Top 10 Tom Cruise Movies

With his sparkling smile, boyish good looks, and general image as an unparalleled nut job, Tom Cruise has long reigned at the box office and fueled tabloid headlines. This list of top 10 Tom Cruise movies should be of interest to anyone not familiar with his overall body of work, especially some of the films made prior to the new millennium. These are just my opinions, of course, so feel free to voice your own thoughts on Tom Cruise films in our comments section.

And for those of you looking to rent Tom Cruise movies, I’d suggest Netflix. They carry all the films on this list, as well as hundreds of thousands of others. Multiple pricing plans are offered to meet every budget, and movies are delivered right to your door via the USPS. We do get a small commission if you sign up, but the money will go towards paying off any lawsuits levied against us by Cruise and the litigious Church of Scientology.

Before we get to the list of top 10 Tom Cruise movies, here are some interesting facts about the actor that you might not know:

• Born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, he dropped his last name partly due to the poor relationship with his father.
• Intending to be a Catholic priest, a young Cruise attended a Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati.
• The first cousin of actor William Mapother (best known as Ethan Rom on Lost).
• Films starring Cruise have grossed over $6 billion worldwide.
• Along with Paula Wagner, Cruise owns 30 percent of United Artists.
• Introduced to Scientology by his first wife, Mimi Rogers.
• After publicly criticizing actress Brooke Shields for her use of Paxil to combat post-partum depression, Cruise apologized face-to-face. She was later a guest at his marriage to Katie Holmes.
• The phrase “jumping the couch” was invented following Cruise’s appearance on Oprah. It means a movie that irrevocably tarnishes a public image.
• Has engaged in numerous lawsuits against people claiming he was secretly gay.
• During the 2000s, nine of the ten films Cruise starred in made over $100 million.
• His father was an electrical engineer and his mother was employed as a special education teacher.

Now that you known a little more about the man, let’s look at my list of the top 10 Tom Cruise movies:

10. Vanilla Sky (2001) – Director Cameron Crowe combines romance and sci-fi into a surreal concoction about one man’s fall from grace and descent into the depths of his own subconscious. One of the more challenging Tom Cruise movies for the viewer, but fine performances from Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz make it worth the effort. Based on a Spanish film (Open Your Eyes) that also starred Cruz.

9. Collateral (2004) – Jamie Foxx plays Max Durocher, an L.A. cabbie with big dreams. Cruise plays Vincent, a hitman who specializes in destroying dreams. During their 11 hours together, the two men form a strange bond while Vincent forces Max to drive him around town for five contract killings. Foxx received an Oscar nomination for his role, but Cruise more than holds his own as a man bereft of compassion. Of all the Tom Cruise movies you’ll see, this is the actor at his most chilling.

8. Mission: Impossible (1996) – Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is a top agent for a branch of the CIA. But when a mission goes wrong and his team members are killed, Hunt finds himself framed as a mole within the organization. On a quest to clear his name and catch the real guilty party, he recruits a group of disavowed secret agents, including Ving Rhames and Jean Reno. Highlights include an action sequence on top of a train speeding through the French countryside, and the infiltration of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Cruise was a fan of the TV series as a boy, and his enthusiasm for the project paid off in spades. Also starring Jon Voight, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave, Emilio Estevez, and Emmanuelle Beart.

7. Risky Business (1983) – Cruise shot to stardom as a suburban high school student who cuts loose while his parents are out of town. This, of course, leads to a romance with a prostitute (Rebecca De Mornay) and plenty of dancing around in his underwear to the strains of Bob Seger. This good-natured coming-of-age tale co-stars Joe Pantoliano and Bronson Pinchot. Be sure to check out the 25th Anniversary Release, as it also includes the more ambiguous ending not shown in theaters.

6. The Firm (1993) – Adapted from the John Grisham novel, this legal thriller stars Cruise as Mitch McDeere, an idealistic young attorney who joins a law firm only to find that there’s a distinctively sinister side to the organization. With the FBI pressuring him to gather information, Mitch and his young wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) must engage in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game. Wilford Brimley and Tobin Bell play security/hitmen for the film, and the rest of the impressive cast is rounded out by Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, Hal Holbrook, Ed Harris, and David Strathairn. Directed by Sydney Pollack, The Firm is packed with double-crosses, murder, and plenty of opportunities for Cruise to demonstrate a wide range of emotions.

5. Minority Report (2002) – In the year 2054, murder has virtually been eliminated in Washington, D.C. thanks to an experimental program utilizing three powerful psychics who can see someone’s actions before they even commit them. Cruise stars as John Anderton, the drug-addicted head of this radical Precrime division. But when Anderton is suddenly implicated in a future murder, he must escape his would-be captors and clear his name. Cruise once again shows off his action movie chops, and the fight between he and Colin Farrell is especially enjoyable. Steven Spielberg helms the picture, giving it the usual dash of magic we’ve come to expect. Also starring Samantha Morton and Max von Sydow.

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4. A Few Good Men (1992) – This Rob Reiner courtroom drama stars Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin Pollak in an adaptation of the play by Aaron Sorkin. When two Marines serving at Guantanamo Bay are put on trial for the murder of a fellow soldier, the less-than-experienced Daniel Kaffee (Cruise) must prepare their defense and attempt to sift through layer after layer of secrets and lies. The climactic scene between Kaffee and Nicholson’s hardass Colonel Nathan Jessep remains a classic moment in cinema.

3. Born on the Fourth of July (1989) – Oliver Stone and Tom Cruise combined for this powerful biopic about paralyzed Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic. Cruise received his first Academy Award nomination in the Best Actor category by portraying a patriotic young man who returns from Southeast Asia disillusioned and without the use of his legs. Whether he’s shooting a fellow American by mistake or storming the 1972 Republican National Convention, Cruise manages to show Kovic in all his flawed glory–just another human being trying to eke out an existence in a confusing (and often violent) world.

2. Rain Man (1988) – Cruise teams up with Dustin Hoffman in this road movie about two long-lost brothers on their way to Los Angeles. Hoffman won an Oscar for his portrayal of the autistic Raymond Babbitt, but Cruise also delivers a skilled performance as the self-centered younger brother who learns a series of painful (and valuable) lessons along the way. Barry Levinson directs, and the smart, touching script comes courtesy of Ronald Bass and Barry Morrow.

1. The Color of Money (1986) – Director Martin Scorsese knows his craft like few others, and this no doubt helped Cruise in his portrayal of a small-time pool hustler who rises to the big leagues with the help of a washed-up former pro. Paul Newman is the real star of the show, imbuing his character, Fast Eddie Felson, with a lifetime of regret and pain. There’s the usual Scorsese attention to music (“Werewolves of London” still manages to get a reaction), and the complex relationships between the characters make this the finest of Tom Cruise movies.

That concludes this list of top 10 Tom Cruise movies. For more articles related to actors and their movie roles, be sure to check out the following:

• Great Angelina Jolie Movie Characters
• Top 10 Sylvester Stallone Movies
• Brad Pitt Movies – Films of Brad Pitt
• Top Brad Pitt Movie Characters
• 10 Best Will Smith Movie Characters

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