magnolia tom cruise quotes

Magnolia (film)

Magnolia is 1999 film about dramatic and humorous events in the lives of many people, intertwined in a 24-hour span of coincidence and chance in Los Angeles , California , on a day of extremely variable weather.

2 Claudia Wilson Gator
3 Jim Kurring
4 Earl Partridge
5 Frank T.J. Mackey
8 Quotes about Magnolia
11 External links

Narrator [ edit ]

It is in the humble opinion of this narrator that this is not just "something that happened." This cannot be "one of those things" ... This, please, cannot be that. And for what I would like to say, I can't. This was not just a matter of chance . … These strange things happen all the time .
We may be through with the past , but the past is never through with us.

Claudia Wilson Gator [ edit ]

I'll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through all the piss and shit and lies that kill other people .

Jim Kurring [ edit ]

Let me tell you something, this is not an easy job. I get a call on the radio, dispatch, it's bad news. And it stinks. But this is my job and I love it. Because I want to do well. In this life and in this world , I want to do well. And I want to help people . And I might get twenty bad calls a day. But one time I can help someone and make a save, correct a wrong or right a situation, then I'm a happy cop. And as we move through this life we should try and do good . Do good... And if we can do that, and not hurt anyone else, well... then...
I lost my gun today when I left you and I'm the laughingstock of a lot of people. I wanted to tell you. I wanted you to know and it's on my mind . And it makes me look like a fool . And I feel like a fool. And you asked that we should say things, that we should say what we're thinking and not lie about things. Well, I can tell you that, this, that I lost my gun today, and I am not a good cop. And I'm looked down at. And I know that. And I'm scared that once you find that out you may not like me.
A lot of people think this is just a job that you go to... take a lunch hour, the job's over, something like that. But it's a 24-hour deal... no two ways about it... and what most people don't see is just how hard it is to do the right thing. People think if I make a judgment call, that it's a judgment on them. But that's not what I do, and that's not what should be done. I have to take everything and play it as it lays. Sometimes people need a little help . Sometimes people need to be forgiven . And sometimes they need to go to jail. And that's a very tricky thing on my part... making that call. The law is the law, and heck if I'm gonna break it. But if you can forgive someone... well, that's the tough part. What can we forgive? Tough part of the job. Tough part of walking down the street.
I can't let this go. I can't let you go. Now, you... you listen to me now. You're a good person. You're a good and beautiful person and I won't let you walk out on me. And I won't let you say those things, those things about how stupid you are and this and that. I won't stand for that. You want to be with me... then you be with me. You see?

Earl Partridge [ edit ]

I loved her so. She knew what I did, she knew all the fucking stupid things I’d done. But the love was stronger of anything you can think of. The goddamn regret. THE GODDAMN REGRET! And I’ll die, now I’ll die and I’ll tell you what. The biggest regret of my life , I let my love go. What did I do? I’m sixty-five years old, and I’m ashamed . Million years ago, the fucking regret and guilt, these things... don’t ever let anyone ever say to you, you shouldn’t regret anything. Don’t do that, don't! You regret what you fucking want, use that, use that, use that regret for anything, any way you want, you can use it, OK? Oh, God . This is a long way to go with no punch. A little moral, story I say: Love...Love...Love. This fucking life, it’s so fucking hard. So long, Life ain’t short it’s long, it’s long. God damn it! God damn, what did I do? What did I do? What did I do?

Frank T.J. Mackey [ edit ]

In this big game that we play, life, it's not what you hope for, it's not what you deserve, it's what you take. I'm Frank T.J. Mackey, a master of the muffin and author of the Seduce and Destroy system now available to you on video and audio cassette. Seduce and Destroy will teach you the techniques to have any hardbody blonde just dripping to wet your dock. Bottom line? Language. The magical key to unlocking the female analytical mindset. Tap directly into her hopes, her wants, her fears, her desires, and her sweet little panties. Learn how to make that lady "friend" your sex-starved servant. I don't care how you look. I don't care what car you drive. I don't care what your last bank statement says. Seduce and Destroy produces an instant money-back guarantee trance-like state that will get you this ´— naughty sauce you want fast. Hey — how many more times do you need to hear the all-too-famous line of "I just don't feel that way about you?"
Respect the cock! And tame the cunt! Tame it! Take it on headfirst with the skills that I will teach you at work and say no! You will not control me! No! You will not take my soul! No! You will not win this game! Because it's a game, guys. You want to think it's not, huh? You want to think it's not? Go back to the schoolyard and you have that crush on big-titted Mary Jane. Respect the cock. You are embedding this thought. I am the one who's in charge. I am the one who says yes! No! Now! Here! Because it's universal, man. It is evolutional. It is anthropological. It is biological. It is animal. We... are... men! [simulating sexual thrusting]
Men are shit. What? Men... are... shit . What, isn't that what they say? Because we do bad things, don't we? We do horrible, heinous, heinous , terrible things. Things that no woman would ever do. No, women, they don't lie. No, women don't cheat. Women don't manipulate us. But you see what I'm getting at. You see what society does? Little boys, it's, "Wow, womaaaan!" We are taught to apologize. I am sorry. I am so sorry, baby. I am so sorry. What is it that we need? Is it their pussies? Their love? Mommy wouldn't let me play soccer... and Daddy, he hit me, so that's who I am, that's why I do what I do? Fucking bullshit. I will not apologize for who I am. I will not apologize for what I need. I will not apologize for what I want !

Dialogue [ edit ]

Songs [ edit ]

"One" , by Harry Nilsson
"Momentum", by Aimee Mann
"Deathly", by Aimee Mann
"You Do", by Aimee Mann
"Wise Up", by Aimee Mann · Clip from the film of performances by Mann and cast members
" Save Me " by Aimee Mann · Performance at the White House (11 May 2011)

Quotes about Magnolia [ edit ]

Paul Thomas Anderson , as quoted in his profile at They Shoot Pictures Don’t They
Roger Ebert , in his review of Magnolia in Chicago Sun-Times (7 January 2000)
Roger Ebert , in his review for Great Movies (27 November 2008)
Richard Propes, as quoted in Community Health Nursing: Caring for the Public's Health (2009) by Karen Saucier Lundy and Sharyn Janes, p. 957
Radheyan Simonpillai, in Review at Askmen.com (22 January 2010)
Review in TimeOut London (24 June 2006)

Taglines [ edit ]

Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.

Cast [ edit ]

Tom Cruise - Frank T.J. Mackey
Pat Healy - Sir Edmund William Godfrey/Young Pharmacy Kid
Julianne Moore - Linda Partridge
Genevieve Zweig - Mrs. Godfrey
Mark Flannagan - Joseph Green
William H. Macy - Quiz Kid Donnie Smith
Jeremy Blackman - Stanley Spector
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Phil Parma
John C. Reilly - Jim Kurring
Ricky Jay - Burt Ramsey/Narrator
Philip Baker Hall - Jimmy Gator
Melora Walters - Claudia Gator

External links [ edit ]

Magnolia quotes at the Internet Movie Database
Magnolia at Rotten Tomatoes
Magnolia Trailer
Video of memorable quotes from Magnolia at YouTube
Video reviews by Roger Ebert and Joyce Kulhawik

American films
Drama films
Incest in film
Films about dysfunctional families
Films directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Films about depression

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Critics Consensus

An eruption of feeling that's as overwhelming as it is overwrought, Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia reaches a fevered crescendo and sustains it thanks to its fearlessly committed ensemble. Read critic reviews

Where to watch magnolia.

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Magnolia photos.

On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an estranged daughter will each become part of a dazzling multiplicity of plots, but one story.

Rating: R (Language|Drug Use|Sexuality|Violence)

Genre: Drama

Original Language: English

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Producer: Paul Thomas Anderson , JoAnne Sellar

Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson

Release Date (Theaters): Jan 7, 2000 wide

Release Date (Streaming): Feb 6, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA): $22.5M

Runtime: 3h 8m

Distributor: New Line Cinema

Production Co: Ghoulardi Film Company, New Line Cinema, Magnolia Project

Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby Digital, DTS, SDDS

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

Cast & Crew

Jason Robards

Earl Partridge

Julianne Moore

Linda Partridge

Frank T.J. Mackey

Philip Seymour Hoffman

John C. Reilly

Jim Kurring

Melora Walters

Claudia Wilson Gator

Jeremy Blackman

Stanley Spector

Michael Bowen

Rick Spector

William H. Macy

Donnie Smith

Philip Baker Hall

Jimmy Gator

Melinda Dillon

Emmanuel Johnson

Michael Murphy

Alan Kligman

Luis Guzmán

April Grace

Orlando Jones

Burt Ramsey, Prologue Narrator

Henry Gibson

Thurston Howell

Felicity Huffman

Alfred Molina

Solomon Solomon

Paul Thomas Anderson

Michael De Luca

Executive Producer

Lynn Harris

Daniel Lupi

Co-Producer

JoAnne Sellar

Dylan Tichenor

Film Editing

Cassandra Kulukundis

Robert Elswit

Cinematographer

Fiona Apple

William Arnold

Production Design

Mark Bridges

Shepherd Frankel

Art Director

David Nakabayashi

Chris Spellman

Set Decoration

Costume Design

Elaine L. Offers

Makeup Artist

News & Interviews for Magnolia

Rank Tom Cruise’s 10 Best Movies

Young Frankenstein , City of God , Mean Girls , and More Certified Fresh Movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime

Critic Reviews for Magnolia

Audience reviews for magnolia.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson always fascinates me with his observations on people, relationships and his filmmaking skills.

Between 3 and 3.5. So much of this film is faux -- faux wisdom, faux emotionalism, faux neuroticism. What seems real and authentic is mired by the overfocus on it. It is elevated by good performances and a focus on neurosis and guilt. But there is no real catharsis to be found, just unendearingly damaged characters who are self-absorbed and completely neurotic. The style, which can only be described as chaotic and scattered, as if the film itself is on speed, leaves much to be desired. It almost gave me a headache. In the end, I was disappointed -- not my kind of thing I guess. It doesn't hang together in the end. With that said, there is talent, on some level, operating here.

Magnolia is a very good film by director Paul Thomas Anderson. However I don't believe it is his best like so many critics have pointed out. Anderson would hone his craft in his future work, but with Magnolia we get to see a director creating something unique. Anderson has always been one of the finer directors who are able to craft quality films with great casts of talented actors. Magnolia is a sweeping movie that intertwines the lives of different people into a powerful story. I really loved the film, but I just don't feel that it is Thomas Anderson's best. He would later make the far superior Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. But Magnolia is a fine film that should appeal to viewers looking for a well directed picture that tells a good story. Is it the sweeping masterpiece that viewers have claimed it to be? No, it isn't, but it is worth seeing, and Paul Thomas Anderson's direction is wonderful and he tells an interesting story that is dark and intense. A theme that seems to pop out constantly throughout the film is finding happiness and hope. Magnolia draws its strength from its captivating performances from the cast, and each brings something wonderful to the screen. Although not perfect, Magnolia is a well executed picture that tells a solid story. This is a must see film for fans of the director, and it is a well paced film that you soon won't forget. The cast is what makes this one overcome its shortcomings, and the best actors here that have impressed me are Julianne Moore, John C. Reilley and Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I liked Tom Cruise, but I simply thought he was a bit overdoing it in his performance. Magnolia is worth seeing, but like I previously stated, Anderson would later mature as a director with more interesting films that really pushed the envelope even further.

This is a wildly great, if lengthy film of films directed by the great Paul Thomas Anderson. Clocking in at 3 hours and 8 minutes, you would expect there to be plenty of scenes that should have been cut; but no, many could have been cut but none of them should have been. The premise is pretty much a bunch of extremely dramatic stories thrown into one film, and they are all very interesting. The stories are only made better by the incredible performances driving them: it is excruciatingly rare for a film to have this many universally amazing performances. The best of them all would have to be Tom Cruise as an eccentric motivational speaker, who slowly unravels into the most broken of men in a single two-minute scene between him and his father. This is by far the best performance I've ever seen Cruise pull off. The film is overflowing with meaning and metaphor, and I think it would be impossible to fully understand and take everything in the first time around; after all, it's a three-hour film. Magnolia demands repeated viewings and is propelled by a hugely successful set of performances, a nice soundtrack, original writing, and genuinely interesting stories.

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The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Tom Cruise's Character In Magnolia

Tom Cruise has quite an impressive body of work and while it's difficult for some to pick a career-best performance from the actor, I would choose one without hesitation: Frank T.J. Mackey in "Magnolia." Paul Thomas Anderson's magnum opus released in 1999 and follows a tapestry of interwoven characters as they struggle through their lives in the San Fernando Valley. At over three hours long, the film certainly isn't for everyone, but I think it's a masterpiece . Parts of it were written around the incredible music of Aimee Mann, who soundtracked much of the film, along with composer extraordinaire Jon Brion.

