Five Tom Cruise movies to stream after his Honorary Oscar win
Tom Cruise receiving an Honorary Oscar feels overdue for anyone who has followed his career. Fans have watched him push himself through decades of filmmaking, not just as an actor but as someone who genuinely changed how modern action movies are made. This honour finally matches the level of commitment he has shown on screen since the ’80s.
His work has always had a certain clarity to it. Cruise treats every project like it matters. He has been a part of everything you name, from a franchise to taking on a strange character study or experimenting with sci-fi ideas long before they became mainstream again. He has never coasted. Even in his less loud performances, there is a focus that feels unmistakably his.
Going back to his films today is a reminder of how consistently he has delivered. You can pick any era: early fame, ’90s courtroom dramas, 2000s action reinvention, or his recent late-career precision, and you will find something that shaped the way audiences think about spectacle and character.
So if this Honorary Oscar made you revisit the filmography in your head, it is the perfect time to stream the titles on Netflix that show why Cruise remains one of the most influential actors working today.
Five Tom Cruise movies to stream on Netflix
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
Edge of Tomorrow opens with Cruise playing Major William Cage, a military public relations officer completely unprepared for real combat. A forced deployment drops him into an alien invasion, and a time loop traps him in the same day each time he dies. The loop becomes the only way he learns how to survive and eventually lead.
Emily Blunt’s Sergeant Rita Vrataski shifts the film from a high-concept idea into a tightly executed action piece. She sets the pace of the movie and grounds Cruise’s arc with a clear sense of discipline. Their chemistry avoids clichés and focuses on precision and survival. The result is one of Cruise’s sharpest modern performances, built on the incremental character work that rewards close watching.
Collateral (Michael Mann, 2004)
Michael Mann’s Collateral gives Cruise one of the most controlled performances of his career. He plays Vincent, a contract killer who moves through Los Angeles with a methodical focus that never slips into exaggeration. The character works because he is direct and self-contained and not at all interested in theatrics. Cruise commits to that restraint, and the result is a role that still stands out in his filmography.
Jamie Foxx’s cab driver, Max, becomes the anchor of the story. He is shown as an overly cautious person until Vincent steps into his car and forces him into a night that reveals everything he knows about himself. The contrast between the two leads is spiky. Mann shoots the city with a clear sense of movement, letting the tension build through action. The film becomes a showcase of Cruise’s ability to strip away the familiar hero qualities and play a character who controls every moment without raising his voice.
Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski, 2013)
Oblivion places Cruise in a world that looks orderly on the surface but carries a persistent sense of doubt underneath. He plays Jack Harper, a technician stationed on a deserted Earth long after a catastrophic war. His job appears routine: repair drones, monitor the landscape, and wait for reassignment. The film gains momentum the moment that routine fractures, and Jack begins to notice inconsistencies that refuse to align with the official narrative.
He is paired with Andrea Riseborough as Victoria, Jack’s partner and the keeper of their mission’s structure. Their dynamic becomes more intriguing once Olga Kurylenko’s character enters the picture, bringing fragments of memory that Jack cannot explain. Joseph Kosinski has directed Oblivion with a clean futuristic design, which makes it a must-watch for Cruise fans who love him in sci-fi.
Knight and Day (James Mangold, 2010)
If you want the Tom Cruise film that feels closest to a rom-com with a passport and a few explosions, this is the one. Cruise plays a guy named Roy in the film, who is super smooth but also quite suspicious. Cruise is known to pull out this move when he wants the audience to have fun instead of worry. The plot keeps shifting every few minutes, but it never gets annoying because the film knows you are here for the vibe, not for a detailed briefing on international trouble.
Cameron Diaz is the real reason the film lands. June reacts the same way any normal person would if their day turns into nonstop running and zero explanations. She freaks out, she adapts, she tries, and she keeps going. That mix of her realism and his confidence makes the whole thing surprisingly enjoyable. If you are in the mood for something silly in a good way, this is the one you put on.
Jack Reacher (Christopher McQuarrie, 2013)
Jack Reacher is the Cruise movie you watch when you want something solid, but at the same time do not want to go into detective mode. It starts with a sniper attack that shocks an entire city, and the evidence points to a man who refuses to defend himself. That is when Reacher walks in, and not because anyone called him, but because he already knows the accused from a past case and wants to see what really happened. The story follows him as he digs into details everyone else brushed aside, and the deeper he goes, the clearer it becomes that the obvious answer is not the correct one.
Rosamund Pike plays the defence attorney trying to figure out why Reacher is so determined. She asks the questions the audience would ask, and he connects the dots she cannot see yet. The investigation feels simple at first, but it gradually opens up into nothing overly complicated, but just enough to keep you leaning in.