Tom Cruise is 62 and still out here defying death like it’s just another Tuesday. Case in point: “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” where he’s once again pulling off stunts that would send most actors half his age into early retirement. The comparisons to his ‘Top Gun’ alter ego Maverick are more apt than ever — both are thrill-seeking maniacs with zero understanding of the word “retire.”
A couple years back, Cruise told The Sydney Morning Herald he was modeling his career longevity after Hollywood’s other ageless action relic, Harrison Ford. “I hope to still be going. I’ve got 20 years to catch up to him,” he said. “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible movies until I’m his age.”
Fast forward to now, and Cruise has doubled down on that plan — or maybe tripled. “I actually said I’m going to make movies into my 80s; actually, I’m going to make them into my 100s,” he recently told THR. Bold words from a man who routinely jumps off cliffs for fun. “I will never stop. I will never stop doing action, I will never stop doing drama, comedy films — I’m excited,” he added, as if retirement is a personal insult.
But let’s be real: picturing an 80-year-old Cruise clinging to a cargo plane or riding a motorcycle off a canyon edge feels ridiculous. At some point, even the most relentless adrenaline junkie has to admit that bones get brittle and CGI exists for a reason.
What often gets buried under all the skydiving and explosions, though, is the fact that Cruise can actually act. Like, really well. Remember “Born on the Fourth of July”? Or his cold-blooded assassin in “Collateral,” his unhinged comedic genius in “Tropic Thunder,” or his absolutely electric, Oscar-worthy meltdown in “Magnolia.”
Sure, he’s been chained to the blockbuster IP machine for a while, but one of his last “real movies” was 2017’s American Made, where he played a sleazy pilot-slash-CIA asset with smirking charm and actual nuance. He was great in it. No cliffs required.
Tom Cruise is still a force of nature. But here’s hoping that somewhere between defying gravity and common sense, he makes room for Tom the actor, not just Tom the human stunt reel.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.