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All Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked By Tomatometer

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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) 41%

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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Screen Rant

10 best tom cruise movies, ranked.

With a career spanning more than 40 years, Tom Cruise is one of Hollywood's biggest stars. From comedies to action movies, the actor has done it all.

• Tom Cruise's extensive filmography includes some of Hollywood's most iconic movies, showcasing his versatility as an actor and his ability to tackle different genres and roles.
• Many of Cruise's movies are considered classics and rank among the best films ever made, thanks to their quality and Cruise's strong on-screen presence.
• Cruise's talent as both a dramatic and physically skilled actor is evident in movies like Rain Man , A Few Good Men , and the Mission: Impossible franchise, where he delivers powerful performances and defies the laws of physics in thrilling action sequences.

Known for his prolific filmography, Tom Cruise is one of the most recognizable actors worldwide, and his best movies include some of the most iconic that Hollywood has ever produced. Cruise has done it all, from teen sex comedies to neo-noir thrillers to high-octane action flicks, and many of his movies have been cemented as classics. Given the nature of the actor's screen presence and the commercial success of many of his projects, he has deservedly gone on to become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors .

Although known primarily for his huge blockbusters in the Mission: Impossible and Top Gun franchises, Cruise initially got his start in the slow-burn dramas Endless Love and Taps before breaking out with the more comedic Risky Business . Whereas some actors enjoyed massive success early in their careers before fading into obscurity, Cruise's star power has endured throughout many decades . Whether because of his acting chops or the movies' overall quality, many of the projects in Cruise's extensive body of work rank among some of the best films ever made.

Related: 1 Failed Tom Cruise Movie Franchise Proves His Star Power Better Than Top Gun & Mission Impossible

10 Interview With The Vampire (1994)

Tom cruise plays lestat de lioncourt, interview with the vampire.

Tom Cruise is primarily known for heroic roles, but Interview with the Vampire sees him play a villainous character, and despite the controversy over his casting, he absolutely nails the part. Based on the novel by Anne Rice, the movie focuses on an 18th-century vampire who tells his story to a modern-day reporter in order to make peace with his past. Cruise portrays Lestat, another, once-charming vampire who finds himself regretting his near-immortality after turning an innocent girl into one of their kind. The adaptation takes a uniquely sobering approach to vampirism , and its cinematography and set design are among the most convincing and immersive ever seen in a film.

Related: Interview With The Vampire's Controversial Tom Cruise Casting Explained By Director

9 Risky Business (1983)

Tom cruise plays joel goodsen, risky business.

Starring Tom Cruise when he was a relative newcomer, Risky Business sees the actor play an over-achieving high school student who is left home alone while his parents go on vacation. Risky Business made Cruise a star with one iconic scene where he jams out to the song "Old Time Rock and Roll." The lasting appeal of this moment speaks to its quality and impact as well as Cruise's suddenly clear magnetism. Risky Business is notable for its screenplay by Paul Brickman, who also directed the movie, as it perfectly showcases the challenges of a popular teenager whose parents and teachers constantly push him to be the best.

8 The Color Of Money (1986)

Tom cruise plays vincent lauria.

Directed by Martin Scorsese and adapted from the Walter Tevis novel of the same name, The Color of Money is a late sequel to the 1961 film The Hustler . Paul Newman reprises his role as Fast Eddie, a pool hustler who recruits Cruise's character, Vincent, to help him swindle other players. The Color of Money is about greed and how it changes people, and the effects of Vincent and Fast Eddie's intense rivalry on their personal lives is a strong reinforcement of the theme. Released shortly after his blockbuster success with Top Gun , this is a cool, entertaining movie and an early showcase of Cruise's talent as a dramatic actor.

7 A Few Good Men (1992)

Tom cruise plays lt. daniel kaffee, a few good men.

A Few Good Men is a legal drama that stars Tom Cruise as a military lawyer defending two U.S. Marines charged with murder. One of the best movies based on a stage play , it marks the screenwriting debut of Aaron Sorkin, adapting his own work, and showcases some of the best dialogue ever written . At the movie's center is the theme of valor in the face of uncertainty, as Cruise's character bravely fights the case despite the seemingly infinite odds stacked against him. Cruise brings a certain intensity to his role, and his ability to rile up Jack Nicholson's Col. Jessep in the film's iconic courtroom scene also speaks volumes.

6 Rain Man (1983)

Tom cruise plays charlie babbitt.

Rain Man follows a heartwarming story about the power of family over financial worth and features a surprisingly nuanced take on the complex nature of brothers. Tom Cruise plays Charlie, a charming schemer obsessed with money who attempts to manipulate his way into his autistic older brother's good graces upon discovering their father cut him out of his will. A film about solidarity, compassion, and love, Rain Man successfully gets its messages across in a way that's heartfelt and believable .

Related: 10 Tom Cruise Movies That Still Need Sequels Made

5 Magnolia (1999)

Tom cruise plays frank t. j. mackey.

Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Magnolia tells a series of seemingly unrelated stories that follow the same themes of loss and regret. While the subject matter makes for challenging viewing, its reprieve comes in the form of its ability to make its drama compelling. Tom Cruise's usual charm and intensity are in full effect in the movie, but his heart-breaking scene with his father (played by Jason Robards) on his deathbed is one of the strongest performances the actor has ever delivered , and out of all the movie's different characters and storylines, his best reinforces the film's themes.

4 Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Tom cruise plays imf agent ethan hunt, mission: impossible - dead reckoning.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One delivers tons of action , as is expected from the franchise. Mission: Impossible is famous for its stunts, and this installment is no different as it sees Tom Cruise's character — and the actor himself — again defying the laws of physics to accomplish his latest world-saving operation. This time, his character, IMF agent Ethan Hunt, works with his team of operatives to stop the influence of a powerful rogue AI. Despite the movie ending on a cliffhanger, it offers enough thrills to make it one of the best movie sequels ever made .

3 Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

Tom cruise plays major william cage, edge of tomorrow.

Based on a manga, Edge of Tomorrow sees Tom Cruise as Major William Cage, a public relations officer with minimal combat experience who is forced by his superiors to aid in fighting an alien-occupied Europe in a dystopian future. Moreover, Cage dies and reboots repeatedly throughout the movie after discovering he's caught in a time loop. One of the best sci-fi movies of the 2010s , Edge of Tomorrow offers a unique take on its source material with its intense action and sharp humor .

2 Collateral (2004)

Tom cruise plays vincent.

Michael Mann's Collateral is a neo-noir thriller that sees a burned-out taxi driver pick up a mysterious man who turns out to be a hired killer. As one of Michael Mann's most memorable characters , Cruise delivers an exceptional performance in the role of the hitman, Vincent, with his usual charisma making the assassin all the more threatening. He also has excellent chemistry with Jamie Foxx, who plays the driver, Max; together, they almost make viewers forget that they're actors during some of their more intense scenes in the movie. Collateral also features Mann's signature moody, atmospheric depiction of Los Angeles, which effectively draws viewers into the film's unique neo-noir world .

1 Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Tom cruise plays cpt. pete "maverick" mitchell, top gun: maverick.

Another one of the best sequels of all time, Top Gun: Maverick sees Tom Cruise's Pete "Maverick" Mitchell return to the titular school to train the next generation of graduates while also dealing with some of his longstanding demons. This is a movie that's just as much about family and trust as it is about exhilarating dogfights, which makes it a surprisingly deep and thoughtful blockbuster. Top Gun: Maverick cemented Cruise's status as one of Hollywood's biggest stars as its heartfelt story and creative action scenes helped the sequel gross over $1 billion.

• All His Movies, Ranked
• Crazy Stunts He's Actually Done
• Wild Facts All Fans Should Know
• What He's Like to Work With
• Stunts That Could Have Ended Him
• Over-the-Top Performances
• Moments That Are So Tom
• Favorite Characters
• Scientology Rumors

The 40+ Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked By Fans

Vote up the films starring Tom Cruise that complete you.

When it comes to Hollywood royalty, few can hold a candle to Tom Cruise. Over the years, this megastar has delivered one jaw-dropping performance after another, solidifying his place as a cinematic legend. It's a formidable task to narrow down the best Tom Cruise movies of all time, but hey, someone's got to do it. From high-octane action flicks to soul-stirring dramas, Cruise's filmography is as versatile as it is impressive.

Take, for instance, Top Gun , the adrenaline-pumping story of competitive fighter pilots that catapulted Cruise to international stardom. Or A Few Good Men , where he delivered one of his most powerful performances, proving that he could handle weighty dialogues with the same ease as he does action-packed sequences. These films are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to top Tom Cruise films that have left an indelible mark on cinema.

But how did we curate such a coveted list? Well, it started with movie experts who have an eye for performances that define careers, creating a shortlist of films that truly showcase Tom Cruise at his best. Then, we turned it over to the fans, whose votes have shaped this definitive ranking. Whether you're a die-hard Cruise fan or just a movie buff looking to revisit some cinematic gold, this list has got you covered.

As an adrenaline-pumping display of aerial combat and rivalry, this movie takes viewers into the world of elite fighter pilots, with the lead actor embodying the brash, fearless pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. The audience follows Maverick's journey through the prestigious Top Gun Naval Fighter Weapons School as he battles his own ego, engages in astonishing dogfights, and learns the true meaning of teamwork. The sizzling on-screen chemistry with Kelly McGillis, the thrilling action sequences, and the beloved rendition of " Take My Breath Away " make it an unforgettable 80s classic.

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• # 110 of 264 on The 200+ Best War Movies Of All Time
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A Few Good Men

In this tense courtroom drama, audiences are captivated by the exceptional performance as a young military lawyer assigned to defend two Marines accused of killing a fellow comrade. Alongside powerful performances from Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, the film flawlessly showcases the protagonist's gradual transformation from a cocky, fresh-faced attorney into a fierce, skilled advocate determined to uncover the truth. The iconic line "You can't handle the truth!" immortalizes the film's memorable climax and solidifies the protagonist's status as one of Hollywood's most dynamic actors.

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Top Gun: Maverick

Returning to the iconic role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell after decades, the anticipation for this sequel has been immense, and it promises to deliver the same captivating thrills and aerial combat sequences of the original. As a mentor to the next generation of fighter pilots, including the son of his late best friend Goose, the protagonist guides these young talents while still facing his own personal demons and unresolved past. The combination of a compelling storyline, breathtaking stunts, and a nostalgic return to the character that made him a household name ensures this will be another hit.

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• # 19 of 164 on The Best Movie Sequels Ever Made
• # 37 of 81 on The Most Rewatchable Action Movies

The lead character delivers a heart-wrenching performance as Charlie Babbitt, a hustler who discovers he has an autistic savant brother named Raymond after their father's death. Through their cross-country road trip, Charlie learns to appreciate the gentle genius of his older brother while he evolves from a selfish, money-driven man to a compassionate and loving brother. This emotional journey resulted in a Best Actor nomination, and the film itself won numerous awards, including Best Picture, highlighting the powerful and touching bond between the two main characters.

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• # 251 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 18 of 96 on The Very Best Oscar-Winning Movies For Best Picture

Mission: Impossible

In the role of super-spy Ethan Hunt, the leading man had audiences on the edge of their seats with the thrilling action and elaborate plots of this espionage thriller series. As Hunt, he displays an unrivaled level of physicality and commitment to his craft, performing most of his own stunts, resulting in a rollercoaster ride of adventure and suspense for moviegoers. The franchise has become synonymous with jaw-dropping stunts, twisty plots, and an evolving ensemble cast that perfectly complements the main character's charisma and determination.

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• # 29 of 50 on The Biggest Movies Of The '90s, Ranked
• # 104 of 379 on The Best Movies Of The 1990s

Jerry Maguire

In this romantic dramedy, the audience witnesses a sports agent's fall from grace and subsequent redemption through his relationship with his sole client and love interest. Audiences are charmed by the stunning performances, emotional vulnerability, and undeniable chemistry between the characters, as well as the classic line, "You complete me." The film earned the lead actor an Academy Award nomination and remains an enduring favorite for its heartwarming relationships, brilliant dialogue, and bittersweet exploration of ambition and love.

• # 41 of 50 on The Biggest Movies Of The '90s, Ranked
• # 563 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 468 of 702 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films

Edge of Tomorrow

Featuring a mix of action-packed sequences, science fiction elements, and dark humor, this film showcases the protagonist as a reluctant hero, forced to live the same day repeatedly while fighting alien invaders. The compelling story of survival and personal growth, alongside the intriguing concept of time loops, make this an unforgettable cinematic experience. Supported by a strong performance from Emily Blunt, this thrilling, fast-paced adventure cements its status as a modern sci-fi classic.

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• # 8 of 178 on The 150+ Best Movies With Aliens

Minority Report

Set in a dystopian future where crime is predicted and prevented by a specialized police force, this Steven Spielberg-directed sci-fi thriller sees the lead actor as a detective accused of a crime he has yet to commit. With its unique premise, thought-provoking themes, and stunning visuals, the film became an instant classic and served as a showcase for the protagonist's range and versatility as an actor. The combination of gripping storytelling, groundbreaking special effects, and a strong ensemble cast cement its status as one of the best sci-fi films of the 21st century.

• # 30 of 162 on The 150+ Best Futuristic Dystopian Movies
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• # 144 of 675 on The Best Movies Roger Ebert Gave Four Stars

The Last Samurai

Set in 19th-century Japan, this epic historical drama follows the journey of Capt. Nathan Algren, an American military officer who becomes deeply immersed in the samurai culture. The protagonist brilliantly portrays a tortured soul seeking redemption and finding it through his connection with the titular warriors, resulting in a soulful and emotional performance. Aesthetically stunning and emotionally engaging, this film is impressively crafted and features outstanding performances from Ken Watanabe and the rest of the cast.

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• # 96 of 264 on The 200+ Best War Movies Of All Time
• # 541 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies

Risky Business

As the high school senior who turns his family's home into a brothel after getting involved with a call girl, the lead actor delivers a charming and iconic performance that launched his career as a Hollywood heartthrob. The famous scene of the character dancing in his underwear to " Old Time Rock and Roll " has become a pop-culture staple, and the film itself remains a beloved 80s classic. With its unique blend of teen angst, dark comedy, and romance, this coming-of-age story showcases the beginnings of a truly remarkable talent.

• # 35 of 112 on The 100+ Best Movies About High School
• # 631 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
• # 383 of 702 on The All-Time Greatest Comedy Films

In this gripping adaptation of John Grisham's best-selling novel, the protagonist plays an ambitious young lawyer who becomes entangled in a dangerous web of deceit and corruption at his prestigious law firm. The intense plot and stellar performances from the ensemble cast, including Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, and David Strathairn, keep the audience absorbed and guessing until the very end. The smart script, thrilling twists, and central performance make it a must-watch for legal thriller enthusiasts and fans of the leading man alike.

• # 39 of 50 on The Biggest Movies Of The '90s, Ranked
• # 117 of 369 on The Best Movies Based On Books
• # 46 of 81 on The 75+ Best Whodunit Murder Mystery Movies

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol

The fourth installment in the adrenaline-fueled franchise sees the protagonist perform even more heart-stopping stunts, including scaling the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, further solidifying his reputation as a fearless action star. With a fresh team of dynamic actors, including Simon Pegg and Paula Patton, this film raises the stakes and balances its thrilling action with lighter moments of humor. Picking up where its predecessors left off, the film delivers an exhilarating, globetrotting adventure that leaves audiences eager for more.

• # 20 of 81 on The Most Rewatchable Action Movies
• # 34 of 98 on The Best Movies Based On TV Shows
• # 22 of 73 on The Greatest Movies About CIA Agents & Operatives

Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Portraying the tormented vampire Lestat in this adaptation of Anne Rice's novel, the protagonist delivers a mesmerizing and seductive performance that captivated audiences worldwide. Sharing the screen with Brad Pitt and a young Kirsten Dunst, the actor's portrayal of an immortal craving companionship and grappling with the morality of his actions is both chilling and heartbreaking. Though controversial at the time for its dark themes and explicit content, the film has since become a cult classic, showcasing a different side of the leading man's abilities.

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• # 202 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

The fifth installment of the popular action franchise sees the protagonist reprise his role as Ethan Hunt, this time facing a powerful, clandestine organization known as the Syndicate. With incredible stunts, including a breathtaking underwater sequence and a thrilling motorcycle chase, the lead actor continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in action cinema. Alongside new additions to the cast such as Rebecca Ferguson and Sean Harris, this thrilling adventure offers non-stop excitement and intrigue that maintains the high standards of the series.

• # 15 of 99 on The Best Movies Of 2015
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• # 38 of 72 on The Greatest Movies About CIA Agents & Operatives

Mission: Impossible - Fallout

In his sixth turn as super-spy Ethan Hunt, the main character's commitment to performing his own stunts reaches new heights with a harrowing high-altitude-low-opening (HALO) jump. Additionally, the film's electric helicopter chase and intense fight sequences showcase the actor's relentless dedication to delivering pulse-pounding action. With a gripping storyline that delves deeper into the personal life of Hunt and an exhilarating finale, this entry is widely regarded as one of the best in the long-running series.

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In a rare turn as the villain, the lead actor plays a cold and calculating contract killer in this crime thriller directed by Michael Mann. Sharing the screen with Jamie Foxx's unsuspecting taxi driver, the actor's menacing performance offers a fascinating look into the psyche of his character and contrasts sharply with the vulnerable, heroic roles that have defined his career. With its gritty atmosphere, taut pacing, and unforgettable performances, the film stands as a testament to the versatility and range of the protagonist.

• # 31 of 99 on The Best Movies Of 2004, Ranked
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• # 8 of 13 on 13 Times Tom Cruise Came Close To Disaster Doing His Own Movie Stunts

Days of Thunder

Reuniting with the Top Gun director, the protagonist stars as hotshot NASCAR driver Cole Trickle in this high-octane racing drama. With thrilling race sequences and an exploration of the competitive world of stock car racing, the movie allows the lead character to demonstrate his undeniable screen presence and physical prowess. The electrifying on-screen chemistry between the actor and his future wife, Nicole Kidman, adds to the allure of this compelling sports drama.

• # 58 of 206 on The Best Sports Movies Ever Made
• # 28 of 90 on The Best Movies of 1990
• # 45 of 69 on The Greatest Sports Drama Movies of All Time

The Outsiders

Based on the classic novel by S.E. Hinton, this coming-of-age drama set in the 1960s features the lead actor as part of an ensemble cast that includes Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, and Rob Lowe, among others. As the youngest member of the "Greasers" gang and the brother of Ralph Macchio's Johnny, the actor delivers a tender performance that showcases his talent at an early age. The film has since become a cult classic, with its heartfelt portrayal of friendship, loyalty, and the trials of growing up.

• # 306 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
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• # 49 of 399 on The Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked

The Color of Money

In this sequel to the 1961 classic The Hustler, the lead character plays pool protegé Vincent Lauria, who is mentored by Paul Newman's "Fast" Eddie Felson. A dynamic on-screen duo, they brilliantly convey the tension and rivalry between their characters, making for a compelling examination of ambition, redemption, and the cost of success. The film stands as a worthy follow-up to its predecessor, with a superb performance that further cemented the protagonist's status as a versatile leading man.

• # 216 of 399 on The Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
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Jack Reacher

Adapted from Lee Child's bestselling novels, the movie features the leading man as the tough-as-nails former Army investigator and drifter who finds himself entangled in a complex conspiracy. Showcasing his impressive range as an actor, the protagonist delivers a gritty and physical performance that captivates audiences and brings the beloved literary character to life. The film's thrilling action sequences, unexpected twists, and solid supporting cast make it a standout in the action-thriller genre.

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• # 673 of 772 on The Most Rewatchable Movies
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In this 80s drama, the leading man portrays an ambitious bartender who dreams of success and navigates the trials and tribulations of love and friendship. The role allows the protagonist to showcase his charm, charisma, and signature smile, resulting in a captivating performance that further establishes him as a Hollywood heartthrob. With memorable scenes and quotable dialogue, the film has earned a special place in pop culture nostalgia.

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• # 179 of 399 on The Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
• # 44 of 122 on The Best Movies Of 1988

Born on the Fourth of July

In a powerful and transformative performance, the lead actor takes on the real-life story of Ron Kovic, a disillusioned Vietnam War veteran who becomes an anti-war activist. Earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, the protagonist impeccably portrays the emotional turmoil, physical pain, and ultimate redemption of his character. The film's unflinching depiction of the war's aftermath and its impact on soldiers makes it a poignant and unforgettable viewing experience.

• # 209 of 264 on The 200+ Best War Movies Of All Time
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• # 76 of 99 on The Greatest Movie Soundtracks Of All Time

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One

The upcoming seventh installment in the blockbuster franchise promises to deliver even more breathtaking stunts, explosive action, and intriguing espionage as the lead character reprises his iconic role of Ethan Hunt. As the first part of a two-part cinematic event, the film will undoubtedly raise the stakes and further solidify the protagonist's status as an unstoppable action hero. With returning and new cast members, fans are eagerly anticipating the next thrilling chapter in the ever-evolving series.

