Things That Happen In Every Tom Cruise Movie

Tom Cruise has graced the big screen for decades, dating all the way back to the early 1980s when he first struck gold with the hit comedies "Risky Business" and "All the Right Moves." Following that early success, his career ascended like a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet blasting into the sky at Mach 10 thanks to smash hits such as "Top Gun," "The Color of Money," "Cocktail," "Rain Man," "A Few Good Men," "The Firm," "Jerry Maguire," "Minority Report," and the "Mission: Impossible" franchise. He's worked with some of our finest directors — including Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson (among many others) — and enjoyed extraordinary financial success. Worldwide, the actor's vast catalog of films has amassed a stunning $11.6 billion, making Cruise one of the biggest Hollywood icons of all time.

After so many motion pictures, it's inevitable that audiences would notice certain characteristics that pop up in each of the actor's films. Ever the showman, Cruise has a tendency to cater to his rabid fan base, which is probably why he eschewed weightier fair like "Born on the Fourth of July" and "Magnolia" in favor of popcorn-driven spectacle like "War of the Worlds" and "Top Gun: Maverick" later in his career.

At any rate, no matter the genre, Tom always seems to give fans what they want, which makes it easier for us to hammer out a list of things — in no particular order — that tend to happen in every one of his movies. Read on to discover what you can expect to find in a Tom Cruise movie.

Tom's wild stunts weren't always a staple in his films. There are no death-defying leaps off of high rises in "Rain Man" or vertigo-inducing jet battles in "Eyes Wide Shut," but the actor still managed to show off his need for adrenaline-fueled antics early in his career. Case in point: In "The Outsiders," Tom's character does a backflip for no apparent reason after running out of a house with his mates. According to actor Rob Lowe in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, director Francis Ford Coppola asked the cast to learn how to do a backflip and Tom was the only one capable of pulling off the difficult feat. 

To our astonishment, the actor also insisted on driving a real NASCAR racecar in "Days of Thunder" (via ESPN), and according to a profile in Rolling Stone, rode the fastest horse on set during the climactic land race scene in "Far and Away." It's small potatoes compared to the stunts he achieves in "The Mummy" and the "Mission: Impossible" and "Jack Reacher" franchises, but worth noting.  

So, why does he do it? During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Tom admitted it all comes down to the storytelling: "I feel that [when acting] you're bringing everything, you know, physically and emotionally, to a character in a story," he told Graham Norton. "I've trained for 30 years doing [stunts] and it allows us to put cameras in places where you are normally not able to."

While many of Tom's movies feature the box office star working alongside a group of notable co-stars, there always seems to be a moment where his character must cut the rip cord and go solo to save the day. We see this often in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise in which Tom's IMF Agent Ethan Hunt leaves his teammates in the dust to go one-on-one with the film's principal bad guy, but this trait also extends to some the actor's more dramatic ventures. Notably, in "A Few Good Men," Tom's cocky lawyer, Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, ignores the advice of his team (consisting of Demi Moore and Kevin Pollack) and takes on Jack Nicholson's sharp-tongued Colonel Nathan Jessep all on his own, leading to that rather famous "I want the truth!" bit. 

Likewise, in 2008's "Valkyrie," Tom's one-armed, one-eyed Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg plots with an assortment of German officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler and ends up planting the bomb himself (this one is based on an actual historical incident, so we'll let it slide). Other Cruise vehicles such as Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," Christopher McQuarrie's "Jack Reacher," Oliver Stone's "Born on the Fourth of July," and Sydney Pollack's "The Firm" position Tom against an evil/corrupt establishment that he must battle on his own.

Does the superstar actively look for such projects, or is Tom's massive portfolio of rogue action heroes merely a case of typecasting?    

Aside from a few exceptions, Tom is typically the de facto star of the films he appears in. As such, it makes sense that his character always ends up saving the day from the forces of evil. In fact, the only time he doesn't save the day in an epic action movie is Michael Mann's "Collateral." Even then, his cold-hearted assassin influences Jamie Foxx's world-weary cab driver enough to force a positive change in the young man's life, which can technically be seen as a win for Tom — without Vincent, it's doubtful Max ever finds the confidence needed to dump his crappy job and move on with his life.

