Entertainment
Tom Cruise’s Most Unexpected Gamble Forced Him Into the Action Movie Box
Tom Cruise has spent most of the millennium in the action blockbuster space, developing elaborate stunts in the Mission: Impossible series and flying real F/A-18s for the massive hit Top Gun: Maverick (with a Top Gun 3 in the works). But the detours of his career suggest he could be a very different kind of performer. His cameo in 2008’s Tropic Thunder as ruthless executive Les Grossman (who has threatened to get a spin-off of his own) made waves, but one of his boldest roles was as a washed-up rock star in the 2012 adaptation of Broadway musical Rock of Ages.
Tom Cruise Is Easily the Best Part of ‘Rock of Ages’
Even in 2025, Cruise was still claiming that at the top of his movie bucket list was “musicals,” according to Rolling Stone. If anyone remembers Rock of Ages, they remember Stacee Jaxx (Cruise), the lost soul whose recklessness has led to the breakup of his hair metal band. Introduced singing the goofy bad boy anthem “Wanted Dead or Alive,” this is Tom Cruise at maximum charisma. Rock of Ages failed to find an audience, leading to a decade-plus of increasingly safe Cruise movies and performances. However, it suggests he could have been a musical star.
Part of the problem with Rock of Ages is that for as large as Stacee looms, he is not that big a part of it. More time is spent on the cliché-ridden story of Sherrie (Jullianne Hough), the small-town girl who follows her musical dreams to Los Angeles, ultimately falling in love with Drew (Diego Boneta). Still, even with its admirable sincerity and slick staging, the movie largely falls asleep when Stacee Jaxx is offscreen. Amusing turns from Alec Baldwin and Bryan Cranston aside, the comedy largely rests on Cruise’s shoulders, which leads to some of his best work in one of his worst movies.
Despite famously performing in his high school production of Guys and Dolls, Tom Cruise spent his early film career in every genre but musical comedy. From teen dramas like The Outsiders to legacy sequels like The Color of Money to sports movies like Days of Thunder, he made his name as a serious, engaged, and charming actor in prestigious productions before moving largely into the action genre. But rumors spread that he wanted to tackle the musical, with much of the pre-release chatter around the movie centering around Cruise’s desires, even though nobody knew if he could sing. As if to refute the premature critiques, Cruise developed the character with his signature intensity, with director Adam Shankman claiming to E! News that the actor was training to develop a voice like “Axl Rose, Keith Richards, and Jim Morrison.”
‘Rock of Ages’ Failure Pushed Tom Cruise Into Action Movies
For a movie that marketed itself on Cruise’s performance, Rock of Ages flopped at the global box office, making under $60 million on a $75 million budget per Box Office Mojo. The actor’s trips out of action movie territory seemed to thud, with Rock of Ages seemingly putting the nail on the coffin of his own musical ambitions. The action movie audience had little interest in seeing him in a musical, and the musical crowd that loved 2010’s Burlesque didn’t care for this one’s goofy machismo. Cruise soon poured his energy into his familiar action mode, but it’s hard not to wonder what could have been if it had succeeded.
Rock of Ages came about at a time when Cruise had figured out his mode to an extent that could feel rote and repetitive if the movies themselves weren’t great. With 2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, he had finally turned his passion project into a real series and embarked on a substantial creative partnership with writer Christopher McQuarrie, who had written 2008’s World War II thriller Valkyrie for Cruise and would also direct him in 2012’s rock-solid Jack Reacher (as well as the next four Mission films). But with the Mission: Impossible series having allegedly wrapped up, McQuarrie has claimed that next on the agenda is a musical designed to showcase the actor’s talents, per Deadline. Should it happen, we can only hope it’s not a one-off.
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