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Mission: Impossible III

With J.J. Abrams at the helm, the third installment of the blockbuster franchise brings a personal and emotional depth to the series, as protagonist Ethan Hunt faces a ruthless villain with ties to his personal life. The leading man's captivating performance, along with an incredible supporting cast and intense action sequences, make this entry a standout in the spy thriller genre. Fans of the series appreciate the balance of character development, emotional stakes, and adrenaline-pumping action that this installment delivers.

• # 25 of 101 on The Best Movies Of 2006
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• # 26 of 104 on The 100+ Best Third Movies In A Film Series

Tropic Thunder

In a surprising and hilarious turn, the protagonist takes on the role of an over-the-top Hollywood producer in this satirical war comedy. Sporting a bald cap and thick prosthetic makeup, he is nearly unrecognizable as he lampoons the movie industry with biting humor and infectious dance moves. His comedic prowess and willingness to poke fun at himself contribute to the film's status as a modern classic in the comedy genre.

• # 232 of 264 on The 200+ Best War Movies Of All Time
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In this visually stunning sci-fi thriller, the protagonist plays a drone repairman tasked with maintaining Earth's defense system after an alien invasion. Unraveling a twisted web of secrets and lies surrounding his mission, the lead actor delivers a gripping and emotional performance that keeps audiences engaged from start to finish. With its breathtaking cinematography, thought-provoking themes, and memorable score, the film solidifies its place as a captivating entry in the science fiction genre.

• # 64 of 178 on The 150+ Best Movies With Aliens
• # 61 of 162 on The 150+ Best Futuristic Dystopian Movies
• # 118 of 185 on The Greatest Comic Book Movies Of All Time

In this gripping historical thriller, the lead actor portrays German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg, who leads a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during World War II. With a strong supporting cast and a suspenseful narrative, the protagonist delivers a compelling performance that highlights his versatility as an actor. The film is a riveting exploration of moral courage and determination in the face of insurmountable odds.

• # 67 of 264 on The 200+ Best War Movies Of All Time
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War of the Worlds

In this modern adaptation of H.G. Wells' classic novel, the protagonist portrays a divorced father who must protect his children during a sudden alien invasion. Under the direction of Steven Spielberg, the lead actor excels in conveying the terror, desperation, and determination of his character while navigating a world on the brink of destruction. The film's riveting storyline, impressive special effects, and powerful performances create a thrilling and suspenseful ride for viewers.

• # 32 of 178 on The 150+ Best Movies With Aliens
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Far and Away

Starring alongside Nicole Kidman, the protagonist takes on the role of an Irish immigrant seeking his fortune in America in this sweeping romantic epic. The film's lush landscapes and stirring score provide an exquisite backdrop for the passionate love story between the main characters. Despite some mixed critical reception, the undeniable chemistry between the lead actors and the film's grand scope make it a memorable viewing experience.

• # 33 of 80 on The Best Period Romance Movies
• # 218 of 228 on The 200+ Best Film Scores Of All Time
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American Made

Based on a true story, the protagonist plays a commercial airline pilot turned drug smuggler and CIA informant in this fast-paced crime drama. The lead actor's charismatic performance, combined with a fascinating real-life plot and a vibrant 80s aesthetic, makes for an entertaining and thrilling ride. The film showcases the protagonist's ability to tackle complex characters and deliver engaging performances in diverse roles.

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All about the life and career of the ageless actor Tom Cruise.

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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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All 44 of Tom Cruise’s movies, ranked

This article was published more than 6 months ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire (1996). Columbia TriStar via The Associated Press

“He is uniquely trained and highly motivated – a specialist without equal – immune to any countermeasures. ... He is the living manifestation of destiny.”

Those words belong to Alec Baldwin’s CIA honcho in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation , describing the superspy Ethan Hunt played by Tom Cruise. But Baldwin might as well just be describing Cruise himself, a pure force of will who has elevated (almost) every movie he has been involved with. After spending the past half-year diving into the star’s filmography, here is my mission report. Presenting all 44 Tom Cruise movies , ranked from worst to best.

Meet Christopher McQuarrie, wingman to Tom Cruise’s death-defying maverick

The Tao of Tom Cruise, our last action hero

Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames in Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018). David James/The Associated Press

44. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016): Good advice, someone should’ve heeded it.

43. Rock of Ages (2012): Puke-box musical.

42. The Mummy (2017): Denial ain’t just a franchise in Egypt.

41. Endless Love (1981): Barely a pipsqueak, Cruise’s first role is just plain squeaky.

40. Losin’ It (1983): A charmless thing starring a man of pure charm, fancy that.

39. Interview with the Vampire (1994): Dead, and not loving it.

38. The Last Samurai (2003): The Last White Saviour movie to likely get such a high budget.

37. Lions For Lambs (2007): Faux-political drama operating on slaughter-house rules.

36. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000): To John Woo, thanks for nothing.

35. All the Right Moves (1983): Perhaps Jerry Maguire could help Cruise’s NFL wannabe. Perhaps not.

34. Far and Away (1992): Ron Howard must be, but so far hasn’t been, stopped.

33. Knight and Day (2010): Right repairing with Vanilla Sky ’s Cameron Diaz, but the wrong movie.

32. Oblivion (2013): Sterile sci-fi, but it introduces Cruise to Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski.

31. Legend (1985): Tawdry make-believe that imagines a better movie just beyond its grasp.

30. Cocktail (1988): The martini glass is half-empty. But points for Kokomo – and Toronto.

29. Valkyrie (2008): Once you adapt to his accent-less Nazi turncoat, it sorta clicks.

28. Jack Reacher (2012): Just a few inches short of a tight thriller.

27. Taps (1981): Cruise’s determination codified, if not yet quite personified.

26. The Outsiders (1983): Rare ensemble work that toughs it out.

25. Vanilla Sky (2001): Cameron Crowe and Cruise follow Jerry Maguire with a vision too heavy for even the sturdiest of eight-pound heads.

24. Tropic Thunder (2008): Timeless performance in film otherwise composed of ancient cultural artifacts.

23. The Color of Money (1986): True grit from Cruise, Paul Newman and Martin Scorsese, three of our finest hustlers.

22. Days of Thunder (1990): Inseparable from Top Gun , cementing Cruise as our Golden Boy.

21. Top Gun (1986): Ridiculous beefy silliness that breaks the sound barrier.

20. The Firm (1993): The true origins of Cruise’s running-man shtick.

19. Mission: Impossible (1996): RIP Emilio Estevez’s character, but long live Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.

Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The Canadian Press

18. War of the Worlds (2005): Apocalyptic parenting par excellence.

17. Mission: Impossible III (2006): The resuscitation of a megafranchise, bigger and louder and Alias -er.

16. American Made (2017): All smiles, sweat and sex, delightfully absent any moral centre.

15. Rain Man (1988): No one plays the jerk-who-comes-round better.

14. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015): In Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise finds his kindred collaborator/enabler.

13. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011): Jeremy Renner could never.

12. Edge of Tomorrow (2014): Live, die, repeatedly watch this all-killer-no-filler Groundhog Day riff.

11. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023): No movie is worth dying for, but then again ...

10. Collateral (2004): The rare villainous turn, slicked to the nines with devilish dark-night-of-the-soul fun.

9. Born on the Fourth of July (1989): The war movie no one expected from Cruise, but the war movie he had to make.

8. Magnolia (1999): In this life, it’s not what you hope for, it’s not what you deserve – it’s what you take.

Tom Cruise and Samantha Morton in Minority Report (2002). Handout

7. A Few Good Men (1992): In which Cruise gives us the god’s honest truth, 100 per cent.

6. Risky Business (1983): Sunglasses at night, old time rock-’n’-roll charm during the day.

5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999): Revelatory work that shatters celebrity perception.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Paramount Pictures/Paramount Pictures

4. Minority Report (2002): Steven Spielberg’s finest sci-fi fantasia and Cruise’s top fugitive fantasy.

3. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018): In which Cruise becomes immortal.

2. Jerry Maguire (1996): It’s had us at hello for a quarter-century now.

1. Top Gun: Maverick (2022): The hero American cinema needs, the hero the world deserves.

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Fifteen of the best Tom Cruise movies — from Risky Business to Top Gun 2

We pick the best Tom Cruise movies from the star who's as underrated as he is prolific.

Say what you want about Tom Cruise — it's probably true. The best Tom Cruise movies also happen to be some of the best movies, period . He's one of the greatest living actors. He's overrated. He's underrated. He's way too old to be doing his own stunts. Scientology. Motorcycles. He's an anachronism. He's immortal.

You can argue for and against any and all of those things — and that's just for starters. But it's hard to argue that Tom Malpother Cruise IV hasn't been one of the most fascinating actors of a generation. Maybe not as prolific as, say, Kevin Bacon (the two are just four years apart in age) — but right up there in terms of range.

From the sweaty adrenaline cliché that is Top Gun (and the equally sweaty sequel, Top Gun: Maverick ) to the likes of the nearly indescribable Vanilla Sky or Eyes Wide Shut , the dude has range — even if it seems like in many ways he's merely playing different versions of himself. But that's what makes a good actor. We know that it's Tom Cruise in a fighter jet, or as a Vietnam War veteran. Or as an oversexed doctor. Or as a Pre-Crime cop. Or as a hotshot lawyer, backed by one hell of a lawyer.

Maybe you can argue that Tom Cruise is even better at choosing roles than he is as an actor. Maybe that's what distinguishes our list of the best Tom Cruise movies.

In any case, it's one hell of a list. Let's go through it. We've chosen date order — because we've got no hope of actually choosing between these babies.

Taps (1981)

The cadets of Bunker Hill Academy love their school, and when condo developers plan to bulldoze it, the cadets become the ultimate NIMBYs. They occupy the school, ending in a real-live war game these young men might not have bargained for.

This is not a "Tom Cruise" movie in the sense that his name is not above the fold. It's a George C. Scott and Timothy Hutton (with a little Sean Penn thrown in for added spice) movie on that score. But the hotheaded, gung-ho David Shawn that Cruise delivers is one of his rare bad guys, a hint that there is more behind those eyes than endless variations on Joel from Risky Business. With the exception of Magnolia, no one since has really had Cruise dig into the wound-too-tight, jagged edges he shows here.

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The Outsiders (1983)

Francis Ford Coppola's coming-of-age teen drama, The Outsiders is a hidden gem with a call sheet featuring the prime of 1980s acting talent including Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Diane Lane. The film, adapted from S.E. Hinton's novel, focuses on the class rivalry between groups from a small town in Oklahoma — the working-class Greasers and the wealthy Socs (short for socials). Tom Cruise only has a small role but, as scrappy greaser Steve Randle, he showcases his ability to switch off his megawatt movie star smile and sink into a character part.

The Outsiders made stars of its young " Brat Pack " talent, including one Tom Cruise — who despite his fleeting appearance in the film would go on to become arguably the biggest movie star in the world.

Risky Business (1983)

What's your first memory of Tom Cruise? Is it of the young man in an Oxford shirt and briefs, falling for (and falling under the spell of) the one and only Rebecca De Mornay? If so, you're absolutely not alone.

But it's also easy to forget that Risky Business isn't Tom Cruise's first movie. Even if it's a standout in a sea of memorable roles.

All the Right Moves (1983)

Released the same year as Risky Business , All the Right Moves , is often overshadowed by its slicker, sexier cousin. It shouldn't be.

For teens who grew up in coal and steel towns like this — or in any one-company, one-industry town — this movie was the celluloid version of the struggle to find a different path in a place that only offers so many choices. This Tom Cruise hero has flaws and he doesn't just skate by on that big smile. Plus he has a great foil in the criminally underrated Craig T. Nelson.

Top Gun (1986)

I feel the need ... the need ... to quote this movie within an inch of its life. There's just something about the swagger that actors like Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt have playing fighter pilots, that's ridiculously badass.

And let us not forget the late, great Goose — Anthony Edwards with hair! And James Tolkan and his threat to have Maverick flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong. And Michael Ironside reminding us that you never — ever — leave your wingman.

Cocktail (1988)

Cocktail is what you get if you combine Risky Business with Top Gun . Brian Flanagan (Tom Cruise) is just a guy looking to make his way in the world, but intent on doing it his own way. That's right, bartender man. He is... dangerous.

Don't let anyone tell you Cocktail isn't a good movie. It's got great Aussie actor, Bryan Brown, as Brian's grizzled mentor, Elisabeth Shue as Brian's long-suffering girlfriend, a tropical island for a backdrop and a cracking soundtrack that includes The Beach Boys "Kokomo". Enjoy.

Rain Man (1988)

The last thing Charlie Babbitt wants is a brother — let alone one with autism. But that's what he discovers he has. In Rain Man, Tom Cruise is slick, charming and awful and yet strangely empathetic. It was a revelation. Not least because he manages to give that masterful performance alongside Dustin Hoffman. The Dustin Hoffman.

Rain Man is a rare example of a box office smash hit that also hits the right note with critics, winning four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Sadly the Best Actor role went to Tom Cruise's acting partner, Hoffman. Good try though.

Days of Thunder (1990)

It's Top Gun on four wheels. Cole Trickle may just be the most NASCAR name ever. And this may well be the most Tom Cruise movie of them all. Speed. Danger. Silly names. Nicole Kidman. (As in the future ex-Mrs. Tom Cruise.)

Plus Robert Duvall. Randy Quaid. Carey Elwes, just a couple of years out from The Princess Bride and sandwiched between Glory and Hot Shots!. And the ageless Michael Rooker. It's also probably the best use of the Spencer Davis Group in a film — right when Steve Winwood was getting big as a solo act.

A Few Good Men (1992)

One of the most memorable movie scenes ever comes from this flick — and it wasn't even Tom Cruise's line that capped it. That's OK — if you've got to play second fiddle to someone, let it be Jack Nicholson.

The military courtroom drama is a little tough for anyone who knows anything about courtrooms to watch — there's absolutely no way a lawyer anywhere would be allowed to behave that way. But art doesn't always imitate life and so a little deus ex machina and dialog by one of the best in the business — Aaron Sorkin — gave Tom Cruise yet another notch on his dramatic acting belt.

Plus an insolent (is there any other kind?) Kiefer Sutherland, the always awesome J.T. Walsh, Kevins Bacon and Pollak, Demi Moore and a baby Noah Wyle.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

This is the epitome of mid-1990s movies. Tom Cruise stars as Tom Cruise in love. Renee Zellweger does her schtick. Cameron Crowe does his thing with the script and behind the camera.

And it has that Sorkin-esque speech that feels like it was made for Tom Cruise. Plus Cuba Gooding Jr. in a role that makes you wonder where the rest of his career went.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

There's something about the first movie in this franchise reboot that maybe doesn't hold up so well 25 years later. But that's OK. Tom Cruise holds his own as Ethan Hunt alongside (and against) the likes of Jon Voight, Jean Reno and Ving Rhames. And it paved the way for something like 17 sequels, with casts that have morphed over two decades.

But it still manages to keep the soul of the original movie — and of the original M:I series.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

What the hell is this movie about? Is it about Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman? (Very much so.) Is it about some weird secret sex party society in New York? (Most definitely.) Is it about the fallout between those two things? (Yep.)

It's also about this being Stanley Kubrick's final film before he died. And it's about Chris Isaak's baby doing a bad, bad thing.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

This is one of those trailers that absolutely does not do the movie — or Tom Cruise — justice. (Same goes for Cameron Crowe, who wrote it.) Sure it captures the Tom Cruise who can do no wrong, get any woman he wants, drive the coolest car — you know, standard Tom Cruise stuff. And, sure, it captures the broken and confused Tom Cruise. And it captures the nexus between those things.

But damned if I can make sense of it two decades later. Still, it's an excellent Tom Cruise movie.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

There's just something about this movie that makes it watchable every time it's on. Maybe it's Tom Cruise as a PR flak in the military as it's combating a crazy alien invasion. Maybe it's Emily Blunt and her badass triceps. Maybe it's the late Bill Paxton's drawl. "Edge of the knaaaaaaf."

You know how this movie is going to turn out. You know Tom Cruise will be OK and save the day and everything will work itself out. And you know that look he gives at the very end of the movie means something — you just don't know what.

Or maybe it's just the mere idea of Tom Cruise ending up in a situation in which he's not in total control and doesn't know what's going to happen.

Top Gun Maverick (2022)

A whopping 36 years after the first Top Gun film , Tom Cruise is back with more death-defying aerial action and he hasn't let the fact that he's approaching his 60th birthday slow him down. We've got all the stunts, quips, bonding and spectacle of the first film with added anticipation and nostalgia. In fact, our (spoiler-free) review of Top Gun: Maverick described it as "a stratospheric sequel" where the only negative point was how long we've had to wait for it. 

In a crazy world, where not much seems to make sense, watching Tom Cruise back in the saddle as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is comfortingly familiar yet excitingly entertaining. See it on the biggest screen you can.

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All 44 Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

Today, Tom Cruise is synonymous with gravity-defying stunts that adorn the biggest set pieces in the Mission: Impossible movies, wherein his passionate love for doing his own stuntwork has cemented his reputation as a larger-than-life movie star. Few actors possess the magnetism that Tom Cruise exudes, whether on set or on the big screen, in which he dazzles with his 1000-megawatt smile and carefully-crafted, wild intensity. However, Cruise is not just a decorated action star who merely entertains in the form of thrills — he shines best in complex dramas that demand characters to descend into the depths of what truly defines them. Be it a dollar bill brandishing Bill Harford or a chaotically tenacious Jerry Maguire, Cruise knows how to navigate nuanced character vignettes and imbue any film he’s in with a telltale intensity that cannot be replicated.

Having worked on 40+ films, alongside some episodes in television and documentaries, Tom Cruise has emerged as a bonafide — dare I say — icon in the past couple of years. Keeping this in mind, ranking every film he’s been in can be a tricky endeavor: after all, art is violently subjective and cannot truly be ranked to discern its innate value. Before we proceed, I would like to clarify the following: this ranking will be a combination of the quality of a film and the quality of Cruise’s performance in it, with a heavy emphasis on the latter. So, if you don’t see a, say, Top Gun: Maverick at numero uno, please don’t come rushing with your pitchforks!

Finally, this is as much a ranking as an appreciation for Tom Cruise’s staggering range and intensity as an actor, so please feel free to have a good time while you’re at it. With that out of the way, let’s dive in.

44. Endless Love (1981)

Tom Cruise’s debut performance as Billy in Franco Zeffirelli’s Endless Love is too blink-and-you-miss-it for it to warrant a substantial place in his filmography. Although Cruise’s character partially impacts the central romance between Brooke Shields and Martin Hewitt with a tale of unintentional arson, there’s not enough to go on here. Moreover, Endless Love can be categorized as an adaptation that does not understand its source material or the turgid, obsessive love affair that lies at the heart of the story.

43. The Mummy (2017)

Remember the Dark Universe? Neither do I. As a part of a terribly under-planned and misguided attempt to create a cinematic universe with classic Universal monsters, The Mummy was the first and final nail in the coffin for this ambitious franchise. Helmed by Alex Kurtzman, the film had several writers on board, along with David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie. However, the end result was a bafflingly lackluster script led by a character whose blandness overrides his consistently unbearable smugness.

Tom Cruise’s usual charm, which generally oscillates between endearing and effectively cocky throughout his filmography, comes off as obnoxious in The Mummy, mostly due to how it is handled. Apart from being a failed Tom Cruise vehicle, The Mummy thoroughly lacks originality to the point that it comes off as a sad pastiche of the classics it desperately tries to imitate.

42. Cocktail (1988)

Here, Tom Cruise plays yet another cocky flirt, this time a bartender named Brian Flanagan. Cocktail is the quintessential hollow ‘80s movie , with its glamour and appeal resting heavily on Cruise’s good looks. Well, the story in itself revolves around Brian’s ability to seduce women (whilst bartending, for the most part) until he decides to romance Elisabeth Shue’s Jordan. Unfortunately, Cocktail fails to imbibe any of the standard thrills that are cognizant of good romantic dramas, as the script lacks the depth to keep the audience invested or hooked. However, if you are ever in the mood to watch an unbearably suave Cruise flaring at a bar while the rest of the plot (plot? what plot?) gradually fades into the periphery, Cocktail is the perfect Tom Cruise film for this sole purpose.

41. Losin’ It (1983)

A sex comedy about adolescents trying their damnest to get laid, Losin’ It follows a young Tom Cruise on a road trip to Tijuana with his gang, who, wait for it, want to get some. Although there is nothing inherently bad about Curtis Hanson’s film, it unfurls as a run-of-the-mill genre offering rife with coming-of-age tropes and semi-hilarious shenanigans that end in some sort of pseudo-profound life lesson. Worth skipping entirely unless you’re a Cruise completionist.

