As Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters, we thought it would be the perfect time to look back at the illustrious and stunt-filled career of Tom Cruise and ask you to help us decide which of his movies is the best of the best.
Do you think one of his adventures as Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise is the greatest? Or do you prefer when he’s flying high in the sky as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun or Top Gun: Maverick? We’ve selected 41 of Tom Cruise’s most iconic roles to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time. Will you choose The Last Samurai’s Nathan Algren over Risky Business’ Joel? Tropic Thunder’s Les Grossman over Minority Report’s Chief John Anderton? The choice is yours…
(And don't forget, you can pass on a Face-Off round if you don't know a character by just hitting "skip" at the bottom of the page.)
Click here to start voting in the Tom Cruise Face-Off!
What Is a Face-Off?
Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two things against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine which Tom Cruise movie is the best. It's possible to see some of his characters multiple times, so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. IGN's resident team of Tom Cruise experts pre-selected 41 roles for you to choose from. These get randomly paired up and each time you pick a winner, it's tracked.
How Is the Winner Determined?
When voting ends on 11:59pm PT on July 17, we tally up the total number of "wins" and "losses" each Tom Cruise movie has, and create a ranked list based on your choices that will be revealed on July 18. The movie that won the most matchups will be crowned the "winner," and in the event of a tied number of "wins," the character with the least "losses" will take the top spot. If you continue to keep voting for your favorite movie, they'll have a better chance of ranking high on the list. You can vote as many times as you want until the Face-Off closes.
How Do I Know When I’ve Clicked Through Everything?
It's difficult to know when you've seen every Tom Cruise movie included because they are matched randomly and there are so many possible match-ups. Playing until you vote for all your favorites or ensuring that certain movies don't get in the winner's circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. By deciding the winner throughout all these match-ups, you're ensuring that your picks for the best Tom Cruise movie will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list.
Which of Tom Cruise’s Movies Have You Included?
The list of Tom Cruise movies has been decided by IGN staff, and we’ve decided to include his starring roles and some of his more shocking cameos in films like Tropic Thunder and Austin Power in Goldmember. We’ve included everything from his first role as Billy in Endless Love to his performance as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick. The only film we haven’t included is Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One as it was just released and not everyone has had a chance to see it yet.
Click here to start voting in the Tom Cruise Face-Off!
For more Tom Cruise, check out our Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One review, our list from 2017 of the 30 greatest Tom Cruiser movies moments, and Dead Reckoning’s director on how Cruise’s most dangerous stunt is still to come.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
