Have you ever heard of Thomas C. Mapother II?
He’s a Syracuse native who spent part of his childhood in Canada. He bounced around a lot, actually, attending 15 schools in 14 years. After graduating from Glen Ridge High School in New Jersey, he did a stint as a busboy in New York City before heading to Los Angeles to pursue acting.
Good move.
As Tom Cruise, he went on to receive four Oscar nominations, while winning three Golden Globes and three Screen Actors Guild awards and getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990. He also holds a Guinness World Record for most consecutive $100 million-grossing movies.
Take a deep dive in his cataloge during Tom Cruise, Above and Beyond at the Museum of the Moving Image from Friday, June 20, to Sunday, Aug. 17.
A total of 22 films will screen, demonstrating the subject’s ability to play everything from a cocky youth to a struggling romantic to a stud muffin pilot.
General admission is $17.50, but discounts exist for seniors, students, and others.
Here’s the schedule.
Risky Business June 20, 7 pm
The Outsiders June 21, 5 pm + The Outsiders June 22, 1:15 pm
The Color of Money June 27, 7 pm + The Color of Money June 28, 6:30 pm
Legend June 28, 4 pm + Legend, June 29, 1 pm
Cocktail June 29, 3 pm
Born on the Fourth of July July 5, 5:30 pm + Born on the Fourth of July July 6, 6:30 pm
A Few Good Men July 6, 12:30 pm
Rain Man July 6, 3:30 pm
Jerry Maguire July 11, 6:30 pm + Jerry Maguire July 13, 6 pm
Edge of Tomorrow July 12, 1 pm
Interview with the Vampire July 12, 6:30 pm + Interview with the Vampire July 13, 3:30 pm
The Firm July 13, 12:30 pm
Eyes Wide Shut July 18, 6:30 pm + Eyes Wide Shut July 20, 5:30 pm
Magnolia July 19, 6 pm + Magnolia July 20, 1 pm
Minority Report July 25, 7 pm + Minority Report July 27, 3 pm
Collateral July 26, 4 pm + Collateral July 27, 6 pm
War of the Worlds July 26, 6:30 pm + War of the Worlds July 27, 12:30 pm
Top Gun: Maverick Aug. 2, 12:30 pm + Top Gun: Maverick Aug 3, 2:45 pm
Top Gun (70mm) Aug 2, 3:30 pm + Top Gun (70mm) Aug 3, 12:30 pm
Days of Thunder (70mm) Aug 10, 1 pm
Tropic Thunder Aug 10, 5 pm
Jack Reacher Aug. 17, 3 pm.
More Information.
Risky Business
Directed by Paul Brickman, this 1983 hit also stars Rebecca De Mornay. Everybody remembers Cruise sliding across the living room floor in his tighty-whities singing along to Bob Seger. He’s Joel Goodsen, who goes from sexually frustrated teen to entrepreneur pimp in the space of a weekend while his parents are away.
The Outsiders
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, this 1983 piece also stars C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, and Emilio Estevez. Set in the 1960s in Tulsa, the Socs gang can’t get along with the Greasers. As the plot thickens, the audience gets to know the individual stories of Ponyboy (Howell), who has been left in the care of his older brother (Swayze) after their parents died in a car crash, and his closest friend Johnny (Macchio).
The Color of Money
Directed b y Martin Scorsese, this 1986 movie also stars Paul Newman and John Turturro. A pool-shark facing middle-age takes a brash young talent under his wings, but egos clash and the men part ways. Ultimately, the veteran is lured back to confront his protégé and the demons that have long haunted him.
Legend
Directed by Ridley Scott, this 1985 fantasy film also stars Mia Sara. Cruise plays a forest dweller who becomes an unlikely hero after he must save his love, Princess Lili (Sara), from the forces of evil.
Cocktail
Directed by Ronald Donaldson, this 1988 romance also stars Elisabeth Shue. Cruise plays a business student turned strutting bartender whose formidable pouring skills prove to be no match for hard doses of reality after the mixologist gets mixed up in the unresolved life of his cynical bartender mentor, while also falling hard for Jordan (Shue), whom he meets while working at a beachside bar in Jamaica.
Born on the Fourth of July
Directed by Oliver Stone, this 1989 biopic also stars Kyra Sedgwick and Willem Dafoe. After an idyllic youth in Massapequa, the protagonist volunteers for the Vietnam War.