40. Lions for Lambs (2007)

A war drama helmed by Robert Redford with a talent-packed cast including Cruise, Meryl Streep, and Redford himself sounds like the perfect Oscar bait. However, Redford’s Lions for Lambs was far from what everyone envisioned the film to be. Instead, it turned out to be a preachy, hollow morality drama with long-winded monologues that seemed like pedantic lectures. A film about America’s war on terror, Lions for Lambs executes its subject material in a rather pompous manner, robbing the film of the nuance and substance it should have essentially embodied. Although Tom Cruise is fine as Senator Jasper Irving, his performance fails to eclipse the dull execution of what could have been an especially riveting narrative about the futility of war.

39. Rock of Ages (2012)

Broadway musicals can be electrifying, and when appropriately adapted to the big screen, the results can be brilliant (a recent example being Steven Spielberg’s abundantly layered West Side Story). Adam Shankman’s Rock of Ages, based on Chris D’Arienzo’s jukebox Broadway musical of the same name, is almost too eccentric(ally bad) for its own good, crumbling into a brand of silliness I personally cannot get behind. Having said that, Tom Cruise is the only redeeming aspect of Shankman’s lifeless adaptation, who imbues metal rocker Stacee Jaxx with a bonkers, chameleon-like quality, managing to keep the movie afloat during the direst of times. If you can get past some of the intense croonings, that is.

38. Far and Away (1992)

In Far and Away, Tom Cruise and his then-wife Nicole Kidman play Irish immigrants coming to the US hoping to partake in the elusive American Dream. This premise can quickly become hackneyed if not treated with some modicum of ingenuity. And it does. In a case of pure miscasting, both Cruise and Kidman fail to reinvigorate this American epic with any sort of weight, despite their best efforts. Although visually stunning, Far and Away is the kind of film that suffers from shallowness that it seems to be unaware of, devoid of any meaningful stakes that can hurtle this drama towards a reasonable conclusion. Cruise’s Irish accent is…interesting, to put it mildly, which does not help the film’s case in any shape or form.

37. Taps (1981)

To be fair, Taps is a relatively good military drama, with a string of convincing performances backing it, especially by Timothy Hutton, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for the same. As we’re ranking films as per the quality of Tom Cruise’s performances, Taps ranks lower due to the limited screen time the actor has to work with here. Playing Cadet Captain David Shawn, Cruise plays a character who takes his responsibilities a tad too seriously, banking on the age-old notions of honor, which are often associated with a certain brand of masculinity and heroics. Despite the film’s self-endorsed seriousness, Taps, with or without Cruise, is a little lackluster on the stakes front and is pretty forgettable as a whole.

36. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Banality is the name of the game in Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, the sequel to the moderately enjoyable 2012 film, which still possesses numerous merits worth consideration. Tom Cruise reprises the franchise’s titular role, which often smacked as odd to me since Lee Child’s hulking protagonist is a far cry from Cruise’s rendition of the officer-turned-vigilante. However, the core issue with Edward Zwick’s sequel is not Cruise but a meandering, heavily by-the-numbers plot that seeps out any semblance of joy one can expect to derive from a standard action thriller.

The film’s reported budget of $96 million feels thoroughly unearned, as it is barely reflected in the shoddily-executed final product. Although Cruise is markedly different from the character’s novel counterpart, he brings a haunting intensity to the role that would have definitely fared better with a stronger, more cohesive script.

35. All The Right Moves (1983)

An early Tom Cruise entry, All The Right Moves, is pretty nondescript in terms of its filmmaking merits but emerges as pivotal in cementing Cruise’s credibility as a leading man. This Michael Chapman sports drama revolves around a Pennsylvania high-school footballer who is at loggerheads with his coach, desperate to escape his humble roots and make it big in the world of professional sports.

In terms of storyline, All The Right Moves is pretty middling, mimicking dozens of Hollywood entries that feature a gifted high schooler with ambitious aspirations persevering against all odds. However, Cruise manages to keep the storyline grounded, hence elevating an otherwise trite coming-of-age drama into a refreshingly honest character study worth checking out

34. Legend (1985)

Fresh off the success of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott ventured into the epic dark fantasy realm with Legend, which can only be described as a neverending fever dream. Now, don’t get me wrong: I think Legend is pure camp fun, and my love for the film knows no bounds. Be it a heavily costumed Tim Curry, who plays a 10-foot Lord of Darkness with menacing bravado, or an electrifying Mia Sara, whose Black Swan-like transformation may or may not have been my bisexual awakening, Legend is deliriously bonkers in the best of ways.

However, the film’s weakest link is Tom Cruise’s everyman-turned-hero Jack, who fights the devil with the power of light while donning armor made with a thousand shiny bottle caps. Cruise’s performance is not nearly as campy as the film demands. Hence, he painfully sticks out, like a being never truly belonging in the trippy wonderland it seems to inhabit.

33. Days of Thunder (1990)

A lot of hopes and dreams were pinned on Days of Thunder right around the time of its release, as it was the second collaboration between Tom Cruise and Tony Scott after the iconic Top Gun. Although it failed to meet these extremely high expectations, Days of Thunder whirls its way to the finish line in a way typical of a NASCAR flick: there are uber-fast cars, cocky drivers, and love interests cheering these hot-shot men on.

This is also the film in which Cruise met Kidman, who plays the love interest to his Cole Trickle. The film in itself? Underwhelming and pretty formulaic when it comes to its derivative plotting. Cruise, however, brings his telltale dynamism to the role, offering a glimpse of the wild intensity that would define some of his career’s best roles. Think of it as a mellowed Fast & Furious for Cruise lovers, and hey, that’s not a terrible bargain.

32. Knight and Day (2010)

James Mangold takes quintessential action-hero tropes and turns them on its head in Knight and Day, which is as fun and hilarious as it gets. Tom Cruise’s secret agent is on the run from the CIA (because, of course, he is) and needs to team up with June Havens (an extremely charming Cameron Diaz). The Diaz-Cruise duo works exceptionally well, both in serious dramas and comedic routines. The latter was proven true in Knight and Day, which remains rewatchable despite being predictable to some point. While Cruise’s Roy Miller/Matthew Knight follows the same mold as a dozen characters he plays in a bunch of action films, Knight and Day rank higher sheerly due to its purely enjoyable hijinks, which follow neither logic nor plausibility. Which is fine; let’s live a little.

31. Mission: Impossible II (2001)

After the genre-defying Mission: Impossible by Brian De Palma, which cemented Tom Cruise as the indomitable Ethan Hunt, John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II fell flat. Although not a terrible film by traditional genre standards, the sequel, unfortunately, does not inch any closer to the measured brilliance of the first MI film by investing in a borderline-nonsensical plot that does not do justice to the franchise’s core. However, the inherent shortcomings of this film are neither Woo’s nor Cruise’s fault, who undoubtedly bring their individual brands of commitment to this particular installment.

Due to the ridiculous nature of the script, Hunt emerges more as a bland villain than a morally complex anti-hero, although the subsequent films steadily paint him as the undisputed hero of the franchise, despite his moral complexities. The film also lacks the standard Woo-esque action flair. In fact, one is better off watching The Killer or Face/Off to genuinely appreciate what John Woo is really capable of.

30. Jack Reacher (2012)

No, please don’t yell at me for ranking Jack Reacher higher than MI 2 — let me explain. While Tom Cruise’s best efforts are adversely impacted by Mission: Impossible II’s headache-inducing script and characterization, Jack Reacher allows the action star to shine while adding an ounce of thrill to its titular character. This first installment is better received than its sequel because it understands what kind of film it is and works overtime to deliver the freshest thrills possible within that limited ambit.

Christopher McQuarrie employs Cruise’s natural charisma in favor of the storyline while weaving in an interesting antagonist in the form of a feral Werner Herzog . Also, I find Cruise’s brooding, cold-blooded persona an interesting turn among the long list of suave good guys he has played, especially within the framework of an action thriller that is meant to be a fun ride.

29. Valkyrie (2008)

Before I delve into how Valkyrie fares as a political drama , I want to focus exclusively on Tom Cruise’s performance as Wehrmacht Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the foremost members of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler. Cruise’s casting was the subject of controversy, as he was deemed too American for the role (compounded with the fact that none of the Nazi officers sported an accent throughout the film).

Despite these odds, Cruise churns out a reasonably good performance within the limitations of a plot that favors glitz and glamor over complex characterization. However, Cruise is not a standout here, as the rest of the cast belts out equally convincing performances. Meanwhile, the film fails to soar above the fringes of well-made mediocrity. Although Valkyrie is not laughably bad, it is not exceptionally good either, especially if you re-contextualize it through the German lens, given that the film fails the test of historical accuracy on many fronts.

28. Oblivion (2013)

Oh, I know: most lists would bill Oblivion way, way lower, as it is generally perceived as one of Tom Cruise’s inferior entries in the sci-fi genre. However, as an Oblivion apologist, I believe the film boasts something essentially significant: its plot stands out as wholly original despite suffering from some pacing and narrative issues.

Cruise is the heart of Oblivion — he sells the chaotic reveal halfway through the film, which seems to take clear inspiration from Solaris (the Andrei Tarkovsky original, not the American remake). Cruise perfectly plays a fractured character who is meant to be a ghost of his core self, chasing objectives until the mirage dissipates. Joseph Kosinski, who is a master at capturing aesthetic beauty, gift wraps Oblivion as a beautifully bleak dystopian experience that is worth experiencing at least once.

27. The Last Samurai (2003)

Edward Zwick’s epic period drama, The Last Samurai, positions Tom Cruise as an American captain who crosses paths with samurai warriors in the Meiji Restoration period in 19th century Japan. Right off the bat, I applaud the film’s stunning action sequences, which still hold up due to their fluidity and seamlessness, like poetry in motion. In terms of how Cruise fares in this drama, he brings equal amounts of badassery and heart to his conflicted character and adds an edge to the intelligently-penned plot with great conviction.

However, my issue with The Last Samurai lies in the inherent treatment of its subject matter: the white savior trope defines copious chunks of the third act. Moreover, the film falls prey to an idealized, sanitized portrayal of the ways of the Samurai. Although a marked improvement from the problematic Americanized retellings of Japan’s complex socio-cultural landscape, The Last Samurai is still an extremely flawed epic that props up embellished versions of actual historical figures—still a great watch.

26. Vanilla Sky (2001)

Yet another potentially controversial ranking, most ranking lists delegate Vanilla Sky to the fag end of best Tom Cruise films. However, for me, the film fulfills the dual role of evoking a deeply surreal tale and allowing Cruise the space to showcase his terrific range, and it emerges as one of the cornerstones in Cruise’s career. Now, Vanilla Sky pales miserably compared to its Spanish-language original, Abre los Ojos. But it still remains an ambitious adaptation that dares to tackle deep existential themes (while lacking the depth to grasp its implications fully).

Even though Cruise portrays what one can essentially describe as a self-centered prick, he still manages to evoke some amount of sympathy, even for such a morally-degraded character. Overall, the film functions best within the domain of dream logic, where the conscious and the subconscious meet to expose our deepest desires, which are often inherently cruel and unimaginably selfish.

25. Tropic Thunder (2008)

Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder has too many gems to boast of, being a film that still remains darkly comedic and hilarious in the best of ways. However, one of the standouts among the film’s many, many highlights (Jack Black experiencing drug withdrawal in a wildly unhinged manner takes the cake for me) is Tom Cruise’s small but defining role as sleazeball businessman Less Grossman. Cruise’s maniacal monologue where he “negotiates” with the kidnappers and screams, “I’m talking scorched earth, motherfucker!” as a dumbstruck Matthew McConaughey gawks at him is enough to qualify it as a memorable Cruise performance. And oh, Cruise also busts out some sick moves as Grossman toward the end of the film, which perfectly caps off this delightfully bonkers cameo role.

24. American Made (2017)

This Doug Liman joint melds heart-thumping action with a devil-may-care protagonist embodied by Tom Cruise effortlessly while being inspired by the life of TWA pilot Barry Seal, who flew a mission for the CIA. This is an admittedly winning combination, as American Made is an extremely enjoyable and breezy watch, with Cruise using his cult of personality in the film’s favor with no holds barred. This is the kind of Cruise performance that revels in the actor’s strengths: a script that demands stuntwork (that he would happily oblige to do), a character that creates space for exhibiting boisterous charm, and a decently good screenplay that ties everything together. Although American Made is too glib to be taken seriously, the film delivers exactly what it means to and works in sync with everything that defines Cruise’s wheelhouse.

23. The Outsiders (1983)

Francis Ford Coppola’s coming-of-age gem, The Outsiders, is an eccentric yet effective adaptation of the source material, with a host of young talent grounding the film. Tom Cruise is one among the many names, alongside Matt Dillon , Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and Emilio Estevez. What’s interesting about Cruise’s performance in The Outsiders is that it is a peek inside the Hollywood star’s strengths before he adopted a more suave, polished, leading-man persona.

Here, Cruise’s Steve Randle is an awkward adolescent who plays a marginally smaller role in the plot than the rest of the cast but still manages to intrigue. There’s a naturalistic and rough-around-the-edges aura to Cruise’s rendition of the character, which is never seen again once the actor officially enters the territory of a confident, charming leading man. Moreover, The Outsiders is a pretty solid film that tackles teenage trauma with great nuance, championing an authenticity often missing in mainstream genre entries.

22. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

What’s not to love about Mission: Impossible III? J.J. Abrams took the reins of a franchise that had previously faltered with one underwhelming installment and reinvigorated it by highlighting the brimming potential of a saga about a tenacious IMF officer. The stakes in MI3 seem higher than ever, with the odds abundantly stacked against Tom Cruise’s Hunt — especially when he’s up against the deadly Owen David, played to perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman .

While the Rabbit’s Foot functioned more as a McGuffin to drive the plot forward, MI3 expertly weaves bombastic action with heartfelt stakes by introducing Julia (Michele Monaghan) into the mix. Needless to say, Cruise elevates Hunt by investing a special brand of guarded vulnerability in him, which undoubtedly pays off in future installments.

21. The Firm (1993)

Yes, I know, this is an adaptation of a John Grisham thriller in the ‘90s and films with similar plots and mysterious shenanigans were a dime a dozen at that point in time. However, The Firm set a precedent for such adaptations and proved that a great legal thriller is a careful combination of star power, evenly-paced thrills, and hard-edged cynicism.

Here, Tom Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a Harvard-educated tax lawyer with brimming ambition, who gets accepted into a legal firm under conditions that seem too good to be true. And they are, as Mitch finds himself at the heart of a web of lies and deception, trapped against his will in the corrupt ecosystem with no way out. Cruise exhibits incredible range in this wonderfully-eventful drama, going from a promising, wide-eyed lawyer to a man desperate not to lose everything he holds dear. Also, I have got to especially mention Gene Hackman here, as his presence creates intriguing, dangerous friction in the scenes shared by Mitch and Hackman’s mentor character.

20. War of the Worlds (2005)

Alien invasion plots are a Steven Spielberg specialty, and his War of the Worlds, a gripping adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic, is frankly phenomenal. Here, Tom Cruise does not play a decorated hero but an everyman forced to step up to the mantle — specifically, a sort-of deadbeat, emotionally vacant father whose kids cannot stand the sight of him. This is fresh territory for Cruise, who manages to add something viscerally relatable to his character’s plight, who does not seem to know how to bridge the gap between him and his children amid an alien invasion.

Spielberg’s commentary about the futility of war and the perseverance of the human spirit in the form of close-knit families elevates this post-apocalyptic thriller, which manages to intrigue with its frenetic action and emotional depth. Cruise is the glue in War of the Worlds, making disparate elements work rather effortlessly while embodying a deeply flawed character with great skill. I also have a deep love for the scene in which he furiously makes peanut butter sandwiches for his miffed kids (it is both sad and hilarious).

Related Content: 10 Best Films By Steven Spielberg

19. interview with the vampire (1994).

Anne Rice aficionados who’ve read The Vampire Chronicles will immediately understand the importance of Interview with the Vampire, which raises vital questions about creation, consumption, humanity, and lack thereof. Not a traditional vampire tale, Interview situates a newly-bitten Louis with the cruel, unapologetically hedonistic Lestat de Lioncourt, who assumes various roles for our protagonist, including maker, nemesis, and lover.

While the Hollywood adaptation completely neutered the homoerotic underpinnings between Lestat and Louis, one would be a fool to deny the brand of passionate, frenzied sexuality that Tom Cruise brings as the pompous, effortlessly stylish Lestat. A brat through and through, Cruise’s Lestat eggs on, coaxes, and torments Louis throughout while celebrating the cruelties inherent in being a creature of the night without abandon. Shame is an alien emotion to Lestat, and Cruise perfectly embodies this by treating Louis’ empathy with dripping disdain. While Interview with the Vampire is not the best Rice adaptation (the AMC series is clearly superior in every way), Cruise is pivotal to bringing the novel’s morbidly dreary world to life.

18. Top Gun (1986)

The reasons Top Gun landed here on my list can be attributed to many factors. First off, the film, despite boasting groundbreaking aerial sequences that still hold up after all these years, is not devoid of faults. Only stimulating in parts and cheesy as hell, Top Gun is one of those films that enjoy the benefit of nostalgia, which does not necessarily void out the film’s many strengths. Top Gun definitely acted as a launchpad for Tom Cruise’s journey into superstardom, positioning him in the shoes of a highly cocky yet endearing Maverick, who undergoes great personal loss and has to tackle overwhelming guilt in the end.

There’s a ribbon of sexualized masculinity that runs throughout the film, but refreshingly, it never descends into misogyny or toxicity of any kind. The way Top Gun props up male friendships is frankly beautiful, a case in point being the glorious volleyball sequence that still manages to make us feel giddy.

17. The Color of Money (1986)

Martin Scorsese’s sports drama , The Color of Money, is clearly Paul Newman’s film, but part of the film’s charm is undoubtedly contributed by Tom Cruise, who belts out a major supportive performance. Playing protégé to pool player Fast Eddie, Cruise, once again, uses his cocky boyish charm to add an easygoing quality to the narrative, which makes for a really enjoyable performance.

Moreover, Scorsese’s masterful direction allows the huge ensemble cast to feel meaningfully fleshed out, where the central trio stands out distinctively amidst a host of colorful characters. This entry is so high up on my list because Cruise, who was still cementing his talent at the time, convincingly managed to hold his own opposite the likes of Newman and John Turturro , especially with Newman eventually winning an Oscar for his performance in the film. Also, The Color of Money is a certified banger, so there we go.

16. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

Ghost Protocol is a pure, adrenaline spectacle, both from an action and narrative standpoint. Everything is tuned up to a 100 as Hunt and his crew take on increasingly dangerous missions that are, heh, impossible. The fact that Tom Cruise scaled the Burj Khalifa to deliver one of the most electrifying setpieces in the franchise is a reason alone for Ghost Protocol to deserve all the love. Still, the film also props an extremely good Jeremy Renner among the chaos.

The literal definition of deliciously good popcorn entertainment, Ghost Protocol is fun, chaotic, technically impressive, and features some choice emotionally-resonant moments. My only (minor) gripe with the film is the unspeakably embarrassing Anil Kapoor cameo, which literally adds nothing to the plot and could’ve been handled better. But I digress: Cruise brings renewed energy to Hunt, who gradually morphs into a legend who cannot be bested, no matter the odds.

15. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

Ethan Hunt is a man haunted by his past, an amalgamation of everything he’s lost so far, coupled with the rising anxiety of what he might lose next. Dead Reckoning heightens these personal stakes for Cruise’s Hunt like never before, imbuing him with the same vulnerability that he wore on his sleeve in De Palma’s Mission: Impossible. Sure, he’s still willing to jump off unbelievable heights and put his life on the line for the sake of his missions, but here, Hunt’s dilemma is more pronounced, as he faces real, irrevocable loss after the death of someone close to him.

Prior to this, Hunt has faced off against innumerable enemies, ranging from complex antagonists eager to blow up the world to those plotting within the firm to smoke him out as a potential mole. Dead Reckoning takes an eerie, timely approach to its big bad by positioning an A.I. keen on world domination — dubbed The Entity, which employs human agents to ensure that Hunt is stopped before it’s too late.

While the film ends on a cliffhanger, paving the way for Part Two, there’s plenty to love here. Cruise embraces the lighter aspects of his personality while also brandishing his fierce, protective side—the latter manifesting in tense alleyway scuffles and desperate grappling on the top of a moving train. Dead Reckoning raises the stakes for Cruise as an action star like every succeeding M: I installment. It also allows him to imbue Hunt with a culmination of regrets that only fuel his need to be the one to save the world.

14. Minority Report (2002)

I love Philip K. Dick, and I love Spielberg’s Minority Report, which encapsulates the high-concept sci-fi action aura of Dick’s novel. Here Tom Cruise’s Jon Anderton has the ability of precognition — a staple trope in Dick’s works — which posits an interesting conundrum between free will and determinism, along with the dire cost of prescience. However, in my book, Cruise’s performance, while skillful, does not necessarily make the movie what it is, as the plot works due to a combination of factors, including incredible secondary performances.

