What Is Tom Cruise's Best Role? Here's What /Film Readers Had To Say

Tom Cruise's first major film role was playing the character of Billy, Peter Hewitt's best friend in the 1981 teen romance "Endless Love." Billy tells a story about how he once set a pile of newspapers on fire for fun, panicked, put out the fire, and was praised by his parents for bravely saving their house from being burned down. The story inspires the Hewitt character to try the same trick with his girlfriend's porch. He's eventually arrested for arson. 

In 1983, Cruise broke out with the one-two-three-punch of "Losin' It," "Risky Business," and "All the Right Moves." Since then, Cruise has remained one of Hollywood's most reliable leading men, becoming the ur-example of a modern-day Movie Star. He has appeared in hit after hit, dazzling audiences with his handsome face and ineffable, unquenchable charm. He just appeared in his seventh "Mission: Impossible" movie, but there was a time when Cruise repeatedly endeavored to appear in a wide variety of roles for a broad swath of interesting auteurs. He's worked with Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Ron Howard, Rob Reiner, Sydney Pollack, Cameron Crowe, Stanley Kubrick, P.T. Anderson, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Mann. 

And yet, and yet ... it's rare that Cruise will play "a role." Although he is a talented performer, Tom Cruise is often most appealing for playing Tom Cruise. He may be a fine actor and clearly likes to push his limits, but he is better at being a movie star. Cruise's naturalness on camera, in-born ease, and handsome face are a more magnetic draw than his range. 

/Film recently polled readers on Facebook on what Cruise's best role might be, and it was up to them to decide if that meant his best performance or his most appealing character. Here are the results.

It seems that readers like Tom Cruise best when he's playing against type. The most popular film on the poll was Ben Stiller's 2008 comedy "Tropic Thunder" in which Cruise only had a supporting role. "Tropic Thunder" is about a group of vapid, shallow actors whose egos have interrupted the production of a new, big-budget war epic. In order to get the cast under control, the director has them transported into a real jungle where they will be filmed with hidden cameras. It turns out, however, that they are accidentally transported into a real crime zone run by drug dealers. They all think it's fake when it's very, very real. 

Cruise does not play one of the actors, but Les Grossman, the shrieking, angry, constantly-on-edge studio exec. Cruise is nearly unrecognizable with a bald cap, a beard, thick glasses, and fake body hair. The ordinarily lithe Cruise also sported a "middle age spread" suit. Cruise possesses all the bluster and wrathful egotism held by the worst of Hollywood's power players, and often dances, and aggressively shmoozes anyone who dares to enter his office. Those who know Hollywood personalities will see that Les Grossman was modeled on Scott Rudin and, of course, Harvey Weinstein. 

Cruise came to prominence playing wounded everymen and cocky heroes. One might recall his roles in films like "Rain Man" or "Top Gun" as examples. It wasn't until relatively deep into his career that Cruise would play actual villains and scumbags. As it so happens, Cruise had a talent for it, and one might find that other "villain" roles were also near the top of the /Film poll. 

But fans are also fond of Cruise's mythic heroes, as seen in the second-place film.

The second most popular Tom Cruise film in the readers' poll — by only two votes — was Edward Zwick's 2003 historical epic "The Last Samurai," which topped the poll by a narrow margin. In "The Last Samurai," Cruise plays Army Captain Nathan Algrin, a veteran of the Civil War. He is completely burned out and a desperate alcoholic, so Captain Algrin takes a high-paying job training a conscript army for the Meiji Restoration in Japan. He is quickly taken as a prisoner, however, and whisked off to a small, remote village away from his army and anyone who speaks English. Over the course of the film, Captain Algrin slowly becomes sober, learns to speak Japanese, and becomes intrigued by the way of the Samurai. By the end, Captain Algrin is a samurai fighting for righteousness. Comparisons to "Dances with Wolves" are apt, as it's another well-worn "white man goes native" story. "The Last Samurai" pre-dated "Avatar" by six years.

"The Last Samurai" is a broad, bold Hollywood entertainment, and it is widely entertaining. It's also one of the few films wherein Cruise speaks a language other than English (Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie" is another).

Third place in the /Film poll was Cruise's role as Vincent, the hard-nosed assassin in Michael Mann's 2004 film "Collateral." Vincent, a man with no soul, required a driver to take him around Los Angeles to the sites of his murder jobs. He hired an ordinary cab driver (Jamie Foxx) who morally objected to helping a killer, but whose fear of being killed forced him forward. Vincent has darkness behind his eyes and a frank, straightforward approach to crime. "I just shot him," he says. "The bullets and the fall killed him." 

Fourth on the poll was another notorious villain: Frank T.J. Mackey from Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film "Magnolia." Frank is a misogynist who has turned his hatred of women into a well-attended self-help seminar for other aspiring abusers. His philosophy is that women have long had the upper hand in relationships, leaving a generation of men undersexed. He teaches others how to "Seduce & Destroy," using charm and lies to bed women and then deliberately break their hearts. Although "Magnolia" was made in 1999, it certainly predicted some of the more terrifying "masculinity" tirades that currently come from mealy-mouthed vermin like Tucker Carlson. 

Fifth on the poll was Cruise's performance as embittered Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Oliver Stone's 1989 drama "Born on the Fourth of July." That might be one of Cruise's more intense roles. Sixth was Cameron Crowe's 1996 flick "Jerry Maguire," wherein Cruise played a sports agent who dared to grow a conscience. Although the "Mission: Impossible" film series is massively popular and sees its seventh installment in theaters this week, few voted for Ethan Hunt as one of Cruise's best roles. Indeed, the "Mission: Impossible" movies are a prime example of Tom Cruise outstripping the role he's playing. Few, I would hazard to guess, care deeply about the character and the plight of Ethan Hunt. Many, however, love to watch Tom Cruise ride a motorcycle off a cliff. 

Lower on the poll were "Rain Man," "Eyes Wide Shut," "A Few Good Men," "Top Gun," "Minority Report," "The Color of Money," "Interview with the Vampire," and "Vanilla Sky." There was only one vote for "Top Gun: Maverick," "Rock of Ages," "Edge of Tomorrow," "Far and Away," "Jack Reacher," "Risky Business," "Days of Thunder," and "Taps." 

Quite curiously, the 1993 mega-hit "The Firm" received no votes.