier to anti-war protester, and each time the film faltered, he could feel it crush the film’s subject. “I had written it with Al Pacino in mind,” Stone says. The movie fell apart when Pacino dropped out, and the project languished for years. Until Cruise sparked to it. The actor was coming off a string of hits that included Risky Business , Cocktail , Top Gun and Rain Man . He was the brightest young superstar in the business and used that clout to empower a picture that allowed him to test his acting mettle in a new way.

“I was broken hearted, and Ron was a basket case,” Stone says. “I said to Ron, ‘If I ever get the chance, I’ll come back and do it.’ Platoon opened up the world for me, and it was either Charlie Sheen or Paula Wagner who suggested Tom Cruise, who was her client. I had met with Tom, and he liked Platoon so much. Maybe no one was going to give the performance as Kovic that I’d seen Al Pacino do in rehearsals, but Tom had other qualities. He was the right age, he looked far younger [than Pacino] and he worked his ass off prior to rehearsal. He hung out with Ron Kovic for a few weeks, going around L.A. in a wheelchair and getting the moves down, getting the mentality down. Ron was such an enthusiastic teacher and Tom took everything he could and kind of fell in love with Ron in a way that he absorbed him into his performance. And they stayed in touch for many, many years.”

Stone says the shoot was grueling, but Cruise was game. “We started the film overseas in the Philippines, where Platoon was made, and for Tom and everyone else, it was a very tough shoot because of the subject matter. I remember the scenes in the hospital being especially difficult, but Tom stuck through it. I was not surprised because I saw his dedication. Tom is a person with a tremendous willpower and once he committed to the role, he really committed.”

Stone says he wondered if Cruise was saying yes to anything the director asked. “In the early scenes, I was worried because I hadn’t seen him wrestle,” Stone says. “He tells me, ‘I can wrestle.’ Well, I’ve been told that kind of thing by a lot of actors, and when you get there on the day of the shoot, when you have no f*cking time to adjust, you find out they can’t wrestle. So, I’m worried. He said, ‘Just trust me. Don’t put pressure on me, I put pressure enough on myself.’ And sure enough, he actually wrestled very well. So never doubt Tom Cruise, I suppose is the lesson.”

Minority Report

For a young actress playing a difficult role as a precognitive woman in the Spielberg-directed Minority Report , measuring up in a blockbuster can be a daunting task. For that reason, Samantha Morton says she often thinks of how much easier a difficult shoot became because of the film’s star.

“I suppose I didn’t fully appreciate how rare Tom was, but now having been in the industry so long, he’s incredibly rare,” Morton says. “Not only is he unbelievably professional, and at a time when a lot of very famous men around me were not being very professional, he was unbelievably generous to me as an actor and as a creative person in that space. And it wasn’t fake or false in a kind of job way. He is genuinely one of the nicest, kindest people I’ve ever worked with, and I cherish those memories of that experience because the job itself was very tough.”

“Mr. Spielberg was incredibly kind and supportive and they made me raise my game because they believed in me. When an actor of his caliber is on set, oftentimes those individuals can be all about the self, and here’s the opposite of that. Because of (Tom), it was, ‘What do we need to make us better?’

“I was 22 when I worked with him, and I didn’t have a huge wealth of knowledge in regards to his cinema history at the time, and I was just there to get my job done. I’ve since seen how exceptional his body of work is. He’s insanely talented and continues to be so, and I have more praise for him as the years go by. He wasn’t being like that because he had to, back then, it was just how he is.”

Morton mentions Cruise sending a coffee truck on a particularly trying day. “People do that now, but nobody did that stuff back then,” she says. “My character was always very emotional and vulnerable. And maybe I was being a bit too method for my own good at the time. But there were scenes where the character couldn’t walk, and he physically carried me all through this shopping mall because I wasn’t taking my own weight. I said, ‘Oh God, I’m so sorry,’ after I don’t know how many takes of the scene. He just smiled. A lot of other actors would have moaned, said something to the director who would have come back and said, ‘Is there any way Sam can just walk on this take?’ Not Tom. And I can tell you, his generosity and exuberance were contagious.”

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Tom Cruise’s 20 Best Performances, from ‘Top Gun’ to ‘Mission: Impossible’ to ‘Magnolia’

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Cruise has been leveraging looks and charm, and flexing his blockbuster muscles, for decades. Going all the way back to the early 1980s, his appeal never seems to age, even at 61 years old. He’s skillfully shepherded original movies as a star and producer, never falling into the trap of IP except, of course, with the franchises that are entirely his: “Top Gun,” “Mission: Impossible,” and “Jack Reacher.” Related Stories Lewis Hamilton Regretted Turning Down a Role in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’: ‘It Could’ve Been Me!’ Jerry Bruckheimer Offers ‘Top Gun 3’ Update: Joseph Kosinski Is Developing a ‘Wonderful’ Story Idea for Tom Cruise

While some may say that Cruise’s sculpted movie star image lacks a certain vulnerability, many of the films below showcase his gifts for dramatic acting, proving him more than just a deft maneuverer of box office and death-defying stunts — though he is, of course, all those things.

Cruise may in fact be the Last Movie Star in a time where such a nomenclature doesn’t really mean much anymore. He’s worked with smart directors — from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Stanley Kubrick — often chasing them down himself with a wicked idea or hopes for a collaboration. He’s thrived and held his own alongside iconic movie stars in classics, from Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men” to Paul Newman in “The Color of Money,” and even in duds alongside the likes of Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (“Lions for Lambs,” anyone?).

As we saw from the way he stood up against COVID rule-breakers on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7,” he cares about his collaborators and the work. And with “Dead Reckoning Part One” heading to theaters this week, Cruise has a brand new chance to showcase his charisma and talent for pulling off death-defying stunts onscreen.

Samantha Bergeson, Christian Blauvelt, and Kate Erbland also contributed to this story.

“Risky Business” (1983)

Few actors embodied the ‘80s as a time of simultaneous repression and entitlement like Tom Cruise in “Risky Business.” Paul Brickman’s capitalist satire, with its silky Tangerine Dream score and night cinematography by Bruce Surtees and Reynaldo Villalobos worthy of a Wong Kar-Wai movie, finds Cruise’s high school senior Joel having sex with a call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) on a dare and getting entangled in her orbit until he’s running a brothel from his house. He certainly expresses both an attraction and terror about losing his virginity, but morality or prudishness about profiting from sex workers? Hardly, despite the white-collar suburban setting. That is, after all, a world of materialism, of transactions, and running a brothel out of one’s home isn’t transgressive — it’s entrepreneurship. Or “human fulfillment,” the corporate buzzword label Joel gives it.

“Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick” (1986, 2022)

Tom Cruise is both a great actor and a great movie star, two jobs that often overlap but don’t necessarily have to. The first “Top Gun” is a quintessential movie star performance from Cruise, relying more on excellent vibes than challenging character work. Pete Mitchell, aka Maverick, is a brilliant but cocky pilot, and we’re occasionally reminded that he’s tortured by the death of his father. But really, the movie is an excuse for Tom Cruise to wear cool sunglasses and leather jackets while he operates cool planes and motorcycles. No shame in that game, and Cruise can do it as well as anyone. But “Top Gun: Maverick” takes those good vibes and builds on them, and an aging Cruise turns the character into something much more three-dimensional as Maverick confronts the possibility of losing the life he has grown to love. Each movie is great in its own way, but the combination of the two serves as a perfect illustration of Tom Cruise’s unique set of skills. — CZ

“The Color of Money” (1986)

All you need to know about Cruise’s performance as Vincent — beyond the fact that he’s the kind of character who, totally unironically, wears a T-shirt printed up with just his name in massive letters across the chest —  is contained in the iconic “Werewolves of London” sequence . Vince faces off against a fierce competitor just for kicks, displaying wild cockiness, total resilience, and a major panache for pool-playing that shouldn’t surprise anyone up to snuff on his dedication to practical stunts. The actor practiced for months on end and ultimately completed nearly every one of Vince’s trick shots on his own, but that’s not even the marquee attraction here: instead, it’s Cruise’s full-force charm. “Top Gun” made the initial case, but “The Color of Money” sealed it. — KE

“Rain Man” (1988)

“Born on the Fourth of July” (1989)

Based on Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic’s autobiography, “Born on the Fourth of July” starred Tom Cruise as an anti-war activist grappling with PTSD after being paralyzed in military service. Kovic’s life is depicted over the course of two decades onscreen; fellow Vietnam vet Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic and directed the Oscar-winning film. Despite Al Pacino originally being attached to the lead role, Cruise carved out his iconic performance and received his first Academy Award nomination. Stone went on to win for Best Director, with the film also taking home Best Editing.

“Days of Thunder” (1990)

A sweat-soaked hotshot with a devil-may-care attitude and a taste for speed, danger, and zero gets handed a plum assignment that feeds all those desires and more. His love interest is smarter than him (and knows it). He rubs everyone the wrong way (including the similarly hotshot-y dudes also jockeying for a spot). He begrudgingly accepts a stately mentor. His unlikely best pal is grievously injured while on the clock. The soundtrack is a banger. Tony Scott directs.

No, this isn’t “Top Gun” — it’s the racecar drama “Days of Thunder,” which vroomed into theaters four years after the high-flying aviation hit, packed to the goddamn gills with the same elements that made the previous entry such a heart-pounder. As Cole Trickle, Cruise captures the same bravado and ballsy attitude as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but in a decidedly earth-bound conveyance.

“A Few Good Men” (1992)

“The Firm” meets “Top Gun” is probably the simplest way to explain Aaron Sorkin’s complicated legal drama starring Tom Cruise and directed for the screen by Rob Reiner.

Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a military attorney who is assigned a murder case involving three Marines. Demi Moore is Kaffee’s fellow lawyer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway who questions Kaffee’s motives and approach to the case.

The duo question officers at Guantanamo Bay as they uncover a conspiracy involving corrupt witness accounts and bogus testimony.

Jack Nicholson stars as Colonel Nathan Jessup, who defends the practices of his Marine unit, and Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, and Cuba Gooding Jr. round out the ensemble cast.

The film was applauded by critics upon release in 1992, with its acclaim marking the Cruise star vehicle as the “anti-‘Top Gun.’” “A Few Good Men” was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. — SB

“The Firm” (1993)

Gene Hackman plays Mitch’s boss Avery, while Ed Harris is an FBI agent using Cruise to expose the Firm’s corrupt offshore dealings and Chicago mob ties. Mitch’s legal prowess leads him to a private investigator (Gary Busey) and an ingenious secretary (Holly Hunter, who landed an Oscar nomination for the role) but leaves countless bodies in his wake. The cat and mouse thriller is anchored by Cruise’s signature smile and innate ability to build tension through his typically fierce determination to prove the truth. Call it Cruise’s good guy version of “American Psycho,” if you will, because you’ll never look at a lawyer the same way again. — SB

“Interview With the Vampire” (1994)

“Mission: Impossible” (1996 and onward)

Tom Cruise seamlessly shifted into the action star status era of his career with 1996’s “Mission: Impossible.” Based on the action spy series of the same name, the film franchise has endured over 25 years of billion-dollar profits to date. Cruise transformed into charismatic CIA agent Ethan Hunt who leads the Impossible Missions Force. Brian De Palma directed the first film, originally with Cruise set to reteam with “The Firm” filmmaker Sydney Pollack before De Palma took over.

