11 Tom Cruise Performances That Define His Career
The versatile actor has given his all in many movies, but these are our favorites.
'Jerry Maguire'
If Tom Cruise is starring in a movie, there's a very high chance I'm going to see it in theaters. He's one of our last movie stars, one of the guys you know who puts a ton of thought, love, and care into the roles he chooses.
That's why it was so hard for me to rank all the performances we've seen from him over the years. The guy keeps giving us what we want, and I'm so excited for the next phase of his career.
Let's dive in.
1. Risky Business (1983)
- Directed by: Paul Brickman
- Written by: Paul Brickman
Young Tom Cruise slid onto the screen in his undies and proved he had "it." In this movie, he played Joel Goodsen, a "good kid" from the Chicago suburbs who takes a walk on the wild side.
The film and the performance are a delicate balancing act of youthful charisma, comedy, and palpable anxiety of shedding the veneer of safety and entering a dangerous world.
Sure, we remember the star being born on screen, but the quiet moments of his powerful acting as his world starts to fall apart are what made this a classic.
2. Top Gun (1986)
- Directed by: Tony Scott
- Written by: Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr.
3. Rain Man (1988)
- Directed by: Barry Levinson
- Written by: Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow
I go back to this movie a lot. I think it just has some of the best acting in it all around. Everyone is remarkable. Dustin Hoffman won a well-deserved Oscar, but Cruise’s work as Charlie Babbitt is the engine that drives the entire narrative.
He's selfish, antagonizing, and his parents may deserve all the angst he delivers as you come to realize Cruise is playing a very hurt person.
His character arc is carried by this emotionally stunted person growing a very big heart by the end. It’s a deeply unselfish performance that allows Hoffman to shine.
4. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
- Directed by: Oliver Stone
- Written by: Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic
It would be amazing to see Cruise go back to these kinds of big, sweeping dramas again. In this movie, he throws his looks aside and plays a man broken by Vietnam and his return home to squalor.
His transformation from a gung-ho patriot to a paralyzed, disillusioned anti-war activist is a staggering feat of physical and emotional commitment.
Cruise used his icon status to talk about something important and delivered one of them ost committed performances.
5. A Few Good Men (1992)
- Directed by: Rob Reiner
- Written by: Aaron Sorkin
I feel like this was the movie that made people take Cruise seriously. He was still a pretty face, but at this moment, he knew he could hold his own opposite some of the best actors of the generation.
He played the cocky Navy lawyer Daniel Kaffee, who never loses cases. But he is assigned one that he may not survive. Rob Reiner’s film and Aaron Sorkin’s script force him to evolve and see the humanity in his profession, and want the truth. His courtroom showdown with Jack Nicholson is legendary, but the real craft is in watching him slowly dismantled by the moral weight of the case and the people he can free.
6. Mission: Impossible (1996)
- Directed by: Brian De Palma
- Written by: David Koepp and Robert Towne
This film marks the birth of Ethan Hunt and, just as importantly, the birth of Cruise the producer. This was his passion project. And he hired Brian De Palma to create a paranoid, Hitchcockian thriller that deftly handles one twist after another.
Cruise's performance as a disavowed Hunt is one of paranoia and quiet intensity. This is like an action movie meets 70s thriller, and it launched one of the best franchises of all time. The iconic Langley vault set piece is a masterclass. And it all works because we're rooting for Cruise.
7. Jerry Maguire (1996)
- Directed by: Cameron Crowe
- Written by: Cameron Crowe
Cameron Crowe's film is entirely about a man realizing his movie-star charm is hollow. So why not cast the most charming movie star and let him cook?
This movie is basically deconstructing an actor at the height of his fame, and Cruise goes along with it to reveal such a human heart and soul. We feel like we really know him in this movie and care about him.
8. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
- Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
- Written by: Stanley Kubrick and Frederic Raphael
Cruise in the hands of Kubrick delivered so much gold. He delivered one of his most vulnerable and unsettling performances as a man trying to find meaning in his life and his marriage.
Cruise plays Dr. Bill Harford, whose confident exterior is peeled back layer by layer to reveal a man consumed by jealousy, insecurity, and paranoia. He wants to possess a woman, wants to control his wife, and wants to be wanted by the elites. Once he sees the life he doesn't have, he cowers at home.
9. Magnolia (1999)
- Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson
This is another dream collaboration between actor and director. You get such a visceral and demanding performance, even as just a supporting character in this sprawling movie.
Cruise plays the misogynistic self-help guru Frank T.J. Mackey. He's a man with pervasive mommy and daddy issues. Who has told a lie his whole life that's unravelling right before his eyes.
In order to do this, Cruise subverts what we think about him and breaks down on camera to show us who his character can become.
10. Collateral (2004)
- Directed by: Michael Mann
- Written by: Stuart Beattie
Tom Cruise as a villain is such a good idea. I cannot believe it hasn't happened before or since. Michael Mann pulls something so dark and so visceral out of him.
He's a menacing force coming after Foxx. And he takes pragmatic hitman Vincent so seriously. You think he might actually win in the end. He's not a monster, but a guy who has thought it all through and only sees one way out, killing people.
11. Tropic Thunder (2008)
- Directed by: Ben Stiller
- Written by: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen
This is what should have won Tom Cruise an Oscar. He disappears into the role. It's legitimately one of the greatest comedic reveals of all time.
Cruise disappears completely under prosthetics to play the foul-mouthed, Diet Coke-chugging studio executive Les Grossman. You can tell that he's modeled after lots of people Cruise has worked with, and he pulls no punches.
We've never seen Cruise this uninhibited, and he thrives at it.
Summing It All Up
Tom Cruise is one of the greatest actors of all time. The guy is a chameleon who, I think, gets a ton of adulation for his stunt work, but also carries a range and depth that very few people have enough talent to pull off.
These are my favorites of his performances, but I'd love to know what you love to watch him in.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
