Top 10 Best Tom Cruise Movies Rated And Ranked

TOM CRUISE is a global cultural icon who has made an immeasurable impact on cinema by creating some of the most memorable characters of all time. Having achieved extraordinary success as an actor, producer and philanthropist in a career spanning over three decades, Cruise is a three-time Oscar® nominee and three-time Golden Globe Award® winner whose films have earned over $10 billion in worldwide box office—an incomparable accomplishment. Eighteen of Cruise’s films have grossed over $100 million domestically, and a record 23 have made more than $200 million globally. His latest film, Mission: Impossible – Fallout has made over $775 million worldwide becoming Cruise’s most successful film to date.

Cruise has starred in numerous legendary films such as Top Gun, Jerry Maguire, Risky Business, Minority Report, Interview with the Vampire, A Few Good Men, The Firm, Rain Man, Collateral, The Last Samurai, Edge of Tomorrow, The Color of Money and the Mission: Impossible series, among many others. Combined, the Mission: Impossible franchise has brought in over $3.5 billion since Cruise conceived the idea for a film adaptation of the classic television series and produced the first in 1996. He is currently in production on the long-awaited sequel to Top Gun.

TOM CRUISE MOVIES

Knight and Day is a seriously underrated one with Cruise and Cameron Diaz. Last Samurai was quite good, but did they make the top 10?

Grab your aviators and head for the runway. The summer opening of Top Gun: Maverick may have been pushed back, but we can still ride into the danger zone this spring.

The 59-year-old superstar has made more than 40 movies, the best of the batch are American classics. Welcome to Tom Cruise’s top 10 movies of all time, ranked. Because it’s time to bring back that lovin’ feelin’.

10. Top Gun (1986)

At the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, cocky, aviator shades-wearing Maverick (Cruise) tries to outfly a cooler egomaniac pilot, the Iceman (Val Kilmer). The aerial combat rocks, and Tom Skerritt is tops as their tough but just instructor. Rated 6.9/10

9. A Few Good Men (1992)

In one of history’s great acting duels, Cruise, as a callow military defense attorney trying to save two recruits accused of murder, faces formidable officer Jack Nicholson, who bellows, “You can’t handle the truth!” Aaron Sorkin wrote this dazzling courtroom drama on cocktail napkins at his bartender job, and it made him famous enough to create The West Wing and The Social Network. Rating 7.7/10

8. The Color of Money (1986)

Another duel, between Cruise as a young pool shark and Paul Newman as Fast Eddie Felson on a comeback. Newman got an Oscar nomination as young Fast Eddie in 1961’s must-see The Hustler and won the Oscar for this — partly because of Cruise’s star-power support. 7/10 rating

7. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

After six years as a megastar, Cruise got his first Oscar nomination in Oliver Stone’s adaptation of Ron Kovic’s memoir about the Vietnam War and his campaign against it. Once again, Cruise’s fiery genius helped win an Oscar — this time for director Stone. 7.2/10 rated

6. Collateral (2004)

In a beautifully moody Michael Mann thriller set in East L.A. after dark, when coyotes and furtive people wander the streets, Jamie Foxx is a cabdriver who picks up Cruise, the nattiest assassin you ever saw. His fare is hundreds of thousands, and all he has to do is help kill five trial witnesses — and survive. 7.5/10

5. Minority Report (2002)

In a grownup role for a forever-young star, Cruise plays a high-tech cop who busts perps before they commit the crime. When director Steven Spielberg made this paranoid futuristic tale by sci-fi master Philip K. Dick (Blade Runner), he said, “I’m in my mid-50s — I’m no longer afraid of the dark.” Cruise doesn’t crack his famous smile, and as a result you take him dead seriously in a dark, smart thriller. 7.7/10

4. Mission: Impossible — Fallout (2018)

All the M:I flicks are fine, but the sixth’s the best, partly because Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is a guy in his 50s — after stunts, he hurts like we do (Cruise actually broke his ankle on camera). Ethan hunts plutonium terrorists, races through Paris and London, skydives (warning another diver not to open the chute late or “the last thing that goes through your mind will be your knees”), and pilots a chopper spinning out of control inches from snowy Asian mountaintops. What a ride! What a buildup of tension and sublime release! 7.7/10

3. Rain Man (1988)

Cruise plays a selfish California cad forced to go on a road trip with a sweet, idiot-savant older brother he never knew (Dustin Hoffman), to try to cash in on their father’s inheritance and use the older brother’s odd gift to win big in Vegas. 8/10.

