He’s too small, he is part of a very creepy and morally suspect religious organisation, and his teeth are far too white. He is also the last of a once flourishing Hollywood tradition: the A list movie star. With his latest release becoming his second highest worldwide grossing film ever, he’s the all-American action hero the World needs, but not the one it deserves. Here is a tribute to the only consistent fixture of mainstream cinema in the last 30 years, Tom Cruise.
Time and time again in recent years, writers of film have commented on the loss of a former staple of the Hollywood film: the star. It is no longer enough to have a well-known face in the marketing; bad reviews will put paid to any chance of success unless the budget is large enough to deliver a spectacle that is practically the star of the movie in and of itself (see 2012), while the only other time a star is sure to be the lead selling point of a movie is when their movie is planning to be considered for awards. As Robert Downey Jr’s The Judge has proven, that is no guarantee of success either. Through all the cinematic trends of the last 30 years however, one thing has remained almost entirely certain: a film with Tom Cruise in a prominent role will almost certainly be profitable.
Love him or hate him (and the fact that many choose the latter due to his beliefs while his films remain successful, are further evidence of how instrumental he can be in a film’s success) it cannot be denied that he is a consummate professional, and no one trick pony – while his films are primarily firmly based in the action genre, it would be hard to say that his characters from Collateral, Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher and The Last Samurai are the same. His films use the fact that he is in them to a degree – namely for the fact that he does his own stunts, whether they be harnessed to the side of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, or clinging to the side of an airborne cargo plane, or indeed holding his breath for up to six whole minutes. In short, if you see Tom Cruise doing it on the screen, there is a high chance that he actually did it on set. Not to mention his impeccable sprinting technique.
Furthermore, his choices are rarely considered outright terrible films. His average Rottentomatoes score is 68%, and his average Metacritic score (which is more refined) is 60. Call this luck, and it certainly applies at the beginning of his career, but it gave him enough leeway and choice to pick the projects that he would enjoy that would be high concept enough to be successful, and he had to be charming and charismatic enough in The Outsiders and Risky Business for them to make him a star. By the time Cocktail rolled around in 1988, Top Gun had made him such a star that the film’s absolute butchering by critics could do nothing to stop its box office success.
His charm as a person is highly integral to his success – he has consistently been able to separate what he does on screen with what he does in real life, namely his connections with the Church of Scientology, and this is a testament to his exploits on screen. He also has an ability to self-deprecate, most famously exhibited with his cameo in Austin Powers as well as his hilariously foul mouthed turn in Tropic Thunder and his supporting turn in Rock of Ages. In recent years his receipts have taken a hit, especially in the domestic market, but the $680 million worldwide take of the latest Mission: Impossible film proves that he can still be a big draw. In a career spanning over 30 years, the fact that he can still attract an audience that large is impressive (although this might be as much the franchise’s fault as his) especially when we consider the recent trajectory of Will Smith’s box office reception. Of course, other actors who can reliably bring in money via their presence do exist; Denzel Washington and Melissa McCarthy come to mind. But none of their work has hit the same heights matched by Cruise. Bring on the rest of his career, I say.