Tom Cruise's Career In Pictures

14 June 2012

Tom Cruise in Rock of Ages

As Tom Cruise gets ready to set the stage on fire in the brand new film Rock of Ages, we have taken a look back through the film archives to remind ourselves of some of his more surprising and finest films to date!

Early on in his career he wowed in high-stakes thriller Risky Business (1983), a movie that proved to be a career maker for the young actor.

He cemented himself as a talent really to keep an eye on when he took on the now iconic role of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun, which was released in 1986.

The movie make Cruise a superstar and Top Gun went on to become the biggest grossing movie of that year.

There are now talks of a sequel and Cruise revealed earlier this week that he was trying to work out the script.

In 1994 he starred opposite a young Kirsten Dunst, Brad Pitt and Thandie Newton in the 1994 film Interview with a Vampire, playing a ferocious vampire who helps Brad Pitt’s character to become a vampire too.

Later he starred opposite ex-wife Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick’s controversial final film, the 1999 sexually charged drama, Eyes Wide Shut.

But the actor has also made a name for himself as an action star as he took on the role of Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible franchise.

There have been four movies from 1996 to the most recent in 2011 - all of which have enjoyed box office success.

The franchise has grossed over $2 billion at the global box office and there are talks of a fifth film.

More recently he starred in the hit film - where he played a 19th century American military advisor who embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy.

And in 2008 he took on the role of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg in historical thriller Valkyrie, which was directed by Bryan Singer.

The movie was set during the Second World War and followed a group of Nazi officers who plotted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in a bid to take control of their country.