Top Ten Tom Cruise Movie Moments

Tom Cruise is one of the most talented and well-versed actors in Hollywood. With starring roles in more than 30 films, spanning every possible genre, Tom Cruise has proved his star power time and again. Tom’s career has also been defined by very successful movies at the box office, including sixteen that have grossed more than $100 million. With the release of his latest film, “Knight and Day,” we countdown AccessHollywood.com’s top ten favorite Tom Cruise Movie Moments.

10. Tom’s bartending scene from “Cocktail”: Tom played an ex-soldier that tries to get a marketing job, but when he realizes he needs a college degree, he finds work as a bartender, an alternative career in which he successfully executes one of the most famous bartending scenes in the history of film. Not only did Tom Cruise flip bottles and entertain bar-goers in the movie “Cocktail” with flair, but his role as Brian Flanagan also earned him a nomination for the Razzie Award for Worst Actor. But hey, we still loved it!

9. Tom’s casino scene from “Rain Man”: Wanna learn how to master blackjack by counting cards and nearly bankrupting a casino? It’s exactly what Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman did in the movie “Rain Man.” In this classic scene, Tom and Dustin cheated their way Vegas-style to a large sum of winnings. We all know cheating is wrong, but it never looked like so much fun!

8. Tom’s motivational speech from “Magnolia”: Tom Cruise may be an actor, but he proved in “Magnolia” that he could deliver one heck of a compelling motivational speech on the big screen. It might not have been the exact “motivation” the audience would have expected from a typically clean-cut boy like Tom, but with his now famous “seduce and destroy” pitch, he taught male audience members exactly how to seduce women. So, remember to, “respect it… and tame it.”

7. Tom jumps car-to-car in “Minority Report”: From dramas to comedies, Tom Cruise has starred in numerous genres of movies and has pulled off many different types of characters. His most beloved roles, however, may just be those from his action movies. In “Minority Report,” he pulled off an intense car chase scene as he jumped from vehicle to vehicle, capturing a memorable movie moment.

6. “You Can’t Handle the Truth” from “A Few Good Men”: Some lines make scenes memorable, and some scenes become the heart of a film. This is particularly true with the now infamous line, “You can’t handle the truth!” from the movie “A Few Good Men.” Even though Jack Nicholson delivered the line, the courtroom scene with Tom Cruise goes down in history as a legendary moment. The line is listed at #29 on American Film Institute’s Top 100 movie quotes.

5. Tom hangs upside down while breaking in from “Mission: Impossible”: The “Mission Impossible” movies are known for their intense action scenes and Tom Cruise is known for entertaining audiences by performing the majority of the stunts himself. In the first “Mission: Impossible,” Tom showed off his athleticism in one particularly memorable scene when he hung upside down on a wire while trying to break into a CIA computer.

4. “Show Me The Money” from “Jerry Maguire”: Sometimes, a movie’s most famous line is more memorable than the plot, and in 1996, Tom Cruise delivered a line that would go on to stand the test of time. Still best known for the line, “Show me the money!” “Jerry Maguire” would go on to score an Academy Award win for Best Supporting Actor, Cuba Gooding, Jr. Although Cuba originated the line, Tom called and repeated it along with him. The line is listed at #25 on American Film Institute’s top 100 movie quotes and #80 on Premiere’s “The 100 Greatest Movie Lines” list.

3. Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder”: He was hairy, vulgar, and a killer hip-hop dancer. In a role that would go on to become a hilarious alter ego, Tom Cruise caught audiences by surprise with his cameo as media mogul Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder.” One of his most memorable scenes involved showing off his dance skills and doing what Les does best while jamming to a hip-hop beat. Les Grossman even made a return to the small screen by “producing” the 2010 MTV Movie Awards and has since landed his very own movie at Paramount. We wish nothing but success for Les as he continues to, “achieve greatness against the odds.”

2. “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” in “Top Gun”:
In all of Tom Cruise’s movies, he gets the girl, but in “Top Gun,” he delivered one of the best pick-up lines of all-time. Not only is, “She’s lost that lovin’ feeling” a memorable line from the movie, but his character, Maverick, swept Charlie (played by Kelly McGillis) off her feet with his (and 20 of his fellow cadets’) rendition of the actual song “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by The Righteous Brothers. Of course, Charlie was probably slightly embarrassed by Maverick’s approach, but deep down inside, what lady doesn’t want to be serenaded to by a group of complete strangers?

1. Tom’s dance scene from “Risky Business”:
When Paul Brickman simply directed Tom Cruise to “dance to rock music,” one of the greatest dance scenes in a movie was born. Trademarked by his character, Joel Goodson, wearing just a pink button-down shirt, underwear and white socks, Tom Cruise slid his way into our hearts when he rocked out to “Old Time Rock and Roll” by Bob Seger in the movie “Risky Business.” The memorable dance scene has been remade by television shows, spawned an all-star celebrity commercial for the video game ‘Guitar Hero,’ and most recently was mimicked again by Tom Cruise himself at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. The film also earned him his first Golden Globe nomination. So, thank you Tom! Your lip-syncing and floor action will forever be etched in our memories!

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