Even though Cruise is the leading man burdened with the gift of prophecy and the fates of many depend on him, it is the dual performances of Samantha Morton and Colin Farrell that shine through, adding a biting edge to an already competent storyline. While Cruise does what he does best (he also runs, which is aces), the film’s many strengths far outnumber his contributions, which explains my reasoning for not ranking it in the top ten.

13. Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)

Christopher McQuarrie simply serves in this Mission: Impossible installment, which contains all the telltale ingredients that make every MI entry a blast. Unbelievably fun, Rogue Nation knows which aspects of the franchise work best and employs fresh thrills alongside time-tested hits that have elevated Ethan Hunt into the once-reluctant (now willing) hero he is. The mystery elements of the plot are extremely tense and genuinely thrilling. At the same time, the presence of Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa (who is now a staple) breathes new life into the secondary dynamics of the film.

Although Rogue Nation isn’t wholly original, it simply doesn’t matter: Tom Cruise deepens Hunt’s character by introducing complex, contrarian impulses, and these aspects emerge best when he’s interacting with Ilsa, who is, frankly, a stunning addition to the gang. I mean, you folks remember the opera sequence, right? There’s something endlessly cool about Hunt being one-upped by a competent, mysterious agent, who goes on to forge an emotional bond with him as time passes. Formulaic, but done with skill, so it works!

12. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

While Edge of Tomorrow seems like a typical action thoroughfare, it is truly a remarkable film that establishes conventions only to violently — and effectively — subvert them. Tom Cruise’s hero status in the film is not a given as it is thoroughly earned: he needs to work his ass off and die (countless times) to escape a Groundhog Day-esque scenario and potentially save the world. The one calling the shots, however, is Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, the Angel of Verdun, who pays Cruise’s baffled, utterly confused character no heed for a good chunk of the first half.

In a classic inversion of expectations, Cruise’s William Cage needs guidance and saving throughout. On the other hand, Vrataski deals with all threats in a measured, no-nonsense manner that is absolutely refreshing to watch. Moreover, the Cruise-Blunt combination works beautifully, creating space for humor, pathos, and general badassery in the best of ways.

11. Mission: Impossible (1996)

Brain de Palma laid out the blueprint for the Mission: Impossible franchise with his noir-addled, dramatic-as-heck first entry, which is a perfect film in many respects. The film positions a young Ethan Hunt, who’s wholly dependent on his team until a mission in Prague goes horribly wrong and forces him to go rogue. This is history in the making, as de Palma lays the foundation for the over-the-top set-pieces that will define the franchise, key examples being the CIA infiltration scene and the entire train sequence towards the end.

The reason why I’ve ranked this entry so high up is that the film simply would not work without Tom Cruise, who adds so many subtle layers to his hounded, jilted, corned IMF rogue character that it is thrilling to watch him grow as the franchise blooms. Even the penultimate twist is pure de Palma brilliance, executed in a smart, practical, and haunting way. The action, although not as polished as the big-budget blockbusters to follow, is extremely ambitious and pulled off with great panache. After all, we wouldn’t be here eagerly expecting Dead Reckoning without this film, so I’m simply paying the respect that is due.

10. Risky Business (1983)

Risky Business is celebrated for a good reason, as this acclaimed sex comedy ticks all the right genre boxes and features the Tom Cruise performance that put him on the mainstream radar. Here, Cruise turns on his charms to the max in a stylish satire that explores teen angst and the arbitrariness of morality, eliciting genuine laughs along the way. However, the film is not without glaring faults. It is extremely dated (and problematic!) in its treatment of trans women and sex workers, which obviously urges us to direct appropriate criticism toward these aspects.

The reason why Risky Business makes it to the top ten is Cruise and Cruise alone, who plays an entrepreneur-turned-pimp to perfection. A significant factor is an iconic scene in which Joel slides across the floor, miming Bob Seger’s rendition of Old Time Rock and Roll, wearing a pink shirt and white briefs. This is an image of a true movie star in the making, harkening to the beginning of great things to come.

Also Read: 10 Great Dark Comedies from the 20th Century

09. rain man (1988).

Barry Levinson’s Rain Man situates Tom Cruise as the brash, self-centered Charlie, who learns about the existence of his brother Raymond ( Dustin Hoffman ), an autistic savant. Although Levinson’s script is decently good and is executed without major blemishes, what makes Rain Man seminal is its central performances, where both Hoffman and Cruise give it their all to bring the story to life.

As we’re honed in on Cruise here, I must say he plays Charlie rather beautifully, portraying the depths of a man who does not quite understand emotional vulnerability as he drowns under mountains of resentment. While Hoffman consistently evokes strong emotions with his rendition of Raymond, Cruise emerges as the unexpected X factor in the film, injecting the premise with a realistic sense of shallow, cruel desperation that adds significantly to his character.

08. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

In terms of the culmination of the best traits in the Mission: Impossible franchise, Fallout is sheer perfection. The swag in Fallout is wild, as the amount and dynamism of the set pieces eclipse all expectations, even after being appropriately met in Rogue Nation. Tom Cruise proves, without a shadow of a doubt, that he is the definitive Ethan Hunt, and transferring the mantle to anyone else would be an absurd, rather foolish decision. Somehow, Cruise manages to make Hunt more iconic than previously imaginable while helming a story with plentiful thrills and mindblowing.

A special ode to Henry Cavill for reloading his muscles in the bathroom fight sequence and adding thrilling stakes to the story as a morally complex anti-hero that I would love to see a return to the franchise (I know, I know, but one can hope?) Moreover, Fallout is a consistent adrenaline high with almost no dull moments — it is a blockbuster through and through, crafted with love and dedication, with an evergreen Cruise at the beating heart of it all. I’ve run out of praises, but you get the gist.

07. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Before you unsheathe your pitchforks again, let me paint you a picture. The prospect of working with Stanley Kubrick is a double-edged sword — on the one hand, there’s the genius artistic vision. Still, on the other, there’s the callous cruelty he exhibits on-set that pushes the strongest actors over the edge. While Kubrick’s heinous treatment of Shelley Duval on the set of The Shining is fairly common knowledge, folks often overlook his treatment of Tom Cruise and Kidman while filming Eyes Wide Shut, which still remains an electrifying, captivating entry in the auteur’s oeuvre. The man exerted such intense pressure on Cruise that the megastar developed ulcers due to the harrowing stress, which is evident in the portrayal of Bill Harford.

Eyes Wide Shut is Cruise pushed to the edge of sanity, where he brings a visceral sense of insecurity and paranoia to the role in an intriguing character study. Personally, I adore Eyes Wide Shut and will defend it to death. While you might disagree with this sentiment, it’s evident that the film dangerously capitalizes on Cruise’s sound capabilities as a serious actor.

Related List: All Stanley Kubrick Movies Ranked From Great to Greatest

06. top gun: maverick (2021).

I watched Top Gun: Maverick in theaters with my father, who is completely removed from the realm of mainstream Hollywood cinema. While he was heavily impressed by the sequel’s astounding aerial action sequences, he made it a point to repeatedly praise Tom Cruise’s screen presence and the absolute command he holds over every scene. This perfectly encapsulates the core reason why Top Gun: Maverick swept the box office the way it did: the film builds meaningfully upon the Top Gun nostalgia while fleshing out an emotionally high-stakes, action-heavy tale with Maverick at the center.

Joseph Kosinski innately understands the mechanics of a Tom Cruise vehicle that works in favor of an almost-flawless film and weaves it into a story about camaraderie and letting go of the past. Yet another stylishly sexy beach sequence acts as the icing on the cake, which works well because the fresh characters are all genuinely likable and integral to Maverick’s journey. Also, Cruise’s comeback as Maverick is remarkably nuanced, as he can imbue the character with emotional depths that are otherwise missing in the original. Simply lovely, with no notes.

05. Collateral (2004)

Tom Cruise as a hardened killer, a full-blown villain, is a deliciously rare sight, and Collateral offers this rare glimpse into the actor’s capabilities to turn completely rogue. Everything about this Michael Mann extravaganza is chef’s kiss: it is an L.A. noir about a can driver ( Jamie Foxx , who’s also brilliant) who Cruise’s dangerously unhinged Vincent corners, and forced to cooperate till the end of the night in increasingly unnerving ways.

Every supporting performance adds a kernel of authentic thrill to Mann’s expertly-crafted piece, but it is Foxx and Cruise who engage in a mad dance to keep audiences hooked. I have a particular affinity for the nightclub scene in Collateral, where Cruise, who is coolly confident up to this point, starts wreaking havoc by pushing patrons while Ready Steady Go! blares in the background. The way Cruise moves in this sequence is raw, animalistic, and dangerous, exposing the true extent of his villainy and the innate danger Foxx’s character is in. Collateral is no Heat, but it is up there in the ranks of tense, gripping noir-thrillers with stellar performances to ground them.

04. A Few Good Men (1992)

Jack Nicholson is a force of nature in every film he’s in, tempering his intensity according to the nature of the plot, with great success. To be able to hold one’s own opposite such a dynamic actor is no small feat, and Tom Cruise manages to do just that in A Few Good Men. Rob Reiner’s film might be a tad overdramatic in the way it handles its subject matter. Still, the drama unfolds in the most effective ways, bookended by impetuous performances that leave no space for dull moments in an old-fashioned courtroom drama.

The oft-quoted courtroom faceoff between Cruise and Nicholson’s characters is theatricality at its best, with two-star powers with different sets of strengths meeting together to deliver an unforgettable scene. The “You can’t handle the truth!” monologue is still endlessly quotable. Cruise’s performance extends beyond this little snippet, as he embodies Daniel Kaffee with just the right amount of righteous snark and idealistic indignation. Truly great stuff.

Related Read: Virtues of Moral Duty and Battlefield Heroics in War Movies

03. jerry maguire (1996).

“Show me the moneeeeeyyyyy!!!!” I’m sorry, I had to. In hindsight, it feels like Cameron Crowe tailor-made Jerry Maguire solely for Tom Cruise, as the actor was meant to embody the towering narcissism of slick sports agent Jerry Maguire. He used to be handed things on a platter based on his success and charisma alone, Jerry is hilariously at his wit’s end when on the verge of losing everything and starting his own agency. Although some aspects of the film have not aged well, Jerry Maguire still manages to entertain, especially with the help of Renée Zellweger’s breakout character, who adds tempered emotionality to the scenes that require it the most.

Jerry is undoubtedly one of Cruise’s best roles, as it allowed the actor to portray great emotional range while being insufferably slick, all the while managing to remain lovable. Beyond performances, the film paints a reasonably accurate picture of the behind-the-scenes corporate shenanigans that can make or break careers in an instant and the shallowness inherent within such cultures. Jerry straddles both sides of the road and emerges as someone deeply capable of genuine compassion — and that is all that matters.

02. Magnolia (1999)

Magnolia is a full-blown experience courtesy of Paul Thomas Anderson , who weaves a frenetic string of ambitious brushstrokes over the span of 188 minutes. As densely intricate as interconnected stories go, Magnolia is a masterpiece in storytelling helmed by various performances that verge on the operatic. Tom Cruise plays pickup artist Frank T.J. Mackey, whose introductory speech immediately puts the actor’s acting chops on display to tremendous effect. Mackey sells vile, misogynistic ideas to his male followers to rile them up and rally them in his favor while conning them to buy into the idea of his ridiculous sex seminars.

The way Cruise conveys this larger-than-life televangelist personality is astounding, offering layered insight into the fragility of male egos when failed by the same patriarchal structures they try so desperately to uphold. When perceived as a composite whole, Magnolia is brilliant and convoluted, and Cruise still stands out in some capacity when measured against the slew of remarkable performances that pepper the film.

Related List: All Paul Thomas Anderson Movies Ranked

01. born on the fourth of july (1989).

Although not a blockbuster or a widely-loved entry by any means, Born on the Fourth of July is Tom Cruise at the pinnacle of his abilities, without question. Cruise’s lead performance as Ron Kovic is downright unforgettable in this Oliver Stone biographical drama, which expertly balances political commentary with a story that brims with heart. In many cases, such biographical Hollywood entries seem to be made with awards season in mind. However, Born on the Fourth of July tackles its serious subject matter with the genuine need to etch a thought-provoking story about an anti-war activist who strays away from idealistic ruminations to being vitriolically furious about the inhumanity of war.

War is never a glorious affair — there is no glory in the basest, most destructive urge of human nature, and Stone conveys this in gut-wrenching ways. The reason I chose this film to cap off this list is because of how unconventional this role this when it comes to Cruise’s usual strengths — and how unbelievably brilliant he is in playing such an unflinching, fiery character with roots in real life. Cruise as Kovic perfectly captures the breadth of emotionality the actor can convey and the raw passion that guides every step of the way.

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Tom Cruise’s 10 Best Movies Ranked

The ‘ Tom Cruise movie’ might as well be its own genre. When you sit down to watch a Tom Cruise film, there are things you know you’ll see: Running, really fast? Check. A performance of magnetic intensity? Check. Feats of physical endurance and stunt-based spectacle? Mostly, check. Through the years, Cruise has proved that there are few vehicles or buildings he won’t cling to or jump from; no skill he can’t master to showcase on screen; no story he can’t hone into its most crowd-pleasing shape. There’s a reason he’s still one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and made Empire 's list of the 50 Greatest Actors of all time: the man makes amazing movies.

He’s also had a fascinating career – one that began with a series of roles that dialled into his charisma and confidence as an upstart, before moving into more nuanced character dramas, and then into blockbuster spectacle. And through all those career modes, there’s a sense of sincerity in the stories being told and the characters being brought to life – one that, today, finds him pushing the limits of on-screen action further than most thought possible. Empire ’s ranking of the 10 best Tom Cruise movies spans his entire career – early works, curiosities, all-time American classics, and pulse-pounding adventures – going (spoiler alert!) right up to the thrilling, nostalgic, and emotional Top Gun: Maverick . The highway to the danger zone begins here…

Tom Cruise's 10 Best Movies Ranked

10) Mission: Impossible

When Brian De Palma first brought '60s spy series Mission: Impossible to the big screen in the mid-'90s (with Cruise producing as well as starring), it wasn't yet an action juggernaut – the height of spectacle here is an exploding fish tank, or the helicopter-in-a-train-tunnel chase (which perhaps began Cruise's fondness for clinging to speeding vehicles). But the DNA of the ultimate Tom Cruise franchise all comes from this first entry. There's the twisty, double-triple-crossing plot which turned memories of the original show upside down. There are rubber mask rug-pulls. There's that iconic lit-fuse title sequence and theme tune. And at the centre of it all is Cruise's Ethan Hunt, perpetually on the backfoot, barely surviving near-impossible predicaments by the skin of his teeth. Even back in '96, the Mission movies were all about breathless setpieces – though at that point, they were more about beads of sweat pooling on Hunt's forehead while he dangles in a temperature-controlled computer vault, than strapping himself to an aeroplane while it takes off.

9) Minority Report

If you know someone's about to commit a crime, can you punish them before they do it? That's the knotty question at the heart of Minority Report , which saw Cruise team up with the one and only Steven Spielberg for a gritty, noirish thriller with a lot on its mind. Cruise is John Anderton, an officer in the Pre-Crime unit of 2054, which uses the visions of three psychic siblings (the 'precogs') to proudly reduce the murder rate in Washington DC to zero. But when his own face comes up as the unit's next criminal to catch, it throws the entire system – and Anderton's beliefs around it – into question. This meeting of legendary cinematic minds produced something darker and more dystopian than you might expect, but Cruise is on impeccable screen-swiping form as an action hero, a care-taker for precog Agatha ( Samantha Morton ), and a man whose entire world-view is shattering around him, desperate to clear his name. Plus, we get to see him have eyeball surgery. Feast your illegally transplanted retinas on that.

8) The Color Of Money

Released in the same year as the original Top Gun , this lesser-known Martin Scorsese banger is absolutely the former's equal in displaying the young Cruise's prodigious talent, captivating charisma, and cocksure confidence. His pool-hall wizard Vince (so self-adoring that he literally walks around in a t-shirt with his own name on it) simply cannot help showing off, broadcasting his considerable skills with a cue for all to see – even if it means imploding the hustling scheme he's cooked up with Paul Newman 's veteran Fast Eddie. (This is a legacy sequel before they were a thing, with Newman reprising his role from 1961's The Hustler .) The pool sequences are electrifying and all-out Scorsese cinematic – and an early example of Cruise dedicating himself to learning new skills for his art, clearly potting all the balls himself in extended takes – but the character drama is just as captivating, with Vince stepping into his power, Eddie facing his own decline, and the hustler becoming the hustled.

7) Collateral

Silver-haired, super-focused, and stalking through the shadows of an LA night, Cruise's Vincent (we never learn his last name) is one of the actor's great assholes – a tunnel-visioned assassin who drags Jamie Foxx 's reluctant and goodnatured cabbie, Max, into a night of murderous mayhem, Michael Mann -style. Sleek and cool but also sociopathic and callous, Cruise has rarely been more controlled as he rides around in the back of Max's taxi, dispensing hot takes and hotter lead to victims; but it's in the way he slowly, painstakingly depicts the way Vincent loses control as the night begins to run away from him that's so impressive. He really should play more grade-A shits.

6) Top Gun: Maverick

A sequel 36 years in the making, besieged by pandemic-induced release date delays, with a brand new writer and director on board, and the follow-up to one of the most beloved action movies of a generation? Top Gun: Maverick had a lot to prove. Incredibly, it soars higher, faster and even more full-throttle than anyone could have predicted. Returning to the cockpit with decades of experience in pushing the boundaries of action filmmaking, Cruise, Mission collaborator Christopher McQuarrie (on writing duties here) and director Joseph Kosinski deliver aerial acrobatics (yes, the actors are actually in those planes) that will leave you awe-struck, heart in your mouth, fist punching the air with glee. As with Tony Scott 's original, the character work is just as rich as the stunts – Cruise slips back into Maverick's roguish charm with the ease of putting on a familiar patch-covered aviator jacket, but also perfectly evokes the effect that years of tension with his superiors and grief over Goose have had on him – his ever-present over-confidence cracking, just a little. All these years later, it's clear Cruise really did feel the need to return to Top Gun – and on this evidence, it's easy to see why.

5) Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Frankly, multiple spots in a list of Tom Cruise's greatest movies could be filled by Mission: Impossible films. To do so (as we've chosen not to) would perhaps overwhelm the sheer variety of the rest of his career – but in a way, Mission is Cruise's career. With each passing entry, the saga became a stunt-filled action masterclass in which its leading man goes to greater and greater lengths to bring visceral thrills to the masses – and no Mission film exemplifies that better than Fallout . It's stacked with jaw-dropping setpieces that go out of their way to foreground the fact that its leading man really is doing a HALO jump in a single take, or flying a helicopter through a gorge, or leaping across the rooftops of London (and, yes, breaking his foot in the process). It makes for breathlessly exciting cinema, a kind of spectacle that subsequently feels lacking in almost every other show in town. The Cruise-Christopher McQuarrie partnership continues to be a perfect marriage – the writer-director helping marry action and story beats to the stunts with style and propulsive pace. This is peak Mission , and the peak of Cruise's own cinematic mission – one that you sense will never truly be over.

4) A Few Good Men

Among all the Tom Cruise legal thrillers of the '90s, A Few Good Men stands tallest. His Lt. Daniel Kaffee, a Naval lawyer more interested in baseball than his own cases, begins the film as a smarmy pencil-pusher – but that all changes when he's handed the case of a Marine killed in Guantanamo Bay, and discovers corruption in the armed forces that will all-too-easily be covered up. It's up to him and fellow lawyers JoAnne Galloway ( Demi Moore ) and Sam Weinberg ( Kevin Pollak ) to prove what really happened in a court of law, facing up to Jack Nicholson 's fearsome Colonel Jessop in the process. It's one hell of an ensemble cast, but Cruise drives it all, capturing Kaffee's increasing desperation and dedication to win the case – and prove that, yes, he can handle the truth – becoming a better person in the pursuit of justice. His intensity is a perfect match for Aaron Sorkin 's dense dialogue, all classily captured by Rob Reiner 's crisp direction.

3) Magnolia

As legend has it, Paul Thomas Anderson wrote the part of Frank TJ Mackie for Cruise after visiting him on Stanley Kubrick 's demanding Eyes Wide Shut set, and deciding that the actor needed to let loose. What fun Cruise would have as Mackie! This cocksure, cock-respecting self-help sex guru struts and shouts and thrusts – yes, there's all of that. But Magnolia is a heavy film, and Cruise, as Mackie comes undone and reunites with his estranged father Earl (Jason Robards), really falls apart, the slick showbiz veneer crumbling as years of emotion burst out. Sitting by his dying dad's bedside, Mackie – away from Cruise's signature grin, away from the big stunts – is unbridled humanity, shaking, weeping, quivering, his anger making way for love. It's a devastating physical catharsis for him, and for us.

