The Mummy
Chiabella James/Universal/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockA movie so bad, it was the first and last entry in Universal’s planned monster movie cinematic universe.
43Rock of Ages
New Line/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockIn this extremely unfortunate musical about ‘80s hair metal, Tom Cruise plays a karaoke version of a rock and roll god named Stacee Jaxx.
42Losin' It
Tiberius/Tijuana/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockReleased the same year as Risky Business, Tom Cruise plays the hunk in this high school sex comedy that time forgot. Get it? They’re "losin’ it"—as in their virginity.
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41Endless Love
Universal PicturesIn his first on-screen appearance, Tom Cruise is some random shirtless kid in Daisy Dukes bragging about being a pyromaniac.
40Lions for Lambs
ShutterstockNearly a decade before Trump coined the term “Fake News,” Tom Cruise plays a morally corrupt senator making a presidential bid by planting a story through a journalist played by Meryl Streep. In the end, this pretentious and convoluted plot says very little about its moving parts.
39Jack Reacher: Never Go Back
ShutterstockThough the tagline warns to never go back, Cruise unfortunately did go back to play the titular Jack Reacher, in a sequel that plays out like dumb, less tech-savvy Mission: Impossible.
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38Legend
Moviestore/REX/ShutterstockTom Cruise and Mia Sara try to protect the last of the unicorns from Tim Curry, who is some sort of awesome devil muppet. It’s also the only straight-up fantasy movie Cruise has ever done—and it’s pretty obvious why.
37Far and Away
Moviestore/REX/ShutterstockSeven years before they co-starred in Eyes Wide Shut (and two years after their wedding), Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman played star-crossed lovers and Irish immigrants trying to make it in America.
36Oblivion
Universal PicturesIn this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller, Cruise is a drone repairman who’s also into American sports. When he finds a group of survivors (led by Morgan Freeman), he begins to question the nature of his entire reality. As always, Cruise holds down what is otherwise a pretty clunky plot.
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35Valkyrie
MGMTom Cruise plays a German officer with an American accent who leads a group of German soldiers with British accents in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during WWII. It’s based on an actual military plot that could have entered some intriguing territory, had it not settled for being average historical escapism.
34Knight and Day
Moviestore/REX/ShutterstockIn this action comedy, Cruise is once again a secret agent who accidentally ropes Cameron Diaz into an international conspiracy. For all his macho spy stuff, Cruise proves in Knight and Day that he can take this hero stuff lightly too.
33Mission: Impossible II
ShutterstockThe worst of Cruise’s six Mission: Impossible movies, this one sees Ethan Hunt trying to stop a deadly weaponized virus that’s going to be released by terrorists. Unfortunately, director John Woo’s style didn’t quite fit with the international espionage of this franchise.
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32Jack Reacher
ParamountIn his first of two movies playing the titular former military police-officer-turned-vigilante-drifter, Cruise’s character tries to stop a military sniper on a killing spree. Of course, Cruise also did all his own driving stunts.
31The Outsiders
Warner Bros/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockComing down from the golden phase of his career, Francis Ford Coppola assembled an incredible upcoming cast for The Outsiders that included Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane.
30Taps
20th Century Fox/Kobal/REX/ShutterstockIn his second-ever onscreen role, Cruise plays David Shawn, one of the military cadets who attempt to protect their academy from being torn down for local condo developers. Pretty low stakes as far as military dramas go.
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29War of the Worlds
ParamountIn this Steven Spielberg re-imagining of the H.G. Wells novel, Cruise plays a father attempting to keep his children safe throughout an alien invasion. Though it has all the highlights of a Spielbergian sci-fi, it wasn’t quite enough to cause riots like Orson Welles’s infamous radio broadcast.
28The Last Samurai
ShutterstockA white savior complex brings down what is otherwise a well-acted period period piece about an American Civil War veteran sent to train a 19th century Japanese army.
27Mission: Impossible III
ShutterstockBefore he was put in charge of both Star Wars and Star Trek, J.J. Abrams’s big Hollywood blockbuster movie directorial debut was at the helm of Mission: Impossible III, which saw a retired Ethan Hunt brought back in the game to stop an excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman.
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26Vanilla Sky
Paramount PicturesCruise stars in this philosophical thriller as a man haunted by the specter of a former flame after becoming disfigured in a car crash. (Fun fact: Penelope Cruz plays the same character in this remake of her Spanish film, Abre los Ojos.)
25Days of Thunder
Paramount PicturesNASCAR moved into the mainstream thanks to this movie in which Cruise plays a promising driver hoping to making it in the big leagues.
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