To anyone who says there are no movie stars left, Tom Cruise is living proof that’s not true. For the better part of four decades, Cruise has been a box-office draw like few others.
Cruise has also starred in some truly terrific action movies over the years, and he’s got a new one out now.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is reportedly Cruise’s last film in the franchise that began in 1996. And since we’re talking about Cruise’s action movie track record, it was hard limiting the Mission: Impossible flicks to only three entries on our list.
Ahead of The Final Reckoning‘s opening weekend, the Watch With Us team has selected Tom Cruise’s 10 greatest action movies and ranked them from least to greatest.
Cruise shed his action hero persona for American Made, a semi-biographical look at the life of Barry Seal, a pilot turned drug smuggler in the early ’80s. Director Doug Liman and screenwriter Gary Spinelli turned Seal’s story into an action comedy, a genre that Cruise doesn’t have a lot of experience with.
Regardless of the occasional tonal whiplash in the film, Cruise still lights up the screen as Seal gets deeper and deeper into the cartel’s grasp with the implicit approval of the CIA. The rest of the U.S. government isn’t as forgiving about Seal’s drug running, and he can only avoid the consequences of his actions for so long.
American Made is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
9. ‘Oblivion’ (2013)Much like WALL-E, Jack Harper (Cruise) has to clean up after the end of the world in Oblivion. Decades prior, aliens attacked the Earth and destroyed the moon, leaving humans no choice but to unleash nuclear weapons against the invaders. Jack and his partner, Vika (Andrea Riseborough), remain on Earth as technicians for the last human ship in orbit.
Inexplicably, Jack is haunted by visions of a woman, Julia Rusakova (Olga Kurylenko), he doesn’t know. When Jack finally comes across Julia, it throws his whole life into question and makes him wonder what he’s really doing on Earth. This was Cruise’s first collaboration with director Joseph Kosinski, and their second film together was even bigger than this sci-fi epic.
Oblivion is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
8. ‘Collateral’ (2004)Cruise doesn’t usually play villains, but he embraced his dark side in director Michael Mann‘s stylish action thriller Collateral. The story revolves around a cab driver named Max Durocher (Jamie Foxx), who picks up a customer named Vincent (Cruise). When Vincent offers Max a large amount of money to ferry him around town, it seems like his lucky day.
However, Max learns pretty quickly that Vincent is a contract killer and he’s inadvertently helped him carry out his hits. Vincent also takes Max hostage to prevent him from escaping his grasp. When Vincent takes out his last target, Max may be next on his hit list unless he outmaneuvers this assassin.
Collateral is streaming on Paramount+.
If we explained what the title of Minority Report means in the context of the story, it would be too big of a spoiler. Cruise’s first collaboration with director Steven Spielberg was based upon a Philip K. Dick novella that introduced the concept of Precrime. In the future, murder is almost a thing of the past as a trio of precogs can see crimes before they occur. Almost all murder attempts are stopped by John Anderton (Cruise) and his Precrime team, and they’re about to take their program national.
Anderton’s world is turned upside down when the precogs predict that he will murder Leo Crow (Mike Binder), a man he’s never met. Suddenly, Anderton’s team is hunting him down, and he has to find a way to prove his innocence before he joins the rest of the would-be murderers in an extended state of suspended animation.
Minority Report is streaming on Paramount+.
6. ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ (2014)Cruise re-teamed with director Doug Liman in Edge of Tomorrow, an adaptation of the Japanese novel All You Need Is Kill. By the time Warner Bros. thought of calling it Live. Die. Repeat., it was already out on home video. This flick underperformed in theaters, but it’s so good that an audience has discovered it, and people are still clamoring for a sequel.
For this film, Cruise plays Major William Cage, a cowardly military reporter who mouthed off to the wrong superior officer. On the frontline of an alien invasion, Cage dies horribly alongside his fellow troops. But because he was infected by alien blood, Cage can now relive the same day endlessly. Sergeant Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) — the only other person to have had that power — takes Cage under her wing and makes him a great warrior. And no matter how skilled Cage becomes, it never seems to change the outcome in humanity’s favor.
Edge of Tomorrow is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
5. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)Cruise has been making Mission: Impossible movies since 1996, but Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was truly a turning point for the films. Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is usually prepared for almost any threat, but The Syndicate — the titular rogue nation — completely outmaneuvers him. In short order, Ethan is branded a traitor by the U.S. government, and CIA director Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) can’t wait to bring him down.
Luckily for Ethan, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) has his back. Ilsa’s a MI6 agent embedded deep undercover in The Syndicate, and she hates that group even more than Ethan does. Ilsa just doesn’t have a way out unless she joins forces with Ethan’s Impossible Mission Force to bring down The Syndicate from the inside.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation is streaming on Paramount+.
It was still relatively early in his career when Cruise headlined Top Gun, one of the seminal action movies of the ’80s. The fact that he’s still so prominent in action flicks speaks to Cruise’s staying power as a star. You may feel “the need for speed” as LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) and his wingman LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) enter Top Gun, the prestigious Naval program that teaches the elite pilots.
Maverick doesn’t take too long before he romances a Top Gun civilian instructor, Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood (Kelly McGillis), and finds a rival in LT Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer). Most of the action is in the air, and it’s incredible even by modern standards. This is the movie that put Cruise on the path to becoming an action icon.
Top Gun is streaming on Paramount+.
3. ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning’ (2023)The struggle against A.I. gets very personal for Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, even before he decides that the artificial being known as The Entity has to be destroyed. The Entity has already developed some level of sentience, and it has also recruited Ethan’s old adversary, Gabriel Martinelli (Esai Morales), to follow its agenda in the real world.
Ethan’s attempts to get the tools he needs to fight The Entity are thwarted by Grace (Hayley Atwell), a thief who has her own agenda. Even if Ethan can get on the same page with Grace, The Entity is still the one foe he can’t defeat by punching, shooting or kicking it. Since this film leads directly into Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, it doesn’t end as much as it stops. Regardless, it set another high-water mark for the franchise.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning is streaming on Paramount+.
2. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (2022)Maverick’s back in Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel that was 36 years in the making. For this film, Cruise re-teamed with director Joseph Kosinski and even his frequent Mission: Impossible director, Christopher McQuarrie, contributed to the script. When the story picks up, Maverick has successfully avoided getting promoted from Captain for decades because he loves flying too much.
When Maverick is called back to Top Gun, he’s given the reins to train a new generation of pilots for a deadly mission. Those recruits include Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late wingman, Goose. Rooster and Maverick are going to need to work out their issues because there’s a battle on the horizon, and Maverick doesn’t plan on sitting on the sidelines.
Top Gun: Maverick is streaming on Paramount+.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout isn’t just Tom Cruise’s best action movie; it’s the kind of movie all action flicks should aspire to be. This is a true sequel to Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, with the series’ first returning villain, Solomon Lane (Sean Harris). Fallout also introduces a new rival for Ethan who can match him punch for punch, but we’ll refrain from revealing his identity here.
This film and Dead Reckoning are pretty close in terms of quality. Fallout gets the edge for telling a complete story that continuously escalates the tension. It also gives each of Ethan’s team — Ilsa Faust (Ferguson), Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) and a surprise returning character — something important to pull off during the film’s grand finale.
If Cruise and company had stopped making Mission: Impossible films with this movie, then it would have been a fitting conclusion in its own right. Because they made a different choice, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning will get a chance to top it.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout is streaming on Paramount+.
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