Though Tom Cruise has settled into the role of “action movie star” over the last decade
or so, his wider filmography is a great patchwork of more complex characters
Picking the “best” Cruise movies isn’t easy: He’s done comedy, rom-coms, thrillers,
horror, historical epics, and of course, action.
Whether you’re gearing up for the Top Gun sequel or the next slate of Mission: Impossible
films, these are the best Tom Cruise movies to watch, and where to stream them.
Eyes Wide Shut was once panned as an out-of-touch male fantasy, but it reads a little differently
20 years later.
While Stanley Kubrik’s last film is often reduced to its orgy scene, its exploration
of the fragile male ego is much more interesting.
Rent it: Amazon for $3.99, FandangoNow for $2.99, and Vudu for $2.99
Interview With the Vampire is the 1994 adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel, where Cruise plays
a charming, immortal vampire who kills with gusto.
His counterpart, played by Brad Pitt, sits down for an interview with a modern journalist.
And while he recounts the blood feasts and erotic adventures, the film also conveys the
eternal sadness of being a vampire.
Rice reportedly slammed Cruise’s casting initially, but she apologized to Cruise after
seeing the film.
Magnolia is an ensemble movie about intersecting lives.
It’s a collection of fantastic performances and an impressive feat of storytelling about
generational pain and trauma.
Ben Stiller’s Hollywood spoof Tropic Thunder tracks a film crew making a war movie and
inadvertently ending up in unfriendly territory.
Naturally, hilarity ensues.
The film features the beginning of Robert Downey, Jr. 's comeback, and Cruise playing
the ridiculous studio exec Less Grossman.
Collateral is a brilliant study of how to draw out tension between male leads.
Jamie Foxx plays an aimless taxi driver, whose car is commandeered by a hardened hitman,
played by Cruise.
The two become locked in a psychological battle.
Jerry Maguire is a quintessential ‘90s movie that still holds up nearly 25 years later.
The story of a sports agent coming to terms with the ethics of his industry turns into
a romantic comedy with something for everyone.
Renee Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr. give outstanding performances alongside Cruise’s
titular character.
Edge of Tomorrow is a big-budget, action, sci-fi film that eventually found a fanbase
and critical consensus.
As a result, it is getting a sequel.
Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt battle an alien army, though his character can’t really
die.
He’s stuck in a time loop where he lives the same day over and over.
Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report still doesn’t feel outdated, despite being almost
20 years old.
This is the movie where Cruise gets more comfortable as an action star — a role that defined
a majority of his output in the aughts.
It’s set in 2054, when crime can be stopped before it happens, but what makes it feel
less like science fiction is the way surveillance tech is depicted.
Is Top Gun just a woo-filled action blockbuster from a bygone era?
The world is still engaged with this 1986 film about guys and their big jets… so much
so, that it’s getting a sequel.
But the original is a subtext-laden curiosity of mid-’80s cinema that every Tom Cruise
fan needs to see.
It’s hard not to love the Mission: Impossible franchise, and it’s easy to make the argument
that -- aside from No. 2 -- each movie in the series has gotten better.
Much like with the Terminator films, we hold the original nearest and dearest to our hearts.
Tom Cruise’s breakout role in Risky Business inspired Halloween costumes for years.
A well-to-do teenager ends up housing a sex worker while his parents are out of town.
But this isn’t another horny ‘80s movie:
Risky Business looks at the pitfalls of capitalism and social climbing.
Bonus points for the score by Tangerine Dream.
Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July casts Cruise as a paralyzed, wheelchair-bound
Vietnam vet.
The real-life veteran the character is based on went on to become an anti-war activist,
but the film shows the broken path back from war for so many veterans.
Cruise’s performance swivels from rage to anger to acceptance and back.
Aaron Sorkin’s first screenplay, A Few Good Men, is a courtroom drama that explores the
death of a Marine at Guantanamo Bay, which was inspired by real events.
The heated exchange between Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson is the movie’s dramatic high
point, but it also features stellar performances from Demi Moore, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kevin
Bacon.
Has Rain Man aged well?
Its depiction of an autistic savant (played by Dustin Hoffman) whose estranged brother
(played by Cruise) kidnaps him from an institution, was based on research.
But 30 years later, ideas about people on the autism spectrum have changed.
At its core, Rain Man is a dramedy about two strangers trying to figure each other out
and adapt.
Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of the classic novel The Outsiders is a stark examination
of male friendship and troubled childhoods in small-town Oklahoma.
Come for the manslaughter, and stay for the ensemble cast of up-and-coming ‘80s hunks:
Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Emilio Estevez,
and Rob Lowe.
A year after A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise played another lawyer, but this one comes from a
John Grisham novel.
Mitch McDeere is a young, sought-after attorney who’s enticed by a Memphis firm that turns
out to be very corrupt.
Those are our picks for the best Tom Cruise movies you can stream or rent right now, but
if we missed one of your favorites, be sure to shout it out in the comments section below.
If you’re looking for more great movies and shows to binge this weekend, check out
our other streaming guides linked here for the best films, anime, and documentaries you
can watch right now.
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