18 Best Tom Cruise Action Movies, Ranked
We've ranked Cruise's best action movies including 'Top Gun: Maverick.'
Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in 'Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning - Part One' from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
Tom Cruise is quite possibly the greatest movie star in the history of cinema!
His films have grossed over $8 billion dollars at the box office, and the actor is more than willing to hang off the side of a building or an airplane in order to entertain audience.
Now, with 'Top Gun: Maverick' opening this weekend, let's take a look at the best action movies Tom Cruise has ever made, including the new 'Top Gun.'
Let's begin!
18) Jack Reacher 2: Never Go Back (2016)
When Major Susan Turner (Cobie Smulders) is arrested for treason, ex-investigator Jack Reacher (Cruise) undertakes the challenging task to prove her innocence and ends up exposing a shocking conspiracy.
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
17) The Mummy (2017)
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.
16) Oblivion (2013)
Jack Harper (Cruise) is one of the last few drone repairmen stationed on Earth. Part of a massive operation to extract vital resources after decades of war with a terrifying threat known as the Scavs, Jack’s mission is nearly complete. His existence is brought crashing down when he rescues a beautiful stranger (Olga Kurylenko) from a downed spacecraft. Her arrival triggers a chain of events that forces him to question everything he knows and puts the fate of humanity in his hands.
15) Mission: Impossible II (2000)
With computer genius Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames) at his side and a beautiful thief on his mind, agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) races across Australia and Spain to stop a former IMF agent (Dougray Scott) from unleashing a genetically engineered biological weapon called Chimera. This mission, should Hunt choose to accept it, plunges him into the center of an international crisis of terrifying magnitude.
14) Knight and Day (2010)
A fugitive couple (Cruise and Cameron Diaz) goes on a glamorous and sometimes deadly adventure where nothing and no one – even themselves – are what they seem. Amid shifting alliances and unexpected betrayals, they race across the globe, with their survival ultimately hinging on the battle of truth vs. trust.
13) Jack Reacher (2012)
When a gunman takes five lives with six shots, all evidence points to the suspect in custody. On interrogation, the suspect offers up a single note: "Get Jack Reacher!" So begins an extraordinary chase for the truth, pitting Jack Reacher (Cruise) against an unexpected enemy, with a skill for violence and a secret to keep.
12) War of the Worlds (2005)
Ray Ferrier (Cruise) is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off his teenage son (Justin Chatwin) and young daughter (Dakota Fanning) for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.
11) Top Gun (1986)
For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Cruise) and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), being accepted into an elite training school for fighter pilots is a dream come true. But a tragedy, as well as personal demons, will threaten Pete's dreams of becoming an ace
10) Mission: Impossible (1996)
When Ethan Hunt (Cruise), the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, and he's surprised to learn that he's the No. 1 suspect. To clear his name, Hunt now must ferret out the real double agent and, in the process, even the score.
9) The Last Samurai (2003)
Nathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
The Last Samurai
8) Mission: Impossible III (2006)
Retired from active duty to train new IMF agents, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is called back into action to confront sadistic arms dealer, Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). Hunt must try to protect his girlfriend while working with his new team to complete the mission.
7) Minority Report (2002)
John Anderton (Cruise) is a top 'Precrime' cop in the late-21st century, when technology can predict crimes before they're committed. But Anderton becomes the quarry when another investigator targets him for a murder charge.
6) Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes it upon himself to fulfill his original briefing, the CIA begin to question his loyalty and his motives. The IMF team find themselves in a race against time, hunted by assassins (Henry Cavill) while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
5) Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist ), who has gained access to Russian nuclear launch codes and is planning a strike on the United States.
An attempt to stop him ends in an explosion causing severe destruction to the Kremlin and the IMF to be implicated in the bombing, forcing the President to disavow them. No longer being aided by the government, Ethan and his team chase Hendricks around the globe, although they might still be too late to stop a disaster.
4) Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Major Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and dropped into combat. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an alpha alien down with him. He awakens back at the beginning of the same day and is forced to fight and die again... and again - as physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop.
3) Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)
Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating 'The Syndicate', an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.
Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
2) Days of Thunder (1990)
Talented but unproven stock car driver Cole Trickle gets a break and with the guidance of veteran Harry Hogge turns heads on the track. The young hotshot develops a rivalry with a fellow racer that threatens his career when the two smash their cars. But with the help of his doctor, Cole just might overcome his injuries-- and his fear.
1) Top Gun: Maverick' (2022)
After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him.
When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Top Gun: Maverick
