Where Does Tom Cruise Go From Here?

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Impossible – The Final Reckoning” suggests that this may be the last installment of the series featuring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Although Ethan doesn’t die in the movie, there is a lingering sense of uncertainty about his future. Tom Cruise, who started the series nearly 30 years ago and is now 62, has referred to the film as a “culmination.” This leads us to wonder where Tom Cruise might go next after this franchise.

In the late 2000s, the Mission: Impossible series played a significant role in keeping Tom Cruise’s career afloat as numerous scandals tarnished his public image and caused him to lose a substantial portion of his fanbase. As the movie industry was shifting towards a model focused on franchises, this singular film series became Cruise’s lifeline. Poor performances from films like Knight and Day, Valkyrie, and so on didn’t faze him because he always had another installment of Mission: Impossible in the pipeline, such as Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation, and more recently, Fallout. Essentially, Cruise was following the typical strategy of stars by balancing riskier projects with proven successes. However, given his status as Tom Cruise, these endeavors carried a higher level of anticipation and importance.

In the past, it appeared as though Tom Cruise’s range of roles was becoming more limited. Some of the riskier projects he took on were intended to be action franchises. For instance, The Mummy was an unsuccessful attempt to launch Universal’s “Dark Universe” series of shared-universe monster movies. He played Jack Reacher in two films but eventually stopped. While the first film was well-received, the second was poorly reviewed and underperformed at the box office. Edge of Tomorrow, although critically acclaimed, was a commercial flop, but there’s talk of a sequel. The only truly original non-action movie in his resume during the past decade or so is American Made, a cynical drama about a pilot involved in the CIA’s illegal drug and gun operations in Latin America during the 1980s. This film sometimes feels like a gritty reinterpretation of Top Gun. To be fair, some of these projects failed to succeed: both American Made and Edge of Tomorrow showcase Cruise at his best, utilizing his All-American charm and acting range to portray complex, intriguing characters.

Over the past six years, Cruise has primarily focused on producing Mission: Impossible and Top Gun sequels. This decision can be partly attributed to the COVID-induced delays of the intricate and prolonged productions of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning, which were initially planned as two interconnected movies. Filming for these began before the pandemic. He has expressed intentions to continue the Top Gun series, suggesting that it could potentially replace the Mission: Impossible franchise in his future projects. Therefore, it seems like he’s planning to stay within the realm of familiar action franchises for as long as possible.

Additionally, it appears that things might be shifting once more, as Tom Cruise has mentioned the possibility of creating a film featuring the character Les Grossman, the profane and psychotic studio executive he portrayed under heavy makeup in “Tropic Thunder”. If this project comes to fruition, it would certainly be amusing. Currently, he’s also working on a comedy with Alejandro González Iñárritu, director of “Birdman” and “The Revenant”. The proposed plot (again, IMDb is the source, so take it with a pinch of salt) is intriguing: “The most influential person in the world causes a catastrophe and embarks on a journey to prove he is humanity’s savior.” This could be an excellent platform for Cruise to showcase his underutilized comedic talents, while also delving deeper into the darker aspects of his acting range, which were so impactful in films like “Collateral” and “Magnolia”. A Tom Cruise comedy about megalomania? Count us in.

Regarding Iñárritu, opinions among critics are frequently split, but partnering with a two-time Academy Award winner is a choice that even the old Cruise might have made. After attaining fame in the mid-80s, the actor deliberately collaborated with esteemed directors such as Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Stanley Kubrick, Michael Mann, and the Scott brothers. He also demonstrated remarkable care over his projects, frequently molding characters to align with his screen image and recurring themes (a practice he is said to have initiated on the original Top Gun, which catapulted him to superstardom). During this period, Tom Cruise’s films were more than just box office successes; they were critically acclaimed movies like Rain Man, The Color of Money, Born on the Fourth of July, A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, and Collateral. Although the acting Oscar that many believed was his destiny has remained out of reach (he arguably deserved it for Magnolia), Tom Cruise was a rare star who consistently took on original, risky films.

It’s well-known that Tom Cruise frequently engages in high-speed chases on screen, often running towards a goal. More recently, it appears he’s been doing a lot of running off screen too, but this time, he seems to be running away from something. In recent years, he has preferred to work with directors he has collaborated with previously such as Christopher McQuarrie, Joseph Kosinski, Doug Liman, and Edward Zwick. While there’s nothing wrong with this, it can sometimes feel like he is being overly cautious. Perhaps he is still affected by the backlash he faced in the 2000s when social media was just emerging, and people were eager to discuss his personal life. This leads me to ponder if the dangerous stunts he performs might be a way of making amends or distraction. After all, it’s hard to criticize someone for their private life when they are risking their own life by jumping motorcycles into Norwegian canyons. If you question him about Scientology, he won’t hear you due to the loud engines of the plane he’s hanging from. And if something were to happen to him, wouldn’t you feel guilty?

Previously, there was much conjecture surrounding this elusive celebrity’s intricate family dynamics, but now he is widely recognized as a passionate cinephile and workaholic, devoting all his energy to filmmaking, rehearsals, premieres, contemplating movies, and backing fellow filmmakers. People even refer to him as “the President of Movies.” Theater staff have shared clips of him engaging with them amicably, answering questions effortlessly. What stands out most about him these days seems to be his peculiar popcorn-eating habits. This transformation is what publicists would call a success.

By 2025, Tom Cruise is no longer the same man he was in 2015 or even 2005, and the way the world views him has undergone a significant transformation. It seems to me that his own self-image may have shifted as well. When he jumped off the Stade de France during last year’s Paris Olympics closing ceremony, even he appeared taken aback by the overwhelming affection he received from some of the world’s most prominent athletes on the field. The genuine nature of this reaction was palpable, to the point that any display a megastar makes under the scrutiny of countless cameras for the enjoyment of millions of viewers can be considered genuine. It was almost as if he was being reinstated into everyone’s good books.

Perhaps he might find respite from his relentless pace, allowing him to explore new avenues once more, to seize opportunities, and lend his charisma to underdog projects that could potentially offer him coveted roles. I fondly recall his remarkable performance in the less-than-impressive film “Rock of Ages”. Indeed, he is often referred to as “the last movie star”, but let’s not forget we still have a few gems like Timothée Chalamet, Margot Robbie, and Michael B. Jordan who are making their mark. However, Tom Cruise has, for quite some time, seemed like the last remnant of an epoch, where star-led studio comedies and dramas dominated Hollywood, producing timeless classics that we, admittedly, underappreciated. Those genres have been hanging on by a thread for some years now. They could certainly benefit from a revival.

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2025-06-05 17:54