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Actors & actresses

Best Tom Cruise movie

The 16 movies of the “Best Tom Cruise movie” bracket, with year, director, runtime and rating for each — then play the knockout tournament and let your own duels pick the winner.

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What is in this bracket

The bracket spans 36 years of cinema, from 1986 to 2022, with an average TMDB rating of 7.3/10. The dominant genres are Action (9 movies), Drama (9 movies), Thriller (6 movies), Adventure (5 movies). Christopher McQuarrie appears 2 times, Steven Spielberg appears 2 times — a good sign of how much one filmography weighs on the outcome. Watching the whole line-up back to back would take about 35 hours. The 1990s are the best represented decade with 4 entries.

The highest-rated entry going in is Top Gun: Maverick (2022) at ★ 8.2/10 — but a bracket is not a ranking: it only takes one duel against a favourite of yours for it to go out in the first round.

The full line-up (16 movies)

Seeded in the order they enter the bracket. 16 titles means 4 rounds and 15 duels to a champion.

  1. Top Gun: Maverick 2022 · Joseph Kosinski · 131 min · ★ 8.2/10

    After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself training a detachment of TOP GUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen.

  2. Mission: Impossible - Fallout 2018 · Christopher McQuarrie · 147 min · ★ 7.5/10

    When an IMF mission ends badly, the world is faced with dire consequences. As Ethan Hunt 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 while trying to prevent a global catastrophe.

  3. Edge of Tomorrow 2014 · Doug Liman · 114 min · ★ 7.6/10

    Major Bill Cage 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.

  4. Minority Report 2002 · Steven Spielberg · 145 min · ★ 7.4/10

    John Anderton 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.

  5. Rain Man 1988 · Barry Levinson · 134 min · ★ 7.8/10

    When car dealer Charlie Babbitt learns that his estranged father has died, he returns home to Cincinnati, where he discovers that he has a savant older brother named Raymond and that his father's $3 million fortune is being left to the mental institution in which Raymond lives. Motivated by his father's money, Charlie checks Raymond out of the facility in order to return with him to Los Angeles. T

  6. Collateral 2004 · Michael Mann · 120 min · ★ 7.2/10

    Cab driver Max picks up a man who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.

  7. A Few Good Men 1992 · Rob Reiner · 138 min · ★ 7.6/10

    When cocky military lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee and his co-counsel, Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway, are assigned to a murder case, they uncover a hazing ritual that could implicate high-ranking officials such as shady Col. Nathan Jessep.

  8. Mission: Impossible 1996 · Brian De Palma · 111 min · ★ 7/10

    When Ethan Hunt, the leader of a crack espionage team whose perilous operation has gone awry with no explanation, discovers that a mole has penetrated the CIA, he's surprised to learn that he's the prime 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 · Edward Zwick · 154 min · ★ 7.6/10

    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.

  10. Top Gun 1986 · Tony Scott · 110 min · ★ 7.1/10

    For Lieutenant Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell and his friend and co-pilot Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw, 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 pilot.

  11. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol 2011 · Brad Bird · 133 min · ★ 7.1/10

    Ethan Hunt and his team are racing against time to track down a dangerous terrorist named Hendricks, 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

  12. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation 2015 · Christopher McQuarrie · 131 min · ★ 7.2/10

    Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet—eradicating 'The Syndicate', an International and highly-skilled rogue organization committed to destroying the IMF.

  13. Eyes Wide Shut 1999 · Stanley Kubrick · 159 min · ★ 7.5/10

    After Dr. Bill Harford's wife, Alice, admits to having sexual fantasies about a man she met, Bill becomes obsessed with having a sexual encounter. He discovers an underground sexual group and attends one of their meetings -- and quickly discovers that he is in over his head.

  14. Jerry Maguire 1996 · Cameron Crowe · 139 min · ★ 7/10

    Jerry Maguire used to be a typical sports agent: willing to do just about anything he could to get the biggest possible contracts for his clients, plus a nice commission for himself. Then, one day, he suddenly has second thoughts about what he's really doing. When he voices these doubts, he ends up losing his job and all of his clients, save Rod Tidwell, an egomaniacal football player.

  15. Born on the Fourth of July 1989 · Oliver Stone · 145 min · ★ 7/10

    Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, Ron Kovic becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

  16. War of the Worlds 2005 · Steven Spielberg · 117 min · ★ 6.6/10

    Ray Ferrier is a divorced dockworker and less-than-perfect father. Soon after his ex-wife and her new husband drop off his teenage son and young daughter for a rare weekend visit, a strange and powerful lightning storm touches down.

How this tournament works

  1. 16 movies enter a knockout bracket.
  2. Two titles face off at a time — you pick the one you would rather watch.
  3. Winners advance round by round until one champion is left: your pick for tonight.

There is no “right” answer and no algorithm deciding for you: the bracket only forces a series of small, easy comparisons instead of one impossible choice in front of a catalogue. You can also play it with friends — everyone votes the same duels from their own phone in a Brawl Room.

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