In "Magnolia," Cruise plays a motivational speaker of sorts, Frank T.J. Mackey, whose main objective is "Seduce and Destroy." Mackey is an unrepentant misogynist preaching his seduction skills to a room full of men all too eager to listen. He's a charismatic jerk teaching seminars on how to get laid, mainly through subterfuge, all while treating women as objects to be conquered. In other words, this is not an easy guy to root for. The most fascinating thing about the actor's performance isn't how good he is at inhabiting the role, but rather the humanity he brings to a character who, at first glance, seems to have none. Mackey is unlike any character Cruise has played before or since.

According to Grantland , the role was actually written for Cruise, who became a fan of Anderson after watching "Boogie Nights." While he might seem like he sprang directly from the director's imagination, this seemingly over-the-top character was actually inspired by a real person. So, who served as the spark for Frank T.J. Mackey?

Art imitates life

On the WTF with Marc Maron Podcast (via Uproxx ) Paul Thomas Anderson revealed that the inspiration behind Frank T.J. Mackey was real-life pickup artist, Ross Jeffries. I can't possibly do justice to all the details contained therein, but you can (but probably shouldn't) visit Jeffries' website at seduction.com . The site has a description of him that reads:

"Ross Jeffries™ is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best-selling book, "The Game", RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve."

One of his recent blog posts is called "Are You The Money Man Or The Honey Man?" and explains how you can be "The Vaginal Victor On V-Day!" Jeffries uses a system he's aptly titled Speed Seduction and his website has quite an extensive sales pitch for his online program, which includes a (what's the opposite of the phrase "treasure trove"?) plethora of lines like "How to use 'weasel phrases' to open her mind for instant and total sexual acceptance!" I have yet to look into what a weasel phrase is.

Despite this still seemingly active website, a man identifying himself as Paul Ross told Uproxx in 2015, "Ross Jeffries doesn't exist." He continued:

"Ross Jeffries was a character I created, a loudmouth, obnoxious, larger than life, sort of a bit of a showman to get the message out there, to be a loud mouthpiece. That character doesn't really meld with who I am today."

In regard to the movie, he stated:

"Here's the interesting thing: Paul Thomas Anderson thought that they were going to portray a real person. They didn't realize they were portraying a character created by an actor. Tom Cruise didn't realize that he was studying a character. He thought he was studying a person. He created a character based on a character."

As for Tom Cruise's performance:

"Mackey is more manic. Mackey is far more misogynistic. He's basically taking stuff from where I was in 1998. He's also much shorter than I am. Remember when Mackey had the audience take out their calendars? I didn't actually give them physical calendars, but I did have them say 'By the 5th of May I'll be having my way. By the 8th of June I'll have their poon.' That kind of rhyming stuff I got from Muhammed Ali."

He has indeed expanded his work into other areas, releasing a sales training book under the name Paul Ross. Ross, now a practicing Buddhist, says he still uses the name Ross Jeffries because it's "a brand," but that the work no longer reflects who he is.

According to Grantland, Jeffries is a former paralegal and brought a trademark attorney to see "Magnolia." Though he protested that Anderson "lifted some stuff almost word for word," Jeffries chose not to attempt a lawsuit because he liked the movie.

An actor playing an actor playing a role

As Mackey gives his ridiculous stage performance to an audience of men listening with rapt attention, it's impossible for the viewer to take their eyes off him, even as they are disgusted by what he is saying. Cruise is positively magnetic in the role, especially as his layers begin to fall away during his filmed interview with Gwenovier (April Grace). In a span of minutes, Frank goes from flexing in his tighty-whities to staring at Gwenovier like a caged animal: angry, frightened, and trapped. We don't immediately know why Frank is lying about his family trauma, but we do know he is no longer in control — though, perhaps he never was. It is Cruise's nuanced performance during this interview that allows his later breakdown to truly resonate.

Paul Ross considers Ross Jeffries a role he played that he's largely outgrown and feels as though Cruise didn't understand that he was a character playing a character. However, I would argue that's exactly how Cruise portrayed Frank Mackey, as someone hiding under a facade — albeit a convincing one. His final lecture sees him unravel, though his audience seems none the wiser. However, it's the reunion with his long estranged father (Jason Robards) that causes Frank to truly fall apart. Frank's emotional collapse at his father's deathbed is one of the film's most poignant moments. According to Grantland, Cruise was largely drawing on the experience of losing his own father. Much like Mackey, Cruise didn't get to spend much time with his dad. This storyline also proved cathartic for Anderson, who'd lost his father as well.

In what begins with a single take, viewers watch Mackey's face run the gamut of human emotion. He hates his father for leaving them and forcing him to take care of his dying mother as a teenager, but at the same time he's already mourning the life they never had together now that it's gone forever. The scene actually played out a bit differently in the script, with Frank immediately breaking down upon arrival, but Cruise thought it didn't feel quite right and made some changes. At this point, fans are more used to seeing Cruise perform increasingly wild stunts for his action movies. However, for me, there was no greater stunt than the one he pulled in making me cry right along with someone as evidently awful as Frank Mackey. Which I do. Every single time.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors.

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"Magnolia" is operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence, with ragged emotions, crimes and punishments, deathbed scenes, romantic dreams, generational turmoil and celestial intervention, all scored to insistent music. It is not a timid film. Paul Thomas Anderson here joins Spike Jonze (" Being John Malkovich "), David O. Russell (" Three Kings ") and their master, Martin Scorsese (" Bringing Out the Dead "), in championing an extroverted self-confidence that rejects the timid post-modernism of the 1990s. These are not movies that apologize for their exuberance, or shield themselves with irony against suspicions of sincerity.

The movie is an interlocking series of episodes that take place during one day in Los Angeles, sometimes even at the same moment. Its characters are linked by blood, coincidence and by the way their lives seem parallel. Themes emerge: the deaths of fathers, the resentments of children, the failure of early promise, the way all plans and ambitions can be undermined by sudden and astonishing events. Robert Altman's " Short Cuts " was also a group of interlinked Los Angeles stories, and both films illustrate former district attorney Vincent Bugliosi's observation in Till Death Do Us Part that personal connections in L.A. have a way of snaking around barriers of class, wealth and geography.

The actors here are all swinging for the fences, heedless of image or self-protective restraint. Here are Tom Cruise as a loathsome stud, Jason Robards looking barely alive, William H. Macy as a pathetic loser, Melora Walters as a despairing daughter, Julianne Moore as an unloving wife, Michael Bowen as a browbeating father. Some of these people are melting down because of drugs or other reasons; a few, like a cop played by John C. Reilly and a nurse played by Philip Seymour Hoffman , are caregivers.

The film's opening sequence, narrated by an uncredited Ricky Jay , tells stories of incredible coincidences. One has become a legend of forensic lore; it's about the man who leaps off a roof and is struck by a fatal shotgun blast as he falls past a window before landing in a net that would have saved his life. The gun was fired by his mother, aiming at his father and missing. She didn't know the shotgun was loaded; the son had loaded it some weeks earlier, hoping that eventually one of his parents would shoot the other. All allegedly true.

This sequence suggests a Ricky Jay TV special, illustrating weird coincidences. But it is more than simply amusing. It sets up the theme of the film, which shows people earnestly and single-mindedly immersed in their lives, hopes and values, as if their best-laid plans were not vulnerable to the chaotic interruptions of the universe. It's humbling to learn that existence doesn't revolve around us; worse to learn it revolves around nothing.

Many of the characters are involved in television, and their lives reflect on one another. Robards plays a dying tycoon who produces many shows. Philip Baker Hall , also dying, is a game show host. Cruise is Robards' son, Frank "T.J." Mackey, the star of infomercials about how to seduce women; his macho hotel ballroom seminars could have been scripted by Andrew Dice Clay . Walters is Hall's daughter, who doesn't believe anything he says. Melinda Dillon is Hall's wife, who might have been happier without his compulsion for confession. Macy plays "former quiz kid Donnie Smith," now a drunk with a bad job in sales who dreams that orthodontics could make him attractive to a burly bartender. Jeremy Blackman plays a bright young quiz kid on Hall's program. Bowen plays his father, a tyrant who drives him to excel.

The connections are like a game of psychological pickup sticks. Robards alienated Cruise; Hall alienated Dillon, Bowen is alienating Blackman. The power of TV has not spared Robards or Hall from death. Childhood success left Macy unprepared for life and may be doing the same thing for Blackman. Both Hall and Robards have employees (a producer, a nurse) who love them more than their families do. Both Robards and Hall cheated on their wives. And around and around.

And there are other stories with their own connections. The cop, played by Reilly, is like a fireman rushing to scenes of emotional turmoil. His need to help is so great that he falls instantly in love with the pathetic drug user played by Walters; her need is more visible to him than her crime. Later, he encounters Macy in the middle of a ridiculous criminal situation brought about to finance braces for his teeth.

There are big scenes here for the actors. One comes as Cruise's cocky TV stud disintegrates in the face of cross-examination from a TV reporter (April Grace). He has another big scene at Robards' deathbed. Hall (a favorite actor of Anderson's since " Hard Eight ") also disintegrates on TV; he's unable to ask, instead of answer, questions. Moore's breakdown in a pharmacy is parallel to Walters' nervousness with the cops: Both women are trying to appear functional while their systems scream because of drugs.

All of these threads converge, in one way or another, upon an event there is no way for the audience to anticipate. This event is not "cheating," as some critics have argued, because the prologue fully prepares the way for it, as do some subtle references to Exodus. It works like the hand of God, reminding us of the absurdity of daring to plan. And yet plan we must, because we are human, and because sometimes our plans work out.

"Magnolia" is the kind of film I instinctively respond to. Leave logic at the door. Do not expect subdued taste and restraint, but instead a kind of operatic ecstasy. At three hours it is even operatic in length, as its themes unfold, its characters strive against the dying of the light, and the great wheel of chance rolls on toward them.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Magnolia (1999)

Rated R for strong language, drug use, sexuality and some violence

188 minutes

Melora Walters as Claudia Gator

Tom Cruise as Frank Mackey

Jeremy Blackman as Stanley

Ricky Jay as Burt/narrator

Alfred Molina as Solomon

John C. Reilly as Officer Kurring

William H. Macy as Donnie Smith

Julianne Moore as Linda Partridge

Jason Robards as Earl Partridge

Philip Baker Hall as Jimmy Gator

Philip Seymour Hoffman as Phil

Written and directed by

Paul Thomas Anderson

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Last updated: 2019-03-28

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An exclusive excerpt from ‘Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor’

“It’s not just about picking up chicks and sticking your cock in. It’s about finding out what you can be in this world.”

—Frank “T.J.” Mackey

S hooting Eyes Wide Shut in England, Tom Cruise had time to kill. One evening, he and Nicole [Kidman] watched Boogie Nights (1997), the second feature from twenty-seven-year-old wunderkind Paul Thomas Anderson, a writer-director and LA native son who had become the upstart of Hollywood after his first film, Hard Eight (1996), made a splash at Sundance. Cruise was struck by a bungled, drug-addled robbery scene set to “Jessie’s Girl” and called Anderson up with his congratulations. Anderson happened to be in London, and he gladly accepted Cruise’s invitation to visit the Eyes Wide Shut set. Noting [Stanley] Kubrick’s scant film crew, Anderson asked the director if he always worked on such a small scale. “How many do you need?” replied Kubrick. “I’m an asshole, man,” said the humbled young auteur, “I spend too much money.” But he was about to embark on the most star-studded and narratively complex film of his career.

Earlier that year, Anderson’s father, Ernie, had died of cancer. A late-night horror movie host who went by “Ghoulardi,” Mr. Anderson purchased a Betamax video camera for his son when the boy was twelve, launching the director on his path. Cruise understood. He, too, had lost his father early. But in truth he’d lost his dad — and namesake — Thomas Cruise Mapother III years before. After his parents divorced when Cruise was twelve, he’d only seen his father twice: at fifteen when his dad took him to the drive-in and on his deathbed. The elder Mapother never watched one of his son’s films.

“He tried going out to see Risky Business , but he was in too much pain,” said Cruise. In the first leg of his career, he was remarkably open about their relationship, as though the wounds were still so raw that it helped to say them aloud. “I hadn’t seen my father for a number of years. I heard he was dying, and I didn’t know where he was. He didn’t want to be contacted. He left and didn’t want to be contacted for years . I think he was tired of inflicting so much pain on other people that he just had to get away.”

“I spent some time with him. We talked,” he continued. “I think he made so many mistakes that it ate him alive. Even when I went to see him, he didn’t want to discuss what had occurred in the past. I said, ‘Whatever you want, Dad.’ But I held his hand. And I told him I loved him, and that I was going to miss him. He said when he got out of the hospital we’d go have a steak and a beer and talk about it then. He died before we could do that.”

His father did have time to give a few quotes to journalists who tracked him down. In 1983, he told a reporter that he had “made a personal decision to respect my son’s wishes, which was for me to stay the hell out of everything,” saying that they had gone over four years without communication (“a long time, at least to me”) until Tom and his sisters had come by his hospital after a cancer operation. When it was suggested to the elder Mapother that their visit had meant more than words could express, he began to weep. “A lot more, a lot more.”

