The director Tom Cruise called a “creative visionary”
Hollywood icon Tom Cruise has gleaned essential skills from talented directors who have left an indelible mark on the world of cinema. As an actor, the invaluable knowledge he has gained from working alongside these figures has been immeasurable. Among them, there is one filmmaker who has had a particularly profound impact on Cruise’s career.
After establishing himself as a leading man in the early 1980s, Cruise looked destined to elevate his status to a superstar level. The success of 1983’s Risky Business represented a particularly notable moment in his early career. The coming-of-age movie was a box office hit that earned more than ten times its budget and proved Cruise could sell tickets on an astronomical scale.
From that moment, Cruise was further in demand, and the offers kept inundating his inbox. 1985’s Legend, directed by Ridley Scott, was another critical moment for the actor as he dipped his toes into the fantasy genre. While the movie wasn’t a commercial hit, Cruise didn’t let him down with his impressive performance.
Following on from Legend, Cruise teamed up with Scott’s brother, Tony Scott, on Top Gun, changing his career forever. The film captured the zeitgeist, defined the decade of cinema, turned Cruise into an undisputed Hollywood A-lister and was more successful than anyone involved in the project could ever have dreamed.
The Academy Award-winning film started a strong relationship with Cruise and Scott, who reunited on Days of Thunder in 1990. Tragically, Scott died by suicide in 2012, which understandably came as a shock to the entirety of Hollywood, and Cruise was saddened to discover the tragic fate of the man responsible for altering his fortunes.
Following his death, in a statement issued to the Ministry, Cruise said of Scott: “Tony was my dear friend and I will really miss him. He was a creative visionary whose mark on film is immeasurable. My deepest sorrow and thoughts are with his family at this time.”
For Top Gun: Maverick, released in 2022, directorial duties were taken care of by Joseph Kosinski, but Cruise wanted to ensure Scott’s legacy was respected. Therefore, before the film was aired to the public, he showed the final result to the late director’s brother, Ridley, out of love for Tony.
Christopher McQuarrie, who co-wrote Top Gun: Maverick, said of Scott ahead of the sequel’s release to The Hollywood Reporter: “We’re all here because of Tony. You’ve got to remember that in 1986, when you saw Top Gun, Top Gun wasn’t Top Gun yet — the movies weren’t what they are now, and Top Gun was a tectonic shift, and that’s owed to Tony.”
He added: “When Tony was firing on all cylinders there was nobody better, and I don’t think in his lifetime he really got the recognition he deserves as a truly influential, powerful filmmaker.”
As McQuarrie sadly stated, Scott wasn’t treated as a giant of Hollywood during his lifetime, despite being responsible for Top Gun and celebrated films such as True Romance and Enemy of the State. While not everything he touched was a resounding success, Scott was a brave filmmaker who was unafraid to push the boundaries and change the landscape of cinema.