“Jerry Maguire” (1996)

For years, conceiving a great Tom Cruise role was as simple as coming up with a cool job that lots of men wanted. Fighter pilot? Check. Pool hustler? Cruise played one. Hot bartender? Ditto. So it was almost inevitable that he would play a sports agent at some point, and Cameron Crowe gave him a beautiful vehicle to do just that in “Jerry Maguire.” While the idea of a rom-com set in the world of sports may be the greatest marketing ploy of all time, the endlessly quotable film is elevated by a thoughtful script and great performances from Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger. But it’s Cruise’s singular charm that ties the movie together, seamlessly alternating between alpha-male swagger and sentimental romance without ever missing a beat. It’s the kind of performance that reminds cinephiles what a real movie star is. — CZ

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)

Kubrick stops short of stripping him down to that degree, but the filmmaker disarms Cruise into giving one of his most exposed turns. (Recall an earlier scene in the film, when a marauding pack of frat boys flings gay slurs at Dr. Bill, a moment that calls the character’s, and by extension the actor’s, masculinity into question.) When the masquerade is over, and he finally heads back to a sleeping Alice, only to see the Venetian mask he wore to the orgy displayed on the pillow next to her, he breaks down. “I’ll tell you everything,” he weeps. Kubrick doesn’t show what happens then, instead cutting to an emptied-out Alice smoking blankly, having now absorbed his confession. No matter, as Cruise’s sometimes arch but inevitably denuded performance up to here tells us what we need to know about this offscreen moment. And then, of course, there’s that one thing Bill and Alice need to do as soon as possible. — RL

“Magnolia” (1999)

Cruise had jitters over taking on the role of Frank T.J. Mackey in Anderson’s sprawling San Fernando Valley love letter “Magnolia,” and that’s unsurprising given the leaps he takes. (And singing Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” in-camera? How’s that for vulnerability.) The character, a motivational speaker peddling misogynistic pickup tips with wildly slung onstage maxims like “respect the cock” and “tame the cunt,” is all sorts of unpleasant. He’s viciously guarded toward a broadcast journalist interrogating his toxic male persona, preening and jumping around in his underwear in a moment that might anticipate the real actor’s eventual “Oprah” onstage meltdown. Frank dodges questions about his estranged, ailing father (Jason Robards), obviously hiding volcanic levels of trauma. But in a movie where “we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us,” Frank ultimately has to pay his tab. Cruise scored a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination most certainly for a cathartic deathbed breakdown in the movie’s operatic climax, clinging to his cancer-riddled father’s last rattle of life and watching redemption slip away. It’s the most moving single-scene performance of Cruise’s career. — RL

“Vanilla Sky” (2001)

Despite the movie’s constantly shifting timeline, Cruise conveys a compelling and coherent emotional arc, whether withdrawing into depression or huffing the fumes of his megalomania. With “Magnolia” and “Eyes Wide Shut” before it, “Vanilla Sky” capped a period of Cruise opening himself up emotionally to audiences. No other actor could better sell the wincingly cheesy line, with David tipping over a Manhattan high-rise ledge at the end (or beginning?) of his life, “I’ll see you in another life when we are both cats.” — RL

“Minority Report” (2002)

“Collateral” (2004)

When Tom Cruise gives that unblinking, intense eye contact — come on, you know you’ve seen it in interviews as well as in movies — you can either think this is the most committed, fully realized performer (or, maybe, human?) in existence, or that he’s an “American Psycho” type come to life. So of course he had to play a serial killer at least once. Not just any serial killer, though. One who is a professional and demonstrates the level of professionalism Cruise brings to everything he does himself. His Vincent in Michael Mann’s “Collateral” is meticulous, and he comes up with a unique plan. He’ll hire an ordinary Los Angeles cabbie, Max (Jamie Foxx), to drive him around the City of Angels to carry out his hits in the course of one night. Cruise has been able to do something the past couple of decades that few others have managed: to make action thrillers that are also character studies, and “Collateral” is the ne plus ultra of that combination. His character’s shock of silver hair notwithstanding, this unexpectedly haunting movie is pure gold. — CB

“War of the Worlds” (2005)

“Tropic Thunder” (2008)

Tom Cruise may have spent much of the 21st century cementing his status as the world’s greatest action star, but his surprise cameo in “Tropic Thunder” proved he can do comedy with the best of them. Cruise donned a fat suit and prosthetics to play studio executive Les Grossman, delivering a masterclass in the creative use of profanity (in addition to some legendary dancing to Flo Rida). Considering how carefully Cruise guards his image, seeing the movie star randomly pop up in a comedy and cut loose with an unhinged performance is a singular cinematic treat. — CZ

“Oblivion” (2013)

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)

Part of what makes Cruise such a good movie star is that he helps the casts around him shine. As larger-than-life as he can be, he’s also a generous scene partner that builds wonderful dynamics with his co-stars (see how good he and Rebecca Ferguson are playing off each other in the “Mission: Impossible” movies for proof). One of the clearest cases of this is “Edge of Tomorrow,” the highly underrated action film he headlined in 2014. Playing a public relations officer in a future where humanity is at war with alien “mimics,” Cruise is a blast. He’s cast slightly against type as a clueless wimp in over his head; especially after he gets stuck in a time loop where he repeats the same 24 hours after being killed in combat. But the best performance in the film is from Emily Blunt as the seasoned veteran he allies with, and Cruise is more than happy to give her the spotlight she deserves, while still delivering sparky chemistry. –WC

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Every Tom Cruise Movie Performance, Ranked

No one better than Tom Cruise exemplifies the breed of megastars who dawned during the 1980s, felt like gods during the 1990s, and are now a curious class of their own in the twilight of the traditional stardom they represent. Since the early ’80s, Cruise steadily and successfully carved out a career fueled by his boyish megawatt smile, a practiced brand of charisma, and an interest in physically throwing himself into his roles with dangerous gusto. His work has run the gamut. He’s swaggered through dramas, romantic comedies, heaps of science fiction, and most often, action films — including his latest, Mission: Impossible — Fallout . In honor of the actor’s latest big-screen spectacle, we revisited and ranked all of Cruise’s performances in order to interrogate why he’s remained such a fixture in the public imagination all these years.

42. Rock of Ages (2012)

The worst thing a star can do is refuse to grow. Cruise has had performances that reached high yet fell short, but in his turn as rock star Stacee Jaxx, he’s never been more unengaging or laughable. Jaxx illustrates the reasons for many of Cruise’s recent duds: a lack of self-awareness, a refusal to adapt as he’s grown older, an element of humorlessness. Watching Cruise shirtless-singing to ’80s metal hits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me” tips into self-parody. It’s a train wreck of a performance that lacks any of the charm necessary to not come across as an unintentional joke, making this Cruise role hard to forget for all the wrong reasons.

41. The Mummy (2017)

No matter how miscalculated his moves, Tom Cruise isn’t usually the kind of actor you’d ever call listless. He’s known for that manic energy and sheer force of will that marks so much of his work. But in The Mummy, playing Sergeant Nick Morton — a military man who unintentionally unearths the tomb of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who haunts him after choosing him to be the vessel for the god Set for some damn reason — Cruise is drained of any energy. He leaves no distinct impression; the part feels like it could be played by anyone and no one in particular. It doesn’t help that the film is more or less terrible, but sometimes Cruise can rise above that. Not this time: His performance comes up empty.

40. Endless Love (1981)

Cruise’s first big-screen appearance is a brief role in this 1981 romantic drama about a bunch of teenagers in the Chicago suburbs. It has none of the vitality to hint at the star Cruise would become later in the decade. (Also, 19-year old Cruise has a surprisingly high-pitched, annoying voice.)

39. Losin ’ It (1983)

Losin’ It is one of a string of films that pockmarked the decade that brought Cruise to prominence. They are failures to be sure, but forgettable enough to not rank lower. This charmless teen comedy, hinging on a group of friends trying to lose their virginities, marks Cruise’s first starring role, one that’s unfortunately saddled by dullness. There’s not enough appeal here to make this more than a masochistic exercise for Tom Cruise completists.

38. Cocktail (1988)

For some, Cocktail is a beloved albeit thoroughly ridiculous testament to the cinematic excesses of the 1980s. To others (including myself), it’s a testament to how easily Cruise can read as loathsome and smarmy rather than buoyantly alluring. The film focuses on Brian Flanagan (Cruise), a student who turns to bartending to make ends meet. Cruise is energetic to a manic degree (which doesn’t always work in his favor), producing a vibe that repels rather than seduces.

37. Legend (1985)

I have a bit of a soft spot for this Ridley Scott–helmed dark fable, one of Cruise’s only forays into fantasy territory. But it’s hard to ignore how miscast he is as the adventurous, dashing young man saving his beloved from the Lord of Darkness (an unrecognizable and amazing Tim Curry). He’s a bit lost and even seems perpetually confused in this muddled story, unable to create the gravitational pull he’d go on to prove capable of elsewhere.

36. Knight and Day (2010)

Knight and Day reteams Cameron Diaz with Cruise in a markedly different film than their first collaboration, Vanilla Sky. This spy/romantic romp should play to Cruise’s strengths, but there’s something severely miscalculated about his performance as Roy Miller, an oddball superspy on the run who ropes Cameron Diaz’s everywoman into his mission against her will. What’s supposed to be played as eccentric ends up falling into an uncomfortable territory that kills any sense of romance or intrigue. This role, more than any other he’s played, shows how easy it is for the hypercapable, badass superspy character to tip into asshole/know-it-all territory, more eye-roll-worthy than charming.

35. Lions for Lambs (2007)

Tom Cruise seems tailor-made for the role of a Republican senator pointedly trying to cajole and enchant a liberal-minded journalist (Meryl Streep) in order to get positive coverage for a new initiative in this muddled Iraq War drama. But he lacks the slipperiness and conviction necessary to elevate the dialogue, and the movie suffers for it, coming across as a well-intentioned morality play with little heft.

34. Far and Away (1992)

It is often said about actors of Cruise’s stature that they are merely stars that play themselves again and again. It’s an argument I disagree with for a number of reasons. In Far and Away, the tepid 1992 romantic drama directed by Ron Howard, it’s clear Cruise purposefully working against that notion — but in all the wrong ways. He adopts a shaky Irish accent in order to play a boxer/immigrant who joins Shannon Christie (Nicole Kidman) in America looking for a better life. Cruise gives it his all.

But he’s an actor best suited for our times, coming across as uncomfortable in period dressing. His energy and style is far too modern to pull this off completely, although his chemistry with Kidman remains a bright spot in an otherwise drab entry.

33. Days of Thunder (1990)

I can see how Days of Thunder seemed like a good idea, as it reteams Cruise with Top Gun director Tony Scott. And Cruise, as a race-car driver trying to make a name for himself, does have nice rapports with co-stars Robert Duvall and Nicole Kidman. But it isn’t enough to craft a strong emotional center to what is an ultimately bland performance.

32. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

This misguided, tonally confused sequel is an example of a decent Tom Cruise performance dragged down by the lackluster film that surrounds him. Cruise is highly dedicated as the titular character, going at it with a scrappiness and sense of focus that’s fun to watch. Unfortunately, he’s burdened by a makeshift family story line (which includes Cobie Smulder as a wrongfully framed colleague and a teenager who may be Reacher’s daughter?) as he goes on the run. Cruise admirably nails the action-oriented scenes, but when he’s called to sell the emotional reality of his predicament (particularly with his maybe-daughter character) he fails to deliver.

31. The Last Samurai (2003)

Cruise is widely considered one of the last stars in today’s Hollywood ecosystem whose sheer force of personality and high-wattage smile is a brand unto itself. But not even he has enough confidence to distract from how ill-formed this bloated epic is, or how ill-suited he is to lead it. Cruise himself doesn’t seem convinced in his portrayal of the bitter, alcoholic war veteran who travels to Japan and finds himself fighting alongside the rebellion he was originally tasked to help quell. This is just more fuel for my belief that something about Cruise’s energy is all wrong for period pieces (except for one example that comes later) — especially a 19th-century period piece set in Japan. Co-star Ken Watanabe provides the authenticity and complexity that Cruise lacks, leading him to steal the film entirely.

30. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

After the success of the first outing, the franchise moves into vastly different territory, thanks to Hong Kong action legend John Woo and screenwriter Robert Towne doing a  very obvious riff on Hitchcock’s Notorious and, more broadly, operatic action films that rely on a lot of slow-motion. These qualities are important to understanding what doesn’t work about Cruise’s performance as he’s asked to handle clashing tones and earnest romance, leaving him out of his depth. A part of me actually enjoys his chemistry with leading lady Thandie Newton, who plays an amoral thief. Unfortunately, Cruise sometimes tips into skeezy territory, and his best action work relies on a sort of simpleness that Mission: Impossible 2 seems allergic to. Despite his considerable efforts, Cruise often gets lost in the movie’s bombast.

29. The Firm (1993)

I’ve seen The Firm several times, but not much of it, including Tom Cruise’s starring performance, sticks with me. It’s a capably structured legal thriller but not much else. Cruise seems disconnected from the story, lacking the right mix of raw-nerved paranoia and intensity to rise above the admittedly lacking narrative. Mark this as another solid but otherwise uneventful performance.

28. The Outsiders (1983)

With a supporting role in Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s beloved classic, Cruise turns in a solid if not altogether memorable turn, dimmed a bit by the presence of his more fascinating co-stars, including a magnetic Patrick Swayze.

27. All the Right Moves (1983)

As a football player hell-bent on leaving his dead-end small town with a scholarship, Cruise provides the kind of tender and heartfelt performance the film calls far. He convincingly communicates the intensity and grandeur that comes with high-school sports, in which every win or loss feels like a harbinger for rest of your life.

