Tom Cruise helped reinvigorate the box office again this weekend thanks to the eye-popping success of Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise is now 40 years into his career as a superstar, and many of the movies that helped him reach that status are available to stream on Paramount+. That includes the original Top Gun, which was made for Paramount in 1986.
Maverick grossed an astonishing $160.5 million in its first four days of release, reports Variety. That is now the biggest Memorial Day debut in history, edging just past Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which opened with $153 million. It helps that Maverick earned the widest release in film history, playing at 4,732 North American cinemas.
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The new movie also proved how big a star Cruise is overseas. Maverick made $139 million in foreign markets, bringing its international total to over $300 million. Maverick is also the first movie in Cruise’s career to make over $100 million in its opening weekend. War of the Worlds earned Cruise’s previous biggest opening with a $64 million weekend in 2005. Now that you’ve satisfied the need… the need for speed, here’s a look at the other Cruise movies readily available on Paramount+.
Taps (1981)
Taps is technically Cruise’s second movie after he had a cameo role in Endless Love, released a few months earlier. However, Taps features Cruise’s first major role as Cadet Captain Alex Dwyer. The movie’s true star is Timothy Hutton, who was coming off his success in Ordinary People. Taps was based on a novel by Devery Freeman about military school cadets who take over the school to stop its closure. George C. Scott, Ronny Cox, and Sean Penn also star.
Top Gun (1986)
Although Top Gun has been available on other streamers in the past, Paramount made sure to have it available to stream on its own platform ahead of Maverick‘s release. While the success of Risky Business (streaming on HBO Max) proved Cruise was a star, Top Gun proved he could also lead a blockbuster. The movie became a phenomenon, so ingrained in pop culture that a sequel could dominate the box office 36 years later.
The Color of Money (1986)
While Top Gun was Cruise’s big movie of 1986, he also starred in Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed sequel to The Hustler, The Color of Money. It is best known today for helping Paul Newman secure his much-delayed Oscar victory. However, Cruise gives an electric performance as the young pool hustler Newman takes under his wing.
Mission: Impossible
Five of the six Mission: Impossible movies are available on Paramount+ as of this writing. The only one you won’t find there is J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, which is now on Showtime. The next movie, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, will be released in 2023.
War of the Worlds (2005)
In 2005, Cruise reunited with Minority Report director Steven Spielberg to star in a new take on H.G. Welles’ War of the Worlds. Cruise earned acclaim for his performance in the film, but he has not worked with Spielberg since.
Tropic Thunder (2008)
Anyone who saw Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder when it came out can remember the revelation at the end of the movie that Cruise played the obnoxious studio executive. His performance as Les Grossman is one of the many parts of Tropic Thunder that feel very different over a decade after its release. The character was loosely inspired by Scott Rudin, whose poor treatment of people and temper in real life were played for jokes here. Last year, several employees spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his abusive behavior, which eventually led to him stepping back from his stage and screen productions.
Jack Reacher (2012)
In the 2010s, Cruise appeared to be searching desperately for another franchise with Jack Reacher and later The Mummy. Although author Lee Child wrote dozens of novels about Jack Reacher, Cruise only wound up making two movies, Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016). Cruise’s casting as Reacher was controversial among the character’s fans because he didn’t match the character’s description. However, Cruise had Child’s endorsement in 2012. Eventually, though, Child came around to agree with fans in 2018 that Cruise wasn’t right for the part. Alan Ritchson stars as Reacher in the Amazon Prime Video series that debuted in February.
