Tom Cruise’s 10 Best Movies

Looking at the best Tom Cruise films outside the Mission: Impossible franchise that proves just how versatile the superstar can be.

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Digger.

 

Okay, it is an almost universally agreeable fact that Tom Cruise has been due an acting Oscar for quite some time. We are not just saying this because he routinely risks his life to thrill us, acting like a self-anointed Maximus where everyMission: Impossiblestunt is essentially him screaming, ‘Are you not entertained?’

Beyond those death-defying stunts, Tom is a genuinely fantastic actor, even if he is terrible at convincing people to join Scientology.

Over the decades, he has delivered some truly incredible performances, seamlessly shifting across genres and excelling in highly varying shades. The Oscars have come calling a few times, but those nominations never quite turned into a golden statue.

Now, fans expect the status quo to finally change with Mexican Director Alejandro G Iñárritu’s film Digger, featuring Cruise, which is due to release in India on October 2. Iñárritu, the visionary behind acclaimed dramas like Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful and Birdman, famously guided Leonardo DiCaprio to his long-awaited Oscar win in The Revenant.

Will Iñárritu be similarly lucky for Cruise?

Digger is a satirical black comedy, with Cruise playing an ageing, self-preserving, delusional oil tycoon who sets off to save the world from a disaster he is personally responsible for. Kind of like most Marvel heroes, right?

Apart from Cruise, the film features a stacked cast including Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Jesse Plemons.

So while we wait to see if Digger ranks among his best, Sreeju Sudhakaran activates his fanboy mode to list out his favourite Tom Cruise movies that do not carry the Mission: Impossible brand name (a franchise he enjoys, but doesn’t want to dominate this list).

Born On The Fourth Of July (1989)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Born On The Fourth Of July.

Oliver Stone’s biographical drama Born On The Fourth Of July is the complete antithesis of Top Gun, the very movie that catapulted Cruise to global stardom.

While Top Gun was frequently accused of being US military propaganda, Stone’s film carries a strong anti-war message with Cruise playing the real-life paraplegic former army vet Ron Kovic, who evolved into a vocal anti-war activist.

Making a movie that vehemently argues against needless wars is always challenging, regardless of the country it is set in. Yet, Oliver Stone crafted a gut-wrenching drama that forced the world to finally sit up and recognise what an amazing dramatic actor Cruise could be.

This role earned Cruise his first-ever Best Actor Oscar nomination. Ironically, he lost to Daniel Day-Lewis, who played another real-life paraplegic character in My Left Foot.

A Few Good Men (1992)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men.

‘You can’t handle the truth!’

With that legendary line (and the blistering monologue that followed), Jack Nicholson delivered one of his finest performances and instantly turned Colonel Jessop into one of cinema’s greatest written villains.

But that should not take away from how exceptionally good Cruise is as the young army lawyer at the receiving end of that verbal assault. A Few Good Men is another Cruise film that sharply dismantles the pedestal the US military stands on, without becoming overly critical of the core system.

Driven by solid performances, powerful courtroom showdowns, and a highly intriguing mystery hook, the late Rob Reiner’s masterpiece easily remains one of the star’s most rewatchable movies of all time.

Samar Khan’s Bollywood movie Shaurya, starring Kay Kay Menon and Rahul Bose, was heavily inspired by A Few Good Men.

Interview With The Vampire (1994)

IMAGE: Kirsten Dunst and Tom Cruise in Interview With The Vampire.

Give him an enticing grey-shaded role and Cruise would, well, cruise through it as witnessed by us with his performance in this dark vampire drama.

Interestingly, author Anne Rice, on whose novel Interview With The Vampire was based on, was initially furious when Cruise was cast as the vampire Lestat. However, once she saw his mesmerising performance onscreen, she happily admitted her apprehensions were wrong.

Cruise enigmatically captures the dangerously magnetic allure of Lestat while his tenacious, tantalisingly homoerotic bond with Brad Pitt’s Louis propels the film through its darkest, bloodiest, and most disturbing turns.

Also watch out for that very provocative performance from a young Kirsten Dunst as the immortal child-vampire who becomes more bloodlusty than the bloodsuckers who turned her.

Jerry Maguire (1996)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger in Jerry Maguire.

‘Show me the money!’ is exactly what we all want to yell at HR whenever we receive a job offer, though obvious decorum prevents it. It is more convenient, safer and easier to mutter ‘You complete me’ or ‘You had me at hello’ to a loved one when the right moment arises.

Cameron Crowe’s drama is packed with such truly iconic lines, but even beyond that, it is an immensely enjoyable underdog story. It follows a sports agent who suddenly decides his industry should stop treating clients like commodities and start treating them like human beings deserving of genuine care.

What he quickly realises is that such grand morals look great on a LinkedIn wall (which obviously did not exist then) but will absolutely get you fired in the real world. The film is anchored by incredible performances from Cruise, Renée Zellweger, and an Oscar-winning Cuba Gooding Jr.

Sure, Jerry Maguire leans hard into its protagonist’s newly-acquired idealism and turns his struggles into a winning story with a heartwarming love story to boot. That idealistic nature also makes the movie a tad bit unrealistic.