26. Valkyrie (2008)

Cruise was far from the best choice to play doomed German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg, who aims to assassinate Adolf Hitler and undermine the Nazi Party with his dedicated crew of peers. But he actually finds a nice rhythm as the stakes for his character escalate, even if he doesn’t bring the kind of electricity needed to stand out from the film’s ensemble.

25. Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015)

After the critical failure of Mission: Impossible 2, the franchise course-corrected; any sort of emotional arc would play a distant second to Cruise’s interest in difficult stuntwork. Good: The franchise is pure thrill-ride cotton candy. Still, not all thrill rides are created equal. Cruise’s return as superspy Ethan Hunt has its pleasures, yes; a particular highlight is watching Cruise work with Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust, an undercover MI6 agent with steely intensity. The primary joy of Rogue Nation , however, is in watching Cruise pivot from one action scene to another, running with a peerless frenzy. It’s fun one, if a bit weightless.

24. Vanilla Sky (2001)

Cruise’s work in Cameron Crowe’s trippy, messy psychological thriller is best described as an admirable failure. He plays David Aames, a rich and powerful publisher whose romantic cruelty has disastrous results when a former paramour (an unhinged Cameron Diaz) drives their car off a bridge. Post-accident Ames is disfigured and plagued by visions that question the nature of his reality. Unsurprisingly, Cruise is able to play up Aames’s narcissistic and exacting qualities, but as the film ventures into more confusing, less emotionally well-thought out territory, he loses hold of the character.

23. Taps (1981)

Taps was only Tom Cruise’s second performance on the big screen , but it already shows the nascent version of a character type he’d later perfect: a man who’s determined to the point of psychosis. Cruise plays Cadet Captain David Shawn, a rigid young man whose youthful aggression becomes sinister when his fellow military students decide to take over their school in hopes of saving it from closing. He proves to be the perfect foil for the conflicted Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer (Sean Penn) and more thoughtful lead Cadet Major Brian Moreland (Timothy Hutton). Cruise’s performance lacks the fine-tuning he’d demonstrate down the line, but it is an impressive early turn that nearly dominates the entire film and proves his star presence.

22. Jack Reacher (2012)

What makes a truly good action film? I’m talking about the bare-bones qualities of an action film that forgoes the fantasy or horror gleam that many modern examples have these days. I’ve thought about this question a lot, especially while watching Tom Cruise in his first appearance as the titular Jack Reacher, a bruising U.S. Army military police corps officer with no fixed address. Cruise is notably completely wrong if you’re looking for a direct adaptation of the Lee Childs hero. His fights are more brutal and occur in closer range. His humor veers from dry to downright caustic. He’s a bit darker-edged than the typical lead Cruise tends to adopt. And while there are moments when Cruise doesn’t quite nail the tone — or the blunt, vaguely offensive jokes (like the clip above demonstrates) — this performance still holds many delights.

21. American Made (2017)

American Made is a confused film, unsure whether it wants to be a glossy Hollywood anti-hero romp or a grimy 1970s crime flick. Tom Cruise’s leading performance as Barry Seal — a perpetually sweat-drenched hot-shot TWA pilot turned gun/drug runner for the American government and narcotics smuggler for the Medellín cartel — reflects that confusion. It isn’t a wholly terrible performance. Cruise is engaging, carrying a blend of cocksure bravado and befuddlement at the sheer ridiculousness of the situations he finds himself in. American Made feels like an throwback to Cruise’s well-worn playbook; it’s particularly in line with his work in Top Gun. It’s mostly fun, though Cruise does lose points for trying (and failing) to pull off a Baton Rouge accent that can be best described as Generic Southern Accent That Doesn’t Really Exist™.

20. Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol (2011)

Ghost Protocol sees the MI franchise eschew even the semblance of reality. It’s full-on cartoonish, bombastic action, and it’s clear Cruise is having a ball with the increasingly inventive dilemmas his superspy is forced into. Ethan Hunt is a bit more world-weary here than he’s been before (can you blame him?), but the film never gets dour thanks to Cruise’s great chemistry with castmates Simon Pegg and Paula Patton.

19. Tropic Thunder (2008)

To survive at Cruise’s level of stardom, you have to understand how the business works. That veteran insider knowledge goes to great use in his small but uproarious turn in Tropic Thunder. He’s nearly unrecognizable as studio exec Les Grossman, who makes venomous, expletive-laden insults an art form. But Cruise’s approach to the character is the chilling undercurrent he lends Grossman. Just look at the dead-eyed glare he gives Matthew McConaughey when he calmly explains how to use an actor’s death to his own advantage. It’s rare but refreshing to see Cruise cut loose and be a little less concerned about endearing himself to the audience.

18. Oblivion (2013)

At first blush, Oblivion looks to embody some of the more noxious issues that mark a lot of recent Cruise work: a sterile action film with a science-fiction sheen; thin emotional through lines; Cruise paired with actresses notably younger than he is . Thankfully, Oblivion proves to be a fascinating, if uneven, study on the nature of loss, much of which is thanks to Cruise’s turn as a futuristic repairman in Earth’s devastated future — a role that gives him the opportunity to stretch a bit more than he’s had to lately.

17. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Edge of Tomorrow adds new wrinkles to the typically hypercompetent military figure he’s played elsewhere. This time he’s an official with no combat training thrust into a messy war with an alien species — and he dies nearly immediately when he hits the battlefield. He ends up reliving his final day again and again, dying in creative ways each time. In truth, the movie’s true badass is a curt Emily Blunt as Sergeant Rita Vrataski, who whips him into shape, creating a fun tension between the two. But it’s exhilarating to watch Cruise lean into the physical humor and meld together the various personae that have come to define his career as a leading man.

16. A Few Good Men (1992)

Legal dramas — particularly those written by the likes of Aaron Sorkin — can be tricky pursuits for actors, requiring a verbal dexterity that can easily overpower them. But Cruise is excellent here, conveying an ease and gravitas as Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, who must work a thorny case when a Marine is murdered and a cover-up ensues. Cruise more than holds his own against the bluster of Jack Nicholson, an actor who can easily dominate whatever scene he’s in. But by the end of the film Cruise has a confidence and steadfast demeanor that proves to be a fascinating, subtle transformation.

15. The Color of Money (1986)

In an interview on Inside the Actors Studio , when discussing this Martin Scorsese–helmed sequel to The Hustler, Cruise described co-star Paul Newman as an idol. It’s clear here that Cruise is learning from Newman’s trademark ease and depth as an actor, rising to the challenge the movie asks of him. Cruise has played plenty of young, talented hot shots early in his career, but his work as Vincent Lauria is particularly noteworthy for the exuberance he carries, and how wonderfully he plays off the weary Newman.

14. Risky Business (1983)

In her excellent essay collection This Is Running for Your Life, Michelle Orange wrote, “True movie stars are born twice.” She’s right. There is, of course, the first story of how their stardom happened. The second birth is when they do something fans can’t forget, moments that became singed into the cultural consciousness. Cruise has produced a handful of them, but one of the most important happens here , when he dances to “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Bob Seger. Risky Business helped launch Cruise’s stardom, and it’s no wonder why.

13. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Tom Cruise has not appeared in many romantic comedies, and for good reason. Not many modern rom-coms could play toward his strengths — that practiced allure, the charming opportunism behind his easy-but-calculated smile, and the distinct impression that he’s holding something back. All of these qualities are used to great effect in this Cameron Crowe rom-com/sports drama, which gives Cruise some of his most iconic lines. But most importantly, it gives him a venue to chart a fascinating progression from a self-obsessed sports manager with shadings of a classic fuckboy to a man who reckons sincerely with his more loathsome instincts.

12. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

The third installment of what’s now Cruise’s signature franchise sees Ethan Hunt retired from fieldwork, training new recruits, and eventually squaring off with Philip Seymour Hoffman, who relishes and dominates every scene he’s in. The story line involving Michelle Monaghan as Hunt’s kept-in-the-dark fiancée has some well-worn beats, but Cruise is still an absolute pleasure to watch. The film’s otherwise excellent team dynamics allow him to expand his repertoire within the franchise, showing off some wry humor and even a surprising tenderness opposite Keri Russell.

11. Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

During its short time thus far in theaters, Mission:Impossible — Fallout has proven to be an action master class, marrying ridiculous plot turns with astounding set pieces. Cruise matches the bravura of the film around him with gusto. He throws himself headlong into his outrageous stunts — one of which led to an injury, which brings up a host of questions about how his career can continue in this manner. But Cruise is a blast to watch as he navigates confusion and double crosses, his performance dented only by the requirement of traditional romance (although his scenes with Michelle Monaghan bristle with an intriguing awkwardness). He shares the glory here with some great supporting cast, most notably Henry Cavill’s surprisingly effective turn as a bruiser with slippery loyalty and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa, the gimlet-eyed agent turned quasi–love interest.

10. Rain Man (1988)

While Cruise is obviously adept at providing the presence and physical dexterity action films require, his skills as an actor really shine through in drama films of this caliber. Rain Man gives Cruise the chance to stretch his abilities without resting on his typical charms. The entire film depends on his ability to capably communicate his character’s tricky arc: Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, an unscrupulous and cunning yuppie who finds out that most of his estranged father’s estate is being given to an older brother he didn’t know about (Dustin Hoffman in an Oscar-winning role). As the two brothers travel across the country, Cruise delivers a genuinely touching portrayal of a man shedding his abrasive, self-centered nature to become a protective, tenderhearted brother. He has rarely felt so vulnerable onscreen.

9. Top Gun (1986)

Maverick is the quintessential cocksure, determined, highly skilled leading character that Cruise has spent a career perfecting. For many people, Top Gun is synonymous with the actor — it’s the first image they think of when they think of Tom Cruise. And while the film, directed by Tony Scott, exemplifies some of the worst aspects of Reagan-era America, Cruise himself isn’t dragged down by this one bit. It’s easy to see why this performance has left such an impact on the pop-culture imagination. His physical bravado, confidence, and joyfulness cast a spell.

8. Mission: Impossible (1996)

It’s easy to believe that Tom Cruise The Action Star has always been with us. But Mission: Impossible is when he became the real-life action figure we know him as today. And what a doozy it is. Helmed by Brian de Palma, in the film Cruise effortlessly toggles between espionage-thriller mood and impactful physicality. The movie perfectly demonstrates how smoothly Cruise can shift between tones when he needs to — just look at the infamous Pentagon break-in sequence, where he blends sweaty anxiety with light humor and, on top of all that, the action-movie tension needed to make it all work.

7. Minority Report (2002)

Minority Report is a sleek, absorbing science-fiction yarn that manages to turn a Philip K. Dick story into an expressive blockbuster action film. But Tom Cruise’s performance as John Anderton, an on-the-run detective in a futuristic world in which people can be arrested for crimes before they’ve even committed them, pushes the dark social commentary and exhilarating nature of the story to new heights. As Anderton, Cruise marries the best of his genre-film talents into one impressively gripping performance. There’s a haunted quality to his Anderton, the kind of man who carries his past wounds with him. Cruise proves to be extremely potent as a neo-noir lead.

6. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

This adaptation of the autobiography of the same name by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic (played by Cruise) is an emotional gauntlet for the actor — and it requires a dramatic physical transformation too. I’ve lamented Cruise’s work in period pieces, but he works well in this film’s ’60s and ’70s settings. One of Cruise’s specialties is to dissect the American myth, and he gets ample opportunity to do so here as he charts Kovic’s transformation from a fresh-faced soldier to an emotionally wounded, paralyzed, war-protesting vet. A mirror opposite of the more traditional military leads Cruise tends to play, his performance here is arresting, raw, and powerful.

5. War of the Worlds (2005)

Cruise is not exactly the first actor you’d expect to play an Everyman like Ray Ferrier, the longshoreman at the heart of Steven Spielberg’s 2005 sci-fi epic . But he brings gravity and heart to the central dynamic of the film — Ferrier’s desire not to be a failure as a father, and the all-consuming goal to protect his children from the alien havoc decimating the world. It’s an excellent, absorbing, humane performance that sees Cruise’s typical mania soften into a heartwarming dedication to save his family.

4. Magnolia (1999)

Few modern actors understand the mask-like quality of celebrity better than Tom Cruise, who interrogates these ideas with aplomb in Magnolia. Has Cruise ever been more utterly disturbing or strangely entrancing than as self-help guru and living embodiment of toxic masculinity Frank T.J. Mackey? Cruise only plays a supporting role here, but he’s what the viewer is drawn to most; he embodies modern masculinity’s most noxious qualities. And when all that bravado is threatened by the mere mention of his family, the way Cruise communicates the damaged vulnerability lurking beneath the surface is a marvel.

