Tom Cruise’s 10 Essential Movies — and Where to Stream Them in 2025

Tom Cruise’s 10 Essential Movies — and Where to Stream Them in 2025

Curated by the Prowell-Tech editors • Updated May 14 2025

Four decades, $11 billion in global ticket sales, and a résumé that swings from Kubrick psychodrama to comedy cameos — Tom Cruise may be the last old-school movie star who can still move the needle on opening weekend. Ahead of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (in U.S. theaters May 23), we’re ranking the Cruise performances that defined — and keep redefining — his career. We kept Digital Trends’ 2025 list as our spine Digital Trends, then layered in fresh box-office data, review scores, and current U.S. streaming options so you can press play tonight.

10. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Why it still soars: Practical aerial photography put IMAX audiences inside the cockpit, and the sequel’s pandemic-era delay turned into a case study in theatrical patience, smashing the Memorial-Day record and out-grossing the 1986 original by a factor of nine. Vanity Fair

9. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Why it still soars: Cruise leans into cowardice for once, then slowly levels-up alongside Emily Blunt in a mech-suit Groundhog Day. The film’s cult legs quietly convinced Warner Bros. to green-light a sequel script now titled Live Die Repeat Again (still un-dated).

8. Rain Man (1988)

Why it still shines: Dustin Hoffman took the statue, but Cruise’s arc from selfish hustler to protective brother is the movie’s emotional ballast — the template for his later “reactive” performances opposite big personalities.

7. Jerry Maguire (1996)

*Worldwide figure combines reported U.S. total with estimated international tallies (Sony no longer reports 1990s overseas numbers in detail).

Why it still scores: Cameron Crowe’s rom-com doubled as a trenchant sports-agency satire, gifting Cruise the line (“Show me the money!”) that millennials still quote back at him on red carpets.

6. Tropic Thunder (2008)

Why it still roars: A latex-swaddled, profanity-spewing Cruise hijacks Ben Stiller’s Hollywood send-up and proves he’s in on the joke — a mid-career course-correct after the 2005 Oprah-couch era.

5. Collateral (2004)

Why it still kills: Michael Mann’s high-definition night photography turns L.A. into a neon aquarium while Cruise, silver-haired and ice-cold, flips his hero persona by making a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) the real protagonist.

4. Minority Report (2002)

Why it still fascinates: Spielberg’s bleakest blockbuster predicted predictive-policing debates and biometric advertising. Cruise sells the concept with man-on-the-run urgency and still-audacious stunts on a mag-lev freeway.

3. Magnolia (1999)

Why it still devastates: Paul Thomas Anderson weaponised Cruise’s alpha charisma, then dismantled it in a single, 15-minute confessional. The result: the rawest acting of his career, still quoted by therapists for its “respect the c—k” bravado.

2. A Few Good Men (1992)

Why it still electrifies: Cruise gets to play arrogant and principled, bouncing off Jack Nicholson’s volcano-ready colonel in a climax so iconic that even people who’ve never seen the movie can quote it verbatim.

1. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Why it’s still haunting: Stanley Kubrick’s final film is less an erotic thriller than a two-hour anxiety dream about marriage, jealousy, and masks — themes Cruise and then-wife Nicole Kidman were living in real time. Every re-watch reveals another layer of symbology hidden in the holiday lights.

Honorable mentions that just missed the cut

• Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) — the HALO-jump sequence alone keeps stunt-coordinators awake at night.

• The Last Samurai (2003) — imperfect cultural framing but lush Edward Zwick battle choreography.

• Risky Business (1983) — the slide in the socks that launched a star.

How we ranked them

1. Performance depth over sheer box-office pull.

2. Cultural staying power (memes, quotes, copy-cats).

3. Critical consensus (we averaged Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores).

4. Availability — if it’s impossible to stream legally in 2025, it lost a half-point.

What’s next for Cruise?

• Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters May 23, with a rumored Q1 2026 follow-up already in pre-production.

• Cruise and director Doug Liman are still eyeing a real-space shoot aboard the ISS — Universal dated the untitled project for late 2027 last month. Rotten Tomatoes

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With over two decades of experience in digital publishing, this seasoned writer and editor has established a reputation for delivering authoritative content, enhancing the platform’s credibility and authority online.