Is Tom Cruise The Last Irreplaceable Movie Star?

Make no mistake, Mission Impossible films feature some of the most outrageous, death-defying stunts in Hollywood history

While there's no shortage of daredevils on the silver screen, this particular franchise goes above and beyond typical blockbuster feats

And unlike most action icons, Ethan Hunt is just built different. That's because there is one major distinction between Mission Impossible and basically any other American film series, the Tom Cruise factor

We're going to shoot it in Norway, and it'll be a motorcycle jump off a cliff into a base jump

I wanted to do it since I was a little kid. It all comes down to one thing, the audience

As the central star and driving force of eight Mission Impossible films

Cruise has repeatedly blown our minds with tremendous stunt work. And over the years, it's easy to forget how crucial his career really is

Cruise is perhaps the last movie star of his kind. First appearing in films at just 19

his brief early roles were highly indicative of the Cruise to come. In fact, as a greaser tough guy in Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsiders

the actor pulled off his first on-screen stunts. Although Cruise could have quickly fallen to the wayside as just another hunk

1983's Risky Business defied all expectations. Considered a defining moment in 80s culture

Cruise's performance in Risky Business elevated him to superstar status overnight. With the reign of a seasoned actor and a magnetic charm you just can't fake

there's one thing I've learned. It's incredible to think Cruz had almost no formal training up to that point

and had practically just ordered his first legal beer. But like any good origin story, Cruz had to face his demons on the road to fame

a big red demon played by Tim Curry. Every wolf suffers fleas

It is easy enough to scratch. Although his first foray into action films didn't cut it with critics, the actor wasn't willing to let legendary failures slow him down

And after starring as the enigmatic maverick in Top Gun, Tom Cruise fully came into his own as an American institution

Because unlike the leading men who had come before him, Tom Cruise had acting chops and an unbelievable physical presence

Hoping to learn the stuntman trade which had compelled him since his early backflipping days, Cruise performed a number of his own stunts on Top Gun

Unfortunately, he also had his first lesson in the dangers of stunts gone wrong

Because according to co-star Barry Wolfman Tubb, Cruise came as close to dying as anybody on set I've ever seen

Gut-wrenching moment when Maverick discovers the fate of fellow pilot Goose, Cruise parachute began filling up with water in real life Moments before being sucked under the waves a crew member noticed the sinking actor and rushed in to cut him loose They would have never found him Tub recalled

He would have been at the bottom of the ocean. Regardless in his quest to become Hollywood's most interesting leading man

Cruise followed up the success of Top Gun with a long list of acclaimed credits

From heartfelt dramas, biopics, and sports films, Cruise distanced himself from major action

But even a slew of legal dramas couldn't stop Cruise from throwing in a few signature flips

Cruise then began his own production company after this string of success

and due to his partnership with Paramount Pictures, he secured the rights to a classic

film, and chose an adaptation of Mission Impossible as his first personal undertaking

Having already worked with visionaries like Martin Scorsese and Oliver Stone, Cruise had no care in finding the right talent to direct. Worried that his star power would

shined too brightly in an ensemble cast, Cruise needed a strong vision

to secure the world from classic television to modern film. After dining with legendary auteur Brian

De Palma, a meeting suggested by Steven Spielberg, the fireface mastermind quickly hit it off and came up

with a plan. The first thing we have to do, De Palma told Cruise, is kill off the whole team

We're dead! They're dead! They're all dead! Though De Palma's frenetic visual language lent itself to dizzying

displays of high-tech action, The first Mission outing is a far cry from the bombastic set pieces we've come to love

Even still, the blueprints for what the franchise would go on to achieve are all laid out before us with this first entry

Mission and Powerful. But the film was a stirring success. Back to the flattering box office achievements, Tom Cruise proved he could produce

And by performing his own stunts under the Ethan Hunt banner, a new type of movie star was powerhousing his way

Out of action and roles. As if rom-com Hall of Fame status with

Jerry Maguire wasn't enough, Cruz also starred in Stanley Kubrick's final film

Eyes Wide Shut. Add to that a pivotal performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's third

feature, Magnolia, and we see the sort of self-reflective work that Cruz just

doesn't get enough credit for. While it's easy to dismiss the actor's eccentricities

few performers challenge their own identity like Cruz. In the love life of a professional narcissist dissecting the crumbling marriage between two powerful people or playing an aggressive cult leader, Tom Cruise's characters feel authentically Cruise

Chalk it up to personal experience or pure on-screen charisma, it's no question the man knows his way around emotional performances

Now despite a streak of effective surprising choices it was only a matter of time before Cruise got back in the hot seat Returning as both producer and Ethan Hunt Cruise snagged Hong Kong cinema titan John Woo to direct Mission Impossible 2 Featuring a scruffier tougher version

of the central character, Woo's take on Mission favors pure spectacle over espionage hijinks

