Tom Cruise has been a movie star for over 40 years. Since his breakout role in “Risky Business” (1983) and then a blockbuster turn in “Top Gun” (1986), he has been a fixture of the Hollywood firmament, a name so big that it’s still recognized worldwide. Such stardom doesn’t come easily, and his relentless intensity and energy both onscreen and off make him a memorable figure who has repeatedly reinvented his onscreen persona while preserving what audiences love about him. He’s worked with legendary directors and scene partners, and yet as a performer himself, people aren’t always sure what to make of him, especially in the past decade, when he’s leaned into elaborate stunt work for his action films.
Though his latest GQ profile offers a rare look at Cruise, he remains something of an enigma, choosing to represent himself as the hardest-working man in movies and an ambassador for the theatrical experience. But that carefully curated public persona can obscure Cruise’s singular charisma as well as the range to impress an audience—if he’s willing to show his vulnerabilities. The following are his best performances because they strip away the Cruise who always has to win—the Ethan Hunt character of the “Mission: Impossible” movies who’s so noble he won’t risk a single innocent life—and find something more relatable even in the most outlandish roles.
9. Les Grossman, “Tropic Thunder” (2008)
While it’s now largely remembered as a surprising comic performance, Cruise needed this role at the time. His public persona had taken a beating because of the Oprah couch thing and his comments about psychiatry, and his previous movie, “Lions for Lambs” (2007), had been a flop. But as someone who likes to go very fast on motorcycles, Cruise knew you have to turn into the skid, so he jumped into Ben Stiller’s lampoon of actors by playing foul-mouthed executive Les Grossman. Even though it’s a small supporting character, it represents how Cruise wisely knew to make fun of himself, but also how he can’t do anything halfway. That means putting on plenty of makeup to the point he was borderline unrecognizable and then dancing to Ludacris’ “Get Back” over the credits.
8. Maverick, “Top Gun” (1986)
A Cruise character needs to win, and Maverick in Tony Scott’s “Top Gun” sets that template. While previous roles leaned into the insecurity of youth, Maverick is pure confidence to the point where his recklessness is both dangerous and oddly admirable. In some ways, Cruise has always been chasing this particular portrait of the handsome leading man who succeeds through a combination of charisma, guts, and know-how. Guys like Cole Trickle from “Days of Thunder” (1990) or Roy Miller from “Knight and Day” (2010) are variations on this theme. But once you have that movie-star persona, the trick is to stretch it while still making it indelible. When you see him as Maverick for the first time, you have no question why Cruise became one of the biggest stars in the world for the next four decades.
7. Joel, “Risky Business” (1983)
Cruise’s breakout role in Paul Brickman’s crime-comedy remains one of his best. Everyone remembers him dancing around in his underwear, but they shouldn’t forget how soulful and real Joel can be. He’s a boy aching to be a man who then slams into that reality in a way that’s both comic and terrifying. It’s a film steeped in the greed-is-good ethos of the Reagan era, but its original ending questions whether that can bring young men like Joel any peace or if they’ve found themselves in a new gilded cage of arrested development. Plenty of actors had the youthful looks that Joel required, but it’s the innocence Cruise brings that makes us care about the character.
6. Lt. Daniel Kaffee, “A Few Good Men” (1992)
While Jack Nicholson looms large over this movie with his famous “You can’t handle the truth!” monologue, Cruise is a perfect match for Aaron Sorkin’s dialogue. As the immature JAG officer Lt. Daniel Kaffee, he’s charming enough to make the character endearing even at his most selfish, and Cruise absolutely nails the way a Sorkin character banters. It’s also an example of how Cruise has continually gone toe-to-toe with acting giants of the previous era—see also Gene Hackman in “The Firm” (1993) and Paul Newman in “The Color of Money” (1986). Not to dominate them, but to show he could hold his own against the best performers in cinema. Lesser actors could get blown off the screen by Nicholson, but Cruise rises to the occasion.
5. Vincent, “Collateral” (2004)
Cruise has rarely played an outright villain, but he relishes the role of Vincent in Michael Mann’s thriller “Collateral.” Cruise’s intensity and methodical preparation are perfectly suited to the movie’s determined hit man, who rides along with everyman cabbie Max (Jamie Foxx) to eliminate targets around Los Angeles. While Vincent is a cold-hearted murderer, he’s not a sadist, and Cruise imbues the killer with just enough humanity that we can understand why Max is at least curious about this dark passenger who knows what he wants and will do anything to get it.
4. Lestat, “Interview with the Vampire” (1994)
Yes, Lestat is also a bad guy, but Neil Jordan’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” doesn’t treat him that way. He’s everything that comes with being drunk on power, and you can see Cruise having an absolute ball as the bloodsucking fiend. He has a particularly good foil in Brad Pitt’s Louis, a sad sack who feels the curse of eternity and the loss of his family. More than perhaps any other role in his filmography, Cruise really goes for it, and yet he doesn’t lose sight of the work. He learned to play piano for the movie and never makes Lestat a total cartoon, choosing to play him more as an overgrown child who doesn’t want to go to bed.
3. Frank T.J. Mackey, “Magnolia” (1999)
Cruise doesn’t usually do supporting roles, especially as part of a large ensemble, but he delivered one of his greatest performances as Frank T.J. Mackey in Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling “Magnolia.” A pick-up artist guru whose misogyny is clear from his first scene, the character at times plays like a dark mirror of a Cruise hero. He’s a champion to all the losers at his seminar and hits them with the same intensity you’d see from Maverick. But Cruise doesn’t relish Mackey’s bravado, instead leaning into the sweaty, desperate boy who can’t shake his bone-deep resentment of his father. When he finally breaks down at the end, it doesn’t feel like playing for an Oscar nomination (even though he got one) but the emotional catharsis the best actors know how to deliver.
2. Ron Kovic, “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989)
Physicality has been a large part of Cruise’s career, even when it means breaking his ankle in the middle of a stunt. Oliver Stone’s anti-war drama simultaneously removes and enhances that physicality as Cruise takes on the role of real activist Ron Kovic, who was paralyzed while fighting in Vietnam. It’s a movie that shows Cruise not playing a war hero on the battlefield, but a hero in the mold of someone totally broken by life’s hardships and rising into something new. So many Cruise heroes are slick guys who must learn and grow, even as recently as 2014’s “Edge of Tomorrow,” but Kovic for much of the movie is an open wound that doesn’t know how to heal. Cruise shows the depth of the character’s pain as he emerges with a better understanding of himself and his country.
1. Jerry Maguire, “Jerry Maguire” (1996)
Jerry Maguire is a loser, and that’s why it provides the best space for Cruise to stretch outside his persona. The slick, confident huckster of the film’s opening gets stripped away to find a man who accidentally grows a conscience. Most of Cameron Crowe’s romantic sports dramedy finds Jerry lost and looking for some kind of victory in a world where he’s never learned how to be a husband, father, or friend. All the flash typically associated with a Cruise character gets transferred onto Cuba Gooding Jr.’s Rod Tidwell, allowing Cruise to explore emotional levels that are rarely seen in his career. A typical Cruise character needs to be the victor, but Jerry Maguire is his best performance because it forces one of the most successful movie stars of all time to lose.
