Every Tom Cruise Movie Where His Character Dies

Despite his status as a blockbuster hero, Tom Cruise is not unkillable – as proven by the few movies that dared to off one of cinema’s most famous faces. Soon to be seen in Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to Tony Scott’s original Top Gun, Tom Cruise is a staple of blockbuster cinema who has been a regular fixture in multiplexes for decades now. However, while the actor has played heroes, villains, and even comic relief roles on occasion, one thing Cruise very rarely does onscreen is die.

There is a good chance the upcoming Maverick may change this, with Cruise being killed off to lend an air of pathos and tragedy to the story of his eponymous, aging test pilot. However, by and large, Cruise is an actor who viewers often (understandably) feel doesn’t die in many of his movies. Besides Edge of Tomorrow – where his many deaths were core to the movie’s central gimmick – thanks to his stardom and screen persona, Cruise’s characters feel all but unkillable.

The thought of seeing Ethan Hunt get offed at the end of a Mission Impossible franchise outing is all but inconceivable. However, Cruise has actually been killed off onscreen several times, including the aforementioned Edge of Tomorrow putting an end to his character in many creative ways. Here’s a rundown of every Tom Cruise character death.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

This one almost feels like cheating, as the very premise of director Doug Liman’s underrated Edge of Tomorrow is that the darkly comic thriller kills off Cruise’s smarmy PR officer more times than viewers can keep track of. The sci-fi action movie strands Cruise’s Cage in the middle of an alien invasion occurring in Europe, leaving him to die repeatedly when alien blood accidentally gives him the power to regenerate after each death. With Cage’s whopping 26 regenerations, it’s fair to say Edge Of Tomorrow (or Live.Die.Repeat) is the Tom Cruise movie that kills off the actor the most times. However, it is worth noting Cage does, ironically, survive in the end and save the day – after dying 26 times in order to complete that goal, that is.

Collateral (2004)

A much darker, more morally ambiguous type of thriller than Edge of Tomorrow, Collateral only kills Cruise’s character off once. However, the Michael Mann-directed movie makes sure to make the death count. Released in 2004 and co-starring Jamie Foxx as a deeply unlucky cab driver (a role originally meant for Adam Sandler), Collateral sees Cruise plays amoral hitman Vincent, a contract killer who takes said cab driver hostage and forces the poor protagonist to ferry him from one killing to the next. Taking place over one painfully long, tense night, Collateral concludes with Foxx’s hero saving Jada Pinkett Smith’s DA from becoming Cruise’s final victim by emptying a handgun into the chest of his latest fare. Waxing lyrical to himself as he dies, Vincent bleeds out on board a morning metro train, presumably without arranging any payment for the lengthy cab ride.

Taps (1981)

Before he was Maverick Cruise played a similarly hot-headed military man in Taps. This dark drama follows the exploits of some students from a military academy who don’t respond kindly to their school being scheduled for demolition. Although set in a military school, there’s no denying this Lord of the Flies-esque tale of power and corruption is more akin to Full Metal Jacket than Top Gun, and the drama is well worth a watch for fans of Cruise. However, as one of the cast’s less notable names at the time (this being only his second screen credit), Cruise does bite the bullet after a daring, ill-thought-out maneuver has real consequences for all involved.

Interestingly enough, Cruise’s David Shawn survives until the movie’s closing moments unlike some of his fellow, less fortunate students, and loses his life only when he decides to go out in a blaze of glory rather than submit to the National Guard’s authority. It’s a brutal, bleak ending, one that was effective at the time but is now even more surprising as the later fame of its star makes the young protagonist of Taps seem all the more invincible. Taps gives a clear indication of where Top Gun’s antihero got his verve and daring but provides a much darker ending for the character.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

This one is debatable, as it is left unclear whether Cruise’s character survives the events of Vanilla Sky. In essence, the movie (a remake of Alejandro Amenabar’s Open Your Eyes) tells the tale of David, a wealthy publishing magnate whose life takes a trippy, tough-to-decipher turn when he awakens one morning to find himself mysteriously imprisoned. Vanilla Sky eventually reveals David is in a prolonged lucid dream as doctors work to salvage his face and keep his brain alive for over a hundred years, prompting “Tech Support” to tell him he can choose between returning to the dream or waking up. In an ending not unlike the cult horror movie Jacob’s Ladder, David decides to wake up – a choice that comes in the form of him jumping off a skyscraper, which most definitely kills the dream version of David, even if his real-life counterpart’s fate is left ambiguous. Since there’s no way of knowing if Tech Support was telling the truth, viewers can be sure at least one David definitely dies, whether or not another one lives.

Valkyrie (2008)

The real-life thriller Valkyrie saw Cruise play Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, a German military man most notable for his brave but doomed plot to assassinate Hitler. The titular Operation Valkyrie refers to this plot, and much of the movie’s action is devoted to detailing the ins and outs of the almost successful attempt on the Fuhrer’s life. Unfortunately for Stauffenberg, it failed and he was executed by firing squad as its ring leader. As such, unlike his earlier, fictional Top Gun hero Maverick, here the daring exploits of Tom Cruise’s character don’t pay off for him and the real-life figure doesn’t make it to the end of the movie alive.

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Cathal Gunning
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Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies and TV online since 2020. His obsessions include The Simpsons, Stephen King, the Scream series, and the horror genre in general. He has spent more time thinking about Stranger Things than the writers of Stranger Things, and he has never seen a Star War.

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