Tom Cruise's 11 greatest action movies

The year 1983 was a big one for Cruise. That year he starred in “The Outsiders,” “All the Right Moves,” and “Risky Business.” In 1986, though, where Cruise emerged as an action star. Also, a full-blown movie star. “Top Gun” is one of the seminal ‘80s action movies. Front and center was Cruise as Maverick, the hotshot fighter pilot. People recognized his face, but “Top Gun” made Cruise a name.

Cruise didn’t immediately go the action-star route, though. In 1986 he was also in “The Color of Money,” and then he starred in “Rain Man” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” The man wanted an Oscar. He watched his costars Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman win Best Actor Oscars instead. Thus, in 1990, he went back to the action realm. “Days of Thunder” is an auto racing movie, but it has a lot of the look and feel of an action movie. Plus, Cruise’s character is named Cole Trickle. That’s an action-movie name if we’ve ever heard one.

The two futures for Cruise were represented in 1996. On the one hand, there was “Jerry Maguire.” This was another Oscar player where, again, he watched his costar win an Oscar. The same year, Cruise played Ethan Hunt in a “Mission: Impossible” movie for the first time. He didn’t win an Oscar. He did birth an action franchise. Two paths were in front of him, and Cruise went down the path that led to us making a list of his best action movies.

In 1999, Cruise took two big swings at winning an Oscar. He was in both “Eyes Wide Shut” and “Magnolia.” Neither got him a win, and both are cult favorites at best. Even “Mission: Impossible 2” is definitively the worst movie in that franchise. “Minority Report” helped get Cruise back on track. Not only was it a blockbuster, it was sort of “elevated action.” That happens when a Philip K. Dick story is adapted by Steven Spielberg. For many, “Minority Report” is one of the top action movies of the 2000s.

We felt comfortable including multiple “Mission: Impossible” movies on this list. One, they don’t all deserve to be recognized. You’ll note that “Ghost Protocol” is the fourth movie in the franchise. Beyond that, this is a franchise that has evolved and grown and reflected the action landscape as time has gone on. This was the first “Mission: Impossible” movie where the idea of “Tom Cruise does crazy stunts” was codified. Also, they wanted to have Cruise pass the torch, in a way, to Jeremy Renner. That didn’t happen. Cruise kept going, and his action bona fides continued to grow.

We will note now that we skipped 2008’s “Tropic Thunder.” It’s a good action-comedy, but Cruise’s role is tertiary and not involved with the action at all. We’re mentioning that now because, well, there’s less to say about “Jack Reacher” than other movies. If we were ranking this list, “Jack Reacher” would be last. It’s a solid vigilante film, though, even if Cruise is famously not as physically imposing as the character in the book (or Alan Ritchson in the TV show).

People have been talking up “Edge of Tomorrow” for a decade now, so it’s no longer an underrated, overlooked action movie. The concept is clever, and Cruise gets to kind of play against type. He plays a smarmy P.R. officer in a future military who gets himself sent to the frontline of a war against aliens due to his misbehavior. An unaccomplished soldier, Cruise finds himself in a time loop, wherein he dies and wakes up the same morning of the day he died the first time. Yes, it’s basically a war movie take on “Groundhog Day.”

“Rogue Nation” is when Cruise fully took over the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. He was front and center, with Renner pushed to the sidelines. Also, this was the first time Cruise’s buddy Christopher McQuarrie directed, which has become the norm. All that said, it was the best movie of the franchise at the time. For the fifth movie in a franchise to earn that designation is quite impressive.

Cruise took a couple of action swings in 2017. Neither movie was the hit a studio wants when Cruise is your star. Those movies are “American Made” and “The Mummy.” Now, “The Mummy,” is worth skipping. “American Made” is worth watching, though. Directed by action aficionado Doug Liman, the period piece has the look of a movie from the 1970s/1980s in a way that is impressive. It works better than in, say, “Kong: Skull Island.” Cruise plays Barry Seal, a real person who was a pilot, then a drug smuggler, then an informant for the DEA. So, you know, he had a lot of stuff going on.

“Dead Reckoning,” previously “Dead Reckoning Part One” is a fine movie, but it didn’t make the cut because it’s basically half a movie. That leaves “Fallout” as the last “Mission: Impossible” on this list as we wait until “Final Reckoning” can be fully digested someday down the line. “Fallout” is super entertaining which is, again, remarkable for a franchise so deep in its run. The addition of Henry Cavill into the mix certainly helped. Plus, his mustache messed up “Justice League,” which is delightful.

We come full circle. “Top Gun” made Cruise a burgeoning action star. “Maverick” made him the defining action star of his generation. It’s also a testament to Cruise’s dedication to the theatrical experience. He and director Joseph Kosinski pushed for Paramount to wait out the pandemic, to let audiences, full audiences, see “Maverick” in theaters. They sat on it for years. When it was released it made almost $1.5 billion, second only to “Avatar: Way of Water” for 2022. Tom Cruise: Action Star brought people back to theaters.