Tom Cruise Has Zero Films in the Top 10 Highest-Ranked Action Movies—How Is That Possible?

Tom Cruise is basically the poster child for modern movie stunts, but here is a twist: IMDb users do not have a single Cruise title in their top 10 action movies. Not even one. His highest-rated action hit is way lower than you might expect.

IMDb's top action picks vs. Cruise's best shot

Cruise has worked with the heaviest hitters in the business — Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick — across the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Then, for the last couple decades, he pivoted hard into action, especially Mission: Impossible, and pushed the stunt game to the edge. But on IMDb's action leaderboard, his top entry is 2022's Top Gun: Maverick with an 8.2/10... at No. 27.

Here is what actually sits at the top right now (and yes, a couple 2025 anime films are already in there):

• 1. The Dark Knight (2008) - 9.1
• 2. Inception (2010) - 8.8
• 3. The Matrix (1999) - 8.7
• 4. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - 8.7
• 5. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 8.6
• 6. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) - 8.6
• 7. Seven Samurai (1954) - 8.6
• 8. Chainsaw Man - The Movie: Reze Arc (2025) - 8.5
• 9. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle (2025) - 8.5
• 10. Gladiator (2000) - 8.5

Why Cruise keeps chasing bigger, scarier stunts

The thing that makes Cruise, well, Cruise is that he does the stunts himself. That is the brand. The training, the bruises, the costs — all part of the pitch. Studios do not complain because it doubles as marketing. You see the behind-the-scenes clip of him hanging off something he should not be hanging off of, and you buy a ticket.

There is a long list at this point: he once rode the outside of a plane while it was taking off, learned speed-flying for a later Mission: Impossible, broke his ankle leaping between buildings, and dangled from the top of the Burj Khalifa in Ghost Protocol. For the original Top Gun, he trained inside a fighter jet with real pilots. One water landing scene nearly went very wrong when his parachute started filling with water.

"He came as close to dying as anybody on a set I've ever seen."

That is actor Barry Tubb, telling the New York Post back in 2011 that Cruise almost drowned during the Top Gun shoot before crew caught it and pulled him out. Matt Damon has also told a story (via Conan) where Cruise said he fired a safety guy who called a stunt too dangerous — which, yes, sounds exactly like him.

Has this strategy worked? Pretty much. The bigger the stunt, the bigger the curiosity factor. Audience numbers climbed through the Mission: Impossible series (until the most recent entry), and that same must-see factor helped make Top Gun: Maverick the biggest box office hit of Cruise's career.

The awards gap... and a possible fix

Despite the bankable star power, Cruise's trophy shelf does not really match the grosses. The narrative feels a bit like Leonardo DiCaprio's long Oscars drought — the one that ended when he teamed with Alejandro G. Inarritu on The Revenant. Cruise has never won the top acting prize, and a lot of fans are wondering if a similar team-up could finally do it.

Next up: Cruise x Inarritu, and it is a comedy

After 12 years away from Warner Bros., Cruise is back with an untitled film directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu, who co-wrote the script with his Oscar-winning Birdman collaborators Alexander Dinelaris Jr. and Nicolas Giacobone. Cruise is co-producing with Inarritu, alongside Mary Parent, for Legendary Pictures, TC Productions, and M Productions, with Warner Bros. Pictures distributing.

Production ran in the UK from November 2024 through May 2025. Inarritu told Deadline the movie is a comedy. The cast is stacked: Tom Cruise, Jesse Plemons, Sandra Huller, Riz Ahmed, Sophie Wilde, Emma D'Arcy, Robert John Burke, Burn Gorman, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman. It is dated for October 2, 2026.

So no, Cruise is not topping IMDb's action charts right now. But he is still doing the wildest big-screen stunts, and his next move is a left turn with one of the most decorated directors working. If that combo lands, do not be shocked if the awards narrative changes in a hurry.