"Impossible" roles without Cruise

With "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol" hitting cinemas this 15 December, award-winning actor, Tom Cruise, will reprise his role as Ethan Hunt, a secret agent from the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). However, this time, Hunt and his four-person team are deemed disavowed by the government, to locate an intelligence source connected to the Moscow bombing and an attack on the IMF. As cool as the super spy shindig sounds, Cruise is not always a full-time secret agent; the 49-year-old has also dabbled in other fields that truly prove his versatility is not an 'impossible' factor when it comes to switching roles.

Risky Business (1983)

In Paul Brickman's directorial debut, Cruise plays a suburban Chicago teenager, Joel Goodson, who cuts loose while his parents are on vacation. When an unauthorised trip in his father's Porsche leads to the need for an elaborate plan to earn lots of money, Joel soon thinks of various creative ways in which he can raise them albeit hilarious consequences we're glad not to be a part of. As Cruise's first leading role, the film launched him to stardom and created the infamous scene featuring his character dancing in his pink dress shirt and briefs to "Old Time Rock and Roll" by Bob Seger. For this, Cruise was nominated for Best Actor at the Golden Globe Awards.

Top Gun (1986)

Directed by Tony Scott and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, this testosterone-driven film gave birth to one of Cruise's iconic roles. He plays Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young Naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The film depicts Maverick's progress through the training, his romance with a female instructor (Kelly McGillis), and his overcoming a crisis of confidence following his guilt over a fatal training accident. Despite the lack of critical reception, Cruise is at the top of his form here, having just come off the success of "Risky Business". Maverick is also one of Cruise's early action roles, and who knows! his nee d for speed may have driven him to be Ethan Hunt in the next decade.

Rain Man (1988)

Cruise may not be the nicest character alongside Dustin Hoffman's autistic savant, but Cruise still manages to gain the audiences' sympathy, an amazing feat for an actor. This is because it is never easy to take care of a handicapped genius, which is why Cruise's confusing and emotionally desperate Charlie is so relatable. Hoffman's Raymond is the perfect antithesis for Cruise as the brother who is inheriting US $3 million but is wholly dependent on his brother, Charlie. Based on this, the film went on to gain positive reception and critical acclaim.

Interview With The Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Tom Cruise might have made a bad couple with Brad Pitt, but like they say any publicity is good publicity, for Cruise made headlines in his solo scenes as the vampire, Lestat. This is evidenced by Cruise's nomination for the Saturn Awards. The author of the novel of the same name, Anne Rice also approved of Cruise's performance, saying that Cruise brought the role to life for her. The film focuses on Lestat and Louis' time together, beginning with Louis' transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791. When Louis grows tired of his immortal life, Lestat turns a twelve year old Creole girl, Claudia (a very young Kirsten Dunst), into a vampire in order to keep Louis with him, but how long will it be before Louis has a change of heart, or whatever vampires call it, and finally leaves Lestat for good?

Jerry McGuire (1996)

Cruise not only had Rene Zellweger at 'hello', but millions of girls around the world as well, in this hit romantic comedy by Cameron Crowe. Without Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s scenes would not be complete, and lines like "Show me the money!" would not worked as well for Cruise is Jerry Maguire, a glossy 35-year-old sports agent working for Sports Management International (SMI). The story really begins after Jerry suffe! rs a ner vous breakdown as a result of stress and spawns a guilty conscience. It was heart-warming to see Cruise petitioning about perceived dishonesty in the sports management business and how he believes that it should be operated. With all the awards that it won, it is hard to believe that anyone would have played the role as well as Cruise did.

Collateral (2004)

Meet Vincent, a former special operator as Jamie Foxx plays the cab driver who is terrorised by Cruise's character in this Michael Mann-directed effort. In short, Vincent wants Max Durocher to drive him around while he assassinates people and tensions rise when Max starts fighting back. The film shows Cruise's capacity to be on the other side of the law amongst his action and comedy roles. It also shows that, like his stint in "Mission Impossible", Cruise needs to team up with good people, such as a good director in order to make this role possible.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

No one would have expected Cruise to sport a bald cap and a fatsuit in a role as the foul-mouthed, hot tempered studio executive named Les Grossman. In fact, not many have expected Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" to gain the commercial and critical success it did, considering that the movie follows a group of actors who are forced into their military roles after a series of mishaps during their big-budget war movie shoot. Despite the group of heavy hitters like Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black, it was Cruise who emerged with a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes alongside Robert Downey Jr.