2) Edge Of Tomorrow

One of the biggest blockbuster surprises of 2014, Edge Of Tomorrow (or, Live Die Repeat , as it was later marketed), gave us a different shade of Cruise as action star – his Lieutenant William Cage is a smarmy, cowardly PR guy when we meet him, only growing into an elite soldier through the repetitive, Groundhog Day -inspired, video game-esque nature of Doug Liman 's explosive sci-fi thriller. Teaming up with steely warrior Rita (an excellent Emily Blunt ), Cage must live through his final two days over and over, picking up skills and learning from his multiple deaths in order to stop the invasion of some big bad aliens. Cruise's chemistry with Blunt is endlessly compelling, the strength of her character and his star-power making them feel like equals on-screen. But it's the progression of his character that's most intensely satisfying, going from a man who's desperate to weasel his way out of doing anything selfless to the kind of all-out hero that Cruise was born to play. It makes for the kind of movie you'd happily be stuck watching in a time-loop over and over and over and ov- You get the picture.

1) Jerry Maguire

Like many Cruise films, Jerry Maguire has got so many memorable moments and one-liners that they've almost become more famous than the film itself. But the brouhaha over, "You complete me", or, "Show me the money!" masks one of Cruise's best – and most emotional – films. Meshing perfectly with writer-director Cameron Crowe (at his most Billy Wilderian), Jerry Maguire is an often heartwarming, often inspirational, often deeply romantic tale of a cynical sports agent (Cruise at his most winning) who has an epiphany, and begins to hunt around for something akin to a soul. It's cute and charming as hell, especially when Jerry is falling in love with his former secretary Dorothy (a star-making turn from Renée Zellweger ), but there's a bite here that's often overlooked, with a seemingly happy ending that may be nothing more than a sticking plaster over a fairly gaping wound. Still, Cruise and Cameron will have you at, "You had me at hello".

Every Tom Cruise Movie Ranked from Worst to Best

Kick the tires and light the fires.

Tom Cruise is one of our greatest living movie stars, plain and simple. While the term “movie star” is used less and less in today’s Hollywood landscape, Cruise remains a tremendous entertainer, a larger-than-life performer—an icon of the silver screen, truly. His persona transcends celebrity, and over the last nearly four decades he has delivered memorable performance after memorable performance, proving adept at traversing a variety of genres—some with more success than others. From the boyish 80s protagonist to classic leading man to action hero, Cruise’s film career is the epitome of success, and it’s a testament to his talent that he can be taken just as seriously in a dark, complex drama from an auteur filmmaker as he can in a major blockbuster franchise.

And while PR troubles led to a sharp left turn into exclusively blockbuster-type material in the mid-2000s, Cruise remains a reliable source of entertainment. Audiences can rest assured that when they see a Tom Cruise movie, the actor is leaving nothing on the table. This is the guy who literally hung off the tallest building in the world for our entertainment. It’s this focus on pleasing audiences that exemplifies Cruise’s status as “movie star,” but it’s the actor’s talent, ambition, and willingness to venture into uncertain territory that makes him our greatest living movie star.

As such, it felt appropriate to dive back into Cruise’s entire filmography, take a closer look at his entire body of work from Taps to Top Gun: Maverick , and rank every single film from worst to best. While at first, this seemed like a simple enough task, as I dove deeper into the actor’s oeuvre, I came to realize that Cruise has made more genuinely good movies than not. It’s one thing to have the kind of longevity that Cruise has enjoyed, but the actor’s filmography is consistently solid—even most of the “bad” Tom Cruise films have some sort of redeeming quality.

A couple of notes before we begin: this is a ranking of Tom Cruise films , not performances. As such, the order I’ve laid out here has to do with the film as a whole, not just Cruise’s performance in it. Additionally, I didn’t include 1983’s Losin’ It due to lack of availability, and also left off 1981’s Endless Love given Cruise’s lack of substantial screentime.

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So, without further ado, I present to you every Tom Cruise movie ranked from worst to best.

41. Lions for Lambs

This 2007 Robert Redford drama came on the heels of Cruise’s PR issues, and at first glance was seen as a potential comeback for the actor, but in the end would mark Cruise’s final foray into straight drama territory. Whether that was a consequence of Cruise’s perceived image issues or the film’s quality is unclear, but Lions for Lambs is the worst film on the actor’s resume. It’s the equivalent of a political Facebook meme come to life—a pedantic, hollow “morality play” that goes nowhere and is so ineloquent with the handling of its subject matter that if you’re a self-professed liberal, it may have you questioning your political beliefs.

Cruise is fine as a conservative senator trying to sell a new military endeavor in Afghanistan, and the role had promise as Cruise has rarely tackled something so blatantly political, but Redford mishandles the whole thing, with a script by Matthew Michael Carnahan that reads like liberal fan-fiction. The ideas in the film aren’t wrong, but they’re spun with such smugness and lack of interest in telling some semblance of a story that they come off as groan-worthy. If you can watch this movie without rolling your eyes, you deserve a medal.

It’s no coincidence that Tom Cruise has yet to make even the slightest of forays into the fantasy genre since his lead role in Ridley Scott ’s original dark fantasy adventure Legend . The movie is, frankly, quite bad, with a meandering plotline and thin character motivations, all of which is underscored by a distractingly incongruous synth-heavy score by Tangerine Dream . The only good thing about Legend is the tremendously impressive makeup effects, which transform Tim Curry into a downright unrecognizable Lord of Darkness. As for Cruise, he’s clearly uncomfortable in the lead role, given little to work with from William Hjortsberg ’s script, and his first attempt to make the jump from promising leading man to blockbuster lead was an unsuccessful one—although he recovered quite nicely the same year with a little movie called Top Gun .

Taps is a competently made film about a bunch of dummies. When the entire premise hinges on a group of military academy kids who take over the school at gunpoint in order to prevent its closing, it’s hard to root for the “heroes.” Their whole plan is what we call flawed logic, and despite the fact that the characters come to realize their mistake as the film wears on, Taps spends far too much time heralding their “honor” and sense of duty. As for Cruise, this was his first major role in a feature film, and it’s kind of funny to see him playing the testosterone-fueled, dickish supporting character. It’s a personality type that he would toy with a couple other times in his career, but never with as much purity as Cadet Captain David Shawn.

38. Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is a film in which Tom Cruise sings into Malin Akerman ’s butt, and yet, somehow Cruise remains pretty much the only good thing about Adam Shankman ’s musical adaptation. I suppose it shouldn’t be so much of a surprise given Cruise’s commitment to each and every role, but his consistently delightful performance as Stacee Jaxx is kind of incredible. The rest of the film…well, this is still a movie in which Tom Cruise sings into Malin Akerman’s butt. Shankman’s staging of the musical sequences is surprisingly lackluster, and the overabundance of autotune distracts from what should be a fun jukebox shuffle. The story is downright silly, and Rock of Ages as a whole stands as proof positive that not every musical is ripe for the feature film treatment.

37. The Mummy

The Mummy is one of the biggest wastes of Tom Cruise’s talent in recent memory. His Nick Morton character is wholly devoid of any engaging or unique character traits, and instead we get a blank slate protagonist who simply reacts to plot points and moves the story forward with no grace or agency. His motivations are murky, the audience is given no reason to root for him, and there’s a romantic twist that comes out of nowhere and doesn’t work at all. Morton is wholly devoid of the charisma, complexity, or darkness that makes Cruise’s action heroes so compelling, but it’s kind of in keeping with the blandness of the entire movie.

The Mummy wants to be funny and scary and adventurous, but only by going through the motions of comedies, horror movies, and adventure epics without any original ideas of its own. Even when Russell Crowe enters the film as Dr. Jekyll, what should be an exciting new twist on a classic monster has instead been turned into an exposition machine with few unique characteristics. The promise was there in developing a new twist on a classic Universal Monster with the starpower of Tom Cruise, but unfortunately The Mummy falls short in almost every capacity. A complete disappointment.

36. Mission: Impossible II

Mission: Impossible II is the only bad Mission: Impossible movie. Cruise was understandably eager to jump back into franchise mode after a series of intense dramatic roles in the late 1990s, but this action sequel is mostly a pointless chore of a film as director John Woo never comes close to crafting anything resembling a thrilling sequence—action or no—throughout the entire movie’s runtime. Add in the fact that the purpose of Thandie Newton ’s character is to literally distract the villain by having sex with him, and the whole movie really falls apart from the word “go.” Luckily, Cruise would recover with subsequent installments in the Mission: Impossible franchise, and while M:I II would eventually prove to be a necessary growing pain to allow for the evolution of this particular film series, it's still a bit of a rough watch.

35. Oblivion

Director Joseph Kosinski ’s 2013 sci-fi drama Oblivion is an absolutely gorgeous and incredibly boring spectacle. While Cruise characteristically gives this thing his all, the various “twists” are predictable and poorly executed, and the emotionally detached quality of Kosinski’s direction makes what should be a sweeping sci-fi drama a dull and overlong chore. Claudio Miranda ’s cinematography is certainly striking, and M83 ’s original score is epic in its scope, but the film just kind of rolls along like a very pretty, very hollow music video, and not even Cruise’s charisma can inject something resembling a pulse into this massively disappointing sci-fi pic.

34. Cocktail

The first 30 minutes or so of Cocktail are actually pretty good. The film has a breezy charm that’s typical of so many other 80s Hollywood films, and seeing Cruise begin his career as a bartender is pretty fun. But then the movie gets downright silly and continues to become even sillier as it goes along. This is a profoundly dumb movie in which not a lot really happens, and Cruise’s Brian Flanagan is interested in one thing and one thing only: Brian Flanagan. Indeed, the central driving force behind the story is the aim of making money, although this throughline makes sense within the context of the late 80s/early 90s yuppie culture.

Cruise’s performance is pitched a tad too high here, with his excitement more off-putting than infectious. But you can see shades of the natural charisma and charm that would be further honed in subsequent films, and Cruise’s range was on full display in 1988 as it was the year both Cocktail and Rain Man hit theaters.

33. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back

I’m not mad at you, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back . I’m just disappointed. The first Jack Reacher was a surprisingly rich, thrilling, and artful twist on the action hero formula with Cruise delivering a dark and confident turn as the lead character. The sequel, however, feels like what should have been the story for Jack Reacher 3 or 4 , as it introduces a potential daughter into the mix that throws Jack Reacher’s life for a loop. We really could’ve used more time fleshing out the Reacher character first before introducing this “blast from the past” element, and in the hands of director Edward Zwick it mostly falls flat.

The story isn’t near as compelling as the first film, and the action lacks a certain oomph that director Christopher McQuarrie brought to the original (he passed on directing the sequel as he was busy with another Cruise vehicle, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ). The film isn’t entirely devoid of merit: Cobie Smulders makes a strong case for leading an action franchise of her own, and Cruise delivers another solid performance. It’s just a disappointing step down in quality from the pleasant surprise of the first film.

32. Valkyrie

Valkyrie is one of the most curious entries in Cruise’s resume. On paper, this thing should’ve been terrific, with Bryan Singer helming a World War II dramatic thriller starring Tom Cruise, written by Christopher McQuarrie . But in execution, the story of the failed plot to assassinate Hitler fails to ever really take off. It’s a fascinating film in that it’s tough to really pin down exactly why it doesn’t work, but a big contributing factor is the simple fact that everyone watching knows exactly how this thing’s gonna end, so it’s tough to muster enthusiasm or root for this group of individuals whose plan is doomed for failure. Cruise is fine in the role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the supporting cast is fine in capturing the inner workings of the Nazi army, and Singer is fine at stitching the whole story together. But in the end there’s little to write home about, and nothing that really makes the film stand out as anything more than a curious—but forgettable—oddity.

31. Days of Thunder

While the prospect of a reteaming of Tom Cruise and his Top Gun director Tony Scott for a film about NASCAR was incredibly promising, the end result left much to be desired. For everything Top Gun got right, Days of Thunder got wrong. There’s an engaging movie in there somewhere, but the end result is all flash and no substance, with none of the heart that made Top Gun so endearing. While the rapport between Cruise and Robert Duvall is interesting enough, it can only go so far, and at heart Days of Thunder is a film that’s running on fumes.

30. The Color of Money

A controversial ranking I'm sure, but what a disappointing film. Martin Scorsese working with Cruise and Paul Newman should’ve been reason to celebrate, but The Color of Money —a follow-up to the Newman vehicle The Hustler —is shockingly rote and by-the-numbers, marking one of the most disappointing films on Scorsese’s resume. The film came out in 1986, the same year as Top Gun , and it’s fascinating to compare Cruise’s over-excited and boyish performance here with the assured confidence and complexity with which he tackled Top Gun . Sure the hotshot character of Vince is meant to be more adolescent in nature, but Cruise and Scorsese overshoot and result in something that’s more akin to an annoying kid brother than a likable protagonist. The Color of Money just kinda sits there, not terrible but not great, wholly unremarkable and, frankly, boring.

29. All the Right Moves

It’s kind of surprising that Cruise managed to avoid so many cliché-filled 80s movies given that he was such a hot item throughout the decade, but 1983’s All the Right Moves really stands as unique in that regard. Director Michael Chapman ’s story of a hot-headed football player in a Pennsylvania town who wants nothing more than to go to college and escape a future working at the local plant is cliché-filled to the max, but Cruise manages to keep things somewhat interesting by bringing a curious intensity to the role, while Lea Thompson ’s girlfriend character almost manages to manifest into something resembling a real person. In the end, the story goes exactly where you think it’s going to go, and there’s not much else to make it worthwhile. It’s a minor entry on Cruise’s resume and his most forgettable film from the 80s, but it’s not out-and-out bad per se. Just incredibly familiar.

28. Tropic Thunder

Throughout the 2000s, Cruise had firmly left the comedic days of his early career behind. But following some bad PR and a couple of films that didn’t really work, the actor made one of his more ambitious leaps in filling the role of studio executive Les Grossman in Ben Stiller ’s satirical comedy Tropic Thunder . The result is a somewhat shocking and altogether hilarious turn from Cruise, who’s nearly unrecognizable in the part. It’s not a terribly substantial role so I considered leaving Tropic Thunder off this list altogether, but the film did mark the beginning of a career turnaround for Cruise, and thus stands as an important landmark on the trajectory of his film career.

The movie itself is a no-holds-barred skewering of self-important actors and the gluttony of Hollywood, and while it’s certainly a very funny comedy, the film ends up becoming the exact thing it’s making fun of, as Stiller tries to have his cake and eat it too by crafting his own bloated war epic that drones on for too long and loses sight of its central thrust along the way. And yet, it’s still really funny, and Cruise caps the whole thing off like a cherry on top of a sundae as Les Grossman’s grotesque dancing plays over the closing credits.

27. The Firm

In the late 80s/early 90s, Cruise nearly became pigeonholed as the sort of typical yuppie American businessman, and perhaps his most rote film of this time period was the 1993 John Grisham adaptation The Firm . While director Sydney Pollack ’s handle on the Wicker Man -esque tome is quite confident and the story is compelling to a point, the film is a bit too long and attempts to cover too much ground. A longform approach would have better suited this particular source material, and it’s no surprise that a TV series adaptation was attempted a few years ago. Cruise is fine though, his rapport with Gene Hackman is certainly the bright spot of the film, and the story is constantly engaging. But it’s a movie that starts to fade almost immediately after the credits roll. It’s the film equivalent of an airplane read—satisfying and disposable.

26. American Made

Post- Valkyrie , Cruise made a concerted effort to shy away from more dramatic material and focus on offering up the very best pieces of entertainment possible. This gave us great films like the Mission: Impossible sequels and Jack Reacher , but the lack of complexity in Cruise’s roles has been sorely missing. American Made is the closest Cruise has come to a "morally conflicted" lead since Collateral , and I don’t know if it’s the refreshing change of pace or Doug Liman ’s visceral filmmaking, but this thing works. Cruise brings a needed amount of charisma to the role of Barry Seal, a dude who does some very bad stuff; but he also completely delivers as Barry’s life spirals out of control.

The film still fits into Cruise’s “entertainment” mode as it’s a tremendously exciting movie, but it’s not as action-heavy as Cruise’s other recent films, and that gives the actor a chance to showcase his range far better than in something like The Mummy . While the film probably could have stood to embrace the darkness even more, as it stands it’s an exciting and refreshingly different kind of movie, at least for the present day Tom Cruise persona.

25. Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a weird movie, but I’m not altogether sure it’s a great one. Writer/director Cameron Crowe ’s ambition is admirable, as the film still stands as his biggest departure to date and sees him firmly tackling psychological thriller territory. But in the category of Tom Cruise movies that hinge on trippy dream sequences and leave much open to interpretation, it lags behind Stanley Kubrick ’s Eyes Wide Shut .

And yet, there’s a certain charm to Vanilla Sky and Cruise’s unhinged performance that make it quite watchable, even if Crowe himself seems to be unsure of what, exactly, is really going on. The soundtrack is unsurprisingly on point, and Cameron Diaz proves to be a solid foil for Cruise in their first of two onscreen pairings. While it far from sticks the landing, there’s a certain moxie to Vanilla Sky that makes it charming in its own unique way.

24. The Outsiders

Director Francis Ford Coppola ’s 1983 adaptation of The Outsiders famously had every hot young actor in Hollywood angling for a role, and indeed the ensemble (mostly) reads like a who’s who of future megastars. Cruise is among them, and while Steve Randle is a minor character in the scheme of the ensemble, Cruise does enough here to show that he’s in this thing called “showbiz” for the long haul. As for the film itself, it’s a terrific spin on the coming-of-age genre with a West Side Story twist, and the gaggle of youngsters leading the cast do a tremendous job of capturing life as a hot-headed adolescent in the 1960s. Moreover, Coppola’s willingness to cover the darker aspects of the novel elevates the film to a thematically rich and relevant watch. Stay gold, Ponyboy.

23. The Last Samurai

While the combination of the film’s title and the giant image of Tom Cruise on the poster rubbed many the wrong way, The Last Samurai is actually a surprisingly thoughtful and sensitive historical epic. Director Edward Zwick ’s handling of this post-Civil War Japan-set story is deft, resulting in something akin to Dances with Wolves albeit with even more heart. And Cruise is pretty terrific as a regretful, alcoholic solider who finds himself immersed in the world of the samurai—a dying breed. Ultimately The Last Samurai is a story of redemption, and while Zwick’s reverence for the subject matter sometimes starts to smother the film (the pacing is somewhat uneven), it’s ultimately a refreshingly unique spin on a genre that ruled the 90s. If anything, The Last Samurai is notable for being the only historical epic on Cruise’s resume.

22. Jack Reacher

Jack Reacher is the kind of film that looks like a movie you’ve seen a million times before, and in many ways is exactly the movie you were expecting, but is executed so perfectly that it transcends familiarity to become something altogether special. Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie spins one hell of a yarn in this Lee Child adaptation, and if casting Cruise as Reacher was genius decision number one, then setting Werner Herzog as the emotionless villain was a close second.

Cruise’s approach here is so sure-footed and confident that you buy every single move Reacher makes, but this role diverges from many of Cruise’s other action hero leads in that Reacher is not overly joyful. You can feel his annoyance every time someone underestimates him or puts another life in danger, and it’s that facet of the character that makes him so watchable and, ultimately, a memorable Tom Cruise role. The performer eschews his natural charm and boyish excitability in favor of a much dryer tone, and it suits him well. While the story is, again, nothing you haven’t seen before, thanks to skillful execution and a unique turn for Cruise, Jack Reacher is one of Cruise’s most watchable films.

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The top 20 Tom Cruise movies – ranked!

As the actor returns with Mission: Impossible – Fallout, we rank his 20 best films, from 1983’s The Outsiders to 2008’s Tropic Thunder

20. Far and Away (1992)

It was a toss-up between this and Vanilla Sky for the 20th spot, and Far and Away just nudged it because it is – admittedly not intentionally – hilarious, while the latter is a mega downer. No movie accent will ever give me as much joy as Cruise’s Irish accent.

19. War of the Worlds (2005)

Not a disaster, but nowhere near as good as a Spielberg-Cruise adaptation of HG Wells’ tale should have been. Cruise, deep into his publicly eccentric years, plays a divorced dad just trying to do right by his kids while fighting alien invaders, but comes across more alien than the invaders.

18. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

This film was supposed to be exciting because we kinda, sorta, maybe got to see Cruise and his then wife, Nicole Kidman, have sex, but a major flaw in that sales pitch is no one wanted to. Including, it turned out, them. Their marriage fell apart soon after the making of this film and some of us are still unconvinced it was worth the marriage.

17. Days of Thunder (1990)

It’s Top Gun – in a car. And nowhere near as good. This film is best known as the one in which Cruise and Kidman met. But it should be celebrated for giving Cruise’s character the name of Cole Trickle. For not laughing hysterically every time they say his name, everyone in this film deserves an Oscar.

16. All the Right Moves (1983)

No one watches this movie now. But they should. Babyfaced and clearly vertically challenged, Cruise plays the most unlikely American football player ever committed to film, but even in the early days of his career, his charisma was undeniable. Unexpectedly gritty and with lovely support from Craig T Nelson.

15. The Firm (1993)

Gosh, who should we get to play the young lawyer, full of morals and ambition, who suddenly finds himself in a bad world filled with bad men? John Grisham may not have written the part with Cruise in mind, but whichever Thetan Cruise worships made him for thismovie.