Given where the two men were at that stage of their lives — Cruise undergoing Kubrick’s emotionally taxing two-year test and Anderson confronting his own father’s death — it’s likely they talked about their shared pasts. The evidence: when Cruise asked Anderson to write a part for him, his standard request when he met a new talent he liked, the filmmaker flew back to Los Angeles and turned up six months later with the part of Frank “T.J.” Mackey, a bitter stage performer who has a wrenching meltdown beside his dying father, Big Earl.

Well, not quite. Anderson’s original script was more sympathetic to Frank and Big Earl than in the final cut. In Anderson’s draft, the pair reconcile with the dad soothing his son: “You are not what you think you are.” But when Cruise played the role, there was no spoken redemption and only a glimpse of Mackey making peace with his pain. The final film is colder, more cutting, and closer to Cruise’s childhood than to Anderson’s bond with his own father — it’s so close, in fact, to Cruise’s own life that both he and Frank Mackey had lopped off their father’s surnames before becoming famous.

Cruise leaped into his three-week stint on Magnolia almost immediately after Kubrick said “Cut.” He was in a rush to squeeze in Mission: Impossible II (2000) that same year — he did, after all, have his own production company to think about, and it’d been starving to get him back on the big screen. Now fifteen years into his career and with an incredible run of five $100 million–plus hits in a row ( Eyes Wide Shut wouldn’t flop until months after Magnolia wrapped), Cruise wielded his clout as a box office titan. He had the muscle to pick the best roles and, having already worked with most of the great directors, the might to invest in Hollywood’s next generation. P. T. Anderson was about to discover what Cameron Crowe had already learned: signing Tom Cruise made you the studio’s best friend and gave your film more money, more time, and more trust.

Still, Anderson was Cruise’s first younger director — a full eight years younger, in fact — and he knew he had to impress. Anderson created Mackey because the complex character was “un-turn-downable.” As he described, his philosophy when writing for actors is, “I want to be a genius to them because their opinions mean so much to me.” Mackey’s emotional arc with his father was in place. Now it was time to figure out the rest of the character. Said Anderson with a grin, “Something about Tom prompted a certain naughtiness in me.” Why not make Cruise a lascivious, woman-hating horndog?

Seduce and Destroy

Audiences who felt let down by the abandoned promise of seeing Cruise as a sex-mad therapist in Eyes Wide Shut — the prevalent preopening rumor — had their dreams fulfilled by Cruise’s first moments as Frank “T.J.” Mackey. Cruise had played lotharios before — in Cocktail , he bedded a woman just to win a bet — but Mackey was a whole new monster. Mackey isn’t just a lover. He’s a wicked psychologist, albeit uncertified, and he’s more interested in inflicting pain than receiving pleasure. Just think of his tagline: “Seduce and Destroy.” Seduce, sure. But destroy ?

Cruise had never been a tabloid Casanova. He’d married Mimi Rogers at twenty-four, then married Nicole Kidman within a year of his first divorce. If anything, he was continually fighting rumors that he didn’t like women enough. He continually headed to court to defend his image. Within one short span, he filed suits against two sex therapists who claimed to have given him and Nicole lovemaking lessons, a tabloid that pronounced him impotent and sterile, a male wrestler who claimed they’d had a romantic affair, and a magazine that announced it had a videotape of the actor in a homosexual tryst. Every case was won by Cruise, settled, or dismissed. If Cruise’s sexuality had a reputation, it was that you spoke about it at your own peril.

The irony of Cruise’s Mackey is that it’s both his most sexual performance and one where he doesn’t even lay a hand on a woman. For all of Mackey’s swagger that he can make any babe his “sex-starved servant,” Anderson never shows the man in action. Anderson and Cruise actually filmed several video reenactments of Mackey bedding women — outtakes from his instructional guide — but cut them from the final product. Even fictionally within the film, we never see Cruise make good on his threat to “master the muffin,” which strengthens the idea that Mackey isn’t the smooth-talker he claims. Is it all bluff? Or does Mackey really believe his own hype?

Cruise is allowed scenes with only two women, and one of them is over the phone. In both, the women control him . His off-screen assistant, Janet, genuinely cares about his well-being. She’s protective of his privacy, peppering his father’s nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman) with questions to prove his credibility, yet also tender when telling Mackey the news about his dying father. But even she — a woman paid to do Mackey’s will — doesn’t take his orders. When Mackey shouts, “Do your fucking job!” she refuses to be cowed. Instead, she hollers back, “I am doing my fucking job!”

Mackey’s centerpiece male-versus-female showdown is another losing battle against television reporter Gwenovier (April Grace), who initially throws him — and us — off guard by acting submissive. Their interview is a teasing, fire-stoking combination where both he and she use flirtation as a tool. He wants to charm her and her camera; she wants to coo and smile until he drops his guard. Their dynamic is the distillation of every stereotype in the battle of the sexes: men using blunt chemistry to exert their power and women pretending to be impressed until they’re ready to wrest control.

Cruise gives the role a fascinating combination of confidence and insecurity. He comes on like a gorilla — literally — stripping down naked in front of Gwenovier and beating his chest. The nudity was Anderson’s idea. Cruise hadn’t flashed his underwear since Risky Business, and hadn’t gone fully nude since All the Right Moves. (The glimpse of his pubic hair has since been edited out of Moves .) On the day of the shoot, Cruise started the scene simply sans shirt, exposure he was used to. Then Anderson asked him to take off his pants. “I said, ‘ What? ’” recalled Cruise. “He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’ll be funny.’” To Anderson’s glee, Cruise disrobed. Gushed the director, “He’s like, ‘What do you want me to do, do you want me to stand on my head, do you want me to do backflips? I’ll do it, I’ll do anything you want.’”

With his manhood a tabloid fixation, all eyes were on his crotch. And the bulge in his briefs was distractingly large. Given Anderson’s previous use of a prosthetic penis in Boogie Nights , the columnist Michael Musto of the Village Voice launched a crusade to find out if “the garden hose is 100 percent real meat.” “I don’t know whether to be insulted or feel complimented,” joked Cruise, while Anderson was more definitive: “Tom Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world. Are you kidding? Of course he’s got the world’s biggest cock.” (Naturally, Cruise looked into a lawsuit against Musto.)

In just three minutes, the opening act of the interview establishes, then upends, Mackey and Gwenovier’s dynamic. Cruise starts the scene in full physical command. Defiantly pants-less, he rolls into a backflip — as Anderson asked — caps it with a strikingly graceful handstand, bounds into a chair, and starts panting like a dog in heat while blurting out nonsense: “Terrorists! Babes! Beauties!” Meanwhile, Gwenovier sits immobile with her back to the camera waiting for him to settle down. When Anderson finally cuts from Mackey’s face to hers, we realize that this woman isn’t under his spell — though he’s certain she is.

Suddenly, Mackey’s frantic ego-thumping seems naïve. Whether we’re excited or anxious to see her dismantle him depends on how much Cruise has made us empathize against our will with this sad, show-off child. To hint at Mackey’s eagerness to impress, Cruise exaggerates his movements, leaning so far forward in his chair that his skeleton looks apt to pop out of his skin. In response, Gwenovier purrs, “Calm down, take it easy, and be a good boy.” She talks to him like a naughty little child, and he cheerfully responds. “Yes, ma’am!” he chirps, buttoning his shirt as though he expects her to be proud of his fingers for moving so fast. Mackey mistakes her interest for flirting — which, in fairness, is probably part of her plan. Uncharmed, she subtly asserts her control by telling him that he missed a button.

Mackey’s immature need to impress isn’t written in the script, but it’s there between the lines. Like Cruise’s, Mackey’s father abandoned the family when he was a child. Like Cruise’s, Mackey’s father never called. Unlike Cruise, Mackey had to watch his mother die of cancer by his fourteenth birthday. He’s never grown past the pain — and in fact, underneath his adult braggadocio, Cruise clues us in that he’s never grown up at all. Playing Mackey with a teenager’s horny obedience speaks to his suspended adolescence — you see in him the age at which his maturity stopped. By giving us a glimpse of the broken boy inside, Cruise makes it impossible to hate Mackey, despite his unconscionable attitudes toward women. Wouldn’t let the rogue near our own daughters, but we believe that he, too, needs love — despite claiming he only cares about lust.

Cruise’s vulnerability is key to making Magnolia work. Without it, his sobbing scene at his dad’s deathbed would fill us with schadenfreude , not sadness. It also explains why with Gwenovier he’s determined to hide the truth of his origins lest she and her audience learn his secret pain. To assert Mackey’s feigned authority over Gwenovier — especially when her interview gets too personal — Cruise keeps his dialogue clipped and sharp, as though withholding his charm were punishment for her intrusiveness. He cuts off her questions by insisting that they’re a waste of her time and tries to shut her down with his restless disinterest — or, failing that, derail her with sexual innuendos. But look closely and Cruise transmits Mackey’s fear: his crow’s-feet quiver, he bites his lips, he nods overzealously, he glances over his shoulder at his assistant for backup. Gwenovier also sees through — or ignores — his alarm. Despite his lingering, clueless confidence that he can maintain control of the conversation, their interplay is like a river overpowering a dam: she gently flows past his obstructions.

Edit out the rest of Magnolia to allow the interview scene to play in real time, and the shift in Cruise is even more obvious. Just minutes after his exuberant backflips, her questions have hemmed him in so tightly that he can barely move. When he realizes Gwenovier already knows the truth about his childhood, Cruise takes us through an arc of angry resignation while barely appearing to react at all — Mackey wouldn’t want to give this woman the satisfaction. He doesn’t even blink. All he’ll allow is a change in his mouth, gradually collapsing from a grin to a forced smile to a pursed frown, which he holds, as stony as a sphinx. (“There are a lot of silent parts because I’ve always loved Tom Cruise silent,” said Anderson. “He’s a really good starer.’’) He won’t move, so Anderson does, pushing the camera so close to his face that we can see through his cold control — close enough to see him grinding his teeth. Without lifting a hand, Cruise creates a crackling air of violence. He doesn’t even raise his voice — in fact, his voice gets quieter and more controlled — but his silent fury triples the tension. In the climax, all Cruise has to do is stand, loom over the still-seated Gwenovier, and calmly call her a bitch, and she recoils like she’s been hit.

How to Fake Like You Are Nice and Caring

Anderson plays with Cruise’s physical proportions throughout Magnolia . When first we see him onstage, as “Thus Spake Zarathustra” (a nod to his time with Kubrick?) rises on the sound track, we see him as Mackey wants to be seen: back-lit and poised like Superman. In theaters, the shot makes him appear both life-size and larger than life. In front of his champions, Mackey is a rock star — literally. Watch closely and Mackey’s performance is Cruise’s sharklike impersonation of Elvis Presley. Cruise doesn’t walk, he swaggers — and curls his upper lip in a sexy snarl. Though Mackey was born and raised in Southern California, Cruise gives him a Mississippi twang. He doesn’t say “Men!” or “No!” he says, “Men- naaa !” and “Noooo- aaaa !” and when really overheated drawls the word “sausage” out to three sweaty syllables, as in “Suck my big fat fucking saw-seg- geah !” (Did Cruise cut the original script line, “By the end of May, you will know I’m not gay,” because it cut too close to the rumors?) When he mimes humping a girl, his pelvis swivels dangerously enough to get him brought up on obscenity charges in Los Angeles — something that nearly happened to Elvis in 1957 when the Vice Squad accused him of getting too provocative with a stuffed animal while crooning “Hound Dog.”

Cruise is a big Elvis fan — he’s sung Elvis publicly on Jay Leno, privately in a karaoke session with the prime minister of Japan, and even snuck an Elvis bobblehead on the dashboard of his Bubble Ship in Oblivion (2013). In Magnolia , he’s bold about the Mackey/Presley connection, continually poaching Elvis’s windmilling arm swing to rally his crowd. (His swagger barely changed when Cruise played actual rock star Stacee Jaxx in Rock of Ages [2012], though instead of drowning in hate, he’s drowning in drugs.) The crowd hoots and hollers like they’re at a concert. Mackey isn’t giving a motivational speech, he’s giving a motivational performance.

And it’s all Cruise. Anderson thought T.J. Mackey was a nerd. He first wanted to dress Mackey in golf pants and polo shirts. Cruise asked him to reconsider. “I always saw him wearing an armband,” he insisted to Anderson, “those leather-wrist, masculine hero kind of things.” Cruise pointed to the script for backup: Mackey likens himself to a mythic figure, a modern day Batman and Superman. “I was just on it with the character,” said Cruise. “And Paul trusted that.” Convinced, Anderson allowed Cruise to transform the character from a cruel geek to a strutting, vest-wearing rock star. He’s even visibly vain — when the spotlights hit Mackey’s face, they highlight lavender circles of makeup under his eyes.

