Let’s (not) get sweaty!

The Mission:Impossible films — all five of them so far, with a sixth on the way — are a feast of scenes that can be watched and rewatched, but we pick an all-time classic from the first film. Super agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) infiltrates the vault in the CIA headquarters at Langley to steal the prized NOC (non-official cover) list. But that’s easier said than done and we hold our breath as Ethan suspends himself from the ceiling, head down, and attempts to crack the computer code. The ‘whoa’ moment? When a thin line of sweat trickles over his glasses and threatens to fall on the pressure sensitive floor, but he catches it in his palm at the last minute. Phew!

You can’t handle the truth

Cruise was tailormade for the role of Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a navy lawyer, in the Rob Reiner legal drama A Few Good Men. The final confrontation between Kaffee and Col. Nathan Jessup (Jack Nicholson) where a red-faced, furious Kaffee demands to know the truth about Code Red from Jessup was one intense scene. Nicholson may have been superlative in a role that demanded a high level of histrionics, but Cruise’s understated act won us over more. 

Dance like no one’s watching

What’s not to love about a oh-so-handsome Cruise, in a white shirt and underwear and a pair of white socks, dancing around the house in Risky Business? The now iconic scene has Cruise’s Joel sliding across the hardboard floor just as Bob Seger’s Old Time Rock and Roll starts playing in the background. That candlestand as mic, those moves, that attitude…. And Cruise confessed in an interview last year that he “completely ad-libbed” through that scene!

Grab that mic

From dancing to singing. We are still hung up on Maverick crooning You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling to Charlie (Kelly McGillis) in Top Gun, even making the whole bar sing along with him to the Righteous Brothers classic. Top scene, top turn from Tom!

Cruise (in) control

If we like Cruise the romantic hero, then we love Cruise the action star. We pick that scene from Knight and Day where his secret agent Roy Miller is on a flight with the unsuspecting June (Cameron Diaz). Cool as a cucumber, he kills the other passengers on the plane who were sent to kill him, while June is in the restroom. It’s a cheesy scene, but the man is so much fun!

Bad boy cool

Leather pants and long hair, kohl-rimmed eyes and ripped tattooed abs — Cruise rocked the rock star act as bad boy Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages. Stacee does a lot of deliciously wicked things in this film, but Cruise is simply something else when he’s crooning Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar on Me, capped by that hot, sweaty dance with a groupie.  

Show me the money!

This class act from Cruise in Jerry Maguire won him an Oscar nomination and though there are winner scenes aplenty, we pick the phone conversation between sports agent Jerry Maguire (Cruise) and his client Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr). Maguire, unemployed and trying to hold on to his clients, starts off cool at first, but becomes desperate as the call continues. This scene gave us the classic line, “Show me the money!” and showed us how good an actor Cruise could be. 

Never give up

A scene which stresses on the importance of not giving up, the 2003 film The Last Samurai had Cruise in the role of an alcoholic US Army captain tasked with training the newly created Japanese Imperial army. Cruise turned in a winner act, excelling in this sword fight in the rain scene, where he was brought down many a time, but didn’t quit. And did we mention how dishy he looked with that beard?

Vroom!

We all know how good the man is with bikes, but in Jack Reacher we discovered he has a thing for cars too! The scene where he is trying to escape the police in a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle is one thrilling ride. At the end of the chase when he sees no way out, Reacher sets his car in slo-mo, climbs out of it and joins a group of people on the pavement. He slips on a cap, casually boards a bus and escapes, even as the cops surround his car, now empty. #Swag

Spidey stunt

With every Mission Impossible outing, Cruise ups the deadly stunts scale. In this fourth M:I film, we get to see his Ethan Hunt in a nailbiting scene, scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest building in the world. The moment his cable runs short and he has to run around the building to get through the open window is a cliffhanger. That Cruise did it himself is a #win.

Text: Debolina Banerjee
Which is your top Tom Cruise scene? Tell t2@abp.in