Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | May 21, 2026
When you think of Tom Cruise in 2026, a few things probably come to mind: Scientology, TomKat, couch jumping, of course, but the prevailing image the average person has of the actors is of him running. You know the run: that hyper-focused, slightly goofy but extremely motivated dash that seems like it could outrun a hurricane. Or maybe they think of him hanging to the side of a plane with his bare hands as it takes off. Or perhaps him scaling the tallest building in the world. Or skydiving through the clouds. To think of Tom Cruise today is to think of the invincible action man who does the unthinkable on the big screen, the kinds of stunts that no other big-name actor would ever be allowed to try, much less want to. Cruise has been one of the biggest stars on the planet for over four decades, and three of them have been defined by the action franchise that made him a legend: Mission: Impossible.
When the first film, directed by Brian de Palma, was announced in the early 1990s, many thought it was kind of a bland choice for the actor. He’d just done Interview with the Vampire, which is a certified masterpiece, and he had proven his acting chops with other dramas like Born on the Fourth of July. Sure, he had his big action movies like Top Gun and Days of Thunder too, but why remake a ’60s TV series? Paramount, though, believed in the project and Cruise was a big enough star that he could demand things like script approval and the addition of a big showy action scene involving a giant lobster tank. He also ensured that the movie was The Tom Cruise Show, even if it meant all but abandoning the source material. Indeed, some of the show’s original cast members were pretty disappointed by how the movie either dramatically changed their characters or ignored them outright.
Being a Tom Cruise movie in 1996 meant that Mission: Impossible was, of course, a big hit: the third-highest grossing movie of the year. Critics were initially mixed on the film, finding the plot needlessly complicated and the characters flat, but they all agreed that the action scenes were incredible. That break-in scene where Cruise dangles from the ceiling is iconic. The battle on top of the train as it goes through a tunnel is still nerve-wracking to watch 30 years later. That Cruise was doing most of his own stunts added to the palpable thrills of it all. And it’s still a Brian de Palma movie so it all looks as cool as hell.
1996 was a great year for Cruise. It gave him a box office smash and also his second Oscar nomination with Jerry Maguire. After that, we wouldn’t see Cruise on-screen for three more years, where he’d deliver two of his most exciting and un-Cruise performances. Magnolia had him play an anti-Tom incel creep who teaches wannabe pick-up artists to treat women like dirt, all while he struggles with his daddy issues. Eyes Wide Shut, which had an 18-month shoot, cast Cruise alongside then-wife Nicole Kidman as a man whose sexual frustration leads him down a rabbit hole of paranoia that culminates in a disturbing revelation of the structures of elite power. Cruise is great in both movies, and each role required him to fracture his image as Terrific Tom the Movie Star in favour of exploring ideas of broken masculinity and predatory desire.
These aren’t themes he would continue to tackle as the new millennium rolled on. He divorced Nicole, got more public about Scientology, and gained a reputation for being, well, a bit of a weirdo. We were there. We all saw it. What helped him to fix that? Mission: Impossible. The franchise had been consistent with a new movie every four or five years. The plots remained impenetrable but the stunts grew ever-more elaborate and, yes, impossible. I remember the hype when Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released in 2011, and how it felt like Tom Cruise was BACK. It wasn’t Valkyrie or Jack Reacher that made him beloved once more. It was Ethan Hunt, the role that reshaped him into a unique kind of Hollywood action star in the ’90s. And it would keep doing that until last year, when the franchise came to an end and Cruise stopped running.
Ethan Hunt is a bit of a cipher. He’s handsome, drive, loyal to his team, and adoring of his wife who he sends into hiding rather than put at risk. He doesn’t crack endless jokes although he’s not humourless, and he has a healthy scepticism towards authority without being a complete dissident. He’s the anti-James Bond, the Jason Bourne who has friends. It’s not the most deftly drawn character but Cruise only needed the right vessel to allow him to be Mr. Invincible. Nobody else could do it and that’s what made him powerful, on and off the screen. It’s what brought audiences back to the fold after years of Xenu-related jackassery. Eventually, he’d smartly wield that strength for other movies, like Top Gun: Maverick. It remains to be seen if he can keep audiences satisfied without his bag of tricks as he moves back into “serious” movies in 2026, with Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s satire Digger.
Mission: Impossible gets dinged nowadays as one of the weaker films in the franchise but it’s still a classic action-thriller that holds up after multiple viewings. Cruise’s entire shtick as Ethan Hunt includes pretending that the human laws of ageing don’t apply to him, but seeing him as a young guy losing his belief in the system and fighting against his old friends for justice lands with a punch (atop a moving vehicle.) I think way too much about how Cruise’s future would have been wildly different had he, say, stuck to playing Lestat over Ethan Hunt (rockstar Lestat Tom Cruise, please?!) Would Scientology Tom have withstood the pushback had he vampires to rely on over skyscraper climbs? Probably not, as much as I would have loved it. To be The Last Movie Star, Cruise had to choose a higher trajectory, and it was Ethan Hunt who set up the foundations for that. We’re all still living in the shadow of those parachutes.