The golf pants had come from T.J. Mackey’s real-world inspiration: seduction Svengali Ross Jeffries, a former paralegal. (Which might be why men trusted him — in reality, wouldn’t Mackey’s paying fans wonder if his pickup secret was, well, looking like Tom Cruise?) Jeffries’s seminar series launched the pickup artist into the popular culture, and he took a trademark attorney along to Magnolia in case he had a lawsuit. “He lifted some stuff almost word for word,” Jeffries complained, but ultimately decided he liked the film so much he wouldn’t sue. (Not that he had much of a case.)

“What Tom Cruise doesn’t know is that he was playing a character that I created,” explained Jeffries. “I’m not Ross Jeffries — that’s a persona I put on in my seminars.” But Jeffries underestimates Cruise’s intelligent reading of T.J. Mackey. Cruise knew that Mackey knew his act is artificial. His smooth moves have the practiced look of a performer who’s done them hundreds of times in a hundred different hotel convention centers. Mackey is a self-made construct who comes to life only under the spotlight. Who naturally strides around with their arms akimbo and fists clenched to their hips? Underscoring Mackey’s control over his artificial persona, after the one-two disasters of his interview with Gwenovier and the news of [his] father’s imminent death, Cruise shows us how he switches back into character onstage as easily as putting on a mask.

However, during his final lecture (“How to fake like you are nice and caring” — ironic, as Mackey really fakes being a jerk), it’s hard to tell if — or when — Mackey strays off script. “Men are shit!” he yells, “We do horrible, heinous, terrible things!” That sounds like Mackey, but Cruise’s movements get crisper and angrier until the film audience alone — his in-person audience never suspects — spot the seething hate and pain. Cruise’s jaw twitches, his voice builds, and when he yells, “I will not apologize for who I am,” Cruise makes it deliberately hard to tell if he’s talking to the crowd or himself. Mackey claims he can control a woman’s mind, but can he even control his own emotions?

Cruise and Anderson couldn’t figure out how to cap his mini-meltdown. “We had tried ending the scene a couple of different ways,” said Cruise. With Anderson and the crew watching, the actor paced as he tried to seize upon an idea. “I went over [to] the table on stage for a second, it was in the take, just at the end of it, and I just really wanted to throw the table,” recalled Cruise. “I didn’t say anything, and I didn’t really make a huge move to it, but he came up to me right afterward, and he just walked over to the table and put his hand on it and sort of tapped it a little bit as if to say, ‘It’s okay, let’s do it.’” But the masterstroke is that flipping the table doesn’t end the scene. Instead, Cruise has Mackey immediately wrenching control of himself to snap back into his own character, ordering the crowd to open their white books before they clue into the emotions churning underneath his smooth surface.

Fathers and Sons

Cruise has played Mackey loud and he’s played Mackey quiet. But he doesn’t show us the real Mackey until he visits his dying father, played by Jason Robards. Again, Cruise added his own input to the original text and convinced Anderson to cut back on the sentiment. “In the script, it said, ‘He gets to the door and he breaks down,’” noted Cruise. “And I said, ‘Look, I don’t feel that.’” Instead, when he gets to his parents’ house, Cruise can’t even be seen — he’s fully blocked by the door itself. The audience hears only his voice as he falls back on the trick he tried on Gwenovier: gaining control by demanding obedience. “I want you to come in with me, and I want you to stay away from me,” he orders his father’s nurse, warning that he’ll drop-kick the dogs if they come too close. (“I was looking for a way to make this guy human,” joked Cruise. “I thought it was funny that he was afraid of dogs.”)

“I didn’t know what was going to happen when I got to the house,” admitted Cruise. Was Mackey going to rage against his father, or crumple like a child? He does both. In a bravura single-take shot with Robards supine at the front of the frame and Hoffman, small and out of focus, watching from behind, Cruise enters the scene and stalks up to his father with exaggerated cheer. He reverts into his offensive position — the hands-on-hips macho stage pose — but Cruise lets his nerves slip: he’s breathing too heavy, baring his teeth, and tapping his foot loudly just out of frame. Then the hurt rolls in like a fog. Cruise puts his superhuman body control to work. His lips purse; he shakes imperceptibly and clasps his hands together so hard that the knuckles turn white. Just as he vows, “I am not going to cry,” Cruise tilts his head to the ceiling, perfectly placed so the light catches a tear seconds before it spills across his face. As he collapses into sobs, a vein pops in his forehead, his face turns painfully red, and by the time he hollers, “Don’t go away, you fucking asshole!” Cruise is heaving like a hurt animal. The whole arc happens in just under two minutes, and it’s arguably the best two minutes of acting in Cruise’s career.

“The whole time with the character, I was skating on the edge,” acknowledged Cruise. The personal parallels between him and Mackey were closer than he cared to admit. In a strikingly candid 1992 interview with GQ , Cruise described his final moments with his father and presaged the same struggles Mackey would face seven years later. “When people can’t forgive someone, my question always is, ‘What have you done in your life that you can’t forgive this other person?’” asked Cruise. “The things you’ve got to take responsibility for in your life, it makes forgiveness quite easy. And it also brought me a lot of understanding about him and the pain he was in.”

But by the time Magnolia earned him his third Academy Award nomination, Cruise had clammed up about his father. Back on the awards circuit, and this time all but certain that the Oscar was his, he wanted to build protective distance between himself and the script. And why risk voters thinking he wasn’t really “acting”?

Again, Cruise lost. He’d ripped his life open for a tightly crafted, stunningly raw performance. And it still wasn’t enough. Cruise was done chasing Oscars — now it was time to have fun.

Amy Nicholson ( @TheAmyNicholson ) is the chief film critic for LA Weekly and author of Tom Cruise: Anatomy of an Actor .

Illustration by Alex Robbins.

Filed Under: Movies , Tom Cruise , Paul Thomas anderson , Magnolia , Nicole Kidman , Stanley Kubrick , Tom Cruise Week

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Tom Cruise’s Best, Strangest Role Was a Career Changer Until It Wasn’t

Tom Cruise has never gone as experimental as he did in this 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson film.

Tom Cruise has had an unprecedented level of success in the film industry for four decades, but the projects he’s worked on have been varied in their tone, style, and intent. Despite become a young heartthrob thanks to the success of Risky Business and Top Gun , Cruise spent the next two decades working with nearly every great director in the industry; Tony Scott, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Barry Levinson, Rob Reiner, Ron Howard, Sydney Pollack, Neil Jordan, Brian de Palma, Cameron Crowe, and Stanley Kubrick all lined up to utilize Cruise’s star power. Cruise had been gaining the reputation of being a “great actor,” and his ambitious collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson on Magnolia could have signified his transition to all-time status. However, Cruise’s best and strangest role was a career changer until it wasn’t.

RELATED: Why 'Magnolia’s Musical Sequence Remains the Crowning Jewel of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Career

Who Does Tom Cruise Play in 'Magnolia'?

While Anderson is now regarded as one of the industry’s finest directors, he was still an emerging talent in the 1990s with an eye for casting actors against type. Anderson’s small-scale gambling thriller Hard Eight and his epic ensemble dramedy Boogie Nights certainly indicated his ambition, but they would pale in comparison to Magnolia , a three-hour epic that follows multiple struggling characters throughout critical emotional breakthroughs within the San Fernando Valley. While each character within the mosaic is equally important and well-developed, Cruise’s role as the public speaker Frank T.J. Mackey was in many ways the heart of the film. Mackey is a selfish, aggressive bully in public, but by the end, he’s reduced to being a tearful child begging for a relationship with his father.

The role of Mackey was easily the most intimate and emotionally vulnerable performance Cruise would ever give, and it was one of the first instances since the beginning of his career where he took on a supporting role. Cruise had twice been nominated for Academy Awards before (for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire , and there was a notion that he could finally win for such a dynamic role. However, Magnolia would sadly be the last in this period of experimentation for Cruise, as public controversies, backlash, and personal issues signified that he’s never done something as “out there” as Magnolia ever again.

'Magnolia' Saw Tom Cruise Stripped of His Charm and Charisma

Cruise is an actor that exudes confidence naturally, and even his more experimental projects require him to show a certain level of inherent charisma. Jerry Maguire, Ethan Hunt , Mitch McDeere, and even Ron Kovic all have a conviction to them that draws people to their causes. But in Magnolia , Cruise was asked to subvert that very concept entirely. While Frank certainly maintains a level of popularity among his followers, his rhetoric appeals to the worst segment of the population. Described as somewhere between a “motivational speaker” and a “pickup artist,” Frank holds “inspirational” seminars in which he encourages men to be more aggressive. In an era right before the rise of the Internet, Frank felt like a precursor to the types of toxic masculine hate groups that dominate online discourse today.

There’s clearly a great deal of self-loathing on Frank’s part, which is partially why Cruise’s performance is so dynamic. He looks inherently ridiculous as he struts around yelling vague, immature comments about female inferiority with the conviction of someone reading great prose. Based on the audiences that attend Mackey’s seminars, it appears that empty speeches tend to have an impact on unconfident, shy men who look to Mackey as a success story. Yet, it’s only after a quick look into Mackey’s personal life that he’s simply really good at hiding his trauma, as he fears that admitting to his past will shatter the reputation he’s created for himself.

The role borders on becoming an analogy for Cruise’s own life, as Cruise had always been very protective over his public image. Anderson may have either consciously or unconsciously started unpacking Cruise’s issues on the big screen, and Cruise would rarely show that type of sensitivity on screen again.

'Magnolia' Pushed Tom Cruise's Limits as an Actor

Cruise had rarely taken on comedic parts, and it’s even rarer that he’s the butt of a joke. While Jerry Maguire and Risky Business required him to do a few embarrassing things on screen, they were still within the character trajectory of becoming a charming leading love interest. Comparatively, Frank is prancing around in his underwear talking about genitalia when he’s unexpectedly questioned about his heritage. After a question about his neglectful father Earl Partridge ( Frank Robards ) gets under his skin, Frank storms out of the room like an angry child.

It’s here where Cruise truly transcends to the best acting of his career. A struggling Frank begins to question his life’s achievements when he’s approached by Phil Pharma ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ) , a nurse taking care of his dying father. The scenes between Frank and Earl are among the most heartbreaking in all of Magnolia ; both men have lived lives they deeply regret, and a burden is lifted from Frank’s chest when he realizes he’s been bottling up his anger because of his father’s abuse. Seeing Cruise break down and cry was something audiences had simply never seen before.

Tom Cruise Hasn't Experimented in His Career Since "Magnolia'

Ironically, Magnolia was released that same year as Eyes Wide Shut , another highly personal drama that required Cruise to reflect on masculinity, self-worth, and sexuality in overt ways that may have made him self-conscious. He was getting more attention than ever for the subtext of his roles, which may have struck someone so closely in control of their public persona as a sign of distress. Cruise ended up losing the Best Supporting Actor Oscar to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules ; it would be the last time he made a serious bid at an awards race, even if some critics groups tried to push him for contention in The Last Samurai or Tropic Thunder .

Tom Cruise faced an emotional rollercoaster ride at the beginning of the 21st century when his high-profile divorces, active involvement in Scientology, media scandals, and controversial statements became bigger news items than his films. While he continued to star in great films, they were a strict return to safe blockbuster storytelling where Cruise was in his comfort zone as the super-confident, awesome action star that he seemed born to become. Magnolia may have been the last hint at how Cruise’s career could have gone in a completely different direction, and it’s a miracle that it simply exists.

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Tom Cruise’s ‘Magnolia’ Performance Will Never Not Make Me Cry

photo illustration of Tom Cruise in MAGNOLIA pink background

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These days, we’re much more likely to see Tom Cruise jumping out of a plane than we are jumping into an under-the-radar, daring drama. And that’s just fine! The Mission: Impossible movies only seem to get better with each new installment (I’m legitimately counting down the days till Fallout ), and Cruise is the biggest movie star in the world for a reason – he’s damn good at it. He’s an All-American hero (well, if you don’t think about all that Scientology stuff ), a guy we can all get behind. We want to see him beat the bad guys and flash that winning smile, because he’s Tom Cruise, goddamnit, and that’s what he was born to do. Before his résumé was mostly action fare and sequels, however, Cruise appeared in a wide variety of films, from Born on the Fourth of July and A Few Good Men to Jerry Maguire and Eyes Wide Shut . All these films (and many more) have established him as one of our most versatile working actors (though we’re wont to forget this nowadays), but there’s one Tom Cruise movie I’ll never be able to shake: Magnolia . On his 56th birthday, we’re looking back at his most devastating role.