3. Collateral (2004)

In a Black Book interview, director Mary Harron shared that actor Christian Bale found inspiration for American Psycho ’s obsessive serial killer Patrick Bateman in Tom Cruise. “We talked about how Martian-like Patrick Bateman was, how he was looking at the world like somebody from another planet, watching what people did and trying to work out the right way to behave. And then one day he called me and he had been watching Tom Cruise on David Letterman, and he just had this very intense friendliness with nothing behind the eyes, and he was really taken with this energy.” It’s for precisely this reason why Cruise never feels like a truly capable romantic lead: There’s something practiced, even unnatural about his charisma, like a mask being worn. Most directors miss out on this quality, but Michael Mann capitalized on it. Cruise delivers one of his most assured and complex performances as Vincent, a hit man who ropes in an unsuspecting cabdriver played by Jamie Foxx. Cruise’s charisma is finally used as a weapon, not a lure.

2. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Dr. Bill Hartford is an unlikely part for Cruise. He’s humiliated, confused, and frequently out of his depth in Stanley Kubrick’s odd erotic drama Eyes Wide Shut. But it proves to be one of Cruise’s richest and most complex performances as he navigates a strange milieu of sexual desire. The tension between him and then-wife Nicole Kidman, playing his movie wife Alice Hartford, along with Cruise’s utter lack of an equilibrium make this as much about sexuality as it is about the trials and tribulations we endure to find any sense of happiness.

1. Interview With the Vampire (1994)

Lestat, the preening and egotistical creation by Gothic novelist Anne Rice, is the photo negative of a typical Tom Cruise role — at least that’s how he seems at first. He doesn’t run or channel manic energy or do stunt work; he saunters and stalks with the coolly focused energy of a wolf. He’s languid and frightening, lupine and menacing. But Lestat does share one trait that snakes its way through Cruise’s greatest work: bold narcissism. Interview With the Vampire allows Cruise to lean into that. It lets Cruise be something he’s rarely been — archly humorous, disturbingly erotic, truly dangerous. It’s wondrous watching him turn from sincere to brutal as he plays off the cheerfully cruel Kirsten Dunst and the solemn Brad Pitt.

More importantly, this is one of the rare performances in which Cruise utterly cuts loose and experiments beyond the usual archetypes he’s grown accustomed to. It isn’t a perfect performance — it’s better than that. Beguiling and malevolently anti-charismatic, Cruise has never been more fun to watch.

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The 10 Best Reviewed Tom Cruise Movies According to Rotten Tomatoes

Tom Cruise has proven to be one of Hollywood’s most consistent actors, starring in top-tier movies such as Edge of Tomorrow and Top Gun: Maverick.

Quick Links

• The Color of Money Explored the World of Pool Hustling
• Rain Main Showed the Emotional Range of Tom Cruise
• Minority Report Combined Big Ideas with Blockbuster Action
• Edge of Tomorrow Showcased a Unique Sci-Fi Romance
• Risky Business Was Cruise's Coming of Age Moment
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Tested Ethan Hunt's Limits
• Tom Cruise's Plane Stunt Defined Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
• Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Thrived in 2023
• Top Gun: Maverick Revived a Legendary Tale
• Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a Tom Cruise Masterpiece

Tom Cruise is one of the most important and dynamic action stars of all time. From jumping off of roofs to playing a pool hustler, Cruise has always found a way to capture the audience. Even when it comes to genre, the Oscar-nominated actor has been all over the map, capable of playing a silly teen or goofy villain. Stand-out performances like his aggressive portrayal of Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder or his dynamic excitement as an agent in Jerry Maguire can be forgotten in the sea of great Tom Cruise movies.

From his start in the 1980s to today, Tom Cruise has always brought audiences new reasons to see his films. He has made audiences laugh, cry, hold their breath and everything in between. But ultimately, even actors with the longest careers have to have some performances and movies that are considered their best. In this case, Cruise's highest rated films have left a special impact on his career, and have helped him become the star he is today.

10 The Color of Money Explored the World of Pool Hustling

Directed by Martin Scorsese, The Color of Money was one of the first showcases of Tom Cruise's talent. Cruise plays Vincent Lauria, the understudy of a pool hustler by the name of Eddie Felson. Being able to excel and shine in a supporting role shows the quality of an actor, especially early in their career.

Through his performance, and being able to learn from an actor like Paul Newman (who would win best leading actor for his portrayal of Felson at the Oscars), it was clear Tom Cruise was on his way to a great career. The Color of Money will always have its place in Tom's lengthy filmography thanks to his charisma (and arrogance) in the role. His ability to sell the cocky and naive nature of an understudy were a credit to his acting abilities.

9 Rain Main Showed the Emotional Range of Tom Cruise

10 best jason statham movies, ranked.

Rain Man centers around Charlie Babbitt, who is a car dealer grappling with the recent loss of his dad. On learning that his father left millions to his brother Raymond's mental institution, Charlie sets off on a trip. Dustin Hoffman plays Raymond , an autistic character with great intelligence. Through their journey together, Babbitt discovers a lot about his brother's unique abilities, leading to an interesting and touching family dynamic.

Cruise's portrayal of Babbitt delivered a performance that was emotional and meaningful, creating great chemistry with his on-screen brother. It is films like this that show Tom Cruise as more than just an action star, but a truly special performer that can evoke emotion out of an audience. Even decades after its release, Rain Man is a prominent film.

8 Minority Report Combined Big Ideas with Blockbuster Action

With some previous action roles under his belt, Cruise effortlessly played Chief Paul Anderton in 2002's Minority Report . Anderton is responsible for the “Pre-Crime Unit”, which is used to prevent future crimes through psychic tech. The problem is, Anderton is deemed a future murderer himself, and he must deal with the consequences of that label. This kicks off a plot that forces Cruise's character to deal with the threats of both his present and future.

Following the first two Mission: Impossible films, Minority Report helped cement Cruise as the main action star of Hollywood. His ability to sell the action effectively, while also making people root for his character, was an impressive feat. His performance would sell the desperate and sensitive situation that Chief Anderton was in. The blueprint for Cruise's success was there when it came to action movies, and he would get even better after this big hit.

7 Edge of Tomorrow Showcased a Unique Sci-Fi Romance

Emily blunt hopes to reunite with tom cruise for edge of tomorrow sequel.

Edge of Tomorrow provided an interesting spin on the time loop story, with Cruise’s character of Major William Cage forced to re-live the same battle over and over. While caught in this vicious cycle, Cage must hone his combat skills and find a way of defeating the invading alien forces. His partner in battle is Rita Vrataski, played by Emily Blunt .

Cage's dynamic with Rita sells a strange love story, where he knows nearly everything about her, and she knows almost nothing about him. He gives off a sense of desperation to create a bond in a situation where that is nearly impossible. Cruise's acting in the film helped to sell a new type of tale in the science-fiction genre, and it has proven to have staying power.

6 Risky Business Was Cruise's Coming of Age Moment

In Risky Business , Joel Goodsen is a high school senior who is lucky enough to have the whole house to himself, and naturally gets into some trouble along the way. He also has a comical, yet somewhat loving, relationship with Rebecca De Mornay's Lana, a lady of the night. It was Cruise’s opportunity to play a teen who wants to live a life of freedom, and it was very well received after its release in 1983.

Throughout the movie, Cruise comes off as naive, likable, and wide-eyed in his portrayal of Goodsen. The audience knows he is participating in some activities that he certainly should not be involved with, but it is impossible to root against his success anyway. The image of him rocking a blazer and some sunglasses with a huge grin still resonates to this day.

5 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Tested Ethan Hunt's Limits

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Many would say Ethan Hunt is perhaps Tom Cruise’s most important character. The Mission: Impossible films have been wildly successful due to their ultra-realism and riveting action, and this version is no different. Ethan Hunt and his team are blamed for a terrorist attack in Russia, leading them to be ostracized by the United States even when taking on a Swedish Nuclear Strategist named Kurt Hendricks.

One scene in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol really stands out, as Hunt scales down a massive glass building in Dubai. It is daring and impossible to look away from. Knowing that Cruise is capable of pulling off amazing stunts without any help of CGI or a body double, makes the action scenes even more impressive. However, this would be far from the last time that Cruise took these sort of risks.

4 Tom Cruise's Plane Stunt Defined Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation was an important addition to the series, worthy of its predecessors. Cruise is once again playing Ethan Hunt, along with Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt and Simon Pegg’s Benji Dunn. In total, the movie was filmed in four different countries: Morocco, Austria, the UK and Malaysia. Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) is a former MI6 agent working with "The Syndicate" to create global destruction.

The stand-out image of this movie is Tom Cruise hanging on to a moving plane. It made audiences ask, "is there anything this man won't do?" Any action movie star that makes someone ask that question has to be doing a very good job. Cruise mentioned in a featurette for the production that he was incredibly scared to do the stunt, but pulled it off with great success. It's an iconic setpiece which undoubtedly makes Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation stand out.

3 Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Thrived in 2023

In 2023, Ethan Hunt continued to deliver the goods for movie goers. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning features "The Entity," a self-aware rogue AI being that is capable of hacking into important security systems all over the world. Gabriel, a terrorist with previous links to Ethan Hunt, looks to serve "The Entity" for his own benefit.

Last year's version of Mission: Impossible delivered in a way where almost nobody was let down. Cruise is now in his 60s, some may expect him to slow down or retire altogether. Instead, he continues to dazzle with action on the big screen. Hunt's emotional conflict of having to deal with artificial intelligence for the first time adds layers to a character that seemed nearly unbreakable.

2 Top Gun: Maverick Revived a Legendary Tale

In a sequel to the 1986 classic Top Gun , Top Gun: Maverick delivers an entertaining and riveting experience with some of the navy’s best fighters. Cruise reprises his role as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, while Miles Teller plays Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. The film earned a nomination for best picture at the Oscars, which is a testament to just how captivating Top Gun: Maverick is.

Despite it being decades since the original movie, neither Cruise nor the Top Gun franchise had lost its luster. People were making the claim that the film was so successful that it may have been a key factor in saving movie theaters across the country. Cruise's role of Pete Maverick is still as intriguing today as it was in the 80s and Maverick's testing scene through the mountains is absolutely breathtaking.

1 Mission: Impossible - Fallout is a Tom Cruise Masterpiece

Every mission impossible main character, ranked.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Mission: Impossible - Fallout is the greatest Tom Cruise movie ever made. Taking place in locations like the Vatican, Jerusalem and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, this thriller is a world tour of action. Ethan Hunt and his team are tasked with taking on a group of terrorists, led by a highly dangerous arms dealer. No one knows where the deadly weapons are, and Hunt's team is tasked with finding them before it's too late.

Tom Cruise leads the way of this strong cast, and captivated millions of viewers worldwide as a result. His dedication to the films is unquestioned , as during filming he suffered an actual ankle injury while attempting a stunt. Cruise actually jumped off of a roof, which led to the incident. Cruise's character also endured intense emotional turmoil, trying to decide how far he can (or should go) to complete such a daunting mission.

Tom Cruise's Best Action Movie Characters, Ranked

Tom Cruise is the king of modern action, having starred in many blockbusters hits and major franchises. Here are his best action movie characters.

Tom Cruise is undoubtedly one of the few Hollywood actors whose name will instantly come to mind whenever action movies are in question. Truly, when it comes to Cruise and his action filmography, it is really hard for fans to come up with one thing this actor cannot do. He can jump buildings, execute a motorcar chase on busy streets, rock an iconic run , fly all sorts of air vehicles, hold his breath underwater for six minutes, and more.

With a career spanning nearly four decades and 40-plus movies, many of which are in the action genre, it would certainly be difficult for fans to pick their favorite action characters — because, really, there are dozens to choose from, and each just gets better and more unique than the last. Nonetheless, here's our list of the best Tom Cruise action movie characters, ranked.

7 Barry Seal — American Made

Centering around Barry Seal , a commercial airline pilot, and his journey of becoming a major drug smuggler, American Made offers a gripping plotline for fans seeking stories that are inspired by true events (as outlined by TIME ). The movie sees Barry smuggling drugs for Pablo Escobar in the late-80s and later turning into an informant for the DEA. Of course, though the film has an intriguing plot, it falls short of presenting anything, particularly action, we haven’t seen before in a Tom Cruise movie.