A Few Good Men
Directed by Rob Reiner, this 1992 adaptation of an Aaron Sorkin play also stars Demi Moore, Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland. Cruise is a JAG Corps lawyer assigned to a troubling court martial case.
Rain Man
Directed by Barry Levinson, this 1988 tear-jerker also stars Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman won an Oscar for his portrayal of severely autistic Raymond Babbitt, while Cruise plays his little brother Charlie, a hotshot automotive dealer. Charlie absconds with Raymond from his home in a state mental institution after he discovers their late father has left his fortune with his older sibling, hoping to gain custody of Raymond and get the money.
Jerry Maguire
Directed by Cameron Crowe, this 1996 romance also stars Renée Zellweger and Cuba Gooding Jr. Cruise is a sports agent who loses his job after he writes a missive about the industry’s failing morals. Then he falls hard for single mom Dorothy (Zellweger).
Edge of Tomorrow
Directed by Doug Liman, this 2014 SciFi spectacle also stars Emily Blunt. In a battle against an alien race, Major Cage (Cruise) finds himself reawakening each morning, even after he has been violently killed. With the help of the decorated war hero Sergeant Vrataski (Blunt), who also discovers she has been living (and dying) with the same predicament, Cage must emerge from the loop and conquer the monsters.
Interview with the Vampire
Directed by Neil Jordan, this 1994 vampire joint also stars Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, and Christian Slater. Wearing blond locks, Cruise plays an antihero who deals with a vengeful tween vamp.
The Firm
Directed by Sydney Pollack, this 1993 adaptation of John Grisham novel also stars Gene Hackman. An idealistic young lawyer fresh out of Harvard Law School gets embroiled in the criminal machinations of a boutique law firm in Memphis.
Eyes Wide Shut
Directed by Stanley Kubrick, this 1999 mindbender also stars Nicole Kidman and Sydney Pollack. Cruise and Kidman play wealthy Manhattan doctor Bill Harford and his gallerist wife Alice. She confesses erotic fantasies involving another man, and he embarks on a psychological odyssey that sends him into the depths of NYC’s shadowy sexual underworld.
Magnolia
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, this 1999 piece also stars Philiip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, and Jason Robards. Cruise is Frank TJ Mackey, a misogynist motivational speaker with unresolved daddy issues.
Minority Report
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this 2002 futurist work also stars Colin Farrell. Set in a future where citizens can be arrested for crimes they have not yet committed, Cruise is a cop perpetually on the run after being suspected for a “Pre-Crime.
Collateral
Directed by Michael Mann, this 2004 noir also stars Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Mark Ruffalo. With a shock of white hair, Cruise is a sociopathic hitman.
War of the Worlds
Directed by Steven Spielberg, this 2005 SciFi tale also stars Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins. Cruise is a divorced dock worker whose weekend visit with his children becomes a fight for their lives when Earth is invaded by alien tripod fighting machines.
Top Gun: Maverick
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, this 2022 sequel also stars Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer. Cruise is Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a Navy captain enlisted to train an elite group of Top Gun academy graduates tasked with destroying a foreign uranium enrichment plant.
Top Gun (70mm)
Directed by Tony Scott, this 1986 blockbuster also stars Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards, and Meg Ryan. Cruise plays Maverick, a cocky naval fighter pilot in training who feels the need for speed—and for his beautiful astrophysics instructor (McGillis).
Days of Thunder (70mm)
Directed by Tony Scott, this 1990 drama also stars Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, and Randy Quaid. It features appearances by real life NASCAR drivers such as Richard Petty and has a car-racing plot.
Tropic Thunder
Directed by Ben Stiller, this 2008 Hollywood parody also stars Robert Downey Jr., Stiller, Jack Black, and Nick Nolte.The plot follows the making of a Vietnam epic, which goes horribly wrong when its actors get ensnared in real-life danger with a drug cartel on the island where they’re shooting.
Jack Reacher
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, this 2012 piece also stars Robert Duvall. Cruise headlines as a taciturn, ex-U.S. Army major and Military Police Corps investigator who comes out of semi-retirement to help solve a murder case for which the culprit has mysteriously asked for him by name.
The Museum of the Moving Image is located at 36-01 35th Ave. in Astoria’s Kaufman Arts District.
Photo: Eyes Wide Shut/Warner Bros