Putting the fact that Magnolia is one of my favorite films of all time aside, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better Tom Cruise performance anywhere else. It may seem like an impossible mission to pick a “best” Cruise performance, and this isn’t discounting the incredible work he’s done elsewhere. But Frank “T.J.” Mackey is in an entirely different league from any other character Cruise has ever played. This miracle of a performance exists because of the perfect marriage of Cruise’s talent and willingness to go there and writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. Mackey is a crass monster, a man whose entire brand is built on treating women like sex toys. When he struts across that stage and demands that we “RESPECT THE COCK!”, it’s difficult not to immediately despise him – but that twisted charisma makes it impossible to look away. We know he can’t be entirely rotten to his core, but is there anyone worth redeeming beneath it all? Over the film’s three hours, we chip away at his thorny exterior until we finally reach the trembling boy inside – and there’s nothing quite like the catharsis that ensues.

Magnolia offers us a glimpse into Cruise’s vast emotional spectrum; from the clownish, loathsome man riding high on stage to the angry, petulant child caught off-guard during his interview, we see his highs and lows, his fears, his rage. These libido-fueled moments may act as a testament to Cruise’s versatility, but the real magic happens when he finally confronts the father who abandoned him. Every inhale feels totally honest, and it’s likely because it was: Cruise reportedly drew from his own experience with his father for the scene. I’ve watched the scene dozens of times, and I catch something new with every viewing. The first part of his monologue is all in one take, and the steady rise in tension is nearly unbearable.

“I’m not gonna cry,” he spits out, but his words have already betrayed him – two tears roll down his cheek. It’s when my own tears begin to flow, too, without fail, every single damn time. We’ve spent over two hours hating this man and all that he stands for, but in that moment, and in the complete, full-body sobs that follow, he’s just as vulnerable and devastated as the rest of us, navigating this impossible scenario the best way he can. Cruise goes to a place that few actors might ever dare, reaches deep into his soul to find heartache and resentment and agony that many of us likely can’t fathom.

Tom Cruise may be able to pull off death-defying stunts better than anyone else out there, but he’s accomplished no greater feat than that of Magnolia , a true spectacle of emotional proportions. Frank “T.J.” Mackey is more impressive than scaling any skyscraper or hanging off the side of a plane, because in the end, Cruise does the impossible: he makes us feel for someone we want to see fail. And that’s a mission most would never accept.

Where to Stream Magnolia

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Meet Pickup Artist Ross Jeffries, The Inspiration For Tom Cruise’s Character In ‘Magnolia’

I called the hotline number that fed to Ross Jeffries’ Speed Seduction system, and the irony of the situation quickly dawned on me. Here I was scrambling to get in contact with the man who inspired Tom Cruise’s pick-up-artist/self-help guru character in Magnolia , and I was attempting to do so in the same exact way Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character did in the film. The only difference was that Hoffman was able to use the tactic to get in touch with Cruise’s Frank Mackie (granted, it was a life or death situation), while I only received an email address that could have been quickly ascertained had I committed to more internet research. (Perhaps I should have mentioned to the lovely telemarketer that Jeffries’ father’s condition was dire, and one of his last wishes was to speak to his son?)

By the tone and inflection of the woman’s voice — “He gets A LOT of emails” — I figured my correspondence would get lost in the shuffle of men scratching at his digital door begging for the secrets of sensuality to be slid underneath. Can I SEDUCE you into an interview with a very popular website? read the subject line. Send. (I decided to continue writing this piece with the hopes that Jeffries would get back to me but also with the awareness that he might not.)

One of the best parts of Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic drama, Magnolia , is Tom Cruise’s performance as Frank T.J. Mackie. In fact, it’s one of Cruise’s best performances, period. If you haven’t see the film, then take a gander at the video below (if you’re into drum and bass music, you’ll appreciate this even more ), which is the most profane Cruise has ever been with exception to Tropic Thunder.

Anderson was on Marc Maron’s latest WTF podcast , and during the discussion of Magnolia , the auteur dropped a little gem acknowledging Ross Jeffries as the inspiration for Cruise’s Oscar-nominated role. Mackie is one of Anderson’s most charismatic and engrossing characters, but who is this Ross Jeffries guy?

Jeffries website, Seduction.com, houses a short bio on him :

Ross Jeffries is the founder, creator and Master Teacher of the worldwide seduction community. Featured as the mentor to Neil Strauss in the best selling book, “The Game,” RJ has taught, coached, and mentored thousands of men around the world, since 1991, guiding them to the success with women they truly desire and deserve.

After a brief perusal of his blog headlines, this man’s function in society began to come into focus even more:

“Bring In 2015 With A Bang (Literally)”

“Touching Technique That Drives Her Crazy”

“I’m A Perpetual Mental Masturbator”

At the center of Jeffries’ Seduction website is the Speed Seduction system, which claims to be the “Fastest And Easiest Pathway To Rapid Success, With The Women You Truly Desire!” The basis of the program is something called NLP, or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. If you take a stroll through the vegetation of various definitions of NLP, you’ll come across definitions like this one from NLP University :

(NLP) is a pragmatic school of thought – an ‘epistemology’ – that addresses the many levels involved in being human. NLP is a multi-dimensional process that involves the development of behavioral competence and flexibility, but also involves strategic thinking and an understanding of the mental and cognitive processes behind behavior.

A more distilled definition of NLP brings us to a system that is based on cognitive and behavioral processes, one that allows you (I’m trying to not use the word “brainwash”) to inundate yourself with proven abilities of success while also instilling influence into others through the use of “linguistic patterns.” Here’s Jeffries discussing putting his program to use back in the early stages of his career.

(It was at this point in the writing process that my phone rang — a Beverly Hills number. To stay ahead of bill collectors I usually screen my calls. But, this was Beverly Hills, and I’m a fame whore. So I picked it up.)

“Ross Jeffries doesn’t exist,” the voice said.

I was taken aback.

The man on the phone identified himself as Paul Ross. No, he was not Ross Jeffries, but he knew so much about the man. Were they related? Did they work together?

“Ross Jeffries was a character I created,” Ross explained. “A loudmouth, obnoxious, larger than life, sort of a bit of a showman to get the message out there, to be a loud mouthpiece. That character doesn’t really meld with who I am today.”

I felt like I had unplugged from the matrix. Everything that I had learned in the past hour or two was a lie. I wasn’t even sure if the office I was typing this piece in was made of four walls and a roof or just a sequence of numbers.

“Here’s the interesting thing: Paul Thomas Anderson thought that they were going to portray a real person,” Ross told me. “They didn’t realize they were portraying a character created by an actor. Tom Cruise didn’t realize that he was studying a character. He thought he was studying a person. He created a character based on a character. Very few people know this.”

If Ross Jeffries “doesn’t exist,” then how about his teachings? We’re they, like Jeffries, just a facade?

“That’s still there, that’s still valid. There’s just no Ross Jeffries,” Ross said. “There’s no Santa Claus (laughing). As I’ve grown as a person, that character (who) would bang every girl in sight — it doesn’t really fit who I’ve grown to be as a human.”

Indeed, Jeffries doesn’t exist; even his Twitter account is an extension of his character. His friend Tania Raymonde was an actor on LOST for several seasons, and he said he regularly discusses with her the intricacies of playing a role. “The entire craft of acting is a fascinating thing. It fascinates me.”

Paul is a practicing Buddhist now. He’s changed the direction of his NLP programs to focus more on business, wealth, and overcoming traumatic experiences. It’s not just about getting laid anymore.

“I’ve never expressed hatred towards woman,” Ross said. “I no longer hate anyone. That part has been burned out by my Buddhist practice. I don’t deny gender differences, either. You can call me anything. Names don’t bother me anymore.”

Ross didn’t have the time, nor did it seem like he cared to explore in detail with me, the exact machinations behind his change in philosophy, but it was clear he was no longer wholeheartedly in the seduction business. “I don’t want to promote Seduction.com,” he said. “This is not what you expected, is it?”

“No, it’s not,” I replied.

As for Cruise’s portrayal of his character in Magnolia — did they get it right?

“Mackie is more manic. Mackie is far more misogynistic. He’s basically taking stuff from where I was in 1998,” Ross explained. “He’s also much shorter than I am. Remember when Mackie had the audience take out their calendars? I didn’t actually give them physical calendars, but I did have them say ‘By the 5th of May I’ll be having my way. By the 8th of June I’ll have their poon.’ That kind of rhyming stuff I got from Muhammed Ali.”

Paul Ross is continuing to use the name Ross Jeffries, because it’s “a brand,” but even though the focus of his seminars and programs have shifted more towards the arena of self-improvement, he’s not altogether abandoning his role as seduction guru.

“I’m temporarily stepping back from it so I can find a better way to teach it. I’m not getting out of it completely.”

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Tom Cruise rewatch: Shining from the sidelines in Magnolia and Tropic Thunder

Sometimes, the star is at his best when he's not the main event.

Leah Greenblatt is the critic at large at Entertainment Weekly , covering movies, music, books, and theater. She is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, and has been writing for EW since 2004.

Ahead of this Friday's release of Top Gun: Maverick , our writers return to their favorite Tom Cruise movies, in appreciation of an on-screen persona that's evolved over decades.

People like to say that true movie stars — or at least the vanishing few who can still wear that title in 2022 — essentially always play themselves on screen. And they're right of course, to a point: At a certain Mt. Rushmore level of fame, the X-factor presence of a star operating at full wattage can eclipse just about any role or franchise.

Which makes it feel like an almost transgressive thrill when someone like Tom Cruise shows up in project that is not billed, per se, as Tom Cruise movie. There are at least two great examples of that (though they'll probably never appear together on a double bill, unless it's wild-card night at a Cruise Completist festival). The first is Magnolia , the three-hour Paul Thomas Anderson opus released in 1999, in which the actor played a spectacularly toxic sex guru named Frank "T.J." Mackey; the second is his deft turn in the giddy 2008 film-industry farce Tropic Thunder as Les Grossman, a Hollywood mogul whose love languages are rage and Flo Rida .

As diametrically opposed as these two roles are in nearly everything from tone to hairline, they both tap into something intrinsically, ineffably Cruise: the actor's trademark intensity, a trait so inborn that "turned to 11" seems to be his default setting. (Even as a Ray-Banned prep schooler or a moonlighting bartender , his performances tend to vibrate at a frequency best described as code red; do you really think he'd sign up for any mission if it were just... medium possible?)

In the sprawling interconnected storylines of Magnolia , which take place largely over the course of a single day in Los Angeles, Mackey is a very specific kind of motivational speaker, a rabid cad in a half-ponytail selling snake-oil sexuality to a Marriott ballroom of single men eager to absorb his patented Seduce and Destroy pickup system. (Anderson was inspired, reportedly, by O.G. Game guy Ross Jeffries .) Entering triumphant to the crashing strains of "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," T.J. is incel energy personified, screaming "Respect the cock! And taaaame the c---!" like both his life and his spotlight in a Tucker Carlson infomercial for manhood depended on it.

But of course, there's an ocean of hurt lurking beneath that glossy leather vest: Mackey's estranged power-player father (Jason Robards) abandoned the family decades ago, and left his teenage son to nurse his own mother through a terrible, fatal cancer. Now, T.J. will have his revenge on the half of the population he can't call "Daddy," and in a seething scene with a Black female reporter (April Grace), his aggressive exuberance devolves into real, messy fury. All those signature Tom charms — the swoop of hair, the can-do grin — have been weaponized, metastasized.

Magnolia , if the Aimee Mann singalongs and raining frogs hadn't already tipped you off, is not a subtle movie. Its emotions run high and hot, and even Cruise eventually falls prey to the melodrama in a sobbing, furious bedside reunion with Robards . Still, he's electric in the part, a deeply damaged man so determined to master the universe — to penetrate it, if you will — that he hasn't truly looked in the mirror in years. The novelty in hearing a star of Cruise's toothy, clean-scrubbed magnitude scream the C-word wears off eventually; the pain and mania behind it stays.

It's also a little bit disconcerting how physically gorgeous he still is, hotel-samurai ponytail aside. But if you feel uncomfortable finding him attractive as a cross between Caligula and Tony Robbins, there's a cure for that: Thunder 's Grossman, the bald, bespectacled studio chief with forearms the size of ham hocks and the core personality traits of an irate water buffalo. (He, too, is said to be based on a real-life character, in this case famed Die Hard producer Joel Silver .) While the cast of a fictional film-within-a-film that includes Ben Stiller (who also directed and cowrote the script) and Robert Downey Jr. in blackface (listen, kids, it was 2008) watches their shoot in a remote jungle go spectacularly awry, Les is the guy back in L.A. playing hardball.

Does he negotiate with terrorists, even when they're holding one of his biggest stars for ransom? Les doesn't play that . Will he shout down Matthew McConaughey 's mercenary agent until he gets him to trade the life of his prized client for a G5? Well, if he must. And does he dance on the graves of his enemies? Just watch him Dougie. Grossman is the monologue king, blithely inured to other human beings and their petty needs; mouths are moving, but only money really makes a sound. The churn of bumper-sticker quotables aside ("I'm talking scorched earth, mother-f---er, I will massacre you"; "That's physics, it's inevitable"), he's just a joy to watch: a giant ball of id barrelling down the lens, without explanation or apology. In these roles, one of the most famously controlled figures in show business seems to find his own sticky sweet spot: Give Cruise chaos, and set him free.

