The Many Faces of Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise may not exactly be able to lose himself within a particular role in the same way that chameleon-esque actors such as Sean Penn or Gary Oldman are able to do, but one things for damn sure…Tom Cruise sure gives great face! Whether he's playing a cocksure a**hole who learns a valuable lesson about love, an arrogant jerkwad who turns over a new leaf as a caring human being or even an overly-confident tool who begins to see the world in a different light once the tables are turned, Tom Cruise brings the face and brings it hard!

He might have a chiseled chin and a dashing brow, but he'll grimace, scowl and furrow with the best of them. It doesn't matter if he's trying to outrun an alien armageddon in New Jersey, asking Nicole Kidman if she likes his invisible hat in a bad Irish accent, using explosive gum to destroy a helicopter in a train tunnel or demanding to be exposed to a large amount of cash at the top of his lungs, Cruise has a veritable "Blue Steel" well of expressions to draw from.

With Knight and Day, staring Cruise and Cameron Diaz, opening nationwide today, we invite you to join us as we take a journey – a cruise if you will – through the many myriad faces of Tom "Respect the C@#%" Cruise!

---

Top Gun
The "Take My Breath Away" Maverick Grin

Take it easy. We're quoting the Berlin song from Gun and not admitting that Cruise and his dreamy…majestic…smile has any kind of allure…to us…sorry! Got swept up in the pearly whites there. This trademark smile was the basic amino acid signature for Cruise's early movie career as a guy who could assuage your fears and let you know that everything was going to be okay because, "Hey, it's me!" Of course, in Top Gun, Maverick's devil-may-care attitude wound up getting his best friend, and even more bestest volleyball buddy, Goose, ejector-murdered – but dammit, something had to wind up traumatizing him and teaching him that life is a never-ending downpour of disappointment. *snaps teeth together* Even to this day, Maverick catches himself raising his hand for a high-five, only to realize that no one will ever be there to share his need…his need for speed.

Legend
The "Tangerine Dream" Gaze of Wonder

One upon a time, Cruise played a lovelorn forest lad who touched a unicorn and ruined the entire world. And everything was filmed in glaucoma-vision. And Cruise had hair like he was the bassist for 30 Seconds to Mars. And Ferris Beuller's girlfriend dressed up like a hell-queen and gave us all a raging pre-anime boner. There was no watershed smirking in Ridley Scott's serene Legend, but there were extended scenes of Cruise's comatose bewilderment.

A Few Good Men
The Truth-Seeking Missile Face

Cruise's role as the boastful barrister, Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Lt. Dan!), earned Cruise a ton of Hollywood bonus points (which can be redeemed for prizes at most Pinkberry locations) by going toe to toe with Jack Nicholson's nefarious Col. Jessup in this scene where Cruise proved that he wasn't just a pretty face – he was a determined and animated pretty face who could simultaneously look like a guy who will most certainly explode if you don't pull his finger and a creepy animatronic duck from Chuck E Cheese.

Interview with the Vampire
The White Fang Vamp Veneer

Cruise took a big risk by playing his first ever villain this 1994 Neil Jordan puffy shirt parade, and when it came time for his ferociously undead Lestat to tell the mope-meister Louis (Brad Pitt) to grow a pair and start murdering innocent civilians like a normal vampire, he really let it all hang out. And by "all" we mean his sternocleidomastoid muscle and by "hang out" we mean bulge. Look at that thing! It's like Wolverine is living inside his skin and trying to claw his way out. By the way, are there two worse names for vampires than Louis and Lestat? They sound like they should be animated pigeons. I would have called them Skywarp and Thundercracker. Or Quimby Q. Snodgrass