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"Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, in a speck on one in a blink. That’s us, lost in space." — Vincent, Collateral
Though he's most widely known for his action movies — the Mission: Impossible movies, in particular — superstar actor Tom Cruise has also starred in a handful of sci-fi movies in his career, including War of the Worlds (2005), his highest grossing domestic release to date. After an eight-year hiatus from sci-fi, Cruise will return to the genre on April 19th in Oblivion, a post-apocalyptic epic from director Joseph Kosinski (Tron: Legacy) in which Cruise plays one of the last drone (read: clone) workers on an Earth that is all but abandoned following a devastating war with an alien race known as the Scavs.
In anticipation of Oblivion's imminent release, we thought this would be a great time to look back on Cruise's rather extensive filmography to determine, with your help, which movies contributed to making him the superstar he is today. Take off your mask (as our own Richard Roeper pointed out in his book, Cruise wears masks in many of his later films), quit jumping on the sofa and help us choose Cruise's best movies.
Rate the Top 10 Best Tom Cruise Movies >>
Posted 04.01.13 by BrentJS -
With the opening of Inglourious Basterds only a few days away, Quentin Tarantino fans will once again be able to get their fix of excessive violence and snappy dialogue, this time in the form of Nazi-hunting Jewish "scalp hunters." While Tarantino recently said that he plans to retire at 60 to become "a man of letters," as of right now he's still a filmmaker and one of his own best promoters.
In a recent interview, Tarantino said that "revenge" is the essential ingredient that earns Inglourious Basterds a special place among WWII movies.
Revenge isn't usually an element of World War II films — there may be a hint of it, but it's not usually what they are about. I think that's what makes this movie rather unique.
It's the fun of the Jews getting revenge against Nazis — I've seen the other story ad nauseum.
Tarantino defended his extensive use of subtitles and dismissed other movies (Tom Cruise's WWII action movie, Valkyrie, comes to mind) in which foreign characters speak English.
I think the other style — with everybody either speaking English, or Germans speaking English with a German accent — those are the things that made World War II movies for the last couple of generations old-fashioned.
Often criticized in the past for the amount of excessive violence in his movies, Tarantino refused to apologize for it and said that he likes to "squirm" in movies.
I will never feel squeamish about my own movies, because I know them and I know how we achieved the effects.
As for the scalping — those guys are already dead, it's about taking mementoes.
When asked about working with Brad Pitt, who stars in the movie as Lt. Aldo Raine, the Nazi-hunter recruiter, Tarantino said, "It was kind of a love affair." Tarantino explained that Pitt remained in character there entire time he was on set, so it was like being around one of his own creations all day.
Posted 08.18.09 by BrentJS -
X-Men trilogy actor Shawn Ashmore has already stated that he thinks a X-Men 4 is impossible, however with the success of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a renewed interest in the X-Men franchise has surfaced, particularly from X-Men / X2: X-Men United director Bryan Singer, who left X-Men: The Last Stand to direct Superman Returns but told Britain's Total Film Magazine that he regrets the decision:
It's weird for me to watch [X-Men: The Last Stand], because I'm so close to the universe. I'm eternally intertwined with X-Men now. What takes an audience four hours to watch -- the first two movies -- took six years of my life. So, to not be part of it ... It's a shame.
Singer went on to say that he may be interested in another prequel, namely X-Men Origins: Magneto:
Possibly. The only thing that concerns me about Magneto is that if the prequel were to follow the track I used in X-Men, which is Magneto's history in the concentration camp, then I've lived in that world. Apt Pupil, X-Men and now Valkyrie ... I've lived in that Nazi universe for quite a while. I just might need to take a little breakbefore I do something like that.
If Magneto is a little too much, there's always X-Men 4. Ashmore wouldn't complain. Neither would Wolverine producer Lauren Shuler Donner who has mentioned that she would love for Singer to return and direct almost any X-Men movie.
