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- As fans eagerly wait to see if Tom Cruise can wow audiences once again as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12), it's the perfect time to revisit the star's biggest hits.
One of the last of the classic movie stars, or maybe the last, Tom Cruise continues to soar to new heights. His newest movie, Top Gun: Maverick, debuted at the worldwide box office with the biggest opening weekend gross of his entire career.
Cruise's career has spanned over 40 years, and in that time he has starred in several movies that have become beloved cultural phenomena and classics in their own right. Which are Tom Cruise's best movies based on their IMDb ratings?
Updated on July 7, 2023, by Hannah Saab:
As fans eagerly wait to see if Tom Cruise can wow audiences once again as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (July 12), it's the perfect time to revisit the star's biggest hits.
10 'Collateral' (2004)
IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
Michael Mann knows how to make a crime thriller. He's proven it time and time again with the likes of movies like Thief and Heat, and Collateral is no different. The film follows Max (Jamie Foxx), a cab driver in Los Angeles who dreams of bigger things. One night, he picks up Vincent (Cruise), a hitman who forces Max to drive him around town and help him fulfill his contract.
The key to Tom Cruise's success is that he is undeniably likable. So, Cruise playing a villain as charmingly evil as Vincent is fascinating to watch. Even though he cold-heartedly kills people for a living, Cruise imbues Vincent with such charisma, you can't help but kinda like him in an antihero kind of way.
9 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999)
IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
The final film from master filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut is a wild swing of a movie for someone like Cruise, who is typically known for making movies that appeal to mainstream America. Eyes Wide Shut is an erotic thriller, and while his fans have always found Cruise to be sexy, it hasn't been a major component of his on-screen persona.
Cruise stars as Dr. William Harford, who has a bizarre night out in Manhattan prompted by a frank discussion with his wife, played by the legendary Nicole Kidman, about her unfulfilled sexual desires. The movie follows Harford as he searches for a sexual adventure of his own, but gets more than he bargained for when he attends a strange, high-class masquerade.
8 'Minority Report' (2002)
IMDb Rating: 7.6/10
Based on the short story by acclaimed science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick, Steven Spielberg's Minority Report paints a future as vibrant as the worlds Dick creates himself. The movie takes place in a world where the police use a special police force called the Precrime Unit to arrest people for crimes before they even commit them.
The film centers on Cruise as Precrime Chief John Anderton, who himself gets accused of killing someone in the near future. Anderton sets out on the run to clear his name and evade the same unit he's used to hunt down those in his position. It's a sci-fi film that tries to predict the future, and gets a lot of things right.
7 'A Few Good Men' (1992)
IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
From acclaimed writer Aaron Sorkin, A Few Good Men is one of the best courtroom dramas of all time. It has everything you could want in a movie: flashy, engaging performances from incredible actors; witty, smart writing; and a plot that draws you in with how it speaks to the real world.
The film stars Cruise as Lt. Daniel Kaffee, who is representing a group of Marines in a murder trial, where they claim they were just following the orders of Col. Jessep (Jack Nicholson). What follows is an exploration of the power of the military and the limits of masculinity. You've probably seen the iconic monologue given by Jessep at the end of the movie, but you need to make sure you watch the whole thing.
6 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' (2018)
IMDb Rating: 7.7/10
Continuing to grow in popularity and quality over the course of over 20 years, the Mission: Impossible movies have done the impossible. After almost two decades of films, the sixth film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, is among Cruise's best reviewed movies and opened to the biggest weekend of his career at the time.
Fallout picks up with Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and the IMF team after the events of Rogue Nation revealed an underground cabal, called the Syndicate, dedicated to world domination. Now, aware that threats could be around every corner, Ethan has to go undercover to stop the remnants of the Syndicate from gaining access to plutonium cores that they could use to build nuclear weapons. It's not only one of the best action movies of all time, but Fallout is proof that if anyone can do the impossible, it's Tom Cruise.
5 'The Last Samurai' (2003)
IMDb Rating: 7.8/10
The Last Samurai is a historical epic set in the world of 1870s Japan. It's a perspective that, though filtered through the eyes of a white American, isn't represented enough in Hollywood blockbusters – it's ultimately one of the best samurai movies of the 21st century.
Cruise plays Nathan Algren, a Captain in the United States military sent to Japan to train the newly created Imperial Japanese Army, but develops a connection to the Japanese culture after being captured by the rival Samurai army, led by Katsumoto, played by the great Ken Watanabe. The Last Samurai is a complex and thrilling film about finding meaning in a place far away from where you are from.
4 'Edge of Tomorrow' (2014)
IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
Edge of Tomorrow aka Live Die Repeat is an inventive and brilliant science fiction action movie that takes the time loop story device we've seen before and gives it the high stakes of an epic blockbuster.
The film takes place in the future where Europe has been taken over by an invading alien force. It stars Cruise as Cage, an American soldier who is being sent into the war zone, but soon realizes that he is trapped in a time loop, forced to repeat the same day over and over. He teams up with his fellow soldier Rita, the role that made Emily Blunt an action star, to find a way to break the cycle and defeat the aliens.
3 'Magnolia' (1999)
IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
Paul Thomas Anderson's third movie, Magnolia, is a masterpiece mosaic of a movie set in the San Fernando Valley. This three-hour epic follows several interrelated characters as they search for love and meaning in their lives. PTA is perhaps the best filmmaker working today, and Magnolia is arguably his best film.
The cast includes PTA regulars like Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly, but the breakout performance is Tom Cruise as Frank T.J. Mackey, a motivational speaker trying to sell a pickup artist program to lonely men. Cruise's memorable performance earned him his third, and as of now, most recent Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. Magnolia may seem like a daunting movie to watch, but, due in no small part to Cruise's captivating performance, it's an incredibly entertaining ride.
2 'Rain Man' (1988)
IMDb Rating: 8.0/10
Tom Cruise is typically associated with his action movies, like Mission: Impossible and Top Gun, but he is also really exceptional at performing in straight character dramas. Barry Levinson's Rain Man is one of his best, going on to win four Oscars including the coveted Best Picture.
In the film, Cruise plays Charlie Babbitt, a yuppie from Los Angeles who is shocked to find out that his father left an inheritance to a brother with autism named Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) he never knew existed. Charlie then takes Raymond in an effort to get the inheritance from him, but instead, the two develop a relationship over their shared family connection.
1 'Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)
IMDb Rating: 8.3/10
Top Gun: Maverick is the long-awaited sequel to one of the most iconic and beloved Tom Cruise movies. The original Top Gun follows Cruise as Maverick, a student at the most elite U.S. Navy flight school as he and his class compete to be the best. From the soundtrack, to the cast, to the iconic volleyball scene, every part of Top Gun has earned its place in Hollywood history.
The sequel picks up in the modern world with Maverick now teaching a new class of pilots how to fly in a world more complicated than ever. Maverick had the biggest opening of Cruise's career, and it received a five-minute standing ovation at Cannes. After the pandemic changed the way people watch movies, Top Gun: Maverick has reminded the world that there's really nothing like watching a Tom Cruise movie on the biggest screen possible.