But this is cinema we are talking about. If we cannot find good-hearted escapism here, where else should we look?

Magnolia (1999)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Magnolia.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia is a thoroughly bizarre film, and that sheer bizarreness is exactly what makes it so utterly compelling. The astonishing ensemble cast only elevates it further.

The movie begins with a series of morbidly weird, coincidence-driven deaths and culminates with an actual downpour of frogs. In between, it explores interconnected vignettes of broken, deeply lonely, and emotionally damaged individuals desperately seeking companionship, redemption, and escape.

The entire cast brings their absolute A-game, yet Cruise effortlessly stands out as Frank T J Mackey, a deplorable, misogynistic motivational guru who exploits male insecurity to build a cult following.

Beneath that hyper-masculine bravado, however, he is just a pained, lost boy desperately seeking closure from his estranged, dying father.

Minority Report (2002)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise collaborated on two incredible sci-fi thrillers, but if forced to pick between Minority Report and War Of The Worlds, I am firmly choosing the former.

Set in a distant future, Cruise plays an elite officer in a specialised police department that arrests culprits before they can even commit their crimes. He is forced to question the ethics of punishing someone for a crime they have technically not committed yet when he goes on the run for a future murder he is supposedly destined to carry out.

Minority Report is a fantastic thriller that does not just rely on its cool sci-fi aesthetic. It backs it up with a riveting storyline, relentlessly thrilling action, and a thoughtful commentary on humanity’s increasing dependency on technology and how easily it can be manipulated.

Despite how much we have loved and praised films like this, we clearly have not learned a damn thing from them in the real world!

Collateral (2004)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Collateral.

Cruise can be the dashing hero, the lovable goof, and, as it turns out, a chilling killer with absolutely zero moral qualms.

In Michael Mann’s neo-noir thriller, he plays Vincent, an enigmatic, silver-haired hitman who rationalises his brutal actions while systematically hunting down targets across a single night. After all, it is just his job.

While a genuinely fine thriller in its own right, Collateral benefits hugely from Cruise’s smooth-talking yet intensely malevolent performance.

Bollywood even remade Collateral as The Killer, featuring the late Irrfan Khan in Cruise’s role and Emraan Hashmi as Jamie Foxx’s character, a mild-mannered cab driver who becomes the killer’s reluctant accomplice and later, foe.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey in Tropic Thunder.

I genuinely debated whether to include this very entertaining black comedy, given that Cruise only has an extended cameo. But excluding it would mean ignoring one of the absolute greatest comedic characters of the 21st century.

Buried under a fatsuit, a bald cap, and incredibly profane language, Cruise is completely unrecognisable as Les Grossman, the powerful, filthy-mouthed studio boss who unleashes the choicest of words on anyone, be it a struggling director or a dangerous gang of guerrilla terrorists.

A razor-sharp satire of the Hollywood studio system and massive star tantrums, Tropic Thunder boasts an incredible ensemble including Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr (who earned an Oscar nomination), Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Nick Nolte.

Yet, Cruise easily towers over them all despite his limited screen time, never mind the fact that if you had seen Tropic Thunder in 2008, you could easily watch the entire film without ever realising he was in it!

Edge Of Tomorrow (2014)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Edge Of Tomorrow.

Sometimes, the box office works in strange ways. Otherwise, it is incredibly hard to explain why a slick sci-fi thriller starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, featuring violent aliens, mechanical combat suits, and a time-loop twist, performed so lukewarmly despite good reviews.

Regardless, it is wonderful to see fans eventually championing Doug Liman’s film and even demanding to see a sequel. It does something enjoyably inventive with the tired humans-versus-aliens trope and gives Cruise a refreshing character arc.

He subverts his usual heroic mould in such type of movies, playing a cowardly, non-combatant PR army officer thrown onto the frontlines against his wishes. Who is instantly killed, only to discover his day resets every single time he dies.

With a clever screenplay and Emily Blunt’s strong supporting performance, Edge Of Tomorrow is a riveting watch and easily one of the best action movies of the past decade.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

IMAGE: Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick.

Thanks to my deep nostalgic love for the Top Gun Anthem (I was born in the 80s, after all), I was tempted to include the original Top Gun. But then I took a step back and realised its sleeker, technically superior legacy sequel absolutely deserved the spot.

Top Gun: Maverick arrived when the global box office was still desperately trying to crawl out of the pandemic slump.

Cruise’s relentless drive to make every single aerial stunt feel completely authentic ensured massive crowds thronged theatres just to watch him take to the skies as realistically as cinematically possible.

I will not pretend the nostalgia-exploiting screenplay ranks even among Cruise’s 15 best-written films. But as a thrillingly executed, edge-of-your-seat popcorn entertainer (especially during that breathless third act), Maverick fires on all cylinders. It even manages to wring a few genuine tears during that heartbreaking Val Kilmer cameo.

Also, it feels nice to recall how the movie provided that noticeable blockbuster platform to some promising future stars like Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro and Lewis Pullman.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff