Listen Now

At long last, the time has come to (once again) don our tuxedos and roll out the red carpet. Welcome to The Cruisies: The Tom Cruise Awards! All podcast long, we’ve talked about our favorite (and least favorite) parts of Tom Cruise’s movies, and we announced our official selections for the best and worst of what Tom Cruise’s filmography has to offer and opened the voting to the public. Now, your votes have been tallied, our very special guest Juhi Khemani has verified the results, and it’s finally time to reveal our picks — as well as the fans’ selection — for each and every category. Live, from the internet, it’s The Cruisies: The Tom Cruise Awards!

Before we take a few weeks off to let the votes tally up for the Cruisies (The Tom Cruise Awards), we're working our way through one more episode, and we're ranking Tom Cruise's movies. As always, there's a weird alchemy here that doesn't quite make sense, as we combine the movie's "quality" with Cruise's performance, add a dash of how much we like him in the movie, and toss in some other hints and touches of things we can't quite articulate, and wind up with a comprehensive list of his films and roles in an order that only makes sense to us. 

We may have covered every movie that stars or features Tom Cruise, but there's a whole body of work that he's done that we haven't covered. Welcome to the Tom Cruise Clip Show! In this episode, we're working our way through a cameo appearances in movies and TV shows, as well as some stunt videos and late night appearances that surfaced on YouTube. Watch all of the clips we're talking about here!

We've watched and podcasted about all 42 movies that Tom Cruise has made so far. Each episode, we've talked about our favorite and least favorite moments, and we've ended each episode by nominating that movie for awards that showcase the very best (and very worst) that Tom Cruise's filmography has to offer. We've pared down our lists, and -- at long last -- the time has come to announce the official selections for the Cruisies: The Tom Cruise Awards. Sit back, relax, listen to all of the films, roles, moments, and actors nominated, then go to cageclub.me/bracket and cast your votes on who's taking home those sweet Cruisies awards! (Voting closes on Wednesday, July 15.) 

It's all led to this. Not only is Mission: Impossible - Fallout the final installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise (so far), but it also marks the final movie in Tom Cruise's filmography (also, so far). All we can say is... what a way to go out! We're joined by Zack DeZon to HALO jump out of a plane and talk about all the action, excitement, and running that Mission: Impossible - Fallout has to offer. In this episode, we discuss the continued evolution of the ensemble cast (as well as the addition of the wonderful Hattie Shaw, er, Vanessa Kirby), the continuation of storylines and themes set up in Rogue Nation, and -- seriously -- how long is Tom Cruise going to run?

We're running drugs, guns, and "freedom fighters" from Arkansas to Nicaragua to Panama -- and back again -- as we take off and chat about American Made! We're, ahem, running out of runway on #CruiseClub, with only one more movie to cover after American Made (a little indie called Mission: Impossible - Fallout), but we're going out in style as Cruise re-teams up with Doug Liman to tell the (mostly) true story of Barry Seal. In this episode, we're going deep to talk about Cruise's charisma, the kinetic docu-style filmmaking style, and how this movie (like a few other recent Cruise movies) winds up being a pretty perfect distillation of his career to this point.

While the Dark Universe never came to fruition, we'll always have The Mummy. But is Tom Cruise the Mummy? By the end of the movie, the answer is unclear. The world may never know what this ragtag bunch of misfits' series of adventures would entail, but joining us to talk about the first installment is Kate Hudson (#HudsonFive). In this episode, we talk about all the stunts that worked, all the plot dumps that didn't, and wonder where this franchise could have gone had a few more people gone to the theater to support it. We also discuss all of our favorite miscastings, wasted performances, and schlocky CGI that The Mummy has to offer.

Aside from the Mission: Impossible series, Tom Cruise isn't one to dabble in sequels, which makes Jack Reacher: Never Go Back all the more unusual. Based on the 18th (!!!) novel in the series, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back feels like a much later entry in the franchise than a first sequel. How could the creative team possibly be out of ideas already? Mike dons his Third Time's A Charm cap as we discuss the action we like, the plot we don't like, and the overwhelming "sure, okay" of most of the rest of the movie. It's not a bad movie, but when your filmography is as stacked as Tom Cruise's...

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation has to do some serious heavy lifting, far more so than any other movie in the franchise. Not only does it have to tell an engaging, standalone story, but it's asked to follow the events of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol more closely than any previous installment has done, while also setting things up for Mission: Impossible – Fallout. (What is this, an MCU movie?!) If there's one man who's up for the task, it's Ethan Hunt. (Also, we guess, Tom Cruise.) In this episode, we talk about Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation's merits as a standalone movies, how it changes the face of the Mission: Impossible franchise, and where we go from here.

It's truly a shame that Edge of Tomorrow didn't do well in theaters -- so poorly, in fact, that it was later retitled Live Die Repeat -- because it's one of Tom Cruise's best movies yet. With the benefit of hindsight (as well as tastes that almost perfectly align with what this movie's trying to do), we're able to see Edge of Tomorrow as the masterpiece that it is. Joining us to gush about this movie, the effective use of the Groundhog Day plot device, and all things Emily Blunt is Nick Jenkins (Reel Bad). Join us as we live the same day, over and over and over again, as we become stuck in a time loop.

One year before Tom Cruise starred in Edge of Tomorrow (and blew our collective minds), he found himself in another big-budget sci-fi movie: Oblivion. The finished product doesn't quite hold up as well as his next film will, but there's a lot to admire here, and even more to pick apart. We're joined by Matt Delhauer (The Ginger Geek Podcast) to talk -- spoiler alert! -- lost love, clones, and whether or not your lost love can easily translate from one clone to the next. We also talk about the best parts of Oblivion, the worst parts of Oblivion, and why it didn't quite hold up the way it could have, albeit through no fault of its own. (Also! Scheduling update: #CruiseClub is now weekly!)

Jack Reacher is a by the book action thriller. Jack Reacher is an action movie that subverts your every expectation. What *is* Jack Reacher? We're trying to figure out why the latest new franchise for Tom Cruise works as well as it does, almost in spite of the overwhelming odds its script hurls against it. We also talk about the palpable sexual tension that goes hand in hand with an almost absolute lack of overt sexuality, the impressive ensemble cast that is almost wholly given *just* not enough to do, and the movie's funny moments that serve to break the tension in a movie otherwise filled without much in the way of relief.

Rock of Ages marks the beginning of the end for #CruiseClub, in a way. For the final time (to date, anyway), Tom Cruise is not the star of a movie. Joining us to talk about all of the chaos of Rock of Ages are both of the co-hosts of The Contenders: Aislinn Addington and Tobin Addington. In this episode, we talk about the many types of chaos in the movie, the many ways it fails its characters (and its audience), and its juking box musical soundtrack. We also fiercely debate whether or not the movie is fun, which seems to fundamentally divide the four of us by how we choose to watch this movie.

Going from Mission: Impossible – Ultra Lite (Knight and Day) to Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol offers one of the more eye-opening turnarounds in #CruiseClub so far. The latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise (to this point in the podcast's timeline, anyway) may mark both the franchise's high-water mark, as well as the podcast's. Joining us as we take a trip up a building in Dubai is Jeremy Kelly. In this episode, we discuss the best action scenes, the new team members, and the new tech. We also debate where Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol ranks in the franchise, and wonder where Rogue Nation and Fallout will land among our favorite Cruise movies when all is said and done.

What if Ethan Hunt had to drag you along while on a mission to save the world? Does Ethan Hunt (or, in this case, "Ethan Hunt") ever truly go rogue? Should you trust a stranger? What if that stranger looks and acts like Tom Cruise? What if Gal Gadot shows up out of nowhere? These are just some of the many questions Knight and Day asks, and we're determined to get to the bottom of things. Joining us to help answer these questions are Walter Hickey (of Numlock News) and Jessica Collins (who spent most of her life with the last name Knight and seems perfectly suited to help us out). Opinions are split! We talk about what works, what doesn't, and how this movie is thiiiiis close to being great, and how it's almost an all-timer. (Also: yes, we get the actor who plays the villain's name wrong almost the entire podcast, but we fix it by the end!)

We continue our journey through the "lesser known" portion of #CruiseClub with Valkyrie, a movie where Tom Cruise tries to kill Adolf Hitler. Joining us to talk about this film is John Brooks, fresh off his appearance last week on our Toy Story 2 episode on #HANX for the Memories! We discuss Cruise's portrayal of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, how true the movie was to the historical events leading up to this assassination attempt, and the fact that just about no one seems to know von Stauffenberg's name or story. We also discuss how Valkyrie fits into the series of more obscure Tom Cruise movies that we've been covering lately, and which looks to continue for a few more movies!

Four of the next five movies we're covering in #CruiseClub -- Tropic Thunder, Valkyrie, Knight and Day, and Rock of Ages -- along with our last episode (Lions for Lambs) represent most of the biggest unknowns (to us, anyway) for the rest of #CruiseClub. Tropic Thunder continues this mini-run with a very uncommon role for Tom Cruise: supporting actor. We're heading to Vietnam and recording this podcast guerrilla-style, but before we do, we're enlisting the help of Kyle Reinfried (of Foodie Films) and Zack DeZon. In this episode, we talk about Cruise's minor (but memorable) role and scenes, Matthew McConaughey's deep love for his clients (and for TiVo), and whether or not the comedy holds up more than a decade later.

By this point in Tom Cruise's career -- we're barely over a decade away from catching up -- there are very few surprises left. We've seen (and love!) just about everything that's coming up for the rest of this show's run. Then, there's Lions for Lambs, a movie neither of us had ever seen, and neither of us knew anything about. What a world this is that still holds some secrets! Joining us on this episode is resident Meryl Streep expert Michael Domanico of the Not Her Again podcast. It's especially fitting that Michael joins us for this episode, as Cruise and Meryl square off for one-third of Lions for Lambs... and Michael had never seen this movie either! In this episode, we talk about whether the three story structure worked, whether or not the movie stuck its political (or apolitical?) landing, and why people haven't been casting Tom Cruise as a politician for years. He's born to play the part!

Your mission, once again, should you choose to accept it, is to listen to our #CruiseClub episode about Mission: Impossible III! In this episode, we're joined by Dan Colon to help us figure out how the third installment in the franchise compares to the other Mission: Impossible movies, and whether it lives up to our hype our memories had created. We also talk about JJ Abrams's influence behind the camera (for his first feature-length film), whether or not the "in media res" opening works for this story, and which stunts in Mission: Impossible III stand out the most. We also heap praise upon Philip Seymour Hoffman, wish for far more Keri Russell, and welcome the permanent new addition of Simon Pegg to our team. Would alternate casting choices have been better? Listen to the episode and find out!

Three years after teaming up for Minority Report, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise reunited once again for War of the Worlds. To talk about their second (and, to date, final) collaboration, we're welcoming in Jeremy Kelly, our (brace yourself for this hyper-specific title) resident mid-2000s sci-fi remake expert. In this episode, we talk about the ways this movie differs from the original H.G. Wells version of War of the Worlds, the effectiveness of a small story within a global story, and the movie's abrupt ending. We also discover that we like and dislike wildly different sequences of the movie from one another, realize that this is (in more ways than one) a secret sequel to The Shawshank Redemption, and keep an eye out for Channing Tatum's uncredited role as "Boy in Church" (note: he is still not in this movie).