14. Interview With the Vampire (1994)

Eat me, haterz: people who criticise this film have no sense of fun. Cruise is enjoyably weird as Lestat de Lioncourt, the ultimate vampire. The real problem with this movie is Brad Pitt, who takes it all way too seriously. Cruise understands this is not a drama – it’s a camp delight.

13. Cocktail (1988)

Frankly, if you don’t enjoy the sight of Cruise slinging rum cocktails on a beach to a Beach Boys soundtrack, then please march yourself to a doctor immediately because you have lost your soul.

12. The Colour of Money (1986)

Grizzled Paul Newman, rehashing his role from The Hustler, hands the matinee idol baton here to a young and twinkly-eyed Cruise. It is hard not to die a little inside when you look at Cruise’s pretty face and think of the weird life choices he would go on to make; a babe heading off into the dark woods.

11. Tropic Thunder (2008)

A bit of a cheat this, yes, as Cruise is barely in the movie. But, his performance as the deranged studio executive Les Grossman was so good it saved his career after all the sofa jumping and Scientology bullshittery. Some of us have never really recovered from the sight of a bald Cruise grooving to Flo Rida.

10. Collateral (2004)

Probably not a movie that Cruise kicks back and watches in his spare time, given that his ex-wife, Katie Holmes, is now dating his co-star, Jamie Foxx. Still, that shouldn’t distract the rest of us from enjoying Cruise playing memorably against type as a killer and Foxx as the cabby he hires for the evening. It does distract a little, mind.

9. Rain Man (1988)

Hear me out: Cruise should have got the Oscar for this instead of Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman’s performance is all tricks and tics, but Cruise, as the obnoxious jerk who learns he has a brother, is subtle and true. Setting the pattern for his career, Cruise was underrated because he made it look effortless.

8. Minority Report (2002)

Cruise and Spielberg should, by rights, be as natural a combination as bread and butter, and yet Minority Report is the only truly satisfying movie they have made together.

7. The Outsiders (1983)

Playing a working-class teenager in Oklahoma alongside then fellow near-unknowns Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane and Matt Dillon (someone give that casting director a medal), Cruise his a small but pleasing role in this, the most beautiful of all 80s teen movies.

6. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Cameron Crowe wrote this role of the beaten-down sports agent for the other Tom – Hanks – and the movie probably would have made more sense with him: Cruise is just too good-looking to be a credible underdog. But, he seizes the part with irresistible intensity, making even the naffest of Crowe’s lines sound heartfelt.

5. Mission: Impossible (1996)

The film that, for better or worse, confirmed Cruise as the action star of his generation, and while that means he has churned out a lot of action landfill for the past decade, the original Mission: Impossible , directed by Brian De Palma, is a stone-cold classic. Somewhere, in all of our hearts, Cruise will be forever suspended on that zip wire.

4. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

It is Cruise’s misfortune that his one real shot at an Oscar – before the Scientology weirdness ruled him out for ever – coincided with the year of Daniel Day-Lewis’s unbeatable performance in My Left Foot. His performance as a Vietnam vet is the definitive retort to any fool who insists he is a movie star, not an actor.

3. A Few Good Men (1992)

Pure cinematic pleasure. Cruise is known as a screen-chewer, but it is too rarely acknowledged how good he is at playing second fiddle to a true ham: Hoffman in Rain Man and Jack Nicholson here. “I want the truth!” is Cruise at his Cruisiest, and there ain’t nothing wrong with that.

2. Magnolia (1999)

One of three performances for which Cruise should have won an Oscar. Heretofore seen as almost asexual, Cruise is astonishing as TJ Mackie, the men’s rights activist guru with the catchphrase “Respect the cock!” No one could have imagined him in this role before. It’s now impossible to imagine anyone else playing it.

1. Top Gun (1986)

Risky Business made Cruise famous, but it’s a terrible movie. Top Gun, on the other hand, made him a legend, and it remains one of the greatest movies of all time. Cruise, playing “a flyboy”, took to the film’s endearingly overt homoeroticism like a natural. The volleyball scene put a generation through puberty.

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The 27 best tom cruise movies of all-time, ranked, we're looking at some of his best.

Tom Cruise’s official film debut was in 1981. It is now 2023. Over forty years later, and the man is still on top; He closed out 2022 with the second highest grossing movie of the year, and the new Mission Impossible flick is poised to be a hit. There’s been an on-going debate about the topic of star power when it comes to today’s current movie scene. Sure you have franchises (Marvel for example) that are sure to get people to come out to the theater, but it appears as though the days of movie stars being the sole reason for tickets being sold and butts being put in seats are long gone compared to the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s for example. Only a handful of stars still have that power, and Tom Cruise is one of them. And with one of the best Tom Cruise movies of all time released recently, it's clear the power he still holds.

You shouldn’t need any proof of what we’re saying, but for extra measure, the box office revenue for Top Gun: Maverick was $1.454 billion (yes billion), making it the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career on June 17th, 2022 (his previous high was $800 million). This, ladies and gentlemen, is with the movie actually being the follow-up to the original film that came out in 1986. That means Tom Cruise was able to take the sequel to a movie that was made 36 years ago, and not only outperform that film, but every single film he has ever made up to this point… bruh.

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When it comes to the topic of which Tom Cruise movie is the best, well, what do you do? Do you include every single movie he has ever made? What about the Mission Impossible franchise? Should every Mission Impossible be included? That, our friends, has left us with an incredibly tough task, but we’re going to try. Below is a list of the best Tom Cruise movies according to ONE37pm.

Here. We. Go.

The Best Tom Cruise Movies, Ranked

27. mission: impossible – dead reckoning part one, year released: 2023.

• Director: Christopher McQuarrie
• Writer: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jendresen
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson

While Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is still on the new side (literally) we feel confident putting it as in all-time Tom Cruise film, and we'll probably be bumping it up in the weeks and months to come. Just saying.

26. The Mummy

Year released: 2017.

• Director: Alex Kurtzman
• Writer: Alex Kurtzman, Jenny Lumet, Jon Spaihts
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis

Okay, we know The Mummy didn't perform well at the box office and received poor reviews from critics. However, we ask that you reconsider because the approach to streaming has changed significantly since 2017. Had this movie gone straight to streaming, we think the reaction would have been different. This is a weekend movie that you put on while you're chilling at the house, so we think you should give it another shot.

25. The Outsiders

Year released: 1983.

• Director: Francis Ford Coppola
• Writer: Francis Ford Coppola and S.E. Hinton
• Stars: Matt Dillion, Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe

It’s always interesting going back in time and seeing an actor’s journey before hitting it big. While not officially a household name yet, Cruise’s role as a nonchalant cool youngster named Steve Randle was the blueprint attitude wise for the types of characters that we would see him portray in the earlier part of his career. Paving the way for Risky Business so to speak.

24. Risky Business

• Director: Paul Brickman
• Writer: Paul Brickman
• Stars: Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay

Speaking of Risky Business , this is the movie that would officially launch Tom Cruise into Hollywood superstardom. The movie centers around high school senior Joel Goodsen (Cruise) who makes the decision to hire the services of a call girl. Upon receiving the bill the next morning, the teenager goes into a state of panic, which only gets worse after he crashes his father’s Porsche. You’ll have to watch the movie to see what happens next.

23. Top Gun

Year released: 1986.

• Director: Tony Scott
• Writer: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.
• Stars: Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis

The movie that got it all started. The original 1986 version featured a young Tom Cruise as a cocky fire pilot named Maverick, who is sent to the Top Gun Naval Fighter Weapons School where he is determined to be the top fighter, all while rubbing everybody the wrong way with his nasty attitude while in the process. Oh, and he’s trying to get a hot girl too. Lots to unpack here.

22. Mission Impossible

Year released: 1996.

• Director: Brian De Palma
• Writer: David Koepp and Robert Towne
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Emmanuelle Béart, Henry Czerny, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, Jean Reno

Alright, here we go with the Mission Impossible franchise. First released in 1996, the story is about U.S. government agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) who along with his mentor Jim Phelps (Jon Voight), embarks on an assignment that in turn results in Jim being killed. Now a murder suspect, Ethan recruits both a hacker (Ving Rhames) and a maverick pilot (Jean Reno) to help him sneak into the CIA to retrieve a file that will prove his innocence.

21. Mission Impossible 2

Year released: 2000.

• Director: John Woo
• Writer: Robert Towne
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Thandie Newton, Dougray Scott, Ving Rhames

Many thought that Mission Impossible was a one-off movie because it ended with him proving his innocence. Many were wrong. Four years later, a sequel was released, this time with Ethan Hunt leading his IMF team on a basically mission to capture a deadly German virus before being released by terrorists. This was also the beginning of the “Tom Cruise haircut” phase that was heavily talked about in the early 2000s.

20. Jack Reacher

Year released: 2012.

• Writer: Christopher McQuarrie
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Lee Child, Rosamund Pike

When in doubt, go get Jack Reacher to handle your business for you. Released in 2012, Jack Reacher tells the tale of Jack Reacher having to take on a tough assignment when a town is hit by a vicious shooting attack that leaves five people dead. As Reacher digs deeper into the investigation, he realizes that there is much more to the story then he initially thought.

19. Interview With The Vampire

Year released: 1994.

• Director: Neil Jordan
• Writer: Anne Rice
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater

Going back to 1994, Interview With The Vampire chronicles an 18th century lord, Louis, who is now a bicentennial vampire with an urge to tell his story to a biographer (hence Interview With The Vampire). Louis’ recent years have been filled with tragedy after the loss of his entire family, and with Louis struggling to find the motivation to go on, he just so happens to meet another Vampire named Lestat who becomes his friend and helps him out.

18. The Last Samurai

Year released: 2003.

• Director: Edward Zwick
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanbe, Hiroyuki Sanada

When you have a film catalog as deep as Tom Cruise, it sparks a debate as to which should be included in your “best movies” list. For some, The Last Samurai doesn’t make the cut. For us, it does. The film focuses on the story of an American Military officer (Cruise) who’s caught in the middle of two completely different worlds when he is hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country’s first army in modern warfare.

This is actually one of our favorite Tom Cruise movies of all-time. It’s also very reflective of 2003 movie culture in terms of the films that came out during that era.

17. The Firm

Year released: 1993.

• Director: Sydney Pollack
• Writer: David Rabe, Robert Towne, David Rayfield
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, David Straitharn, Gary Busey

Going back ten years earlier to 1993, The Firm really highlighted Cruise’s acting chops as he portrayed a young lawyer joining an established law firm, only to discover that there is quite a bit of illegal activity going on behind closed doors. Soon enough the FBI is involved, and with his life threatened, he basically has to make a decision on whether or not he is going to snitch. Does he end up snitching? Watch and find out.

16. Mission Impossible III

Year released: 2006.

• Director: J.J. Abrams
• Writer: J.J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan

It’s looking like we are indeed going to end up including every single Mission Impossible film on this list. Next up in the series is the third installment, in which Ethan Hunt is now a retiree focusing on training the next Mission Impossible recruits. As you probably guessed, the retirement doesn’t last for long as Hunt has to get back out there ASAP when he and the love of his life become the target of a new villain in the mix.

15. A Few Good Men

Year released: 1992.

• Director: Rob Reiner
• Writer: Aaron Sorkin
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore

Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, and Demi Moore all being together in one movie is the epitome of early 1990s Hollywood, and boy is it good. Really good. You’ll definitely want to check this classic out for sure. That’s all we’re going to say.

14. Tropic Thunder

• Director: Ben Stiller
• Writer: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, Etan Cohen
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr.

2008 was a pretty good year for movies when you look at everything that came out that year, and Tropic Thunder is one of them. Starring Tom Cruise, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Robert Downing Jr. (talk about an A-List cast), Tropic Thunder is about a war movie that is in the process of being filmed. With the actors lacking motivation, the director decides to liven things up a bit by moving them to a real jungle. The situation goes awry when the actors realize after some bad luck that they are actually caught in the middle of a real-time war happening.

13. Magnolia

Year released: 1999.

• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour

Backing it to 1999, Cruise starred in the drama film Magnolia alongside Julianne Moore and Philip Seymour, which was a multiple-plot story about a dying father, young wife, a police officer falling head over heels in love, a genius, an ex-boy genius, a gameshow host, and an estranged daughter who all end up together on a random day in San Fernando Valley. This is definitely a movie where you have to be paying attention at all times because you will be confused if you don’t. Trust us.

12. Jerry Maguire

• Director: Cameron Crowe
• Writer: Cameron Crowe
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr., Renée Zellweger, Kelly Preston

When sports agent Jerry Maguire (Cruise) has a bad moment of judgment that leads to him getting fired, he is left with no other option but to start his own management firm. In the process of trying to launch his business, Jerry also ends up falling in love. Sports and love stories are always a good watch.

11. War of the Worlds

Year released: 2005.

• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Writer: Josh Friedman, David Koepp
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Miranda Otto, Dakota Fanning, Justin Chatwin

Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise joined forces on 2005’s War of the Worlds which was about a dockworker (Cruise) struggling to maintain a relationship with his two children. When the kids are dropped off by his ex-wife (Miranda Otto), the weekend takes an unexpected turn when an alien invasion happens. Classic Spielberg. War of the Worlds wound up grossing over $600 million at the box office. Not bad for a movie that originally had a $132 million budget.

10. Collateral

Year released: 2004.

• Director: Michael Mann
• Writer: Stuart Beattie
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Javier Bardham

The year prior, Cruise also experienced box office success with the film Collateral , which also starred Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Mark Ruffalo, and Javier Bardham. The film is about an LA taxi driver named Max (Foxx) ready to call it a day, when he receives $600 from a sniper in disguise as a businessman (Cruise) to make six extra stops. As it turns out, those six extra stops are actually designated hit checkpoints that Max is now caught in the middle of. It’s not often that we get to see Tom Cruise as the bad guy, so this is a fun one.

9. Rain Man

Year released: 1988.

• Director: Barry Levinson
• Writer: Barry Morrow
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Dustin Hoffman

Rain Man is another Tom Cruise movie that sparks debates over how high it should be ranked, but you can’t deny its emotional heart-tugging effect. Cruise and Dustin Hoffman also made for a pretty good team if you ask us. Grab your tissues because this is definitely one of those films that make you tear up a bit.

8. Born on the Fourth of July

Year released: 1989.

• Director: Oliver Stone
• Writer: Ron Kovic
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Oliver Stone, Willem Dafoe

Another 1980s Tom Cruise classic, Born on the Fourth of July is about a suburban NY teenager who decides to enlist in the marines to honor his patriotism. In his second year of active duty, the teen encounters some difficult challenges when he accidentally kills a fellow soldier and later ends up paralyzed during a battle. 

7. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Year released: 2011.

• Director: Brad Bird
• Writer: Jon Applebaum, André Nemec, Christopher McQuarrie
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner

Cruise returned as Ethan Hunt for the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible series, this time around having to deal with the blame for the terrorist attack on Kremlin. This marks the second time in his career where Hunt has received the blame for something completely out of his control, and once again he is forced to clear his name.

6. Minority Report

Year released: 2002.

• Writer: Scott Frank, Jon Cohen
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Samantha Morton, Colin Ferrell, Kathryn Morris

A thriller set in the year 2054, Minority Report is based on the story “Minority Report” by science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick, which is about a police station in Washington D.C. that utilizes psychic technology to help arrest and convict murders before they commit their crimes. Looking back, Minority Report was actually ahead of the game as many films since have mirrored its approach. 

5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

Year released: 2015.

• Stars: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Jeremy Renner

Rogue Nation is actually considered the most exciting Mission Impossible film to date (although that can be subjective). Now we’re at the point where the IMF is disbanded, and not only is it dead and gone completely with Hunt being kind of assed out, there’s also a new threat called the Syndicate that is now an immediate problem. It never ends for Ethan Hunt. It just never does.

4. Mission Impossible: Fallout

Year released: 2018.

• Stars: Tom Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Henry Cavill

And since it never ends for Ethan Hunt, the sixth film in the series, Fallout , is about the newly rebranded IMF coming together with a CIA assassin to prevent yet another catastrophic event in the making that involves nuclear attacks on the Vatican, Jerusalem, and Saudi Arabia. How we got here from where we started in 1996, we don’t know. What we do know, however, is that Mission Impossible 7 , Dead Reckoning Part One is due out July 14th, 2023.

And apparently it doesn’t end there because Part Two is due out June 2024. Like we said earlier, it never ends for Ethan Hunt. Now would be the time to catch up if you haven’t already.

3. The Color of Money

• Director: Martin Scorsese
• Writer: Richard Price
• Stars: Paul Newman, Tom Cruise

We’re going to take one final trip back to the 80s. The same year Top Gun was released, Cruise also starred in the film The Color of Money alongside Paul Newman, which was about a former pool hustler named Fast Eddie (Newman) who decides to make a return to the game with new young protege Vincent Lauria (Cruise). 

2. Edge of Tomorrow

Year released: 2014.

• Director: Doug Limon
• Writer: Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton

Whether you have Edge of Tomorrow in your personal Tom Cruise top three or not, we can all agree that it is a heck of a film. Just about any movie that has the word “edge” in it is, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.

1. Top Gun: Maverick

Year released: 2022.

• Director: Joseph Kosinski
• Writer: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie
• Stars: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Glen Powell

We had to save the best for last. The highest grossing movie of Tom Cruise’s career which is sitting pretty at $1.4 billion, Cruise proved that he once again is that dude. Not bad for somebody who just turned 60. 

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Every single Tom Cruise movie, ranked

• Tom Cruise has been acting for nearly four decades. 
• The almost 57-year-old is still making some of the best movies of his career. 
• His top-rated movie is 2018's "Mission: Impossible Fallout." 
• Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories.

Tom Cruise is still dominating the box office after nearly 40 years in the film industry. 

Beginning with 1981's "Endless Love," Cruise has risen to become one of the most recognizable actors of his generation. With a prolific career like his, not every movie can be a critical success, but most of the actor's films have been hits, including "Risky Business" and most of the "Mission: Impossible" movies. 2018's "Mission: Impossible Fallout" is his best film to date. 

In honor of the actor's 57th birthday on July 3, here are all of Cruise's movies ranked according to the critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

42. In 1988's "Cocktail," Cruise plays a New York City bartender who moves to Jamaica for work and falls in love.

Synopsis :  "A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 5%

41. Cruise plays an Army sergeant in 2017's "The Mummy," a failed reboot of the "Mummy" franchise.

Synopsis :  "An ancient Egyptian princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 16%

40. Cruise is one of four boys who get into some wild adventures during a trip to Tijuana, Mexico in 1983's "Losin' It."

Synopsis : " Set in 1965, four rowdy teenage guys travel to Tijuana, Mexico for a night of partying when they are joined by a heartbroken housewife who is in town seeking a quick divorce."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 20%

39. Cruise made his film debut in 1981's "Endless Love" with a minor role as a teen who says he started a fire as a kid.

Synopsis :  "A high school student's love for a 15-year-old girl is thwarted by parental disapproval, circumstance, and accident."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 29%

38. Cruise is a senator who comes up with a new war strategy in Afghanistan in 2007's "Lions for Lambs."

Synopsis : " Injuries sustained by two Army rangers behind enemy lines in Afghanistan set off a sequence of events involving a congressman, a journalist, and a professor."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 27%

37. Cruise lives in the forest, loves a princess, and must stop darkness from descending upon the land in 1985's "Legend."

Synopsis : " A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 36%

36. Cruise returned as the titular action hero in 2016's "Jack Reacher: Never Go Back."

Synopsis : " Jack Reacher must uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear his name. On the run as a fugitive from the law, Reacher uncovers a potential secret from his past that could change his life forever."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 38%

35. Cruise starred alongside his future wife Nicole Kidman as a race car driver in 1990's "Days of Thunder."

Synopsis : " A young hotshot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 39%

34. Cruise is a rock star in 2012's "Rock of Ages."

Synopsis : " A small town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 42% 

33. In 2001's "Vanilla Sky," Cruise is a playboy who falls in love but whose ex-girlfriend returns and changes his life.

Synopsis : " A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 42%

32. Cruise plays an Irish man who moves to America after his family's home is burned down in 1992's "Far and Away."

Synopsis : " A young Irish couple flees to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 48%

31. Cruise portrays a high school football player in 1983's "All the Right Moves."

Synopsis : " A high school football player desperate for a scholarship and his headstrong coach clash in a dying Pennsylvania steel town."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 52%

30. In 2010's "Knight & Day," Cruise plays a CIA spy trying to clear his name.

Synopsis : " A young woman gets mixed up with a disgraced spy who is trying to clear his name."  

29. Cruise stars in the 2013 post-apocalyptic movie "Oblivion."

Synopsis : " A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 53%

28. Cruise is well-known for playing a naval pilot in 1986's "Top Gun."

Synopsis : " As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom."  

