When most audiences think of Tom Cruise, they picture Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible movies, Maverick in Top Gun, or even a young Cruise as Joel in Risky Business. Early on, Cruise was singled out for heroic roles as a leading man or love interest the audience was rooting for. However, it’s easy to forget that Cruise rose to prominence for much more than just stunts. Cruise is a phenomenal actor who’s lent his skills to a wide variety of genres, and his turns playing the villain have shone a light on the underrated facets of his acting.

Most of his antagonistic performances fall under Cruise’s best drama roles, but this isn’t necessarily the case. Cruise has been known to make cameos in light-hearted projects, which often have him play against type for comedic effect. What Cruise’s next act as a performer holds as the Mission: Impossible franchise draws to a close is up in the air, but seeing him return to darker and more dramatic work would be an exciting development. However, no matter what he’s in, Cruise gives his all to the performance and ensures the audience will never forget him.

 

5Les Grossman – Tropic Thunder (2008)

Directed by Ben Stiller

Cruise is practically unrecognizable as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, and not just because of the costuming and character design. In the satirical action film, Les is a loud and abrasive movie producer who makes a few cameo appearances throughout the story. Both a parody of the film industry and the many projects made about the Vietnam War, it was unexpected to see Cruise in a work like Tropic Thunder. However, it’s clear that Cruise is enjoying himself and being able to let loose as the uncaring, profit-driven Les. His great comedic timing is an overlooked part of Cruise’s persona.

For someone with as much love for the movie business as Cruise has, it’s no wonder he felt a connection to Tropic Thunder .

It’s interesting to see Cruise in the film since so much of the plot pokes fun at serious actors who go to extreme lengths to win awards and receive acclaim. While Cruise is rarely lumped in with the archetype that Tropic Thunder satirizes, he unquestionably gives his all to every performance, doing his own stunts on location and using practical effects. However, for someone with as much love for the movie business as Cruise has, it’s no wonder he felt a connection to Tropic Thunder.

The movie itself has been a lightning rod of controversy, and the character Les is no exception. However, Cruise has a small role in the film and is only one part of the much larger story. Les’ scenes are funny and align with the larger tone of Tropic Thunder, but Cruise doesn’t have enough to do for the film to rank any higher among his highly acclaimed roles. However, it’s still a role that allowed Cruise to flex his villainous muscles once again.

Title
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Tropic Thunder (2008)
82%
71%

4Cadet Captain David Shawn – Taps (1981)

Directed by Harold Becker

While Taps is hardly one of the movies that defined Tom Cruise’s career, it’s shocking to see him in such a starkly different character than his usual type so early in his career. Taps was Cruise’s second film project after a minor part in Endless Love, and Taps gave Cruise a lot more to work with. Though it’s not remembered as one of the biggest movies of the early ’80s, Taps features an all-star cast with Sean Penn and Giancarlo Esposito joining him in the project. Cruise’s character, David, is a young man attending the military academy in the film.

The story revolves around the young cadets at the school seizing control of the grounds when it’s threatened to be sold to real estate developers and dismantled. While David isn’t the young man leading the charge of the resistance, he’s hot-headed and quickly escalates some of the most tense situations. As the stakes are raised and the boys refuse to stand down, it’s David who opens fire and causes the deaths of several characters. It’s a nuanced part, as though David doesn’t do the right thing; he’s only a child and is scared and confused about the future.

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Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Taps (1981)
68%
67%

3Lestat De Lioncourt – Interview With The Vampire (1994)

Directed by Neil Jordan

Cruise and Brad Pitt play Lestat and Louis, the vampire companions who torture each other across centuries in the film iteration of the novel by Anne Rice. While they’re both vampires, Lestat is the undeniable villain of the piece, as he turns Louis, manipulates him, and treats the world as his plaything. Lestat was a role unlike anything else Cruise had taken on, but he quickly proved himself to be the perfect actor for the role. The actor disappears into the cunning and terrible Lestat, who serves as the shadow that Louis and Claudia are running from in the story.

The movie delivers the gothic tragedy of the source material, and Cruise imbues Lestat with plenty of charm and attractiveness that makes his true nature horrible to behold.

Cruise delivers many of Lestat’s best quotes in Interview with the Vampire, featured in both Rice’s novel and the recent TV series of the same name. The movie delivers the gothic tragedy of the source material, and Cruise imbues Lestat with plenty of charm and attractiveness that makes his true nature horrible to behold. Though Interview with the Vampire was criticized for lacking some of the depth and nuance that makes the story so compelling, Cruise was deeply entrenched within the world of Lestat and his evil, and this is clear in the movie.

Title
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Interview with the Vampire (1994)
63%
86%

Based on Anne Rice’s 1976 novel, Interview with the Vampire tells the story of two vampires, Lestat and Louis, and their complicated relationship after Lestat turns Louis in 1791. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt star as Lestat and Louis respectively, with a cast that includes Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, the two men’s young charge who Lestat also turns in an attempt to keep a disillusioned Louis from leaving. Christian Slayter rounds out the cast as Daniel Molloy, a reporter to who Louis tells his story in the mid-1990s.

2Frank T.J. Mackey – Magnolia (1999)

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

One of Paul Thomas Anderson’s best works, Magnolia, features a sweeping ensemble cast that utilizes Cruise’s abilities better than many of the movies he’s been in. Playing Frank T.J. Mackey, a man who makes his living giving pseudo-motivational speeches that teach men how to pick up women. When the audience is first introduced to Frank, he’s manipulative and misogynistic from the start and is easy for the viewer to hate. However, the nuance of his character is what keeps the audience invested in the story. He and the other characters are all flawed, but they’re compelling.

Frank isn’t exactly a villain, but he isn’t a good guy, and it’s clear that he’s let his hardships in life turn him into someone terrible. His relationship with his father is the thrust of his character arc, as his father, Earl, is dying but estranged from Frank. This forces Frank to grapple with whether he wants to reconcile with his father, as it’s revealed that Frank is holding on to a deeper resentment toward his father than the audience knows. Throughout the film, Frank must learn to forgive both his father and himself.

Witnessing Frank’s evolution throughout the film is a testament to Cruise as he manages to make the audience despise his character while simultaneously feeling great sympathy for him. There’s a scene when Frank is speaking to a crowd, and the scene has almost no cuts, allowing Cruise to push himself and give the viewer a clear sense of who Frank is. While Frank’s story is only one piece of the whole, it might be Cruise’s best performance to date.

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Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Magnolia (1999)
82%
89%

1Vincent – Collateral (2004)

Directed by Michael Mann

Cruise’s use of method acting for Collateral was an intense choice but a necessary one for the actor to fall into the role of the cold-blooded killer, Vincent. Jamie Foxx stars alongside Cruise as a cab driver, Max, and the movie sees Max try to survive the night when the hitman Vincent gets into his car and derails his life forever. It’s almost impossible to believe that Cruise transformed himself into Vincent, as the character uses the strength and agility audiences have seen Cruise use onscreen so many times and employ it for evil.

It’s one of Cruise’s most memorable roles because of how truly terrible and villainous Vincent is. Collateral was a turning point in his career and one that helped shed light on a side of him that could handle a terrifying character like Vincent. Both Cruise and Foxx were praised for their performances by audiences and critics alike, and their onscreen chemistry was a large part of what propelled the plot of Collateral to the film’s conclusion. Hopefully, audiences will see more performances from Tom Cruise like that in Collateral.

Title
Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Collateral (2004)
86%

84%