Four decades of career behind him, more than forty films and one certainty: Tom Cruise is not an actor. He’s not even an interpreter , which comes to mean the same thing but it always seems like he has a more artistic edge. Neither were Paul Newman and Marilyn Monroe. And it is that, like them, Tom Cruise is a star.
Except for the mid-2000s with the Scientology controversy in full swing and the couch shtick on The Oprah Winfrey Show, his light has been far from out. He is possibly one of the last Hollywood stars to understand the movie business, its responsibility for the money that is at stake -and incidentally, all the jobs that the industry generates, as he demonstrated in the monumental row during the filming of the seventh installment of the Ethan Hunt saga- and also maintains a strong commitment to what the experience of the medium itself entails, the capacity to entertain and excite.
In the last decade , in addition to not having succumbed to the siren songs of Marvel or DC and having made good friends with Christopher McQuarrie, the New Yorker has been able to adapt to a more physical type of role and star in a series of action films and science fiction of a similar cut in which he can assume a large part of the creative control, carry out the risk scenes himself without discussion and, incidentally, succeed at the box office. A little more difficult still that he will know when in the next few years he will shoot part of the new film of him in space with Doug Liman.
Meanwhile, his service sheet on planet Earth lists his work alongside some of the best directors of all time. Namely: Francis Ford Coppola, Scorsese, Kubrick, Mann, De Palma, Spielberg, Pollack, the Scott brothers (and not exactly those who reform houses) and Paul Thomas Anderson, among others.
His latest hit? Palme d’Or of Honor in Cannes , a Festival to which he returned thirty years after presenting ‘A Far Away Horizon’ with his then wife Nicole Kidman, to a huge ovation from the audience. And, in relation to the above, Cruise took advantage of his stay in France to affirm with the mentality of one who defends and enjoys his trade against all odds that launching on platforms is not for him , that he will never do it because films must be enjoyed in their natural environment , that is, in the cinema.
In a true Mission Impossible, we rank the 15 best Tom Cruise movies from worst to best.
Second collaboration between Doug Liman and Tom Cruise after the remarkable ‘Edge of Tomorrow’, in which the director would make use of Cruise’s natural charisma to introduce us to the true story of the pilot Barry Seal, a scoundrel who in the 80s transported huge shipments of cocaine from Colombia to the United States.
At a time when the Netflix series ‘Narcos’ taught us the crudeness of drug trafficking through the eyes of Pablo Escobar, ‘Barry Seal’ turned the “silver or lead” thing around to bring us a more refreshing and brazen vision. of a terrible story , yes, but impregnated with a rogue tone that makes it irresistible.
If anyone could try to take down the Fuhrer, it had to be him. In 2008, Bryan Singer would put superhero movies on hold to present an exciting work in which a convincing Cruise would get into the shoes of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led the attempt to overthrow the Nazi regime and, incidentally, , change the course of history.
Possessing a planning typical of robbery and robbery movies, the suspense in ‘Valkiria’ is narrated with a remarkable pulse capable of transmitting that suffocating race against time until its predictable and desperate end.
‘Top Gun (Air Idols)’ (1986)
A simple film turned into an icon that, under an unrepeatable soundtrack, definitively launched Cruise to stardom. High-flying Testosterone in the company of Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, Tom Skerritt and Michael Ironside in which a reckless pilot named Maverick (Cruise) is selected by the United States Army to be part of the Top Gun Academy, the elite of naval aviation.
If you’ve ever thought that the mythical Ray-Ban aviator model was too expensive, you can blame this Tony Scott movie in which they became popular.
According to the first reviews, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ promises to live up to it.
‘The Last Samurai’ (2003)
Tom Cruise had to learn kendo and other disciplines for this project shot by Edward Zwick, a somewhat impersonal director who, however, is more inspired than usual here.
If we ignore the hackneyed resource in which someone alien to a culture and its customs ends up converting to the cause, ‘The last samurai’ is reminiscent of those projects made with a special taste for craftsmanship in which the care of each one of its objects prevails. technical aspects above the digital ones, and that include an excellent setting .
A film for which, as Cruise himself would admit to Frames, he was looking for “something new, different, and that is that there was never a Hollywood production about the time of the samurai.”
‘The Color of Money’ (1986)
A very young Cruise would give the type in front of the legend of the blue gaze (with the permission of Derek Zoolander). A belated sequel to the masterful ‘The Hustler’ in which Paul Newman would reprise the role of Eddie Felson at the hands of Martin Scorsese , winning the Oscar for Best Actor.
‘The color of money’ is a nostalgic exercise in style , a commissioned work at the insistence of Newman himself in which, however, the director of ‘Taxi Driver’ would invite us to reflect on the inexorable passage of time, ambition and the rendition of the hand of a tape that serves as a perfect complement to the original from 1961.
‘A Few Good Men’ (1992)
‘Some Good Men’ is not “another trial” (military, in this case), it is a solid judicial thriller in which Aaron Sorkin’s script , which adapts his own play, provides agility and excellent rhythm to a footage that features a formidable cast headed by Cruise himself, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland, as well as Jack Nicholson in a transcendental, but more secondary role.
For the memory, the unforgettable final climax that confronts Kaffee (Cruise) and Jessep (Nicholson) and that makes us remember how much we miss good old Jack, whom we haven’t seen on screen since 2010.