That said, Americna Made does have some pretty amazing aerial sequences or stunts scattered here and there — but, again, nothing special that fans hadn't already witnessed. Other than that, Barry, as a character, is portrayed as daring and courageous.

Related: These Are the Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

6 Roy Miller — Knight and Day

Roy Miller from Knight and Day is introduced to the audience as a deadly covert operative, who is on a secret mission that has landed him in trouble. But despite being portrayed as a lethal character who is good with guns and knows his way around fighting the baddies, Roy is a sweet and charming character who possibly gives the boy next door vibe. Truly, he is hilarious and smart in his own right, and, more importantly, super sensitive and caring when it comes to June (Cameron Diaz).

Unfortunately, much of the film’s plot focuses on bringing a romantic edge to Roy, and hence, little is known when compared with other characters on this list about what damage Roy can truly do. Other than that, we love him for who he is.

5 Vincent — Collateral

Introduced as an antagonist in the film Collateral , Vincent is a deadly hitman hired by a drug lord to kill four witnesses and the prosecutor of the case he is involved in. As a hitman, Vincent is, no doubt, a dangerous man and a force not to be reckoned with. He is precise, a strategic planner, an excellent marksman, and an absolute treat to watch when rocking a gun. In terms of action, Vincent is portrayed as one of the most grounded characters Cruise has ever played.

Unlike his other characters, however, Vincent doesn’t perform superhuman stunts like jumping from buildings or flying on the side of airplanes. He works in a human capacity, and yet fans cannot ignore the impression Vincent has created over them with his salt-pepper look and intense gaze.

4 William Cage — Edge of Tomorrow

William Cage from Edge of Tomorrow is a strong and agile character. While that is not anything new, one of the things that specifically sets him apart from other action movie characters in Cruise's filmography is that he is spawned in an altogether different landscape — one where he is stuck in a complex time loop with no easy way out. Even further, he has to fend off aliens to prevent the human race from extinction.

Naturally, with such a heavy burden to unload, William is feisty and has got a lot of action in him. Also, if fans could recall, he manages to pull himself out of this scientific anomaly safely, evidently making him a smart and strong character capable of dealing with extra-terrestrial circumstances.

3 Nathan Algren — The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai is a historical fiction set in the years between 1862 and 1864. Naturally, this means, the character of the film will be far from any understanding of weaponry in the contemporary world. In the film The Last Samurai , Nathan Algren is portrayed as an excellent swordsman, something we haven’t seen before in Cruise’s action movie characters. As such, it's unsurprising that Nathan was a very accurate and beautiful representation of samurai that many movies of the past failed to capture.

Related: 10 Epic Movies Based on Historical Battles

2 Maverick — Top Gun

Maverick from Top Gun is undeniably an arrogant and proud character who, at times, needs to be put in place. But, just like any other Tom Cruise action movie character, he is also stubborn as hell and a go-getter who will stop at nothing to prove his point. In a universe full of Cruise’s characters, without a doubt, Maverick is the best fighter jet pilot and definitely knows every skill around jets, be it dogfighting or epic aerial stunts. But outside the comfort zone of the cockpit, Maverick pretty much knows nothing. Even still, he is exceedingly the best at what he does, making him one of the best action characters played by Cruise.

1 Ethan Hunt — Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible 's Ethan Hunt has to be the most favorite action character played by Cruise. Hunt is impulsive at times, meticulous, a risk-taker, and strategic. He is the only one who specializes in weaponry, hand-to-hand combat, espionage, and every other action movie skill fan could possibly think of when all of Tom Cruise’s characters are in question. Throughout six movies (and counting), fans have even witnessed Hunt in an epic car chase, motorcycle chase, and surreal action sequences (via Screen Rant ).

Frankly, there is really no one thing that the fans of Tom Cruise could possibly remember that Hunt can’t pull off. He is a well-rounded character who could probably take down all the other characters on this list, period. And let us not forget the iconic Ethan Hunt run that cemented Cruise in the pantheon of action movies.

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What makes Tom run? The best Tom Cruise action films

Given the kind of movies Tom Cruise is best known for, it’s a little amazing to realize that he didn’t become an action star until the mid-1990s. Sure, he had made Top Gun (1986), which showcases thrilling aerial combat sequences, but for the first 15 years of his career, the actor appeared primarily in dramas — Taps , All the Right Moves , The Color of Money , Rain Man , Born on the Fourth of July , Days of Thunder , and Far and Away , among others. For the most part, he wasn’t engaged in hand-to-hand combat, death-defying stunts, saving the world from charismatic adversaries, or what he has become most famous for onscreen: Running.

Sci-fi action

Crime thrillers, mission: impossible franchise.

But the 1990s saw Hollywood pivot hard toward action movies and suddenly every top male star, regardless of what kind of films they typically appeared in, was expected to make them. Thus Cruise joined the likes of Nicolas Cage, John Travolta, Keanu Reeves, Will Smith, Wesley Snipes, and many others. Since then, Cruise has become primarily an action star, with his more dramatic roles relegated to the past (the last of his three Oscar nominations was in 2000 for Magnolia ). As we celebrate the recent release of Top Gun: Maverick and await the upcoming two-part Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning , we break down the actor’s action highlights into three main categories: Sci-fi action, crime thrillers, and, of course, Mission: Impossible movies.

Cruise didn’t make a science fiction film for the first two decades of his career, then made five of them between 2001 and 2014. The first, Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky (2001), reunited Cruise with his Jerry Maguire director for the remake of the 1997 Spanish film Abre los ojos ( Open Your Eyes ). Though the movie had sci-fi elements, it was more of a psychological thriller. His next four sci-fi outings after that — Minority Report (2002), War of the Worlds (2005), Oblivion (2013), and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) — were all bona fide big-budget action epics.

The most critically successful was Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report , with Roger Ebert naming it the best movie of 2002, among other raves. Cruise stars as Chief John Anderton, a detective at Pre-rime, a unit that uses “precogs” (humans with special abilities to see the future) to determine who is guilty of future murders. Anderton is a faithful believer in the infallibility of the process until he himself is accused of murdering someone he’s never even met. This leads to his flight from the authorities as he tries to unravel the conspiracy that has targeted him.

The film features some of the most inspired set pieces in the Spielberg canon, including a thrilling jetpack chase and a sequence in which robot surveillance spiders flood a tenement, marauding all over people’s privacy as they search for Anderton. But the movie’s success is due to more than its superior action, special effects, and world-building. Spielberg also explores compelling Orwellian themes about how easily fascism can creep into a society.

After the success of Minority Report, Cruise and Spielberg reteamed for War of the Worlds (2005), released during a time when the star’s usual bulletproof publicity started taking a hit. The famous “ dancing on Oprah’s couch ” incident, during which Cruise proclaimed his love for new flame Katie Holmes, had the press openly questioning his mental health, and there were concerns that the incident hurt the film’s box office. Despite the PR flak, the movie was a solid hit. Like Minority Report, it features some brilliant filmmaking, particularly during a sequence when the aliens attack a Hudson River ferry.

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While Oblivion , a postapocalyptic tale co-starring Morgan Freeman, was panned by critics and unloved by audiences, the following year’s Edge of Tomorrow earned glowing reviews, and its reputation has only grown in the intervening years. Yes, it blatantly rips off Groundhog Day in its story of a soldier played by Cruise who is forced to relive the same grueling day over and over until he makes all the right choices to save the world from an alien invasion. But by this point, the “live, die, repeat” format has become its own mini-genre (see Palm Springs with Andy Samberg for another excellent example).

Anyway, who cares when a movie is this inventive and entertaining? The special effects are spectacular and Cruise isn’t afraid to play a character who starts off as a coward and deserter before only gradually becoming heroic. Most movie stars would be too worried about their image to play that particular arc, but part of the secret to Cruise’s onscreen success is that he has never been afraid to play a jerk. Here, as with the drug-using Anderton in Minority Report , the character is more interesting for his flaws, not less.

Several of Cruise’s upcoming films listed on IMDB are also sci-fi, or at least space-based, including an announced sequel to Edge of Tomorrow , and something intriguingly titled “Untitled Tom Cruise/SpaceX Project,” in which Cruise and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman “travel far beyond Earth to film the first-ever Hollywood motion picture in outer space.” Filming a movie in space? If any actor is committed enough for such a project, it’s Cruise.

Though crime movies haven’t been Cruise’s bread-and-butter, he has made a handful of popular and well-regarded entries in the genre throughout his four decades of stardom, including one of his first films, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders . Chronicling the friction between a ’60s “greaser” gang and their more well-to-do high school counterparts in Oklahoma, the movie became famous for the number of young actors in the cast who went on to become stars. In addition to Cruise, the movie also features Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez, and Rob Lowe.

Cruise himself became the biggest star of the bunch and had a stellar run through the 1980s before a few of his early ’90s films — Days of Thunder and Far and Away — failed to ignite at the box office. But audiences didn’t stay away for long, flooding back into theaters for a pair of crime thrillers that became huge hits in 1992 and 1993. The first, A Few Good Men , directed by Rob Reiner, stars Cruise as a JAG lawyer who tries to prosecute a Marine Colonel (Jack Nicholson) who may be covering up crimes at the base he commands. The movie instantly entered the zeitgeist for the immortal moment when Cruise bellows, “I want the truth!” and Nicholson responds, “You can’t handle the truth!” The exchange was burned into the popular consciousness when A Few Good Men ran endlessly on basic cable for years after its release.

Less than a year later, the actor appeared as another lawyer in Sydney Pollack’s adaptation of John Grisham’s massive bestseller The Firm . Cruise’s megawatt smile was this time put in the service of playing Mitch McDeere, a naïve young lawyer who gets a too-good-to-be-true job at a prestigious law firm right out of school only to find out that it’s all, well, too good to be true. Though The Firm has faded in the collective memory compared to A Few Good Men , the movie was mostly well-received at the time, particularly because of the starry cast that includes Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, Ed Harris, David Strathairn, Hal Holbrook, Gary Busey, and the kindly oatmeal salesmen himself, Wilfred Brimley, as an evil henchman that Cruise famously beats the snot out of .

Among the most critically acclaimed of Cruise’s crime films was Michael Mann’s Collateral (2004). Cruise, ever mindful of working with the best directors (Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Brian DePalma, etc.), this time teamed up with Mann ( Heat , The Insider ) at the tail end of a fervent creative stretch for the director. The big news about Collateral was that Cruise played the villain to Jamie Foxx’s reluctant hero. His assassin character, Vincent, is a complete nihilist who has talked himself into believing that his philosophical ideas about the nature of human life justify murder. Really, he’s just a psychopath. When Foxx realizes this, he has to discover it within himself to stop this monster and save an imperiled U.S. Attorney (Jada Pinkett Smith).

Cruise returned to playing a hero of popular novels in his two Jack Reacher films, which were only mildly successful, especially compared to the popularity of the recent Amazon show based on the character. More successful was American Made , directed by Liman, with Cruise playing real-life pilot Barry Seal, a hustler who flew drugs for the Medellín Cartel while simultaneously working for the CIA. Critics praised the brisk story and the way tension escalates as Barry tries to stave off the inevitable consequences of his situation. But reviewers especially appreciated the return of the kind of cocky and charming character Cruise regularly played in his pre-action hero days before he started battling grim end-of-the-world stakes every time out. It’s a loose and confident performance and the movie is a lot of fun.

Of course, the Mission: Impossible films could be considered crime thrillers of a sort, with Cruise leading an Interpol-style outfit against the world’s most megalomaniacal villains. The franchise leaned more fully into this in the first outing and even brought on a director known for making crime films in DePalma ( The Untouchables , 1983’s Scarface , Dressed to Kill ). Mission: Impossible contains its share of action and stunts, but it’s quaint compared to what the series would become. In James Bond terms, it’s the Dr. No of the franchise, laying out the basic template, then giving way to the supercharged action and pacing of later entries.

Cruise, always a savvy chooser of directors, went with Hong Kong legend John Woo for Mission: Impossible II (in 2000) at a time when Woo was having a nice run in Hollywood, having made Face/Off and Broken Arrow . Alas, the movie didn’t quite work, despite the always welcome presence of Thandie Newton. Mission: Impossible III , directed by J.J. Abrams, followed to a so-so reception and the franchise’s worst bo- office performance. Cruise then reinvented the franchise with the fourth film, Ghost Protocol (2011), which featured the famous stunt in which he scales world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Ghost Protocol earned raves and the franchise has since become as famous for its quality as for the massive globe-spanning productions and-mind boggling stunts that are often performed by Cruise himself. Ghost Protocol and its two follow-ups, Rogue Nation (2015) and Fallout (2018), are all among Cruise’s best-reviewed films, with each earning more than 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Given how amazing the trailer looks for Dead Reckoning – Part 1 , it’s likely that Cruise will give audiences at least a few more amazing action films before he puts away his running shoes for good.

