![]() The film throws Cruise and co-star Henry Cavill out of an airplane, closes on an insane dangling helicopter chase scene, and contains one of the best street chases ever put to film, with Cruise driving, motorbiking, and, at last, running pell-mell on a breakneck tour of Paris. It would be tough for Cruise, reunited with director Christiopher McQuarrie, to top Ghost Protocol's Burj Khalifa climb, but Fallout makes up for in sheer ridiculous quantity what it lacks in mind-boggling height. The most recent installment in the franchise sets Cruise's Ethan Hunt against the Apostles, a spinoff terrorist faction of those he and his team fought against in the previous films, who are dead-set on obtaining a bunch of plutonium and doing some terrible things with it. It would be so easy for the modern Mission: Impossible movies to become stunt showcases for Cruise's pathological commitment to realism at the expense of a good story, but, luckily for us and cinema itself, that hasn't happened yet. By the end, you don't know whether to howl with laughter or sigh with relief. In the opening sequence, Bird stages a prison escape like a musical number, letting Ethan Hunt crack skulls to the tune of Dean Martin's "Ain't That a Kick in the Head." Yes, there's still plenty of spy intrigue, including some amusing twists involving Jeremy Renner's younger agent, but the movie really works best as a series of escalating gags, like a Jackass movie with a more convoluted plot. Bird and Cruise understand that seeing the hero screw up is often more exciting than watching him succeed. For all its white-knuckle suspense and unbearable tension, the most memorable moments of Ghost Protocol are comedic: Cruise failing to make a jump from one part of a skyscraper to another, struggling to get a mask made in time, and hurling a car off a parking structure like it's a boomerang. Abrams-directed third entry, the Mission: Impossible series got a jolt of adrenaline via Incredibles filmmaker Brad Bird, who re-emphasized the teamwork aspect of the series while pushing the stunt work to new levels of live-action cartoonery. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)Īfter the J.J. It may be a controversial film, with its portrayal of an able-bodied actor playing a disabled character, but there's certainly an earnestness to Cruise and Hoffman's chemistry that makes this a tearjerker to remember. As a condescending, desperate wheeler-dealer who comes around to caring for his brother and ultimately learns Las Vegas schemes aren't what's best for him, Cruise plays his cards delicately throughout Charlie's emotional journey. While Dustin Hoffman's attentive performance as Raymond, an autistic savant, may be the standout, the buddy road movie is carried just as much by Cruise's smarmy yet thoughtful role as Ray's estranged brother Charlie, who re-enters Raymond's life when he's left with their father's estate. Barry Levinson's Rain Man was one of those dramas, sweeping the 1989 Academy Awards with four major wins but no nomination for Cruise. Paramount PicturesĬruise really seemed to want an Oscar in the '80s, starring in awards-caliber dramas before turning into a full-blown franchise star. With Top Gun: Maverick-the long, long-awaited sequel to the 1986 classic-barrel-rolling into theaters May 27, we're looking back at Tom Cruise's best performances. And what better way to get butts into theaters than one more fly-by as one of the Navy's finest fighter pilots? But despite everything that makes him an unrelatable freak, at the end of the day he's just a guy who wants to get back to the movies. (Yes, the man flies his own aircraft carriers and leaps off his own cliffs-if there's a life-threatening stunt, he's going to do it his damn self.) At the same time, we've also probably seen too much of his life through his many high-profile relationships and breakups, the infamous couch-jumping, and of course the Scientology of it all. From his early-'80s debut in Endless Love, Taps, and The Outsiders, he quickly became one of Hollywood's most bankable blockbuster stars while finding time to swerve into unhinged weirdo territory (e.g., Magnolia) and chew on meatier roles (e.g., Born on the Fourth of July) to prove his acting chops beyond the archetypical action-movie protagonist with a death wish. A man who's spent 40-plus years (and counting) at the tippy-top of the A-list, Cruise has endured a lifetime of stratospheric fame. When people say celebrities are just like us, they're definitely not talking about Tom Cruise.
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