Tom Cruise movie quotes

killing (12)
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relationships (8)
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“Someday? Someday my dream will come? One night you will wake up and discover it never happened. It's all turned around on you. It never will. Suddenly you are old. Didn't happen, and it never will, because you were never going to do it anyway. You'll push it into memory and then zone out in your barco lounger, being hypnotized by daytime TV for...” (continue) (continue reading) Tom Cruise - Vincent

“Someday. That's a dangerous word . It's really just a code for 'never'.” Tom Cruise - Roy Miller

“- Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny? - Nathan Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.” Ken Watanabe - Katsumoto Tom Cruise - Nathan Algren

“Benji, we're trying to keep a low profile. You want drama, go to the opera .” Tom Cruise - Ethan Hunt

“- Lt. Sam Weinberg: Nobody likes the whites, but we're going to Cuba. You got Dramamine? - Lt. Daniel Kaffee: Dramamine keeps you cool? - Lt. Sam Weinberg: No, Dramamine keeps you from throwing up. You get sick when you fly. - Lt. Daniel Kaffee: I get sick when I fly because I'm afraid of crashing into a large mountain . I don't think...” (continue) (continue reading) Kevin Pollak - Lt. Sam Weinberg Tom Cruise - Lt. Daniel Kaffee

“I'm a soldier , I serve my country. But this is not my country. I was lying out there bleeding to death, thinking, if I die now, I leave nothing to my children but shame. I know now there is only one way to serve Germany, and doing so I'll be a traitor... I accept that.” Tom Cruise - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

“Look at the people. Now tell me which ones are free. Free from debt. Anxiety. Stress. Fear. Failure. Indignity. Betrayal . How many wish that they were born knowing what they know now? Ask yourself how many would do things the same way over again?” Tom Cruise - Jack Reacher

“- Rachel Ferrier: I'm allergic to peanut butter. - Ray Ferrier: Since when? - Rachel Ferrier: Birth.” Dakota Fanning - Rachel Ferrier Tom Cruise - Ray Ferrier

“There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it's a family trade . Others are patriots , eager to serve. Next, you have those who just need a job. Then there's the kind who want a legal means of killing other people.” Tom Cruise - Jack Reacher

“- Raymond Babbitt: 246 total. - Charlie Babbitt: How many? - Sally Dibbs: 250. - Charlie Babbitt: Pretty close. - Sally Dibbs: There's four left in the box.” Dustin Hoffman - Raymond Babbitt Tom Cruise - Charlie Babbitt Bonnie Hunt - Sally Dibbs

“- Katsumoto: I will die by the sword. My own, or my enemy's. - Nathan Algren: Then let it be your enemy's.” Ken Watanabe - Katsumoto Tom Cruise - Nathan Algren

“I tried to prove myself to you, but I know nothing of books, or alphabets, or sun, or moon or… All I know is Joseph loves Shannon.” Tom Cruise - Joseph Donnelly

“- Nathan Algren: What else has she told you? - Katsumoto: That you have nightmares . - Nathan Algren: Every soldier has nightmares . - Katsumoto: Only one who is ashamed of what he has done.” Tom Cruise - Nathan Algren Ken Watanabe - Katsumoto

“We walk , and Afghanistan reverts back to the Taliban. Only now the Taliban has metastasized into something infinitely more vicious and potent because they're now 2-0 versus superpowers. They butcher the people who helped us, who voted and were stupid enough to put their faith in our word . So call it not only the end of hope for 10s of millions...” (continue) (continue reading) Tom Cruise - Senator Jasper Irving

“- Maverick : Mustang, this is Maverick , requesting fly-by. - Air Boss Johnson: Negative, Ghost Rider. The Pattern is full. - Merlin: Uh, excuse me, something I should know about? - Air Boss Johnson: [gets his coffee] Thank you. [ Maverick does a fly-by past the Enterprise , causing Air Boss Johnson to spill his coffee] - Air Boss Johnson: Goddamn...” (continue) (continue reading) Tom Cruise - Maverick Duke Stroud - Air Boss Johnson Tim Robbins - Merlin

“Evil is a point of view . God kills indiscriminately and so shall we. For no creatures under God are as we are, none so like him as ourselves.” Tom Cruise - Lestat

- Miles: Sometimes you gotta say "What the fuck", make your move. Joel, every now and then, saying "What the fuck" brings freedom. Freedom brings opportunity, opportunity makes your future. So, your parents are going out of town . You got the place all to yourself. - Joel Goodson: Yeah. - Miles: What the fuck. Curtis Armstrong - Miles Dalby Tom Cruise - Joel

“I'm a soldier , but in serving my country, I have betrayed my conscience.” Tom Cruise - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg

“You see the dilemma don't you. If you don't kill me, precogs were wrong and precrime is over. If you do kill me, you go away, but it proves the system works. The precogs were right. So, what are you going to do now? What's it worth?” Tom Cruise - Chief John Anderton

“What does it mean to be Samurai? To devote yourself utterly to a set of moral principles. To seek a stillness of your mind. And to master the way of the sword.” Tom Cruise - Nathan Algren

“- Bonnie: Please, I don't want to end it this way. - Brian: Jesus , everything ends badly, otherwise it wouldn't end.” Lisa Banes - Bonnie Tom Cruise - Brian Flanagan

“You bitch! Why didn't you just tell me it was a Rum and Coke?!” Tom Cruise - Brian Flanagan

“I left a can of Spam in your refrigerator... I hope your Brewers Yeast doesn't take it personally.” Tom Cruise - Brian Flanagan

“You're not God, Nickerson. You're just a typing teacher .” Tom Cruise - Stefen Djordjevic

“- Kittridge: I can understand you're very upset. - Ethan Hunt: Kitridge, you've never seen me very upset. - Kittridge: All right, Hunt. Enough is enough. You have bribed, cajoled, and killed, and you have done it using loyalties on the inside. You want to shake hands with the devil, that's fine with me. I just want to make sure that you do it in...” (continue) (continue reading) Henry Czerny - Kittridge Tom Cruise - Ethan Hunt

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An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
24 hours in L.A.; it's raining cats and dogs. Two parallel and intercut stories dramatize men about to die: both are estranged from a grown child, both want to make contact, and neither child wants anything to do with dad. Earl Partridge's son is a charismatic misogynist; Jimmy Gator's daughter is a cokehead and waif. A mild and caring nurse intercedes for Earl, reaching the son; a prayerful and upright beat cop meets the daughter, is attracted to her, and leads her toward a new calm. Meanwhile, guilt consumes Earl's young wife, while two whiz kids, one grown and a loser and the other young and pressured, face their situations. The weather, too, is quirky. — <[email protected]>
In the style of Ripley's Believe It Or Not, coincidence has played a part in three bizarre deaths during the past century... Jimmy Gator has hosted the popular quiz show "What Do Kids Know?" in Los Angeles for over 30 years. Stanley is the brightest of the three kids currently reigning on the show. Jimmy is estranged from his daughter, Claudia. Living in her cheap apartment, Claudia is hooked on cocaine. Donnie Smith had been a famous whiz kid on Jimmy's show decades ago. Since being hit by lightning, he does promotional work for the Solomon Bros. appliance store and dreams of getting an expensive set of braces for his teeth. Frank Mackey is a very successful motivational speaker. His aggressive seminar on dating, "Seduce and Destroy", is well attended by frustrated bachelors. Officer Kurring answers a call at a woman's apartment and finds a corpse in her closet. Affluent producer Earl Partridge is bedridden and dying of cancer. His beautiful wife Linda married him for his money... The quiz show kids are close to setting an all-time record; Stanley feels the pressure from his father. Jimmy has learned that he has cancer and only two months to live. Officer Kurring arrives at an apartment where neighbours have complained about the noise; Claudia opens the door. Earl asks Phil, his nurse, to contact his estranged son; the younger Partridge now uses the name Frank Mackey... — David Woodfield
The film begins with a narrator telling us three separate stories based on the theme of coincidence. From there, we meet 9 characters whose lives are all connected in one way or another. We follow them all over the course of one day and watch their lives change forever. — John Reeler
In the opening prologue, a narrator goes over three events of incredible coincidence: 1) Sir Edmund William Godfrey, a resident of Greenberry Hill, London, was killed by three vagrants looking to rob his pharmacy. The surnames of these men were Green, Berry, and Hill. 2) Reno blackjack dealer Delmer Darion went scuba diving in a lake and was accidentally picked up by a firefighting plane in order to put out a nearby forest fire. Darion died of a heart attack inside the plane. The plane's pilot, Craig Hansen, had gotten into a fight with Darion two days prior at a casino. The guilt and measure of coincidence eventually prompted him to commit suicide. 3) 17-year-old Sydney Barringer attempted suicide by jumping off the roof of his Los Angeles apartment building. Meanwhile, his parents, Faye and Arthur, were arguing inside their apartment. Faye threatened Arthur with a shotgun and accidentally fired at the window just as Sydney passed, killing him. There was a safety net that would have saved Sydney's life had he not been shot. His parents hadn't known the gun was loaded; Sydney had loaded it himself a few days earlier, hoping one would kill the other. Faye was arrested for murder, and Sydney himself noted as an accomplice in his own death. San Fernando Valley, present day: Claudia Wilson Gator, a depressed and seemingly bipolar cocaine addict, meets a man at a bar. They have sex at her apartment. The next morning Claudia's father, game show host Jimmy Gator, pays a visit. He tells Claudia that he has bone cancer and that he's going to die soon. Claudia doesn't seem to care, and furiously yells him out of the house. The man from the bar leaves as well. That same morning, Nurse Phil Parma arrives at a large house to look after Earl Partridge, an elderly television mogul who's dying of brain and lung cancer. Linda Partridge, Earl's much younger trophy wife, leaves to see Earl's doctor, who writes a prescription for a potent morphine painkiller that can diminish Earl's suffering. Meanwhile, Earl tells Phil that he has a son: sex guru Frank 'T.J.' Mackey (born Jack Partridge). Earl wants to see Frank before he dies, and Phil attempts to contact him. Frank is currently leading an enthusiastic seminar for his program "Seduce and Destroy," which can enable men to use women for sex. A reporter named Gwenovier arrives at the studio to interview Frank later. Quiz Kid Donnie Smith, who as a child won a large amount of money on Jimmy Gator's show "What Do Kids Know?" (of which Earl Partridge happens to be a producer), now works at an electronics store. However, his bosses fire him since his sales are down. He pleads with them as he needs to pay for dental braces (which he doesn't need; his teeth are straight), but they force Donnie to hand over his keys to the store. Jim Kurring, a religious police officer who is divorced and looking for a relationship, answers a noise complaint and finds a dead body inside a woman's closet. Though he was first on the scene, he is later ignored as his superior questions his fellow officers. Outside he meets a young boy named Dixon, who recites a rap referencing "the Worm" and God bringing rain in. Jim dismisses this as nonsense and drives off. Stanley Spector, a child genius and current long-running contestant on "What Do Kids Know?", is picked up from school by his avaricious actor father Rick and driven to the game show studio to win some more money. Stanley seems reluctant. Afternoon (it starts raining): "What Do Kids Know?" pits a panel of three children against one of three adults through a series of trivia questions. Stanley and his two co-contestants are minor celebrities thanks to their tenure on the show (in actuality, Stanley's co-contestants barely do anything; Stanley himself is the main reason this panel has lasted so long). Jimmy downs several shots of alcohol before the live taping. The show starts at 3:30 PM, and as usual, Stanley expertly answers Jimmy's questions, putting the kids ahead of the adults. During a commercial break, Stanley asks to go to the bathroom, but he is denied this request. Officer Jim answers a noise complaint at Claudia's apartment, where she is playing her music too loudly. After hiding her cocaine, she opens the door, and Jim is immediately smitten with her. He takes a look around and decides not to write her up, but not wanting to leave yet, he makes casual conversation with her. Donnie enters a bar (the same one where Claudia was the previous night), where it is revealed why he wants braces: he is desperate to connect with his crush, Brad the bartender, who wears braces. Donnie drinks heavily after Brad seemingly flirts with another patron named Thurston Howell. He later starts up a conversation with Howell, lamenting on love, as well as the fact that his parents abandoned him after taking all of his game show money. Linda goes to a pharmacy to pick up some medication, including Earl's morphine. The pharmacist tries making idle conversation with her, but she eventually finds his questions too personal and launches into a furious tirade before leaving with the medication. Phil orders some pornographic magazines to find the number of "Seduce and Destroy." He calls and tries to make his way through to Frank. Later one of Earl's dogs eats some medication pills that Phil accidentally spilled. The seminar takes a break as Gwenovier interviews Frank. The interview turns hostile when she questions him about his father Earl, whom he earlier lied was dead. After going over how Earl abandoned his first wife Lily when she became ill and of how a young Frank had to take care of her as she lay on her deathbed, Gwenovier asks Frank why he lied. Late afternoon to nightfall: Linda tells her lawyer that she wants to change Earl's will; she reveals that she has cheated on Earl many times and only started to love him when he was diagnosed with cancer. The lawyer says she can't change the will, but she can renounce it. Linda can't do that, as the money would then go to Frank (Earl has lied to her about his relationship with Frank, blaming his son for the distance between them). Frustrated, she returns home. She attempts suicide in the garage via carbon monoxide, but stops herself to bring the morphine inside. A drunken Donnie confesses his feelings to Brad, and vomits in the bathroom. He later returns home and gathers some secretly-made spare keys to his former employers' store, planning to rob the money for the braces. Realizing that the people around him are using him for money or publicity, Stanley stops answering questions, which lets the adult panel get ahead. He wets his pants during a round, while Jimmy collapses from his deteriorating condition. Jimmy recovers, but Stanley refuses to get up for the final round and instead goes into a rant about how people look at him just because of his age and intelligence. The show is forced to end without a clear winner (though it is implied that the adults win thanks to their accumulated score). Rick is furious. Stanley flees the studio and breaks into his school library, hiding there and perusing books about child geniuses for the rest of the night. Jimmy returns home to his wife Rose. Officer Jim leaves the apartment, but not before arranging a date with Claudia later that night. After he leaves, Claudia puts the cocaine back on her table and turns on the TV to watch "What Do Kids Know?", just in time to catch Stanley's rant. As the show ends, Claudia cries for an unclear reason. While driving, Jim spots a suspicious man (known by his criminal nickname "the Worm") and takes chase. The Worm shoots at Jim, while Dixon runs in and steals Jim's gun. Both Dixon and the Worm flee, and Jim becomes a laughingstock among his fellow officers for having lost his gun. He returns home to get ready for his date. As Phil gets in touch with Frank's assistant, a cold and indignant Frank stays mostly silent throughout the rest of the interview. Afterwards, Frank deliberates over whether to take Phil's call. Linda enters the house and, upon learning who Phil is calling, violently forces him to hang up. Frank decides not to speak with Phil and hangs up as well. The seminar continues, but Frank's now-troubled mindset causes him to make an error and lose his temper. After the seminar he changes his mind and drives to Earl's house, though he hesitates to go inside. After a tearful apology to Phil, Linda leaves to commit suicide. She parks at another location and takes some medication with alcohol, while Earl laments to Phil about the regret that has tortured him over his son and first wife (Earl was extremely unfaithful to Lily, mirroring Linda). Phil then gives Earl the morphine. What follows is a bizarre, somber sequence where the nine main characters sing along to Aimee Mann's "Wise Up." Night (it stops raining): Claudia and Jim go to a restaurant. The date goes bad when, following a kiss, Claudia's neurotic self-hatred causes her to break down and leave without Jim. She takes a taxi home. Jimmy admits to Rose that he has cheated on her in the past. They later talk about Claudia, and he implies (but never openly admits) that the reason she hates him is that he molested her. Disgusted and outraged, Rose leaves the house, yelling that Jimmy deserves to die alone. Jimmy then takes out a gun and prepares to end his life. Linda's dying body is found by Dixon, who steals her money and calls 911. An ambulance takes her and heads for the hospital, while nearby Dixon counts his cash and recites his rap again. Frank enters the house and speaks to Earl (who is unresponsive because of the morphine) as Phil watches solemnly. Though silently hostile at first, Frank soon breaks down in tears and begs Earl not to go away. Donnie successfully robs the store and leaves, though one of his keys breaks off in the door. The weight of his act later hits him, and he decides to return the money. Since his key is broken, he tries to access another entrance by climbing an adjacent telephone pole. Jim drives by and sees Donnie climbing the phone pole. He turns around to arrest Donnie, but stops when it begins to rain frogs. One frog hits Donnie, who falls off the pole and injures his teeth on the pavement. The frogs start falling as Claudia snorts coke in her apartment. After crashing her car due to the frogs, Rose arrives and comforts her frightened daughter. The frogs cause Linda's ambulance to tip over during the drive, just as it arrives at the hospital. A frog falls through Jimmy's ceiling and lands on his head, causing him to accidentally shoot a TV. He falls, unconscious, as a spark from the gunshot starts a fire... From inside the library, Stanley watches the frog storm, smiles, and calmly comments that "This is something that happens." As Phil gazes at the frogs, Earl wakes up, sees Frank, and struggles to say something. Before he can utter a coherent word, he dies. The next morning: Stanley returns home and wakes Rick, who apparently has not tried very hard to find his son. Stanley tells Rick to be nicer to him, but Rick coldly tells him to go to bed. Earl's body is taken away, along with that of the dog who ate his pills. Phil cries as he makes Earl's now-empty bed. When the hospital calls, Frank heads there to see Linda, who is recovering. Jim gets his gun back when it drops from the sky. After hearing his story, he decides not to arrest Donnie, and the two enter the store and put the money back, though Donnie now does need braces. After helping clean the frogs off of Donnie's car, he refers Donnie to someone who can correct his teeth. After Donnie leaves, Jim sits in his car and monologues about his duty as a policeman and about knowing when to forgive people. Rose goes to answer the door as Claudia sits in bed. Jim soon enters the room and talks to Claudia, making a speech about how he will love and accept her for who she is. During the speech Claudia looks sad and uncertain, but afterward she breaks the fourth wall and smiles at the viewer.