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The moment Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson lumbered out of the wrestling ring and onto movie sets, Hollywood became determined to make him the next Arnold Schwarzenegger. It's easy to see the logic of that idea. With Arnold then leaving the industry for a new career in politics, a void had opened in the action-hero arena. And like the Austrian weightlifter who ruled the box office before him, The Rock had an impossibly herculean physique — a body made for blockbusters. Who better to fill the Terminator's profile than another hulking he-man looking to transition from athletics to acting?

There aren’t many actors who are more powerful or beloved in Hollywood right now than Tom Cruise. Thanks to the popularity of films like Mission: Impossible — Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise has become a semi-self-designated champion of cinema itself. In an era when it feels like Hollywood is in dire need of movie stars, Cruise is, notably, one of the few actors who is capable of bringing moviegoers out in droves to see his films in theaters.

Cruise has certainly earned his status as an industry titan. Most of the acclaimed films he’s made over the past 10 years or so have relied heavily on both his innate star power and his willingness to try the kind of practical stunts that have previously turned performers like Jackie Chan and Buster Keaton into legends. When audiences go to see one of his movies, they know that, at the very least, they’re going to get a film that was made with the pure intent of entertaining them. That’s, frankly, a hard thing to come by these days. With a little help from a usual suspect However, as impressive as Cruise’s late-career work has been, it’s worth noting that his recent renaissance cannot be completely attributed to him. The actor has risen back up through the Hollywood ranks not only because of his own charisma and daredevil-like drive but also because of his extremely rewarding partnership with writer-director Christopher McQuarrie.

The action genre is a tried and true formula that will never cease to be popular. It's often the spectacle of watching a sole individual achieve the impossible through the sheer force of will. And while the climactic moments of these films are often miles from reality, it's the power fantasy and the jolt of adrenaline these explosive sequences often deliver that make action movies so appealing. What ultimately makes or breaks an action film are the characters at the heart of the story. We'll return time and time again to watch Tom Holland's plucky Spider-Man experience the next big upset in his web-slinging career. And let's not forget Vin Diesel's Dom Toretto and his family of specialists who seem to hold an unshakeable power over death itself.

But in Netflix's latest offering, The Mother, the breathless velocity is laced with a serious edge. Jennifer Lopez sheds her rom-com persona and assumes a tough, surprisingly effective action-hero persona. As an expert assassin, Lopez must protect the child she gave up years ago from being killed by former associates who want both of them dead. The Mother is a lean, often brutal action movie, one that has proven to be a hit with audiences as it's one of the most popular movies on Netflix. Here's why you should watch it right now. Jennifer Lopez shines in an action-heavy role

Tom Cruise Is Hollywood's Last Great Action Star (And We're Doomed Without Him)

These days, whenever Tom Cruise comes up, it's expected that the Oscar-nominee will be labeled as Hollywood's "last movie star." There's certainly some truth to that title, especially as our perpetually online culture becomes more obsessed with fictional characters and IPs rather than performers and personalities. While Cruise is one of the few surviving Hollywood stars (recent box office receipts confirm that Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts are still partial draws) it seems more appropriate to label him as Tinseltown's last great action star.

Truthfully, Cruise's career is more complex than that, but the anxiety-inducing verson who prowled the seedy streets of L.A. in "Collateral" is a product of another era. So is the Cruise who grappled with the loss of beauty, life, and pitfalls of excess in "Vanilla Sky." He hasn't delivered a non-action role in years — his last dramatic, grounded feature being 2017's "American Made," an effort by Doug Liman which still featured frantic aerial action sequences – and the only shade of Cruise that persists today is his action hero persona.

Still, action Cruise keeps ascending to new heights, and we're better for it. In a sea of CG-heavy science-fiction films, Cruise is the only actor in Hollywood who doesn't fall into a repetitive slump with his franchise(s), consistently pushes boundaries, puts his life on the line for our entertainment, and manages to have his cake and eat it too. 

What's the result of this wild cocktail of a human? An unprecedented, unparalleled level of freedom. While modern Hollywood "stars" are defined by their lofty endorsement deals and social media followers, Cruise's star-power is assessed and emboldened by his ability to do whatever he wants. This recipe for success, of course, starts with his innate ability to always assess what audiences want, without comprising his needs.

Mission: Impossible doesn't define Tom Cruise

As an action star, Tom Cruise has never let his franchises define him. Since joining the "Mission: Impossible" franchise in 1996, Cruise has delivered countless non-franchise, original action films — and they do reasonably well ("Edge of Tomorrow," "Knight and Day," and "Oblivion" all raked in over $250 million worldwide). While those numbers may pale in comparison to the hefty receipts of his spy thrillers, what particularly makes Cruise the last ambassador of Hollywood action cinema is how he refuses to let "Mission: Impossible" bog him down.

Each "Mission: Impossible" film is a freeing, expansive expression about whatever Cruise wants to do. It's the cinematic equivalent of a freestyle. While there are central themes and plotlines at the heart of "Mission: Impossible," the action-thrillers are never at the mercy of modern franchise expectations such as spin-offs or expanded universe trappings. There are no quotas to be met. No future stories to set-up. They're canvases for Cruise to share his latest death-defying stunts. In an interview with Vanity Fair's " Little Gold Men " podcast, franchise star Rebecca Ferguson admitted that the "Mission: Impossible" films are largely improvised, with Cruise calling the shots.

Unlike Cruise, other modern Hollywood action stars are only products of their franchises. They only operate as extensions of the characters they play within their cinematic playgrounds. Marvel's Anthony Mackie said as much at the London Comic Con. "There are no movie stars anymore," the actor explained  in his viral response. "Like, Anthony Mackie isn't a movie star, the Falcon is a movie star."

People absolutely do care about what Sam Wilson, now Captain America, does in the Marvel films. However, no one cares what Ethan Hunt is doing. They just want to see bombastic action, with Cruise at the helm.

Tom Cruise blurs the line between work and fun

It's important to remember that "Mission: Impossible," aka the franchise itself, is still a genuine draw for audiences. However, "Mission: Impossible" is synonymous with Tom Cruise, and the same can't be said for other contemporary action heroes. 

For instance, Tom Holland is Spider-Man, but "Spider-Man" isn't Tom Holland. Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard gracefully co-lead "Jurassic World," one of the biggest action spectacles of the last decade, but they weren't the draw that compelled audiences to show up opening weekend. The dinosaurs were.

Cruise, on the other hand, is the defining part of every franchise he involves himself in. He knows that, and he leverages his power to show the world what he's capable of. He's not an actor in his franchises — rather, "Mission: Impossible" and "Top Gun" are extensions of him as a personality. They're opportunities for the fanbase to grow closer to Cruise as a personality. If "Mission: Impossible" is a vehicle for Cruise to fulfill whatever death wish he holds, then "Top Gun" is how the star expresses his love for flying. In the recent sequel, which he resisted making for over two decades, the actor flew his own P-51 Mustang for the film's final aerial shots. For him to do supplemental work, i.e flying, is nothing short of remarkable, but for him to bring his own gear? Not only does that equal full control of how he's portrayed on-screen, but also points toward his intentional blurring between his professional and leisurely life.

The actor, in recent years, is always seeking projects and ideas that genuinely compel and make him excited, allowing him an opportunity to express curiosity. Curiosity may kill the cat, but for Cruise, that's a welcome challenge. 

Tom Cruise can do whatever he wants and he knows it

For all his quirks and signature mannerisms, is there anything more quintessentially Cruise than a lust for death-defying stunts? For the last two decades, Cruise has become obsessed with the prospect of stunt work, engulfing himself fully in the process. He climbed the Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world — for his fourth "Mission: Impossible" film, a feat that still boggles audiences a decade later.

As one of the most bankable stars in the world, it can be difficult to keep Cruise safe, especially as he's pulling off chaotic feats. But as the steward of his films, he makes it a point to make sure that everyone, both on and off the set, sees his vision: only Cruise is in charge. While speaking with Desus & Mero , Matt Damon opened up about how he has no qualms letting professionals do dangerous stunts, unlike Tom Cruise. The "Bourne" actor detailed how Cruise's plan to run down the Burj Khalifa in "Ghost Protocol" was shot down by the film's safety coordinator because it was too dangerous. The result? Cruise hired another safety coordinator who obliged with his vision.

While it's commendable when other stars do their own stunts (we're looking at you Charlize Theron and Keanu Reeves), they're typically not involved in the creative process. Every time a stunt is commissioned in a Cruise film, it revolves around him and his expectations. As much as each stunt is an opportunity to push his capabilities as a human, it's also a method for him to tell the most compelling visual narrative, with Cruise explaining to Graham Norton that doing his own stunts, in his words, "Allows [him] to put cameras where you are normally not able to."

Tom Cruise always gets a blank check

While Hollywood continues to ease spending in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and rapid inflation, Tom Cruise truly does whatever he wants, no matter the cost. At least stateside, Cruise is the only superstar who still has unparalleled freedom in a landscape that's tightening budgets left and right. While corners are being cut, Cruise is able to get a one on one with Paramount Pictures' CEO and demand a larger budget for "Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One," a film that is already budgeted at $290 million. One of Cruise's most audacious demands? Adding a last-minute submarine appearance to the seventh entry in the "Mission" franchise. 

The truth is, even executives know they shouldn't say no to Cruise, with the THR report pointing out that Tom knows what he's worth, and the corporate bigwigs know how much he rakes in. Even though he's consistent with his pull, brass still need to be reminded of Cruise's powers. The actor sat on "Top Gun: Maverick" for nearly two years, refusing to let Paramount Pictures release the long-awaited in a non-theatrical manner. The result? A global cume of over $1.4 billion and Paramount's highest-grosser to date.  Turns out that listening to Cruise is one of the best ideas any studio can do. 

Which is why Cruise can add a last-minute submarine to "Mission: Impossible 7," climb the world's tallest building with few safety protocols in place, and compel a studio to let him  jettison off to space . Hollywood will continue to release bombastic action flicks well after Cruise, but when his reign ends, the era of action stars will truly be over.

Who Is The Better Action Movie Star: Tom Cruise Or Keanu Reeves?

I have a confession. This post originally started with a different question: who is the greatest current action movie star? The only criteria was that they had to be American, which means Charlize Theron, Scott Adkins, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jason Statham were exempt. But that still left Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Scarlett Johansson, Dave Bautista, Will Smith, and Bruce Willis, among others. Those are some A-list actors, but also an uninspiring group of action movie stars, whether because they’re past their prime (Willis, Schwarzenegger) or too dependent on one franchise (Johnson), or thought of as superheroes rather action stars (Johansson). And I wasn’t ready to give it to Jurassic World ‘s Chris Pratt, either. No offense, Andy Dwyer.

Besides, I eventually realized this is a two-person contest: Keanu Reeves or Tom Cruise . They both [extremely “went to film school” voice] kick ass and have been doing so for decades. In fact, before we begin, let’s go through every movie in both actor’s filmographies that can be considered in the “action” genre.

Reeves : Point Break , Speed , Johnny Mnemonic , Chain Reaction , The Matrix , The Matrix Reloaded , The Matrix Revolutions , Constantine , Street Kings , The Day the Earth Stood Still , Man of Tai Chi , 47 Ronin , John Wick , Keanu (kind of!), John Wick: Chapter 2 , and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Cruise : Top Gun , Days of Thunder , Mission: Impossible , Mission: Impossible 2 , Minority Report , The Last Samurai , Collateral , War of the Worlds , Mission: Impossible III , Tropic Thunder (this is Cruise’s Keanu ), Knight and Day , Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , Jack Reacher , Oblivion , Edge of Tomorrow , Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , Jack Reacher: Never Go Back , The Mummy , American Made , and Mission: Impossible – Fallout

These are the only movies I’m considering. No Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for Reeves, no Jerry Maguire for Cruise (Keanu would obviously win). I’m also not taking into account the personal lives for both men (again, it would be Keanu in a landslide). This is just about Tom Cruise: Action Movie Star vs. Keanu Reeves: Action Movie Star as determined through six separate categories, and now I’m suddenly upset that they’ve never appeared in the same film. Reeves in Mission: Impossible 6 makes more sense than Cruise in John Wick 4 , but… I’m stalling because I don’t want to choose; they’re both awesome. But to quote another famous action movie, there can only be one.