‘Mission Impossible’ (saga)
The quintessential action saga in which Cruise gives life to the legendary agent Ethan Hunt. Unlike most blockbusters , his case is a rare bird. Except for the stumble of the tacky second installment directed by John Woo, ‘Mission Impossible’ is a franchise that, as its number of sequels increases, grows hand in hand in quality and spectacularity. Far from showing signs of exhaustion, he has found in Christopher McQuarrie the ideal director to weave a cohesive story from ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’.
‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (2014)
In 2014, Doug Liman would team up with the actor for the first time to deliver one of the best and most inventive science fiction movies of recent years.
This adaptation of the manga ‘All You Need is Kill’ contained the first of its surprises: Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) is the perfect heroine of this story that also introduces us to Commander William Cage (Tom Cruise), a coward who has never fought .
‘At the edge of tomorrow’ is first-rate entertainment in which both Cruise and Blunt show a strong chemistry, and all this wrapped in the always succulent time loop that has given us classics such as the priceless ‘Stuck in Time’.
We are still waiting for its long-awaited sequel to be officially confirmed.
A moving drama with a fun development in the style of a road movie between two completely opposite brothers -Cruise, as the selfish and cunning Charlie; Hoffman, the innocent and harmless Raymond-and separated by a family inheritance that will end up embarking on a journey of mutual and personal discovery.
Without a doubt, what elevates ‘Rain Man’ to the category of classic is the extraordinary performance of Dustin Hoffman (who won the Oscar for Best Actor and the Golden Globe), who here offers a master class on how to understand the his character’s autism spectrum disorder in a subtle and accurate way, away from all stridency.
‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)
35 later, Tom Cruise would play Maverick again in the sequel to ‘Top Gun’, in a sequel up to the task that not only surpasses its predecessor, but also serves to feed his legacy and make it a better movie thanks to that combination of action, epic, emotion and respect for the work of Tony Scott , thanks to Joseph Kosinski and Cruise himself. Even Tarantino has surrendered to the quality of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’. On December 30 it arrives on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1989)
Second part of Oliver Stone’s Vietnam trilogy. If in ‘Platoon’ we lived the cruelty of war without contemplation in the middle of the battlefield, ‘ Born on July 4′ presents us with the physical and psychological consequences suffered by the soldiers who returned from the front and who, in reality, will never return from the.
Tom Cruise would give one of the best performances of his career as Ron Kovic, a former US Marine confined to a wheelchair at age 22 after fighting in Vietnam. Curiously, the Oscar for Best Actor would go to Daniel Day-Lewis in 1990 for ‘My Left Foot’ , whose character was also confined to a wheelchair. Sometimes you don’t have to go to Southeast Asia to suffer a painful defeat.
‘Minority Report’ (2002)
First (and best) collaboration between Spielberg and Cruise , who would adapt the story written by Philip K. Dick, one of the great masters of science fiction thanks to which we have been able to enjoy wonders like ‘Blade Runner’ and ‘Total Recall’.
Told with a devilish narrative pulse, ‘Minority Report’ is a dark examination of paranoia, trust and the oppression of freedom in a constantly watched future that confronts John Anderton (Tom Cruise) with the dilemma of his life : What if you are accused of a crime that has not yet happened?
Twenty years after its premiere, we still feel true terror in the sequence of the eye-spying spiders.
‘Interview with the Vampire’ (1994)
Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s book of the same title, a success since its publication in the United States in 1976.
A film conceived in a time when vampire movies were simply vampire movies. Hypnotic, unpredictable, poetic and with a Cruise who embroiders the role of Lestat every time his whitish complexion makes an appearance.
We are used to always seeing Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Bram Stoker’s Dracula’ at the top of any ranking, but this excellent portrait of what the life of a vampire would be like has little or nothing to envy. ‘Interview with the Vampire’ is one of the greats.
Only Michael Mann is capable of portraying the city of Los Angeles as he does, with an exquisite technical invoice. In ‘Collateral’, the director of ‘Heat’ gives us an absorbing, high-tension thriller with an unusual Cruise playing Vincent, an impeccable murderer, in one of his best and most enjoyable roles . He is accompanied by an extraordinary Jamie Foxx, Mark Ruffalo, Jada Pinkett Smith and, surprise, Javier Bardem.
Seeing Cruise turned into a cold-suited killing machine as he breaks legs and breaks necks on the dance floor to the beat of Paul Oakenfold is an indescribable sensation. Ready Steady Go!
‘Eyes Wide Shut’ (1999)
Kubrick ‘s last gift and the finishing touch to a pristine filmography. Having overcome the initial morbidity of seeing Cruise share a flat and bed with Nicole Kidman, ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ is a (fascinating) film that grows with each viewing and with which the genuine filmmaker built a complex puzzle in which, just like Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), if one enters minimally in the proposal, it is lost.
Through a disturbing symbolism, sometimes formal, other times implicit, ‘ Eyes Wide Shut’ talks about infidelity, desire, fear, social class, money and the oneiric to, where the rainbow ends, find so Just one word: Fidelio.
One of the great films of the last century that, among its many qualities, has Tom Cruise’s best performance to date in a role that marked a record change in his career.
His third and for the moment last Oscar nomination after ‘Born on the Fourth of July’ and ‘Jerry Maguire’. Paul Thomas Anderson’s ensemble film about apparently unconnected stories allows us to enjoy a Cruise with a captivating magnetism , who eats up the screen in each of his appearances in which he is able to contain the fury, the rage, the fragility and the pain of his character , Frank TJ Mackey, under the grossest quackery. Sublime.
