Top 5 Tom Cruise Performances | Archive

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

What kind of a show are you guys putting on here today?

SPEAKER_2 (0:06)

You're not interested in art?

SPEAKER_3 (0:07)

No.

SPEAKER_4 (0:08)

Well, look, we're going to do this thing.

SPEAKER_5 (0:09)

We're going to have a conversation.

Adam Kempenaar (0:13)

With Alejandro González Iñárritu's Digger now in theaters, we have the return of Tom Cruise, actor. We paid tribute to Tom Cruise, actor, with our Top 5 Cruise performances back in 2017 Our producer, Sam, was nice enough to reprint our Top 5 lists here for us.

Any surprises there without spoiling anything? Any surprises as you quickly look back? This is almost 10 years ago now. Would you take issue with a much younger Josh Larsen?

Josh Larsen (0:46)

I mean, the only thing that really would have affected it is that I have seen your number one pick, which I won't spoil, since we did this list. And it was a blind spot that I tried to get to, I wasn't able to fill it in. Not sure. I mean, great movie. Love the movie.

Not sure if Cruise's performance would bump its way onto my top five, but it might. It just might there at the end. So that's the only thing that might change for me. How about you?

Adam Kempenaar (1:13)

Looking at it, it is that number one. I'm a little surprised I had it number one. Now I haven't re-listened. I don't know what my explanation is. Maybe I was just trying to be a little off the beaten path, try to not go so obvious because my number two and three I think are fairly obvious. But I do love the performances in my number two and three slot. If I really had to be pinned down, I might move number one back to number five or four and just slide everything up a little bit. But otherwise, these would be my five. I think I feel pretty good about these five, Josh. All right, let's do it. Let's hear it. You can hear other top fives just like this one, interviews, reviews, whatever. By being a Filmspotting Family member, that gives you constant access to the Filmspotting Archive plus other benefits. You can learn more at filmspottingfamily.com.

Now take a trip with us back to September 2017 for our top five Tom Cruise performances.

SPEAKER_8 (2:12)

What possible good could come from putting Jessup on the stand?

SPEAKER_4 (2:17)

He told Kendrick to order the Code Red.

SPEAKER_8 (2:19)

He did?

SPEAKER_4 (2:21)

That's great.

SPEAKER_8 (2:22)

Why didn't you say so? And of course, you have proof of that.

SPEAKER_5 (2:25)

Oh, I'm sorry. I keep forgetting. You were sick the day they taught law at law school.

SPEAKER_9 (2:29)

You put him on the stand and you get it from him.

SPEAKER_8 (2:32)

Oh, we get it from him. Jess, no problem.

SPEAKER_5 (2:35)

We get it from him. Colonel Jessup, isn't it true that you ordered the Code Red on Santiago?

SPEAKER_8 (2:40)

Listen, we're all a little...

SPEAKER_5 (2:42)

I'm sorry, your time's run out. What do we have for the losers, Judge? Well, for our defendants, it's a lifetime at exotic Fort Leavenworth. And for defense counsel Kathy, that's right.

SPEAKER_8 (2:52)

It's a court martial.

SPEAKER_5 (2:54)

Yes, Johnny.

Adam Kempenaar (2:55)

That was Tom Cruise. Oh boy, was that Tom Cruise. And I just knew that this had to be the clip that we played going into this top five, our top five Tom Cruise performances. Because a few weeks ago, I was just flipping channels late at night, a few good men came on. It's on TBS or TNT, those channels all the time. And I don't usually stop to watch it. But I stopped it on this scene. And watching Tom Cruise as Daniel Caffe, just absolutely go bonkers. I mean, just become completely unhinged.

It mesmerized me, frankly. Well, of course, then I had to watch Jessup and I had to watch the courtroom scenes and see how it all played out all over again. And I just thought it would be a perfect setup. Maybe we'll get to some performances here, Josh, in our top five that are less unhinged. Yeah.

Josh Larsen (3:41)

I mean, I think I said something in our American-made review about when his intensity gets a little too cranked up. That's what we have here.

Adam Kempenaar (3:48)

I think we do. Now, I'm sure you'll have some setup and you'll tell us how you formed your list. But I wanted to kick things off with an excerpt, a brief bit from the anatomy of an actor, Tom Cruise, anatomy of an actor by Amy Nicholson. She is on the Canon podcast and she's formerly the film critic for MTV and LA Weekly. And we are going to hear from Amy Nicholson here as we get through this top five. But we're going to hear from her in prose form, as I haven't read her book yet, but an excerpt was published over at rogerebert.com when it was published. And Amy writes this, Cruise himself has earned three Oscar nods and lost. Therein lies the great paradox of his career. In the three decades since losing it, he's become and remained the box office's biggest international star. Globally, his films have scored over $8 billion.