Signature franchise

Looking at the list above, Cruise has only turned two films into franchises: Mission: Impossible and Jack Reacher (that list is about to grow with Top Gun: Maverick and Edge of 2morrow , assuming it actually gets made). The latter is way more fun than its given credit for, but Cruise’s signature franchise is obviously Mission: Impossible . Reeves also has two series under consideration: The Matrix and John Wick . I’m tempted to go with John Wick , but I know that’s recency bias talking: The Matrix is one of the most influential movies of all-time . But unfortunately, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions also exist. I can give a half-hearted defense to the inspired messiness of Reloaded , which is genuinely thrilling at times, but not Revolutions . I have my limits, and my limit is this evil laugh . So, if it comes down to Mission: Impossible or The Matrix ( MATRIX: IMPOSSIBLE ), the winner is the Mission: Impossible movies , which continue to improve. Fallout is the sixth film in the franchise, and the best. Imagine how many cake orgasms would have been in the sixth Matrix movie.

Winner: Cruise

Best non-franchise film

Here are a few things I learned while doing research for this post: Cruise’s top-grossing film (domestic) is War of the Worlds ; for Reeves, it’s The Matrix movies (led by Reloaded ), then Something’s Gotta Give and Speed . The highest-rated Metacritic score: Mission: Impossible – Fallout (86) and Minority Report (80) for Cruise and Parenthood (82) and Speed (78) for Reeves. And while Cruise has been nominated for three Oscars, most recently for 1999’s Magnolia , Reeves and his Speed co-star Sandra Bullock won Best On-Screen Duo at the 1995 MTV Movie Awards, beating… Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt for Interview with the Vampire . Who am I to argue with MTV? With all due respect to Minority Report , Collateral , and Edge of Tomorrow , all of which are great and in a three-way tie for second place, it’s Speed , the most perfect over-the-top 1990s action movie. And yes, technically, Speed spawned a sequel, but Reeves doesn’t appear in Speed 2: Cruise Control and, as far as I can tell, Speed 2: Cruise Control is a creation of podcasts about bad movies. It doesn’t actually exist.

Winner: Reeves

Most famous quote

Every classic action movie needs an equally iconic quote. “Get off my plane.” “Yippie-ki-yay, motherf*cker.” “I’ll be back.” These are good lines because I don’t even need to say what movie they’re from; they’re that ingrained in the lexicon. In other words, it has to pass the “guy who still says ‘MY WIFE’ to his co-workers” test. Both Reeves and Cruise are the source of GIF-able quotes that Chad (I assume your co-worker’s name is Chad) might reply to emails with, led by “woah” from The Matrix for Reeves, while Cruise has “I feel the need… the need for speed” from Top Gun . Top Gun is more well known (and it’ll be in the culture again with Top Gun: Maverick coming out next year), but this category goes to Reeves for two reasons: 1) “need for speed” isn’t even Cruise’s most famous quote (“show me the money” is, but Jerry Maguire isn’t eligible), and 2) Reeves also has “yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.” And that line rules.

Most famous set-piece

I could stretch this one out for a few hundred words, complimenting Reeves for boarding the bus that couldn’t slow down in Speed , or any number of fight scenes from The Matrix or its sequels, or the chase from Point Break . But c’mon, it’s gotta be Cruise, specifically Cruise in any number of Mission: Impossible movies. If it’s not the vault heist, it’s flying a helicopter, or going underwater, or scaling the freaking Burj Khalifa, or dangling from an airplane.

Cruise is an insane person. I love him.

Both Cruise and Reeves are famous for still doing their own stunts, despite the fact that they’re world-famous actors in their 50s and should probably be settling down with the Sunday newspaper and a cup of hot tea instead. “Tom always does his own stunts and never has a double,” an insider told the Wrap before Fallout came out, while Reeves recently said , “I do all of the action. I’m 90 percent of what’s happening there [in John Wick 3 ]. I’m maintaining the connection to the audience, and with the story.” Still, I have to give this one to Cruise. He’s done more wacky stunts by himself than Reeves, and for a longer period of time. His lack of a stunt double has become an inside joke , while Reeves’ double is now making movies himself: he’s directed all three John Wick films. But I hope they both keep shooting bad guys on horses and running so fast that their skin might fly off their skeleton until they’re 85 years old.

Who would win in an actual fight

When A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin learned that Tolkien star Lily Collins preferred Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings , he responded , “Gandalf could kick Dumbledore’s ass.” He’s not wrong, although doesn’t GRRM have better things to do than solve playground arguments? Anyway, Martin’s comment inspired this final category: who would win in a fight, Cruise’s three most-lethal action movie characters or Reeves’ three most-lethal action movie characters? In the Cruise corner, we have Ethan Hunt ( Mission: Impossible ), Vincent ( Collateral ), and Jack Reacher ( Jack Reacher ; it hurts to leave off Edge of Tomorrow ‘s William Cage, but it took him too long to become a force to be reckoned with), and for Reeves, Neo ( The Matrix ), John Wick ( John Wick ), and Johnny Utah ( Point Break ), because his name is Johnny Utah.

Let’s go through what everyone brings to the table:

Ethan Hunt: wildcard Vincent: ruthless hitman Jack Reacher: good in hand-to-hand combat Neo: everyman-turned-Chosen One John Wick: skilled with firearms Johnny Utah: is Johnny Utah

Vincent and John Wick offset each other’s skills and Jack Reacher is a lesser Ethan Hunt, so it’s down to Ethan Hunt vs. Neo and Johnny Utah. Ethan is a superhero, but Neo is superhuman. Here’s a description of his “powers and abilities” from Wikipedia: “He can fly at amazing speeds and jump great distances… Neo possesses superhuman strength and agility, and is near-invulnerable to most attacks… His reflexes are great enough to dodge bullets.” Who needs to hold onto a plane ( or skydive ) when you can jump super far?

The final total

Cruise: 3 Reeves: 3

Hm. A part of me is tempted to keep it a tie (they’re both great!), but, well, how lame would it be if John Wick tied with Boban Marjanović? So, we’re doing a quick tiebreaker: who has the better GIF when you search “[actor name] badass” (the go-to word for any action movie star)? This is very scientific.

This contest is over. Keanu Reeves wins.

Tom Cruise Had A 4-Word Response When He Saw The Story For Top Gun 3. So, What's Next?

Short but effective!

Top Gun : Maverick was a monster success in 2022. The Tom Cruise-led blockbuster did record breaking numbers at the box office, and the action film even landed a Best Picture nomination that year. It was a hit with audiences as well, and everyone seemed to love the sequel to the 1986 Tony Scott film. Plans for a Top Gun 3 seemed inevitable, and recent reports suggest that Paramount is moving forward officially with a Top Gun threequel . Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently opened up about the film, revealing Cruise’s reaction to hearing the story idea for the film. 

The legendary film producer recently spoke to ScreenRant about the studio’s plans for Top Gun 3 , and how development on the film is progressing. The good news is that plans seem to be actively in motion, with Maverick director Joe Kosinski attached to direct again. As for Cruise’s response to hearing about the story plans for Top Gun 3 , according to Bruckheimer, he said:

I really like that.

This is admittedly a very short response, and not much to go off of. But when it comes to making a Top Gun film, Cruise’s approval is everything. It took over 30 years to get Top Gun: Maverick off the ground because the Jerry Maguire star didn’t want to proceed until the script was just right. Cruise is also a major producer on the Top Gun films, so his opinion is incredibly important for the future of the franchise. Getting him to sign off on at least the story pitch is a really great sign for a script to finally be put together. Even with this good news, it still may be a while before we see Top Gun 3 on the big screen. Bruckheimer said of the film: 

It will be Tom Cruise [leading the cast]. Tom is amazing. We spent time with him. We have a story. Joe Kosinski had a wonderful story idea for it, and [Tom] said, ‘I really like that,’ so we’re developing it. But you never know when it’s going to get made because Tom is so busy. He’s doing ‘Mission: Impossible’ right now, he’s got a picture after it. Hopefully, we’ll get a screenplay that he loves, and we’ll be back in the air again.

Bruckheimer is right to say that Mission: Impossible is a massive commitment for Cruise, especially in the most recent years. Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning Part 1 faced a number of delays due to a complex COVID production. Additionally, Mission: Impossible 8 had to stop filming due to the 2023 Actors and Writers strikes. As a result M:I 8 has also been delayed to 2025 . In general, the Mission films are complicated productions with their complex action sequences, and logistics involved. With such an undertaking, Cruise pursuing a Top Gun 3 in tandem with M:I responsibilities feels almost, well, mission impossible .

However, this is great news regardless. With the main team behind Maverick back to work on Top Gun 3 , and a strong Cruise-approved story in the works, Paramount seems to have all the tools for another hit on their hands. Glen Powell has expressed interest in returning to Top Gun when duty calls, and it seems like the other cast members are down for another high-flying adventure . Even if fans do have to wait for Cruise’s schedule to clear up, if Top Gun: Maverick was any indication, Top Gun 3 will be well worth the wait. 

While fans wait for Top Gun 3 to eventually hit the big screen, they can revisit Tom Cruise ’s adrenaline pumping performances in 1986’s Top Gun and 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick , which are both now streaming for Paramount+ subscribers . For more information on other films heading to streaming and cinemas in the future, make sure to consult our 2024 movie release schedule . 

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Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star

Where to Watch

Thomas Arnold (Narrator) Tom Cruise (Self) A.A. Dowd (Self) Bilge Ebiri (Self) Dan Jolin (Self) Geoffrey Macnab (Self) Scott Mendelson (Self) Richard Roeper (Self) Paula Wagner (Self)

Tom O'Dell

From "Top Gun" to the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, Tom Cruise becomes the world's biggest movie star by risking life and limb to perform death-defying stunts.

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Tom Cruise, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and ‘Godzilla Minus One' Among Critics Choice Super Awards Winners

Superstars Tom Cruise and Pedro Pascal, recent Oscar winner Emma Stone and the legendary "Godzilla: Minus One" are among the winners of the 4th annual Critics Choice Super Awards.

The awards, which honor fan-favorite genres in film and television, saw a diverse array of movies and TV shows garnering accolades from international critics and journalists. Leading the cinematic charge, "Godzilla: Minus One" (Toho), "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" (Paramount), "Poor Things" (Searchlight), and "Talk to Me" (A24) each secured two wins, the most of any movies.

In the acting categories, Tom Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson were celebrated for their roles in "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One." Recent best actress winner Emma Stone was recognized for her performance in Yorgos Lanthimos' black sci-fi comedy "Poor Things," alongside her Oscar-nominated co-star, Mark Ruffalo.

On the television front, HBO/Max's "The Last of Us" dominated, clinching seven trophies in its debut season. This sweep included awards in both the superhero and horror film categories. Stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey won two awards each for their portrayal of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, while co-star Melanie Lynskey was named best villain.

The full list of winners are below.

Film Winners

Best Action Movie: "John Wick: Chapter 4"

Actor in an Action Movie: Tom Cruise – "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning"

Actress in an Action Movie: Rebecca Ferguson – "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning"

Superhero Movie: "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse"

Actor in an Action Movie: Michael Fassbender – "The Killer"

Actress in a Superhero Movie: Iman Vellani – "The Marvels"

Horror Movie: "Talk to Me"

Actor in an Action Movie: Nicolas Cage – "Dream Scenario"

Actress in an Action Movie: Sophie Wilde – "Talk to Me"

Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: "Godzilla Minus One"

Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: Mark Ruffalo – "Poor Things"

Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie: Emma Stone – "Poor Things"

Villiain in a Movie: Godzilla – "Godzilla Minus One"

Action Series, Limited Series or Made for TV Movie: "Reacher"

Actor in an Action Series, Limited Series or Made for TV Movie: Idris Elba - "Hijack" (Apple TV+)

Actress in an Action Series, Limited Series or Made for TV Movie: Zoe Saldaña – "Special Ops: Lioness"

Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: "The Last of Us"

Actor in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Pedro Pascal – "The Last of Us"

Actress in a Superhero Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Bella Ramsey – "The Last of Us"

Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: "The Last of Us"

Actor in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Pedro Pascal - "The Last of Us"

Actress in a Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Bella Ramsey - "The Last of Us"

Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: "Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful"

Actor in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Jharrel Jerome - "I'm a Virgo" and Kurt Russell - "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters"

Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Annie Murphy - "Black Mirror: Joan is Awful"

Villain in a Series, Limited Series or Made-for-TV Movie: Melanie Lynskey – "The Last of Us"

Superhero categories also include Comic Book and Video Game Inspired movies and series.

