For our fourth top five, we each ranked five Tom Cruise movies without seeing the other's list first. Across thirty years of his filmography, we only really agreed on one. See the full ranked list.
Matt's list, bottom to top: Mission: Impossible (the original, not any of the five sequels — he debated the third one too, but the original's vault-ceiling drop and exploding-gum scene won out), Far and Away, Top Gun, Edge of Tomorrow, and his number one, A Few Good Men. He says that's the film where Cruise really goes toe-to-toe with Jack Nicholson, in writing he calls spot-on in every scene.
Jeff's list, bottom to top: Edge of Tomorrow, Far and Away, A Few Good Men, Top Gun: Maverick, and his number one, Mission: Impossible III. He credits one scene for that pick: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Cruise tied to a chair, Hoffman's wife in the room. It's so intense that he and his son had to turn it off on a rewatch.
Three films turned up on both lists, Mission: Impossible (in different installments), Far and Away, and Edge of Tomorrow, but only one of them landed in the exact same spot on both: Far and Away, at number four for each of us, with neither of us planning it that way.
Where we really split is the top of the list and the Mission: Impossible pick. Matt went with the 1996 original for the explosive gum and the vault-ceiling drop; Jeff's favorite is Mission: Impossible III, mostly for that opening scene. And our number ones couldn't be more different: Matt's is a courtroom drama, Jeff's is an action sequel.
Far and Away also gave away how much we're suckers for this kind of movie. We grew up on it and on Dances with Wolves, and Jeff still says "tell me you like my hat" any time he's wearing one. The Oklahoma land rush and John Williams's score hold up for both of us, even if neither of us can really vouch for Tom Cruise's Irish accent.
Hear the full breakdown, along with our reviews of Forgotten Island and Hamnet, on episode 4.