Rotten Tomatoes score : 55%

27. Cruise plays Agent Ethan Hunt in the "Mission: Impossible" movies, and of the six films released so far in the franchise, 2000's "Mission: Impossible 2" has the worst rating.

Synopsis : "I.M.F. Agent Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney, Australia to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called Chimera."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 57%

26. Cruise portrays real-life Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German soldier who made a plan to assassinate Hitler in 2008's "Valkyrie."

Synopsis :  "A dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 62%

25. In 1994's "Interview With the Vampire," Cruise is a vampire named Lestat de Lioncourt who revels in killing humans.

Synopsis :  "A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger."

24. Cruise portrays the titular hero in 2012's "Jack Reacher."

Synopsis :  "A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 63%

23. Cruise is introduced as Agent Ethan Hunt in 1996's "Mission: Impossible"

Synopsis :  "An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 63% 

22. Cruise is Steve Randle, a member of the poor Greasers gang, in 1983's "The Outsiders."

Synopsis :  "The rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, only heats up when one gang member kills a member of the other."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 64% 

21. Cruise is sent to train an army in Japan but is captured by samurai and decides to join their cause in "The Last Samurai"

Synopsis :  "An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 66%

20. In 2006, Cruise once again returned to play Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible III."

Synopsis :  "IMF Agent Ethan Hunt comes into conflict with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer who threatens his life and his fiancee in response."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 70%

19. Cruise plays a West Point cadet in 1981's "Taps," his second movie role.

Synopsis :  "Military cadets take extreme measures to ensure the future of their academy when its existence is threatened by local condo developers."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 71% 

18. Cruise is a father who tries to protect his family when aliens attack in "War of the Worlds."

Synopsis :  "As Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines, one family fights for survival."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 75%

17. Cruise plays a recent Harvard grad who joins a law firm but discovers it's not what he expected in the 1993 thriller "The Firm."

Synopsis :  "A young lawyer joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side."

16. Cruise and Kidman starred together one last time before their divorce as a couple in 1999's racy "Eyes Wide Shut."

Synopsis : "A New York City doctor embarks on a harrowing, night-long odyssey of sexual and moral discovery after his wife reveals a painful secret to him."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 75% 

15. Cruise is unrecognizable as a studio executive in 2008's "Tropic Thunder."

Synopsis : "Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 81%

14. Cruise is a Lieutenant and inexperienced lawyer given a case of defending Marines accused of murder in 1992's "A Few Good Men."

Synopsis : "Military lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder. They contend they were acting under orders."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 82%

13. Cruise won a Golden Globe for playing a sports agent in 1996's "Jerry Maguire."

Synopsis : "When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former secretary."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 83%

12. Cruise earned his last Oscar nomination for playing a motivational speaker in 1999's "Magnolia."

Synopsis : "An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley."

11. Cruise is real-life CIA pilot Barry Seal who also started smuggling drugs for the Medellín Cartel in "American Made."

Synopsis : "The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 86%

10. Cruise plays a hitman fired to kill five people in 2004's "Collateral."

Synopsis : "A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles."

9. Cruise stars alongside Paul Newman in 1986's "The Color of Money" as a pool player.

Synopsis : "Fast Eddie Felson teaches a cocky but immensely talented protégé the ropes of pool hustling, which in turn inspires him to make an unlikely comeback."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 89%

8. Cruise earned his first Oscar nomination for playing real-life Vietnam vet Ron Kovic who is left paralyzed during the war and becomes a political activist in 1989's "Born on the Fourth of July."

Synopsis : "The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for."

7. In 1988's "Rain Man," Cruise plays a selfish rich kid who learns of his autistic older brother after their father dies and leaves most of his inheritance to the older sibling.

Synopsis : "Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country."

6. Cruise is a soldier who finds that every time he dies, he relives the same day over and over again as he attempts to save the day in 2014's "Edge of Tomorrow."

Synopsis : " A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 90%

5. Cruise plays a cop being hunted for a murder he's predicted of doing in 2002's "Minority Report."

Synopsis : "In a future where a special police unit is able to arrest murderers before they commit their crimes, an officer from that unit is himself accused of a future murder."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 91%

4. Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt for the fourth time in 2011's "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol."

Synopsis : "The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 93%

3. Cruise continues dominating as Ethan Hunt in 2015's "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation."

Synopsis : "Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate — an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF."

2. Cruise broke out as a teen whose plans to have fun while his parents are gone go awry in 1983's "Risky Business."

Synopsis : "A Chicago teenager is looking for fun at home while his parents are away, but the situation quickly gets out of hand."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 96%

1. Cruise continues to prove that Ethan Hunt isn't going anywhere in 2018's "Mission: Impossible Fallout."

Synopsis : "Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong."

Rotten Tomatoes score : 97%

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Tom Cruise's Top 10 Best Movies, Ranked

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Tom Cruise is consistently box office gold.

The 61-year-old actor just helmed 2022′s biggest movie , Top Gun: Maverick , as well as continuing the hugely successful Mission: Impossible series, and he’s got even more successful films and franchises to his name.

Many of his films have been big hits with audiences, and there are several movies that have gone on to receive nearly universal critical acclaim.

We’ve ranked Tom Cruise ‘s best movies, according to their Rotten Tomatoes scores. And there is a tie for No. 1!

Click through to find out Tom Cruise’s 10 best movies, ranked…

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30 Highest Rated Movies of all Time: Movies With 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

For 23 years, Rotten Tomatoes has been the go-to for those looking to get the scoop on what is new in movies. Aggregating opinions from fans and critics across the country, Rotten Tomatoes uses its “Tomatometer” system to calculate critical reception for any given film. If 60% of reviews are positive, the movie is given a “Fresh” status, but if positive reviews fall below that benchmark, it is deemed “Rotten.” A popular piece of media will typically fall between the 70-90% range, but rarely, a project will receive a 100% score. This means every last review from critics was positive.

Close to 480 films with at least 20 reviews have achieved a 100% score, with many coming very close. Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” had a 100% rating with 196 positive reviews before a critic submitted a negative one, knocking it down to 99%. The immortal classic “Citizen Kane” had a 100% rating until a negative review from a 1941 issue of the Chicago Tribune was rediscovered, revoking its 100% status.

Here are Rotten Tomatoes’ highest-rated movies that have managed to maintain a 100% score and have the highest number of reviews.

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

“The Philadelphia Story” is based on the 1939 Broadway play and follows a socialite whose wedding plans are complicated by the arrival of her ex-husband and a tabloid magazine journalist. Directed by George Cukor, he film stars Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey.

“It’s definitely not a celluloid adventure for wee lads and lassies and no doubt some of the faithful watchers-out for other people’s souls are going to have a word about that,” Variety ‘s review said. “…All of which, in addition to a generous taste of socialite quaffing to excess and talk of virtue, easy and uneasy, makes “The Philadelphia Story” a picture every suburban mamma and poppa must see – after Junior and little Elsie Dinsmore are tucked away.”

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

Christmas musical film “Meet Me in St. Louis” follows a year of the Smith family’s life in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, known as the St. Louis World’s Fair, in the spring of 1904. The film stars Judy Garland, Margaret O’Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart and Joan Carroll and directed by Vincente Minnelli, who Garland later married.

“‘Meet Me in St. Louis’ is wholesome in story [from the book by Sally Benson], colorful both in background and its literal Technicolor, and as American as the World’s Series,” Variety ‘s review said. “Garland achieves true stature with her deeply understanding performance, while her sisterly running-mate, Lucille Bremer, likewise makes excellent impact with a well-balanced performance.”

Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

The musical romantic comedy “Singin’ In the Rain” follows three Hollywood stars in the late 1920s dealing with the transition from silent films to talkies. Starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and Donald O’Connor, the movie was one of the first 25 films selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry.

“‘Singin’ In the Rain’ is a fancy package of musical entertainment with wide appeal and bright grossing prospects,” Variety ‘s review said. “Concocted by Arthur Freed with showmanship know-how, it glitters with color, talent and tunes, and an infectious air that will click with ticket buyers in all types of situations.”

Seven Samurai (1954)

Epic samurai action film “Seven Samurai” follows the story of a village of farmers in 1586 who seek to hire samurai to protect their crops from thieves. The film was the most expensive movie made in Japan at the time.

“Director Akira Kurosawa has given this a virile mounting,” Variety ‘s review said. “It is primarily a man’s film, with the brief romantic interludes also done with taste. Each character is firmly molded. Toshiro Mifune as the bold, hairbrained but courageous warrior weaves a colossal portrait. He dominates the picture although he has an extremely strong supporting cast.”

The Terminator (1984)

Sci-fi action film “The Terminator” follows a cyborg assassin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose son will one day save mankind from extinction from artificial intelligence, Skynet. Co-written and directed by James Cameron and co-written and produced by Gale Anne Hurd, the film topped the U.S. box office for two weeks and grossed $78.3 million.

“‘The Terminator,’ which opens today at Loews State and other theaters, is a B-movie with flair. Much of it, as directed by James Cameron (‘Piranha II’), has suspense and personality, and only the obligatory mayhem becomes dull,” wrote Janet Maslin in a New York Times review. “There is far too much of the latter, in the form of car chases, messy shootouts and Mr. Schwarzenegger’s slamming brutally into anything that gets in his way. Far better are the scenes that follow Sarah (Linda Hamilton) from cheerful obliviousness to the grim knowledge that someone horrible is on her trail.”

Toy Story (1995)

Animated comedy film “Toy Story” follows the first adventures of cowboy doll Woody and space cadet action figure Buzz Lightyear. Owned by a boy named Andy, Woody and Buzz are a part of a group of toys that spring to life when humans aren’t around. Birthed after the success of Pixar’s short film “Tin Toy,” “Toy Story” was the first feature film from Pixar and the first entirely computer-animated feature film.

“To swipe Buzz’s motto –“To infinity and beyond”–“Toy Story” aims high to go where no animator has gone before,” wrote Leonard Klady in a 1995 Variety film review . “Fears at mission control of the whole effort crashing to Earth proved unwarranted; this is one entertainment that soars to new heights.”

Toy Story 2 (1999)

“Toy Story 2” continues Woody and Buzz Lightyear’s journey as the co-leaders of the toy group. When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and the other toys must find set out to find him. During his time with the collector, Woody meets Jessie and Stinky Pete, other toys also based on characters from the TV show “Woody’s Roundup.” The animated film was originally supposed to be a direct-to-video sequel, but was upgraded to a theatrical release by Disney.

“In the realm of sequels, “Toy Story 2″ is to “Toy Story” what “The Empire Strikes Back” was to its predecessor, a richer, more satisfying film in every respect,” wrote former chief film critic Todd McCarthy in a 1999 Variety film review . “The comparison between these two franchises will be pursued no further, given their utter dissimilarity. But John Lasseter and his team, their confidence clearly bolstered by the massive success of their 1995 blockbuster, have conspired to vigorously push the new entry further with fresh characters, broadened scope, boisterous humor and, most of all, a gratifying emotional and thematic depth.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2006)

“Deliver Us From Evil” is a documentary that follows the case of convicted pedophile Oliver O’Grady, who molested approximately 25 children as a priest in northern California between the late 1970s through early 1990s. Filmmaker Amy Berg tracks O’Grady down to Ireland, where he was deported after being convicted of child molestation in 1993 and serving seven years in prison.

“Given how strong this kind of testimony is, “Deliver Us From Evil’s” decision to hype it more than it needs to be is unfortunate,” L.A. Times film critic Kenneth Turan said about the film in a 2006 review. “The film has a weakness for over-dramatization, for unsettling music and portentous close-ups of O’Grady’s hands and lips that are distracting and unnecessary.”

“There is nothing over-dramatic, however, about the deeply painful testimony of the adults who were victimized as children and their still traumatized parents,” he continued. “’He was the closest thing to God that we knew,’ one mother says. ‘I let the wolf in through the gate.'”

Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

“Taxi to the Dark Side” is a documentary film directed by Alex Gibney about the 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi drive named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being detained without a trial and interrogated at a black site, a detention center operated by a state where prisoners are incarcerated without due process or court order.

The film was a part of the “Why Democracy?” series, produced by The Why Foundation, which consisted of 10 documentary films examining democracy.

“Gibney (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”) has crafted more than just an important document of systemic abuse — he’s stripped the rhetoric from official doublespeak to expose a callous disregard for not only the Geneva Conventions but the vision of the Founding Fathers,” writes Jay Weissberg in a Variety film review . “All enemies in wartime are perceived as animals, but Gibney uncovers the ways the White House and Pentagon have encouraged torture while distancing themselves from responsibility.”

Man on Wire (2008)

James Marsh’s “Man on Wire” documents the death-defining hire-wire stunts of Philippe Petit, who in 1974, performed a tightrope walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. “For contemporary audiences, Petit’s moment of mastery is inevitably shot through with a sense of loss; the following scenes, which reveal the band’s subsequent dissolution, reaffirm the bittersweet truth that triumph is but fleeting,” wrote Catherine Wheatley, who reviewed the film for Sight and Sound in 2010. “The film’s vision, though, is ultimately uplifting: relationships, like buildings, can collapse into rubble, but as [Annie Allix] tenderly puts it, sometimes ‘It is beautiful that way’.”

Poetry (2010)

Lee Chang-dong’s “Poetry” chronicles the life of Mija, a Korean grandmother who is simultaneously dealing with an early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the violent crime committed by her teenage grandson. “Now is the time to bestow on yourself the gift of one of the most, well, poetic films of 2010,” Lisa Kennedy wrote for the Denver Post in 2011. “And by ‘poetic,’ we mean rich with soulful pauses that are at once visual and aural and deeply observant of the dance of routine and quiet surprise.”

Waste Land (2010)

Lucy Walker’s “Waste Land” follows modern artist Vik Muniz to Jardim Gramacho, Brazil, the world’s largest landfill. There, he photographs the work of “catadores,” men and women who collect the refuse to recreate classical art. Legendary film critic Roger Ebert wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times in 2011, “I do not mean to make their lives seem easy or pleasant. It is miserable work, even after they grow accustomed to the smell. But it is useful work, and I have been thinking much about the happiness to be found by work that is honest and valuable.”

The Square (2013)

“The Square” is a documentary film by Jehane Noujaim, which follows Egyptian revolutionaries during the Egyptian Crisis, a period that started with the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 at Tahrir Square and lasted for three years. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won three Emmys.

“Continuing to follow a group of activists as they rally against the undue powers of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Army, ‘The Square’ understands that the Revolution itself is a work in progress, and while its immediacy means it, too, will soon be superseded, it stands as a vigorous, useful account,” writes Jay Weissberg in a 2013 Variety film review .

Gloria (2013)

Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria” follows the relationship between an aging divorce and an amusement park operator after their chance encounter at a singles disco. “With someone else in the central role, ‘Gloria’ might have been cloyingly sentimental or downright maudlin,” wrote Joe Morgenstern in his 2014 Wall St. Journal review. “With [Paulina García] on hand, it’s a mostly convincing celebration of unquenchable energy.”

The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2014)

Isao Takahata’s “The Tale of Princess Kaguya” tells the fable of a beautiful young woman who sends her suitors away on impossible tasks in hopes of avoiding a loveless marriage. In a 2015 review for Sight and Sound, Andrew Osmond wrote, “While the characters feel very simplified at times, there are scenes that put great weight on performance and subtle expressions, in a way that’s nearer to the classical Disney tradition than most Japanese animation.”

Seymour: An Introduction (2014)

Ethan Hawke’s documentary “Seymour: An Introduction” chronicles the life of Seymour Bernstein, a concert pianist who, at age 50, gave up performing to become an educator and composer. “Coming off of his superb one-two performances for Richard Linklater in ‘Before Midnight’ and ‘Boyhood,’ Hawke continues to work at a creative high level,” wrote Bruce Ingram in his 2015 review for the Chicago Sun-Times. “He demonstrates a rapport and openness with his subject that proves exceptionally affecting.”

Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (2014)

From directors Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz, “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem” follows an Israeli woman’s three-year battle to separate from her husband who refuses to dissolve their marriage. “Ultimately the movie is wearying, but then it’s likely supposed to be,” Tom Long wrote for Detroit News in 2015. “If Viviane’s going through the wringer, you’re going through the wringer too.”

One Cut of the Dead (2017)

Shin’ichirô Ueda’s “One Cut of the Dead” follows Director Higurashi and his crew who attempt to shoot a zombie movie at an abandoned WWII Japanese facility. Things go wrong when they realize they are being attacked by real zombies. In his 2019 Los Angeles Times review, Carlos Aguilar called the film, “A master class in endless narrative inventiveness and an ode to the resourceful and collaborative spirit of hands-on filmmaking, ‘One Cut of the Dead’ amounts to an explosively hilarious rarity.”

Leave No Trace (2018)

Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” follows a father and daughter hiding in the forests of Portland, Ore. When a misstep tips off their location to local authorities, they must escape and find a new place to call home. Peter Travers wrote in his 2018 Rolling Stone review, “Debra Granik’s drama about a damaged war vet (Ben Foster) living off the grid with his teen daughter, brilliantly played by breakout star Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, is hypnotic, haunting and one of the year’s best.”

Summer 1993 (2018)

Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993” is told through the eyes of six-year-old Frida, who watches in silence as her recently deceased mother’s last possessions are packed into boxes. “Some creatures are able to grow new limbs,” wrote Joe Morgenstern in his 2018 Wall Street Journal review. “Frida, given more than half a chance after demanding it, achieves something no less remarkable. She grows new joy and hope.”

Minding the Gap (2018)

“Minding the Gap” follows the relationship of three boys who use skateboarding as an outlet to escape their hardships at home. “The film captures more than a decade long documentary footage showcasing their friendship. In some documentaries, the filmmakers attempt to make themselves invisible. Despite Liu’s camera-shyness, he never pretends to be anything other than a part of the story, hitting his subjects with direct, deeply personal questions,” wrote Peter Debruge, who reviewed the film for Variety in 2018.

Honeyland (2019)

“Honeyland” is a Macedonian documentary film that was directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov. The movie follows a woman and her beekeeping traditions to cultivate honey in the mountains of North Macedonia. Guy Lodge from Variety describes “Honeyland” as it begins as a “calm, captured-in-amber character study, before stumbling upon another, more conflict-driven story altogether — as younger interlopers on the land threaten not just Hatidze’s solitude but her very livelihood with their newer, less nature-conscious farming methods,” he said.

Welcome to Chechnya (2020)

“Welcome to Chechnya” released in 2020, exposes Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov and his government as they try to detain, torture and execute LGBTQ Chechens. “A vital, pulse-quickening new documentary from journalist-turned-filmmaker David France that urgently lifts the lid on one of the most horrifying humanitarian crises of present times: the state-sanctioned purge of LGBTQ people in the eponymous southern Russian republic,” wrote Guy Lodge from Variety in 2020.

Crip Camp (2020)

“Crip Camp” is based on Camp Jened, which was a summer camp for teens with disabilities in the ’70s that inspired real-life activism. The film eliminates stereotypes and challenges the way people think about disabilities. “It may be startling for those who haven’t spent time with people with cerebral palsy or polio to see how a paraplegic gets from his wheelchair into the pool,” wrote Peter Debruge for Variety in 2020. “On closer inspection, it becomes clear that these teenagers…are having the time of their lives.”

76 Days (2020)

“76 Days” is a documentary released on Netflix in 2020 that shows the struggles of medical professionals and patients in Wuhan, China dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. “As an artifact alone, the result is remarkable, capturing all the panic and pragmatism greeting a disaster before its entire global impact had been gauged, while strategies and protocols are adjusted on the hoof,” wrote Guy Lodge for Variety in 2020. “That it’s so artfully and elegantly observed, and packs such a candid wallop of feeling, atop its frontline urgency is testament to the grace and sensitivity of its directorial team, not just their timely savvy.”

His House (2020)

“His House” is a horror movie that initially released on Netflix and terrified audiences. The plot follows a refugee couple that try to create a new life for themselves in an English town by escaping South Sudan but find their new home is haunted. Jessica Kiang reviewed the film for Variety in 2020 and wrote “‘His House’ is at its most persuasively terrifying when it gets out of the house and into the existential terror of reality. Out there are aspects of the refugee experience that contain greater horrors and mortifications than all the blackening plaster, childish ghostly humming and skittering presences in the walls could ever hope to suggest.”

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020)

“Quo Vadis, Aida?” documents the journey of Aida, a translator for the U.N. in Srebrenica interpreting the crime taking place when the Serbian army takes over the Bosnian town. “This is not historical revisionism, if anything, ‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’ works to un-revise history, re-centering the victims’ plight as the eye of a storm of evils — not only the massacre itself, but the broader evils of institutional failure and international indifference,” wrote Jessica Kiang, who reviewed the film in 2020 for Variety.

Hive (2021)

“Hive” tells the true story about a woman, Fahrije, who becomes an entrepreneur, after her husband goes missing during the Kosovo War. She sells her own red pepper ajvar and honey, and recruiting more women to join her. “Within the heavily patriarchal hierarchy of the country’s rural society, this places these maybe-widows in an impossible situation, especially when, like Fahrije, they have a family to care for,” writes Jessica Kiang for Variety . “They are expected to wait in continual expectation of their breadwinner-husbands’ return, subsisting on paltry welfare handouts, because to take a job or set up a business is looked on not only as a subversion of the natural order, but as a sign of disrespect to the husband and possibly loose morals.” 