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Tom Cruise’s Top 10 Movie Quotes: From ‘Mission: Impossible’ to ‘Jerry Maguire’

Tom Cruise is a national treasure. Competing with a sea of foreign actors ranging from Tom Hardy and Henry Cavill to Michael Fassbender and Christian Bale, Cruise is one of the last American Movie Stars still standing — which also seems to be the one thing he never does in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. He’s constantly in motion, whether he’s running for his life, climbing the Burj Khalifa or flying on the outside of an airplane.

With the release of “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation” this weekend, TheWrap decided to take a look back at Cruise’s incredible 34-year career and highlight his most memorable lines of dialogue. Join us for a trip down memory lane — on Cruise control, if you will.

Also Read: 5 Reasons Tom Cruise's 'Mission Impossible' Went Rogue

And if there’s a classic Cruise zinger we missed, let us know in the comments section below.

1. The Cameron Quote – Jerry Maguire (tie) – “You complete me.” & “SHOW ME THE MONEY!” No one writes for Tom Cruise like Cameron Crowe, who served up a screenplay full of classic one-liners that allowed Cruise to prove he was at the peak of his powers in 1996. You could say anything, but we say they complete each other.

2. The Shared Quote - A Few Good Men - “Colonel Jessup! Did you order the code red? … I think I’m entitled. … I want the truth!” It takes two to tango, and there’s no better dance partner than Jack Nicholson. Coming to set armed for battle with an Aaron Sorkin script doesn’t hurt either. Nicholson’s half of the exchange continues to endure, but Cruise’s role in this classic courtroom scene is often overlooked and underappreciated.

3. The Classic Quote – Top Gun – “I feel the need… the need for speed.” C’mon Iceman, have a heart for this little ditty, which gets bonus points for rhyming. Who hasn’t said this while passing an old lady on the freeway?

4. The Adult Quote – Magnolia – “Respect the c-ck! And tame the c-nt!” Cruise is all grown up as Frank T.J. Mackey, a magnetic motivational speaker who empowers men to take what they want from women. Cruise went out on a limb to take a chance on Paul Thomas Anderson and it paid off with his third and most recent Oscar nomination back in 1999.

5. The Action Hero Quote (tie) Mission: Impossible – “Red light. Green light.” Minority Report – “Everybody runs.” Action heroes have to speak in short bursts and make their words count. They don’t have time to make long speeches, as they’re too busy saving the world from one disaster or another. Cruise made saving the world look effortless in these two mid-’90s efforts.

6. The Young and Cocky Quote - Risky Business – “Porsche. There is no substitute.” This is the youngest Tom Cruise on this list and thus, the purest. He wasn’t “Tom Cruise” yet. He was just a cocky guy singing in his underwear without a care in the world. Talk about human fulfillment …

7. The Deep Quote (tie) The Last Samurai – “I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.” Eyes Wide Shut – “No dream is ever just a dream.” ( no clip available ) Cruise is a man of many philosophies and he went all philosophical on us with these two movies, in which he spouts some “deep” stuff. Fidelio, indeed…

8. The Screaming Quote (tie) Vanilla Sky – “Tech support!” Born on the Fourth of July – “I fought for my country! I am a Vietnam veteran! I fought for my country!” Other than Al Pacino and (maybe) Nicolas Cage, is there anyone you’d rather watch scream/shout/yell than Tom Cruise? He has it down to a science, whether he’s missing his legs or his face.

9. The Funny Quote – Tropic Thunder – “First, take a big step back… and literally FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!” Cruise played a supporting role in Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder” and disappeared into the character of Les Grossman, a powerful studio head with hair everywhere but his head. Cruise stole the show, so much so that Paramount developed a spinoff movie for his character, though unfortunately, it never got the greenlight.

1o. The Creepy Quote (tie) Interview With the Vampire – “Don’t be afraid. I’m going to give you the choice I never had.” Collateral – “Don’t get me cornered. You don’t have the trunk space.” (no clip available) Cruise makes a great upscale creep, whether he’s threatening to kill two cops or take a bite out of Christian Slater. Living or undead, there’s something primal about his performances, which are never less than 100 percent believable. Even in his lesser films, he’s always completely committed to his characters.

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Magnolia: 10 quotes that will stick with us forever 4a12o.

One of Paul Thomas Anderson's most iconic films, Magnolia, is a deep psychological drama with many layers. Here are the best quotes from the film. 5h225a

Paul Thomas Anderson dramas that appeal to both the mind and the heart. They mix small-scale settings and grounded realism with the grandiose, the abstract, and the thought-provoking. One of his most iconic films, Magnolia , certainly falls in line with these attributes.

RELATED: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Making Of Magnolia

It's an emotional tale that examines humanity through a mostly cynical lens, tugging at the heartstrings with its themes of love, forgiveness, and the search for meaning. Despite its minimalistic nature, the film exudes a frantic and grand feel by shifting between various figures - most of whom are troubled in some way. As one might expect from a nuanced psychological tale, it's chock-full of profound and interesting quotes.

"What Am I Doing? I'm Quietly Judging You." 65673f

The apparent "womanizer" known as Frank T.J. Mackey spends much of his story being interviewed about his origins and ideals behind his rather chauvinistic program "Seduce and Destroy." Deep into the conversation, the interviewer begins probing a bit deeper, asking for clarification about various details that Frank has kept quiet about.

After catching him in a lie regarding his history, Frank looks intensely perturbed and stares daggers at the woman. Following a question as to what he's doing, he responds with this amusing gem. It's a classic moment for both Frank as well as his actor, Tom Cruise .

"Life Ain't Short, It's Long!" 361l5l

Serving as one of the many figures with an intertwined story - Frank's father, a former studio head named Earl, is on his death bed and spilling his emotional guts to the nurse, Phil. He breaks into quite an emotional sermon, wrought with regret and anguish, and laced with some elderly wisdom for Phil.

Amidst his speech, he utters this line, which, while brief, is a powerful character-defining moment and symbol of Magnolia 's overarching themes.

"I Will Not Apologize For Who I Am. I Will Not Apologize For What I Need ..." 5fn1y

Getting back to the self-proclaimed macho man that is Frank Mackey, this quote is one among many that he states to the disciples of his "Seduce and Destroy" program. It's emblematic for his character in one sense, though it's also telling in its super emphatic delivery.

By this point in the film, Frank is becoming more introspective as he's being forced to reexamine his history - which he's clearly repressed - and reevaluate what he's doing. The way he makes this proclamation feels as though he's merely trying to convince himself of his place as a man who will "get what he wants" out of a woman.

"I'm Sick. I Have Sickness All Around Me And You Ask Me About My Life?" 6k1636

While there's no shortage of great performances in Magnolia , arguably the best comes from Julianne Moore's raw, visceral portrayal of Earl's wife, Linda. Throughout the film, she must cope with the guilt of cheating on him and exploiting his wealth, while dealing with, as she puts it, "sickness all around me." This is referring to both Earl's critical state, as well as her emotional torment during this moment.

RELATED: 10 Best Julianne Moore Movies (According To Rotten Tomatoes)

This outburst to a chatty pharmacist makes for one of the most memorable, intense scenes in the film. It becomes clear at this point that Linda is on the brink.

"A Man Of Genius Has Been Seldom Ruined But By Himself." 5k31e

This is a peculiar one in that it's essentially a quote of a quote - specifically by the English writer, Samuel Johnson. Regardless, it's one of the more profound lines of dialogue spoken in the film. It's fittingly said to Donnie Smith, a former quiz show contestant whose brilliance has been marred by heavy drinking and anxiety.