2. Risky Business (1983)

In a brilliant, generation-defining youth comedy that Roger Ebert put on a par with The Graduate, Cruise is as good as Dustin Hoffman was in the hit that made him a star. Sliding on socks into his first iconic scene in his underpants while belting out “Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Cruise instantly hit the A-list and never left. 6.8/10

1. Jerry Maguire (1996)

Cruise’s greatest achievement is his rebelliously idealistic sports agent Jerry, who quits his firm, champions an underdog client (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and courts his accountant colleague (Renee Zellweger) — he had her at “Hello.” The deeply authentic romantic comedy (that’s also slick as a pop tune) got Gooding an Oscar, plus nominations for best actor (Cruise), best picture and best screenplay (for writer-director Cameron Crowe, who wrote it as a critique of his movie-biz experience). 7.3/10

TOM CRUISE FILMS

• Top Gun: Maverick (2021)
• Mission: Impossible Fallout (2018)
• American Made (2017)
• The Mummy (2017)
• Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
• Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015)
• Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
• Oblivion (2013)
• Jack Reacher (2012)
• Rock of Ages (2012)
• Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
• Knight and Day (2010)
• Valkyrie (2008)
• Tropic Thunder (2008)
• Lions for Lambs (2007)
• Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)
• War of the Worlds (2005)
• Collateral (2004)
• The Last Samurai (2003)
• Minority Report (2002)
• Vanilla Sky (2002)
• Mission: Impossible 2 (2001)

• Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Jerry Maguire (1996)
• Mission: Impossible (1996)
• Interview with the Vampire (1994)
• The Firm (1993)
• A Few Good Men (1992)
• Far and Away (1992)
• Days of Thunder (1990)
• Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
• Rain Man (1988)
• Cocktail (1988)
• The Color of Money (1986)
• Top Gun (1986)
• Legend (1985)
• Risky Business (1983)
• All the Right Moves (1983)
• The Outsiders (1983)
• Losin’ It (1983)
• Taps (1981)
• Endless Love (1981)

A consummate filmmaker involved in all aspects of production, Cruise has proven his versatility with the films and roles he chooses. He has made 43 films, contributing in a producing role on many of them, and collaborated with a remarkable list of celebrated film directors including Francis Ford Coppola, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Oliver Stone, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Neil Jordan, Brian De Palma, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ed Zwick, Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, J.J. Abrams, Robert Redford, Brad Bird, Doug Liman and Christopher McQuarrie.

Cruise received Academy Award® nominations for Best Actor for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire. He was a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Magnolia and won Golden Globes (Best Actor) for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire, in addition to a Best Supporting Actor prize for Magnolia. He also received Golden Globe nominations for his roles in Risky Business, A Few Good Men and The Last Samurai. Cruise has earned acting nominations and awards from BAFTA, the Screen Actors Guild, the Chicago Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review.

Cruise’s previous few films include the critically acclaimed American Made, The Mummy, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, Oblivion and the suspense thriller Jack Reacher, which earned $218 million worldwide. Prior to that, he made a memorable appearance in Ben Stiller’s comedy smash Tropic Thunder, as the foul-mouthed Hollywood movie mogul Les Grossman. This performance, based on a character Cruise created, earned him praise from critics and audiences as well as his seventh Golden Globe nomination.

Cruise has been honored with tributes ranging from Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Award to the John Huston Award from the Artists Rights Foundation and the American Cinematheque Award for Distinguished Achievement in Film. In addition to his artistic contributions, Cruise has used his professional success as a vehicle for positive change, becoming an international advocate, activist and philanthropist in the fields of health, education and human rights. He has been honored by the Mentor LA organization for his work on behalf of the children of Los Angeles and around the world. In 2011 Cruise received the Simon Wiesenthal Humanitarian Award and the following year he received the Entertainment Icon Award from the Friars Club for his outstanding accomplishments in the entertainment industry and in the humanities. He is the fourth person to receive this honor after Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. Empire magazine awarded Cruise its Legend of Our Lifetime Award in 2014. Most recently, Cruise was the first actor to receive The Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneers Foundation’s Pioneer of the Year Award in 2018.