Although it is perhaps looked down on in the grand scheme of the franchise, Mission Impossible 2 banked an even bigger box office

and is a particularly special entry. Not only does Cruise inject Ethan Hunt

with deeper layers of emotionality, The film also features one of the most exhilarating opening sequences in the series

I was really mad that he wanted to do it, director John Woo said in the film's first scene

I tried to stop him and I couldn't. He was so nervous that I might plummet to my death and then he would be held responsible for that

And I don't blame him. In the film, Ethan Hunt scales the epic clip face of Dead Horse Point in Utah

Strapped in with a meager climbing wire, the then 37-year-old actor insisted on doing the scene himself

I couldn't even watch the monitor when we shot it, we recall. Although the studio nearly threatened to shut production down over the stunt

the film's actual producer prevailed. By way of sheer star power, Cruise convinced executives that handling the cliff himself was the only way to go

And to his credit, the actor was right. I've never had a problem with heights. As a kid, anytime I get to the edge, I want to jump off

I don't know what it is. It's subconscious. I don't want to kill myself. I want to fly. The opening sequence just wouldn't have been the same if he hadn't done it himself

co-star John Polson said. No amount of special effects can make you feel like that because you can tell that it's really just him

There is no question the actor struggled with negative tabloids and increasingly bizarre behavior after the sequel's success

But through it all, Cruise maintained his personable powers. That's not the way he moves. He doesn't pivot that way. He likes to lunge left. He doesn't usually scoop under right

I think it's a bad idea. He's never going to go for it. It's not realistic. It's not a Tom Cruise kick. And continued to make movies with major impact

Few performers can ever hope to claim a single credit under Steven Spielberg, let alone two, in the span of a few short years

And how many actors can say they took part in a critically acclaimed thriller by American crime cinema guru Michael Mann

Toss in some successful historical epics, a few comedic cameos, and you have the sort of career dreams are made of

But for Tom Cruise, that's just a quick five-year run. Never long for another go as Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise always returns home for more Mission Impossible

Pushing the envelope even further in the J.J. Abrams-directed threequel, Cruise embarked on the sort of sleek, terrifying stunts that now dominate the series

And like the early stunts and set pieces of Charlie Chaplin, or the awe-inspiring feats of Jackie Chan films

Cruise effectively became a genre unto himself. After The Incredibles and Iron Giant director Brad Bird

brought his previously animated antics into the Mission Impossible-verse, it seemed like Ethan Hunt exploits couldn climb any higher But for every successful ruler there is always an heir apparent And when Mission Impossible 4 director Christopher McQuarrie seemingly tried to slate co Jeremy Renner as the next Ethan Hunt fans weren having it

I'm afraid today is the day when the IMF's luck runs out

In fact, if any film series deserves a retire with its aging star, Mission Impossible makes

a strong case. Without Cruise, would it really be Mission Impossible at all? Now, whether or not

audience outcry had any say in the matter, Cruise came back as Ethan Hunt for

2018's Mission Impossible Fallout. A return to form for both the franchise

and the actor after the disastrous reception of The Mummy, Fallout is everything we love about Mission Impossible

in one tidy package. With a ragtag gang of lovable agents, a famously mustachioed Henry Cavill

and typically on-point athletics from Cruise, this sixth entry feels like an action fan's fever dream

And for all of Tom Cruise's miraculous stunts over the years, his famous

halo jump at nearly 60 years old might just go down as the craziest on-screen feat of all time

Much like his free climbing sequence in Mission Impossible 2, Cruise said there were a lot of people telling us it wasn't going to happen

But even with a recently broken ankle and an extremely nervous studio

Cruise made the jump. Well, around 100 jumps. Because due to the extreme nature of the stunt

the film crew were only able to make a shoot one time a day. And in the end

Cruise's unflappable drive to entertain gave us more than we probably deserved

When Dead Reckoning Part 1 was released in 2023, Mission Impossible still showed no signs of

running out of gas. With crazier leaps of faith and tighter margins for error

Cruise made it clear that his return was no fluke. Less grounded than any of the previous films

Dead Reckoning hits like a Metal Gear Solid video game or a mid-90s comic team-up. As a relief to

Ethan Hunt fans, or those that just like to watch a guy climb around on a giant airplane

the seventh film in the franchise opens up a world of new possibilities. With more existential

threats and less insistence on personal stakes, Dead Reckoning is practically a fresh start for

a consistently fascinating series. Even though Cruise's late career has been filled with more

action films than dramatic stunners, the actor has still managed to find ways to surprise audiences

Because unlike many of his action-centric contemporaries, Cruise isn't afraid to lose

face. And rather than writing clauses into contracts which only allow him to play heroes

Cruise takes on characters with authentic troubles. It's what makes Tom Cruise's selfish

distracted dad role in War of the Worlds feel like an actual guy, or why we so easily forgive

our mummy grievances. It's that special sauce needed to take a squeamish, utterly terrified

character like Major Bill and turn him into Edge of Tomorrow's biggest badass. And most importantly

it's the way Cruise makes us believe Ethan Hunt can fly, or climb, or swing, or soar