Posted 06.02.09 by Ryan -
"...has visual splendor galore, but is a cold work lacking in the requisite tension and suspense."
-- Todd McCarthy, Variety
"...a coolly efficient, entertaining and straightforward tale about the last of 15 known assassination attempts against Adolf Hitler."
-- Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter
Posted 12.12.08 by reelz -
In Valkyrie, Tom Cruise plays history's most courageous Nazi, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, the man behind the plot to kill Hitler. (The movie is based on a true story.) As the December 26 release date nears, everyone wants to know: Does Cruise ever break out one of his famous million-watt grins in the movie, or find opportunity to do a charismatic little dance of some sort? Or does he just look dynamically stern and purposeful throughout the entire flick? New clues available tonight, as Yahoo! Movies premieres the movie's official final trailer at 8 PM PT.
Posted 10.30.08 by reelz -
Tom Cruise's publicist has furiously denied internet rumors that the Valkyrie star recently fell to his death in New Zealand. "This is completely not true. Tom is not in New Zealand nor has he been there recently. This is erroneous and unreliable internet garbage," said Cruise spokesman Jeffrey Raymond. Curiously, Raymond's statement only appears to deny that Cruise was in New Zealand, but leaves the whole death issue wide open.
Were Cruise to have actually perished, world leaders would have no doubt moved swiftly to activate one of his clones, which the three-time Oscar nominee is rumored to have stationed on each of the seven continents. Like the embattled insurance conglomerate AIG, Cruise is considered "too big to fail," as the ensuing fallout would seriously threaten global stability.
(None of that is true, of course, but a ridiculous internet rumor deserves an equally ridiculous response.)
Posted 10.16.08 by reelz -
The final poster for Tom Cruise's World War II drama about the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler, Valkyrie, has been released today. Accidents on set, political road blocks and an ever-changing release date make us wonder if this seemingly ill-fated production can deliver, but the poster is definitely pretty cool. We're keeping our fingers crossed.
Valkyrie is set for a solid December 26, 2008 release.
Posted 09.26.08 by reelz -
The release date for Valkyrie, the $110 million Tom Cruise flick about a German military officer's attempt to assassinate Hitler, is being moved up from mid-February to a day after Christmas. Why? According to our partners at Variety, MGM "sees it as a holiday pic." Here's hoping New Line counters with Elf 2: Buddy Kills Stalin!
Posted 08.14.08 by reelz -
While talking to German actor Thomas Kretschmann about his recent turn opposite James McAvoy in this weekend's mega-thriller, Wanted, we made sure to get some dish on his next big-profile movie, Tom Cruise's German WWII drama, Valkyrie.
In Valkyrie, Kretschmann plays Major Otto Remer. "He brought the uprising down, almost singlehandedly" Kretschmann explains. "I'm basically Tom Cruise's adversary in the film."
Valkyrie, in which Cruise plays the real-life Nazi officer who tried to assassinate Hitler, has been plagued by troubles from the start -- from accidents to the German government denying access to shoot locations to repeated release date changes. "I understand that the Germans were nervous about somebody like a big Hollywood star playing their super idol," Kretschmann tells us.
"But after all, I think they convinced the Germans that our intentions are not to do a big Hollywood spectacle and use German history for our needs, to please the audience in whatever way. There were serious efforts to tell a story in the way it was and also give a little bit of a lesson, so I think the Germans figured that out and they're really pleased with it."
And as for his personal experience on the shoot, and in particular his controversial co-star Tom Cruise, Kretschmann has nothing but praise. "I never had a head of a studio and a producer and a partner who was treating me so nicely."
Posted 06.25.08 by reelz -
Tom Cruise's return to the silver screen (from the gossip shows and supermarket rags) will have to wait.
Variety reports that Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, in which Cruise portrays a German officer leading a real-life plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, has been pushed back from a release date of October 3, 2008 to February 13. 2009.
Posted 04.07.08 by reelz