Descendant (2022)

Netflix described its 2022 film, saying, “Descendants of the enslaved Africans on an illegal ship that arrived in Alabama in 1860 seek justice and healing when the craft’s remains are discovered.” “This past remains present, Brown shows, as activists explain how the land on which Africatown (formerly Magazine Point) was established once belonged to Meaher, who sold some of it to former slaves.,” wrote Peter Debruge for Variety . “Talk of racial injustice calls for nuance, and it’s impressive just how many facets of the conversation Brown is able to include in her film.”

20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

“20 Days in Mariupol” tells the story of a group of Ukrainian journalists who are trapped in Mariupol during the Russian invasion and struggle to continue documenting the war. The film is directed by Mstyslav Chernov, a Ukrainian director and it won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film in 2024. “Powerful as those glimpses were to international viewers, Chernov doesn’t spare his documentary more brutally sustained moments,” wrote Dennis Harvey for Variety . “There’s no political analysis or sermonizing here, just a punishingly up-close look at the toll of modern warfare on a population.”

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Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows With Tom Cruise

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Drama

After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.

Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jennifer Connelly , Miles Teller , Val Kilmer

Votes: 694,680 | Gross: $718.73M

2. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

PG-13 | 163 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Hayley Atwell , Ving Rhames , Simon Pegg

Votes: 245,923 | Gross: $172.14M

3. Top Gun (1986)

PG | 109 min | Action, Drama

As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.

Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise , Tim Robbins , Kelly McGillis , Val Kilmer

Votes: 502,087 | Gross: $179.80M

4. The Outsiders (1983)

PG | 91 min | Crime, Drama

In a small Oklahoma town in 1964, the rivalry between two gangs, the poor Greasers and the rich Socs, heats up when one gang member accidentally kills a member of the other.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: C. Thomas Howell , Matt Dillon , Ralph Macchio , Patrick Swayze

Votes: 97,391 | Gross: $25.60M

5. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

R | 159 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A Manhattan doctor embarks on a bizarre, night-long odyssey after his wife's admission of unfulfilled longing.

Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Tom Cruise , Nicole Kidman , Todd Field , Sydney Pollack

Votes: 374,727 | Gross: $55.69M

6. The Last Samurai (2003)

R | 154 min | Action, Drama

Nathan Algren, a US army veteran, is hired by the Japanese emperor to train his army in the modern warfare techniques. Nathan finds himself trapped in a struggle between two eras and two worlds.

Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Tom Cruise , Ken Watanabe , Billy Connolly , William Atherton

Votes: 470,631 | Gross: $111.11M

7. Tropic Thunder (2008)

R | 107 min | Action, Comedy, War

Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

Director: Ben Stiller | Stars: Ben Stiller , Jack Black , Robert Downey Jr. , Jeff Kahn

Votes: 447,621 | Gross: $110.52M

8. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

PG-13 | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A soldier fighting aliens gets to relive the same day over and over again, the day restarting every time he dies.

Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Tom Cruise , Emily Blunt , Bill Paxton , Brendan Gleeson

Votes: 736,021 | Gross: $100.21M

9. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

PG-13 | 147 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

Ethan Hunt and his IMF team, along with some familiar allies, race against time after a mission gone wrong.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Henry Cavill , Ving Rhames , Simon Pegg

Votes: 377,823 | Gross: $220.16M

10. Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

R | 123 min | Drama, Fantasy, Horror

A vampire tells his epic life story: love, betrayal, loneliness, and hunger.

Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Brad Pitt , Tom Cruise , Antonio Banderas , Kirsten Dunst

Votes: 347,108 | Gross: $105.26M

11. Magnolia (1999)

R | 188 min | Drama

An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jason Robards , Julianne Moore , Philip Seymour Hoffman

Votes: 328,257 | Gross: $22.46M

12. Oblivion (I) (2013)

PG-13 | 124 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A veteran assigned to extract Earth's remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.

Director: Joseph Kosinski | Stars: Tom Cruise , Morgan Freeman , Andrea Riseborough , Olga Kurylenko

Votes: 552,812 | Gross: $89.02M

13. A Few Good Men (1992)

R | 138 min | Drama, Thriller

Military lawyer Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee defends Marines accused of murder. They contend they were acting under orders.

Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jack Nicholson , Demi Moore , Kevin Bacon

Votes: 287,061 | Gross: $141.34M

14. Minority Report (2002)

PG-13 | 145 min | Action, Crime, Mystery

John works with the PreCrime police which stop crimes before they take place, with the help of three 'PreCogs' who can foresee crimes. Events ensue when John finds himself framed for a future murder.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise , Colin Farrell , Samantha Morton , Max von Sydow

Votes: 583,895 | Gross: $132.07M

15. Rain Man (1988)

R | 133 min | Drama

After a selfish L.A. yuppie learns his estranged father left a fortune to an autistic-savant brother in Ohio that he didn't know existed, he absconds with his brother and sets out across the country, hoping to gain a larger inheritance.

Director: Barry Levinson | Stars: Dustin Hoffman , Tom Cruise , Valeria Golino , Gerald R. Molen

Votes: 546,213 | Gross: $178.80M

16. Collateral (2004)

R | 120 min | Action, Crime, Drama

A cab driver finds himself the hostage of an engaging contract killer as he makes his rounds from hit to hit during one night in Los Angeles.

Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jamie Foxx , Jada Pinkett Smith , Mark Ruffalo

Votes: 432,774 | Gross: $101.01M

17. Jack Reacher (2012)

PG-13 | 130 min | Action, Mystery, Thriller

A homicide investigator digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper responsible for a mass shooting.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Rosamund Pike , Richard Jenkins , Werner Herzog

Votes: 364,823 | Gross: $80.07M

18. Mission: Impossible (1996)

PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

An American agent, under false suspicion of disloyalty, must discover and expose the real spy without the help of his organization.

Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jon Voight , Emmanuelle Béart , Henry Czerny

Votes: 469,911 | Gross: $180.98M

19. War of the Worlds (2005)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.

Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Tom Cruise , Dakota Fanning , Tim Robbins , Miranda Otto

Votes: 474,828 | Gross: $234.28M

20. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

PG-13 | 131 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

Ethan and his team take on their most impossible mission yet when they have to eradicate an international rogue organization as highly skilled as they are and committed to destroying the IMF.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Rebecca Ferguson , Jeremy Renner , Simon Pegg

Votes: 410,632 | Gross: $195.04M

21. Legend (1985)

PG | 94 min | Adventure, Fantasy, Romance

A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves.

Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise , Mia Sara , Tim Curry , David Bennent

Votes: 72,395 | Gross: $15.50M

22. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two (2025)

Action, Adventure, Thriller | Post-production

The 8th entry in the long running Mission Impossible franchise.

Director: Christopher McQuarrie | Stars: Tom Cruise , Vanessa Kirby , Hannah Waddingham , Hayley Atwell

23. The Others (2001)

PG-13 | 104 min | Horror, Mystery, Thriller

In 1945, immediately following the end of Second World War, a woman who lives with her two photosensitive children on her darkened old family estate in the Channel Islands becomes convinced that the home is haunted.

Director: Alejandro Amenábar | Stars: Nicole Kidman , Christopher Eccleston , Fionnula Flanagan , Alakina Mann

Votes: 392,952 | Gross: $96.52M

24. Top Gear (2002–2022)

TV-PG | 60 min | Adventure, Sport, Talk-Show

The hosts talk about everything car-related. From new cars to how they're fueled, this show has it all.

Stars: Jeremy Clarkson , Richard Hammond , James May , The Stig

Votes: 126,592

25. Jerry Maguire (1996)

R | 139 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

When a sports agent has a moral epiphany and is fired for expressing it, he decides to put his new philosophy to the test as an independent agent with the only athlete who stays with him and his former colleague.

Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise , Cuba Gooding Jr. , Renée Zellweger , Kelly Preston

Votes: 286,819 | Gross: $153.95M

26. The Mummy (2017)

PG-13 | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

An ancient Egyptian princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.

Director: Alex Kurtzman | Stars: Tom Cruise , Sofia Boutella , Annabelle Wallis , Russell Crowe

Votes: 206,032 | Gross: $80.10M

27. American Made (2017)

R | 115 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

The story of Barry Seal, an American pilot who became a drug-runner for the CIA in the 1980s in a clandestine operation that would be exposed as the Iran-Contra Affair.

Director: Doug Liman | Stars: Tom Cruise , Domhnall Gleeson , Sarah Wright , Jesse Plemons

Votes: 207,932 | Gross: $51.34M

28. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

The IMF is shut down when it's implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization's name.

Director: Brad Bird | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jeremy Renner , Simon Pegg , Paula Patton

Votes: 528,147 | Gross: $209.40M

29. Vanilla Sky (2001)

R | 136 min | Fantasy, Mystery, Romance

A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover.

Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Tom Cruise , Penélope Cruz , Cameron Diaz , Kurt Russell

Votes: 285,536 | Gross: $100.61M

30. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

R | 145 min | Biography, Drama, War

The biography of Ron Kovic . Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country for which he fought.

Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Tom Cruise , Bryan Larkin , Raymond J. Barry , Caroline Kava

Votes: 115,836 | Gross: $70.00M

31. Mission: Impossible III (2006)

PG-13 | 126 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

IMF agent Ethan Hunt comes into conflict with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer who threatens his life and his fiancée in response.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Tom Cruise , Michelle Monaghan , Ving Rhames , Philip Seymour Hoffman

Votes: 390,476 | Gross: $134.03M

32. Mission: Impossible II (2000)

PG-13 | 123 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller

IMF agent Ethan Hunt is sent to Sydney to find and destroy a genetically modified disease called "Chimera".

Director: John Woo | Stars: Tom Cruise , Dougray Scott , Thandiwe Newton , Ving Rhames

Votes: 377,438 | Gross: $215.41M

33. Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002)

PG-13 | 94 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

Upon learning that his father has been kidnapped, Austin Powers must travel to 1975 and defeat the aptly named villain Goldmember, who is working with Dr. Evil.

Director: Jay Roach | Stars: Mike Myers , Beyoncé , Seth Green , Michael York

Votes: 222,759 | Gross: $213.31M

34. The Firm (1993)

R | 154 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller

A young lawyer joins a prestigious law firm only to discover that it has a sinister dark side.

Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Tom Cruise , Jeanne Tripplehorn , Gene Hackman , Hal Holbrook

Votes: 147,577 | Gross: $158.35M

35. Formula 1: Drive to Survive (2019– )

TV-MA | 40 min | Documentary, Sport

Docuseries following the FIA Formula One World Championship across multiple seasons.

Stars: Will Buxton , Jack Nicholls , Daniel Ricciardo , Lewis Hamilton

Votes: 50,822

36. Endless Love (1981)

R | 116 min | Drama, Romance

Parental disapproval of a passionate romance between two teenagers leads to arguments, circumstance, insanity and tragedy.

Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Brooke Shields , Martin Hewitt , Shirley Knight , Don Murray

Votes: 9,563 | Gross: $31.18M

37. Risky Business (1983)

R | 99 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

A Chicago teenager is looking for fun at home while his parents are away, but the situation quickly gets out of hand.

Director: Paul Brickman | Stars: Tom Cruise , Rebecca De Mornay , Joe Pantoliano , Richard Masur

Votes: 99,731 | Gross: $63.50M

38. Young Guns (1988)

R | 107 min | Action, Drama, Western

A group of young gunmen, led by Billy the Kid, become deputies to avenge the murder of the rancher who became their benefactor. But when Billy takes their authority too far, they become the hunted.

Director: Christopher Cain | Stars: Emilio Estevez , Kiefer Sutherland , Lou Diamond Phillips , Charlie Sheen

Votes: 67,981 | Gross: $45.66M

39. Cocktail (1988)

R | 104 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

A talented New York City bartender takes a job at a bar in Jamaica and falls in love.

Director: Roger Donaldson | Stars: Tom Cruise , Bryan Brown , Elisabeth Shue , Lisa Banes

Votes: 91,771 | Gross: $78.22M

40. Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

PG-13 | 118 min | Action, Crime, Drama

Jack Reacher must uncover the truth behind a major government conspiracy in order to clear his name while on the run as a fugitive from the law.

Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Tom Cruise , Cobie Smulders , Aldis Hodge , Robert Knepper

Votes: 175,142 | Gross: $58.70M

41. Valkyrie (2008)

PG-13 | 121 min | Drama, History, Thriller

A dramatization of the July 20, 1944 assassination and political coup plot by desperate renegade German Army officers against Adolf Hitler during World War II.

Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Tom Cruise , Bill Nighy , Carice van Houten , Kenneth Branagh

Votes: 259,071 | Gross: $83.08M

42. Days of Thunder (1990)

PG-13 | 107 min | Action, Drama, Sport

A young hot-shot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level.

Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Tom Cruise , Nicole Kidman , Robert Duvall , Randy Quaid

Votes: 96,315 | Gross: $82.67M

43. Dateline NBC (1992– )

TV-PG | 60 min | Documentary, News

Long-running news-magazine/investigation series.

Stars: Lester Holt , Keith Morrison , Andrea Canning , Josh Mankiewicz

Votes: 3,411

44. Knight and Day (2010)

PG-13 | 109 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

A young woman gets mixed up with a disgraced spy who is trying to clear his name.

Director: James Mangold | Stars: Tom Cruise , Cameron Diaz , Peter Sarsgaard , Jordi Mollà

Votes: 210,240 | Gross: $76.42M

45. Rock of Ages (2012)

PG-13 | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, Musical

A small-town girl and a city boy meet on the Sunset Strip while pursuing their Hollywood dreams.

Director: Adam Shankman | Stars: Julianne Hough , Diego Boneta , Tom Cruise , Alec Baldwin

Votes: 81,629 | Gross: $38.52M

46. The View (1997– )

TV-PG | 60 min | Talk-Show

Five women with very different outlooks on politics, Hollywood and it's stars, and current events discuss these and other divisive topics of the day. Originated by Barbara Walters and currently (2021) led by longtime host, Whoopi Goldberg.

Stars: Whoopi Goldberg , Joy Behar , Virginia Hamilton , Sunny Hostin

Votes: 9,432

47. The Color of Money (1986)

R | 119 min | Drama, Sport

Fast Eddie Felson teaches a cocky but immensely talented protégé the ropes of pool hustling, which in turn inspires him to make an unlikely comeback.

Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Paul Newman , Tom Cruise , Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio , Helen Shaver

Votes: 93,206 | Gross: $52.29M

48. Far and Away (1992)

PG-13 | 140 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

A young Irish couple flee to the States, but subsequently struggle to obtain land and prosper freely.

Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Tom Cruise , Nicole Kidman , Thomas Gibson , Robert Prosky

Votes: 68,282 | Gross: $58.88M

49. Top Gun 3

Action | Announced

Plot kept under wraps.

Stars: Tom Cruise , Glen Powell , Miles Teller

50. The Daily Show (1996– )

TV-14 | 22 min | Comedy, News, Talk-Show

A comedy news show featuring humorous takes on top stories.

Stars: Jon Stewart , Trevor Noah , Stephen Colbert , Roy Wood Jr.

Votes: 48,172

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Tom Cruise Gets His First Criterion Collection Movie Set for 4K UHD Release

Not a single film with Tom Cruise has been in the lauded Criterion Collection, until now.

• Tom Cruise's Risky Business joins the prestigious Criterion Collection, marking a pivotal moment in his career.
• The film is praised for blending tender romance with a sharp critique of capitalism, even if it's goofy fun on the surface.
• Criterion's release includes a 4K UHD restoration, special features, and interviews, making it a must-have for film and Cruise enthusiasts.

Tom Cruise has been one of the biggest Hollywood stars for four decades, and has starred in almost 50 movies, but until today, none of them have been represented in the most prestigious film collection in the world — the Criterion Collection . The home media distributor collects the greatest or most culturally important films of all time and immaculately restores them and curates magnificent special features. And now, Cruise's 1983 film Risky Business will be the 1,227th movie added to the collection.

The Criterion Collection announced its inclusion today, April 15, with the film being released in 4K UHD (and Blu-ray) on July 23. Their summary of the film, famous for its underwear lip-sync scene, reads as follows:

" A sly piece of pop subversion, this irresistible satire of Reagan-era materialism features Tom Cruise in his star-is-born breakthrough as a Chicago suburban prepster whose college-bound life spirals out of control when his parents go out of town for the week and an enterprising call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) invites him to walk on the wild side. While Cruise boogying in his briefs yielded one of the most iconic pop-cultural moments of the 1980s, it is the film’s unexpected mix of tender romance (enhanced by a moody synth score by Tangerine Dream) and sharp-witted capitalist critique that remains fresh and daring."

Risky Business

Risky business special features and other july releases for criterion.

It's an interesting choice for the Criterion Collection, with many other Cruise films being considered superior ( Collateral, Eyes Wide Shut, The Color of Money, Magnolia ). Of course, there are licensing issues to be considered, but there are certainly good reasons for the inclusion of Risky Business . It's the film that truly announced Cruise as a cinematic presence, while also playfully deconstructing the typical sex comedies that were so popular at the time ( Porky's, Revenge of the Nerds ). The special features are as follows.

• New 4K digital restorations of the director’s cut and the original theatrical release, supervised and approved by director Paul Brickman and producer Jon Avnet, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary for the original theatrical release featuring Brickman, Avnet, and actor Tom Cruise
• New interviews with Avnet and casting director Nancy Klopper
• New conversation between editor Richard Chew and film historian Bobbie O’Steen
• The Dream Is Always the Same: The Story of “Risky Business,” a program featuring interviews with Brickman, Avnet, cast members, and others
• Screen tests with Cruise and actor Rebecca De Mornay
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Why Tom Cruise Won't Return as Jack Reacher

Risky Business joins several other films for Criterion's July releases. There's a 4K UHD restoration of the all-time classic, Le Samouraï , perhaps the coolest film ever made. Farewell, My Concubine is getting a release after its beautiful restoration in 2023. Black God, White Devil will get a release, finally bringing the brilliant Brazilian Western to the masses. Wim Wenders' astonishing 2023 film Perfect Days will get a home media release from Criterion, as well. Perhaps the best inclusion of them all, however, is Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid , Sam Peckinpah's underrated, melancholic Western masterpiece with a score from Bob Dylan. You can pre-order Risky Business below:

Visit The Criterion Collection

Tom Cruise's Best Tropic Thunder Scene Required One Person's Permission

"Tropic Thunder" features Tom Cruise, Hollywood's last great action star , in the surprisingly goofy role of studio exec Les Grossman. One of the best scenes in "Tropic Thunder" is in the film's closing moments, when Grossman is seen grooving and dancing to Ludacris' "Get Back" -- a hilarious and fitting track to wrap up such a chaotic, action-packed film. Ludacris himself approved the use of his 2004 track after director and co-writer Ben Stiller privately screened the film for him. "Not only did he seek approval, respectfully, he invited us to watch the movie before it came out and it was literally just me, him and my management and we watched the whole movie," Ludacris told Sean Evans while appearing on  "Hot Ones."  

"Just to see at the end for [Stiller] to ask me, 'Is it OK to clear this?' And I was like, 'Absolutely,'" the "Fast and Furious" star said, adding that he was thrilled to have received the opportunity to watch the film in advance as he was a fan of Stiller's work. "Tropic Thunder" went on to become box office gold in 2008, grossing over $191 million worldwide. Robert Downey Jr. also notably received a best supporting actor nod at the Oscars for starring in the comedy. 

Beyond box office glory and awards clout, "Tropic Thunder" stands out as one the most interesting films in Cruise's filmography, a rare comedic offering for the superstar who is most well-known for his action films and death-defying stunts. 

Read more: Improvised Lines That Changed Roles Forever

Tom Cruise Came Up With The Role Of Les Grossman

A parody of Hollywood bigwigs, Cruise's Les Grossman stands out as a sleazy, conniving, temperamental foil to the film's main roster, which includes Ben Stiller and Matthew McConaughey. To bring Grossman to life, Cruise wore a fatsuit and a bald cap, resulting in a jarring look. Known for having considerable creative input on the projects he works on, Cruise himself is responsible for Grossman's appearance in "Tropic Thunder." 

While speaking with Esquire , Stiller explained Cruise thought that a studio exec should serve as an antagonist in the film. "That part did not exist. [Cruise] said, 'Well, there's no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.' And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like," Stiller said, before adding that it was the actor's idea to have Grossman dance. "And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving," the director added. 

The character has proven to be so popular that Cruise is expected to return as Grossman in a brand new project , though concrete details haven't materialized. While we never got to see "Tropic Thunder 2,"  the flick is immortalized as one of the best comedies from the 2000s -- thanks in part to Cruise's wicked dance moves. 

Read the original article on Looper