Otherwise, Tom is typically the man of the hour by the final reel of any film. Whether its stopping dastardly terrorists or corrupt IMF operatives from destroying the world in the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, saving Iceman and Rooster in the "Top Gun" films, or taking down an alien tripod to save his daughter in "War of the Worlds," you can pretty much count on Tom to get the job done with nary a hindrance to his superstar good looks.

Even when Tom plays a jerk — as he does in Doug Liman's sci-fi epic "Edge of Tomorrow" — he finds a way to ditch the ego long enough to reset time and destroy an entire alien race (with a little help from Emily Blunt). It seems no mission is too impossible for Tom freaking Cruise.

Tom Cruise may be the king of cool, but even the most even-keeled action heroes lose their patience every now and again.

As it turns out, Tom's explosive temper rears its ugly head so often that it's practically a trademark. It's little wonder that Ben Stiller cast him as the foul-mouthed Les Grossman in the 2008 comedy "Tropic Thunder." Hidden under layers of prosthetics, Tom shouts, curses, and dances away with the film, revealing a darker side that somehow fits snugly amidst the comic antics of Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black. In one of the film's most memorable scenes, Les loses his cool at a Vietnamese soldier, whom he assumes is another movie producer trying to screw him over (it's a long story), resulting a prolonged tirade of profanity and insults that left audiences in stitches.

More dramatically, in "A Few Good Men," Tom rages against Demi Moore after she makes an egregious error and even does the "toss everything off the desk" bit for good measure. In "Mission: Impossible," he justifiably loses his cool after his entire team is killed during a mission gone wrong. And in "War of the Worlds," Tom tosses a slice of peanut butter-covered bread at a window, following a frustrating exchange with his children. These are but a few examples of Tom's ability to blow a gasket, but make no mistake, Tom loses his cool quite often throughout his filmography. 

Tom tends to steal the spotlight from his fellow co-stars mainly because, well, they aren't very good. There's Demi Moore's headstrong lawyer in "A Few Good Men," who makes a number of egregious errors that force Tom to fly solo. In the "Mission: Impossible" films, we're told Tom's IMF crew rank among the best of the best, but — aside from Rebecca Ferguson's scene-stealing Ilsa Faust — most of his team prove quite inadequate in the line of fire and contribute very little to the overall mission (besides pressing a button or two).

In Steven Spielberg's "Minority Report," Tom's John Anderton escapes the clutches of his co-workers mostly due to their incompetence, whilst the climax of "Top Gun: Maverick" pairs him alongside Miles Teller's inept Rooster and all but forces our leading man to take control of the precarious situation. The result? Tom commandeers an F-14 and engages in combat, while Rooster spectates from the co-pilot's seat.

Can you think of another character from, say, "Days of Thunder," or "Jack Reacher?" Neither can we. Tom has a tendency to hog the spotlight whilst his co-stars gawk at his coolness from a distance. Again, no judgment. We're not knocking Tom Cruise. In fact, we're too busy gawking at his awesomeness with everyone else.

In many of Tom's films, the actor is forced to hang onto something for dear life. You may remember that plane sequence at the beginning of "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," but there are actually so many instances of the superstar clinging to the side of something or other in a desperate attempt to keep himself from falling, or (in this case) as a means to slide a key card into an underwater computer. In "Knight and Day," the action maestro hangs onto Cameron Diaz's car while battling bad guys; in "War of the Worlds" he hangs onto a group of strangers to avoid being sucked into an alien ship; and in "Rock of Ages," he clings to a pole while performing a shirtless musical ballad.

Perhaps most famously, Tom hung off of the side of the massive Burj Khalifa building for "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol." Stunt coordinator Greg Smrz explained to Yahoo! how Cruise managed to hang off this enormous skyscraper that extends 2,722 feet in the air (which Cruise later ascended to obtain this photo). Even "Edge of Tomorrow" featured the actor clinging to an object — a machine gun attached to a military aircraft — during the action-packed climax, which is set at the well-renowned Louvre in Paris, France. 

Considering his age, it's likely we won't get to see Tom hang around much longer, but we'll continue to enjoy his many death-defying feats for as long as he's willing to perform them.