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Jason Momoa Confirms the ‘Minecraft’ Movie Has Wrapped Filming

The movie also stars Jack Black.

The Big Picture

• Jason Momoa wraps filming for the highly anticipated Minecraft movie, set for an April 4, 2025, release date.
• The star-studded cast includes Jack Black, Kate McKinnon, and more, with Jared Hess directing this live-action adaptation.
• Adapting the non-linear, creative world of Minecraft into a blockbuster film poses challenges, but the hype is still high.

Mere days after the release of Fallout , which is being hailed as a remarkable video game adaption on par with The Last of Us , another highly anticipated gaming-related project has completed production. Jason Momoa took to his personal Instagram to announce that the upcoming Minecraft movie has wrapped filming with a photo of him and several other cast and crew members. Momoa described it as an “unbelievable movie experience and one of the greatest times of my life.”

The Minecraft movie is currently scheduled for an April 4, 2025, release date with several big names attached to star alongside Momoa, such as Jack Black , Kate McKinnon , Jennifer Coolidge , Danielle Brooks , and more. Adapting something non-linear such as Minecraft compared to The Last of Us or Fallout has its own complex set of challenges, but the hype to see Minecraft in live-action is still off the charts nonetheless.

What Do We Know About the Live-Action ‘Minecraft’ Movie?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia creator and star Rob McElhenney was originally attached to the project years ago before he left and was replaced by Peter Sollett . The film was believed to be at a stall until Warner Bros. came out of nowhere in April 2023 and officially announced a 2025 release date. Momoa was the first name reported to star in the film but has since been joined by several others, including the aforementioned stars and Emma Myers , Jemaine Clement , and Sebastian Eugene Hansen . Little is known about the Minecraft movie's plot at this time. However, taking an entirely textured and blocky world more focused on creation than a compelling narrative and adapting it into a live-action blockbuster film with such a star-studded cast will almost certainly deliver entertainment, if nothing else.

Momoa's recent run of films in 2023 with Fast X and Aquaman and The Last Kingdom may not be the most critically acclaimed projects, but Momoa brings an undeniable charm that acts as a redeeming quality. Whether the Minecraf t movie stands out as one of the best projects of 2025 remains to be seen, but with cast members such as Momoa, Black, and Coolidge involved, there's cause for optimism. Director Jared Hess ' last feature film was 2015's Masterminds ( Zach Galifianakis and Owen Wilson ), which currently sits at 34% critics score and 35% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — undesirable to say the least. The live-action Minecraft movie could be his chance to break out and show Hollywood he deserves more high-profile projects.

The Minecraft movie is slated for release on April 4, 2025. Jack Black's most recent film, Kung Fu Panda 4, is currently playing in theaters now.

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10 marvel characters tom cruise would be perfect for after losing iron man role 18 years ago.

After missing out on Iron Man and not appearing as his rumored Doctor Strange 2 cameo, there are still some MCU roles Tom Cruise would be perfect for.

• Tom Cruise could excel as Corsair in the MCU, a character tied to mutants and the cosmic side of Marvel.
• Cruise is the perfect for Superior Iron Man, an evil version of Tony Stark.
• Cruise could play a significant role as a hero or villain in the Multiverse Saga, showcasing his versatility.

Tom Cruise might not have played Iron Man; however, there are a few roles that could allow the actor to show the full scope of his talents in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . Cruise has a history with Marvel despite never having played one of its characters. The actor was considered to play Tony Stark before 2008's Iron Man , with Cruise not playing Iron Man because of a pay issue , as 20th Century Fox — the studio who held Iron Man's film rights in 1998 — was not willing to pay his hefty salary for " an untested superhero property ."

In 2006, Robert Downey Jr. was officially cast as Iron Man, ending Tom Cruise's chances of playing the hero in his solo movie.

Cruise was still among the actors who could have played the role in Marvel Studios' Iron Man , though the role ultimately went to Robert Downey Jr. , who was part of most of the best entries in the MCU as Tony Stark. Cruise was also heavily rumored to play an Iron Man variant thanks to the multiverse in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , which did not end up happening. While the actor has yet to join the MCU, there are many different roles in Marvel's slate of projects that are perfectly suited for Cruise.

10 Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

The character is the father of a major x-men member.

While Cruise is often mentioned for major MCU roles, there could be a lot of fun to be had through the actor playing a smaller character who could let him truly cut loose. Among some possible future additions to the franchise is Corsair. The character is the father to none other than one of the X-Men's most famous members — and the team's field leader — Cyclops .

Corsair would be a fantastic addition to the MCU because he could connect with both the introduction of mutants to the franchise and help expand the MCU's cosmic corner. The character is the leader of the Starjammers , a team of space pirates. Like Cruise's Top Gun character, Maverick, Corsair is an ace pilot. The character is also adept at hand-to-hand fights, something Cruise has excelled in within a wide array of his action movie roles.

9 Silver Surfer

Tom cruise could make the character compelling.

Silver Surfer is rumored to show up in the MCU soon . While there have been few details revealed about the plot of Marvel's The Fantastic Four , one of the main rumors surrounding the movie is that it will not feature Doctor Doom as its main villain, but rather Galactus. If that is true, then the Silver Surfer's appearance is a strong possibility, as he is the most famous herald of Galactus.

Norrin Radd, the Silver Surfer, is a character with an extremely tragic backstory . The character's story is one of loss, with both his mother and father having killed themselves for different reasons. In exchange for Galactus sparing his home world, Norrin Radd agreed to become his herald and was transformed into the Silver Surfer. Cruise has the dramatic chops to bring such a heartbreaking story to life on the big screen.

The Actor Might Have To Compete With Another Major Star

Different from most of the characters on the list, a Nova project is in development for the MCU . Nova will get to star in his own series if the project moves forward, though the slowdown of the MCU might mean that a definitive answer to that is still some time away. While confirming that Nova is in development, Marvel Studios' Head of Television, Streaming, and Animation, Brad Winderbaum teased which version of the hero will appear, saying, " I love Rich Rider, too ."

Ryan Gosling is heavily rumored to be the MCU's pick to play Nova.

Cruise would be a great pick for an older Richard Rider in the MCU . As there is a younger version of Nova in the comics — Sam Alexander — there is a chance that the MCU will move forward with both iterations of the hero at the same time. Cruise could then play the charming, confident leader that is Richard Rider, while a younger actor plays Sam.

We Already All Know The Perfect Casting For The MCU's Long-Awaited Nova

7 the beyonder, kang the conqueror could be replaced in the mcu.

With Jonathan Majors fired from the MCU as Kang the Conqueror , the Multiverse Saga does not currently have a main villain . Some options of characters who could replace Kang have been thrown around. Doctor Doom was even rumored to have been on Marvel's radar to replace Kang after Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed. However, another Marvel Comics villain could be perfect both as a replacement for Kang and as the ideal role for Cruise to join the MCU.

As one of the most popular movie stars ever, Cruise is likely to have a major role in the franchise if he ever joins the MCU . The Beyonder could be that part, as Cruise could become integral to the Multiverse Saga while not having to sign on for several projects. The character could be the main villain of Avengers: Secret Wars , with his unpredictable nature being something Cruise has shown in previous roles that he is able to bring to life perfectly.

6 Multiple Man

The actor would be perfect to play multiple versions of the same character.

Jamie Madrox, aka Multiple Man, would be one of the most exciting roles Cruise could play in the MCU. While the character is not one of the most popular mutants from Marvel Comics, Multiple Man has the potential to be a fan-favorite character in live-action. As his name states, Multiple Man can create several duplicates of himself .

While the duplicates look exactly like him, each version of Multiple Man is their own person in a way, having their individual thoughts, feelings, and more . Every new duplicate of Madrox also normally follows one aspect of the original character's personality, heightening different parts of Madrox. Cruise could have a great time in the role, which would allow him to play multiple MCU characters within just one mutant. This way, he could serve as a hero or a villain, depending on which version of Multiple Man is in play.

James Franco was once attached to star in a Multiple Man movie , though the project would be canceled.

The Actor Can Make The Villain A Sympathetic Foe

While Cruise is normally known to play heroic roles , such as Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible franchise or Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the Top Gun movies, the actor has great potential for villain roles. Through projects like Interview with the Vampire and Collateral , Cruise showed that he has an intensity within him to play magnetic evil characters on the big screen.

That particular set of skills allied to Cruise's long career as a bona fide hero makes him a compelling choice to give life to Magneto in the MCU. Magneto comes from a tragic backstory that serves to inform how he will never let the mutants suffer from what he went through during the Holocaust. Cruise could excel at the tenuous line the character threads between a villain and an anti-hero at times, making Magneto one of the MCU's most complex characters.

4 Doctor Doom

Tom cruise is extremely skilled in a must-have aspect for the character.

Doctor Doom is one of the MCU's most anticipated characters . The villain could potentially even take Kang the Conqueror's place and become the main threat of the Multiverse Saga now that Jonathan Majors has been fired by Marvel. Given Doom's prominent role in different versions of the story that will be adapted in Avengers: Secret Wars , the character's MCU debut should be watched closely, as he could become a foe to all heroes sooner rather than later.

With Marvel's The Fantastic Four set to arrive in 2025, Doctor Doom should join the MCU next year. As the team's most famous villain and the one who has appeared in all movies for the Fantastic Four , it is hard to imagine Victor von Doom not having at least a cameo. Cruise's experience with intelligent, dark characters and ability to convey emotion with his body language is perfect for the masked villain.

3 Norman Osborn

The actor could play both sides of the character.

Norman Osborn is one of the most popular villains in Marvel Comics . Thanks to Willem Dafoe's genius performances as Norman and his Green Goblin side, the character has also become one of the best live-action villains Marvel has ever had, both in the MCU and not. While Dafoe appeared as his version of Osborn in a major way in Spider-Man: No Way Home, the character hailed from the universe of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man.

The MCU has yet to cast actors for its versions of Harry and Norman Osborn. Cruise could excel in the role, with the actor being able to play both the suave businessman and his deranged alter ego with ease. If Marvel Studios ever uses Norman Osborn again, he could be turned into his Iron Patriot hero persona from the comics to differentiate the MCU's Osborn from Dafoe , and Cruise would also be a great fit for a heroic Norman Osborn, as his career shows.

2 Mister Sinister

The character is on marvel studios' radar.

Magneto, Apocalypse, and other recognizable X-Men villains have already appeared in the team's live-action movies. With the MCU set to debut its version of the beloved mutants from Marvel Comics in the future, it would make sense for the shared universe to focus on villains who have not yet had their time to shine in live-action. Based on that, Mister Terrific could have his time to shine in the MCU .

Cruise would excel as the character who is unabashedly evil and delights in his nefarious actions . The actor could really cut loose as Mister Sinister in a way that his heroic roles have not really let him. Marvel Studios has Mister Sinister on its radar, as the villain recently showed up in a major way in the first project for the X-Men produced by Marvel Studios — but not part of the MCU — the animated X-Men '97 .

Marvel Just Proved How Incredible An X-Men Villain Can Be In The MCU 38 Years After His Debut

1 superior iron man, tom cruise would still be great as tony stark.

Finally, the best character Cruise could play in the MCU is a variant of RDJ's Tony Stark , with Cruise being perfect for Superior Iron Man. The character would allow Cruise to come full circle after the actor almost played the MCU hero long ago. Superior Iron Man is also the specific variant of the character that Cruise was rumored to play in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness but never did. Cruise playing the Tony Stark variant would finally make good on the potential he has for Superior Iron Man.

In the comics, that version of Tony Stark is not a hero like the main version of the character. Superior Iron Man is a villain who was created during the "Axis" event in the comics, which switched the character's morality from good to evil, allowing him to pretend to be a hero before showing himself as a major villain. Tom Cruise 's Superior Iron Man would retain the best parts of RDJ's and add that intensity the actor is known for to become an MCU villain for the ages.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a multimedia superhero franchise that began in 2008 with Paramount's Iron Man starring Robert Downey Jr. The franchise quickly grew in popularity, with Disney eventually buying out Marvel Entertainment in 2009. The MCU consists of dozens of movies and TV shows, most notably Avengers: Endgame, WandaVision, and Loki.

Key Release Dates

Deadpool & wolverine, marvel's thunderbolts, marvel's fantastic four, blade (2025), avengers: the kang dynasty, avengers: secret wars.