Donnie Smith - along with the current champion of the game show, Stanley - represent a sort of wise and pure core amidst this otherwise chaotic, dark film. Donnie's story, which includes his parents taking his winnings and being struck by lightning, is a tragic one, punctuated by this line spoken by a patron at a bar he attends.

"I'm Gonna Teach You About The Worm ..." 3r536s

John C Reilly in a police uniform in Magnolia

Anderson sprinkles in some subtle, but prominent biblical themes and references in Magnolia . A prime example of this motif is spoken by way of a freestyle rap from a boy named Dixon. The rap ambiguously refers to "The Worm" as a sort of unforeseen, dark presence in the film, confirmed by the next line in his rap, when he says - "he's running from the devil, but the debt is always gaining."

The literal translation and significance are open to interpretation. Still, many have seen this as representative of the more malignant nature of humanity shown in Magnolia , and its parallels with biblical allegory. It also has a very prophetic tone to it - keeping in line with the film's portrayal of a child's inner wisdom.

"This Was Not Just A Matter Of Chance ..." n161v

Anderson intrigues his audience right from the start of Magnolia , as viewers are shown a narrated collage of supposedly real events wrought with odd, eerie coincidences. It may seem segmented and unrelated to the film at large, but upon closer inspection, it actually parallels the array of intertwining characters, whom destiny is seemingly brought together in a separate, but collective journey towards peace and redemption.

RELATED: 10 Most Accurate Movies Based On True Events

This theme of "divine intervention," as it were, is reinforced by this statement from the unseen narrator.

"What Most People Don't See - Is Just How Hard It Is To Do The Right Thing." 3a2t4r

In addition to some of the children featured, police officer Jim Kurring ( John C. Reilly ) is also representative of a more lighthearted voice of reason in Magnolia . Rather than dealing with a dark past or trauma, he simply tries to do the right thing and desperately wants to be looked up to.

This line exemplifies Jim in a nutshell, as he spends much of the film interacting with the other more troubled characters, occasionally trying to steer them on the right path. The quote is in reference to Donnie's attempt to rob his place of business - though it could really apply to most of the figures in the film.

"It's A Dangerous Thing To Confuse Children With Angels." 194t5d

Magnolia 's ongoing theme of kids representing goodness and wisdom is driven home with this line from the aforementioned bar patron.

The overarching nature of this message is apparent for just how out of place it is, and its lack of relevance to anything going on in the scene. It's one among many of Anderson's winks to the audience with regards to the underlying motifs of the film.

"... Maybe We Can Get Through All The Pis And Sht And Lies That Kill Other People." 5um2x

One character unmentioned thus far may be Magnolia 's most dynamic and intense - the daughter of a famous game show host, Claudia. She spends much of her story clearly trying to escape her troubled mind with loud music and drugs. She's seemingly endured much trauma, which the film implies resulted from sexual abuse by her father.

It's a dark and somber narrative, but one with a moderately happy ending, as she ends up with Jim, who brightens her spirits. She speaks this impactful line to Jim on a date, which is telling and relevant on a multitude of levels.

NEXT: 10 Movies That Influenced Paul Thomas Anderson

Magnolia Ending, Explained

I was in my late teens when I saw Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Magnolia’ (1999) for the first time. Bits and pieces of how I felt afterward still remain with me. I remember initially feeling exasperated with the 180-minute runtime, but once the film started, I didn’t even notice how fast the time went by. When the credits started rolling, I recall feeling this deep sense of happiness though I can’t explain why. Rewatching the film after all these years is a wonderfully perplexing experience.

On one hand, some of the old memories of the film came rushing back. On the other hand, it felt like I am meeting a friend after a long time. In the intermediate period, we both have changed, even though it’s just my perspective that has changed. However, that ending of ‘Magnolia’ remains as perfect a combination of absurdity and meaningfulness as ever. Here is what you need to know about it. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Magnolia Plot Synopsis

‘Magnolia’ is filled with imperfect characters — social outcasts who are desperately trying to find some semblance of happiness in their lives. It’s a story about the duality of things and how that affects an individual: from love to indifference, from self-destruction to kindness, and from grief to catharsis. Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall) has been the host of the immensely popular game show ‘What Do Kids Know?’ for the past three decades. He has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Stanley Spector (Jeremy Blackman) is the latest young star of the show, who seems to know answers to virtually everything.

Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) is a former champion of ‘What Do Kids Know?’. Life hasn’t turned out for him the way he would have liked. His parents burned through his winnings. Hoping to recapture some of his past glory, Donnie continues to refer to himself as the “Quiz Kid.” Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is also dying of cancer and tells his nurse, Phil Parma ( Philip Seymour Hoffman ), that he wants to see his estranged son, Jack, who is now known as Frank Mackey ( Tom Cruise ), a successful motivational speaker who gives tips to his eager, testosterone-driven audience on how to dominate women.

Meanwhile, Earl’s second wife Linda (Julianne Moore) doesn’t know how to deal with Earl’s impending death. She married him for money but then fell in love with him. Now that Earl is dying, her world is falling apart around her. Claudia (Melora Walters) has substance abuse issues, while Officer Jim Kurring (John C. Reilly) knows that he is a laughing stock at the station. These two individuals meet when Jim answers a call about noise nuisance. The two painfully lonely people discover that they, too, can find love and be happy.

Magnolia Ending: What Do the Frogs Mean at the End?

‘Magnolia’ has one of the most unique, highly debated, and somewhat abrupt endings of all time. After all characters arrive at the concluding chapter of their respective stories, the sky opens up, and frogs start falling. That scene is very Biblical, and Anderson leaves clues about it scattered throughout the film. In the Old Testament, God instructs Moses to deliver a message to the Pharaoh, “And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs.” (Exodus 8:2).

Anderson makes multiple references to the passage in the film. The real question here is that whether the director wants to suddenly invoke theology in a film that has been largely secular up until that point. In the Old Testament, God brings the rain of the frogs to punish the Egyptians for the ill-treatment of His people. As one of the film’s main themes is child exploitation, it can potentially be argued that God unleashes His wrath to bring justice back into the world.

However, that understanding of the ending does seem limited, and divine intervention feels like a cop-out for such a candid depiction of the human condition. Instead, we should focus on something that Stanley says while the quasi-apocalyptic event is taking place. He stares through the window of his home and observes that this is something that happens. Frog rains might be rare occurrences, and they might be an extraordinary and terrifying sight to behold, but they are not unprecedented and, more importantly, not unnatural.

It’s an effective and eye-popping method to draw the audience’s attention to the final few moments when the characters demonstrate their greatest selves. Jim takes control of his despair and saves Donnie, becoming the man he has always wanted to be. After finding out horrifying truths about her husband, Rose leaves him and reunites with her daughter. After freeing his brilliant mind from his father’s exploitation, Stanley asks to be treated better.

Before Earl succumbs to his illness, Frank seems to forgive his father for abandoning him and his mother and breaks down crying. The film makes it a point to let the audience know that nothing is a coincidence, and everything is connected. Why should the frog rain be an exception? It serves as a catalyst for a new beginning for most of the characters. They have left their doubts and guilt behind and are ready to be happy.

Why Does Claudia Smile at the End?

For the first time in a long time, Claudia is truly happy. She has reunited with her mother and likely has learned that Rose has left Jimmy. A victim of sexual abuse, Claudia has led a troubled and lonely life. As her father seems to deny vehemently that he ever touched her, Claudia likely has experienced doubt and shame. In the film’s final scenes, when Jim comes and tells her that he will be there for her, Claudia has already started to heal. With Jim’s presence in her life, she will have someone who is equally imperfect but kind and loving. Filled with hope for the future, she smiles.

What Happened to Jimmy Gator? Did He Molest His Daughter?

Jimmy has led the life of a celebrity for decades. He has been married for 40 years and cheated on his wife Rose multiple times. When he gets the terminal cancer diagnosis, he becomes adamant about continuing to work until he can’t. However, the end of his career arrives sooner than he expected due to a disastrous episode.

Rose leaves him after realizing a horrifying truth about him. He is alone at his home when the frog rain begins. He prepares to shoot himself when a frog falls through the skylight of his home and hits him. Jimmy gets knocked out, and the trajectory of the bullet changes, destroying the TV. The resulting sparks set the house on fire. It’s unlikely that Jimmy will survive this. While the frog rain brings positive changes in other characters’ lives, Jimmy gets his comeuppance.

Yes, Jimmy molested his daughter. After returning home from the set, he tries to confess to his wife about his infidelity, hoping to free his conscience of any guilt and knowing that she is likely aware of it. But then, Rose proceeds to ask him why Claudia doesn’t want to talk to him, and he is forced to admit that Claudia thinks that he molested her. Although he claims that he doesn’t remember it, Rose seems to easily see through that lie and immediately leaves to find her daughter.

How is Everyone Connected in Magnolia?

As mentioned above, the film enunciates the fact that its characters are interconnected. Earl is a producer on Jimmy’s show, where Stanley is currently the star. Donnie used to be in the same position Stanley is now, a bright child whose brilliance and future are being exploited by their parent(s). Jimmy and Rose are Claudia’s parents, whereas Frank is Earl’s estranged son with his late first wife. Phil is Earl’s nurse, assigned to take care of him in the final days of his life. And Linda is Earl’s second wife and Frank’s stepmother.

Jim becomes romantically interested in Claudia after meeting her. During the frog rain, he saves Donnie’s life and later helps him put the money back into Donnie’s boss’ locker. Overwhelmed by her circumstances and grief, Linda tries to kill herself by taking prescription meds with alcohol, but a young boy finds her. Although he robs her, he doesn’t forget to call the first responders, saving her life. This is Dixon, the boy that Jim meets early in the film.

What is the Significance of the Title?

Like everything else with this movie, the title refers to its complexity and depth. Magnolia is a flower known for its vivid beauty. In the film, each petal of Magnolia signifies a character, and the flower as a whole represents how they and their stories are connected. Furthermore, the film is predominantly set on a San Fernando Valley Street called Magnolia Boulevard, and Anderson apparently discovered that it was believed that Magnolia bark could be used in cancer treatment. Because of all this, the film was named ‘Magnolia.’

Read More: Best Paul Thomas Anderson Movies

Screen Rant

Tom cruise's 10 most iconic movie quotes.

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood. Cruise-led blockbusters like Top Gun and Mission: Impossible are full of quotable lines.

With his hilarious turn in Risky Business , Tom Cruise became one of the biggest comedic movie stars of the ‘80s. With his charming turn in Top Gun a few years later, he became a beloved action hero. In the decades since, Cruise has forged a career as one of the most prolific and versatile actors on Hollywood’s A-list, appearing in everything from a spy movie franchise to a sprawling P.T.A. ensemble piece.

RELATED: 10 Best Directors Tom Cruise Worked With

In such iconic roles as Top Gun ’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Mission: Impossible ’s Ethan Hunt, Cruise has delivered a bunch of memorable lines that fans still quote today.

Maverick Feels The Need In Top Gun

“i feel the need... the need for speed.”.

After months of pandemic-related delays, the long-awaited release of the belated Top Gun sequel is just a few short weeks away. In addition to pulling off a bunch of breathtaking aerial stunts for the film, Cruise will be reprising one of his most iconic roles: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

One of the coolest protagonists in the history of action cinema, Maverick sums up his approach to aerial combat succinctly in Tony Scott’s 1985 classic: “I feel the need... the need for speed.”

Daniel Kaffee Can’t Handle The Truth In A Few Good Men

“i want the truth”.

One of Cruise’s most acclaimed movies is the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men . Adapted from Aaron Sorkin’s play of the same name by Sorkin himself, A Few Good Men revolves around the court-martial of two U.S. Marines charged with murdering a fellow Marine.

Cruise plays Lieutenant (junior grade) Daniel Kaffee of the Navy, while Jack Nicholson plays Colonel Nathan R. Jessup of the Marine Corps. Cruise sets up Nicholson’s most iconic line when he tells him, “I want the truth,” and the colonel replies, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Frank T.J. Mackey Begins His Seminar In Magnolia

“men are s***.”.

Easily Paul Thomas Anderson’s most polarizing movie , Magnolia is a Robert Altman-style “hyperlink” movie following the disparate adventures of a sprawling star-studded cast.

Cruise plays hilariously against type as Frank T.J. Mackey, a controversial public speaker who claims to know the secrets to seduction. This character was way ahead of the curve on satirizing men’s rights activists.

Charlie Babbitt Warms To His Estranged Older Brother In Rain Man

“i like having you for my brother.”.

While Dustin Hoffman is the de facto star of Rain Man as Raymond Babbitt, Cruise gives a fantastic performance as his estranged younger brother, Charlie. This was the first time Cruise showed critics and audiences that he was capable of dramatic depth beyond his well-established action-hero charisma and comedic timing.

Charlie is selfish and has very little patience for his brother, but he slowly warms to Raymond and becomes a better person in the process. Toward the end of the movie, he tells Raymond, “What I said about being on the road with you, I meant. Connecting. I like having you for my brother.”

John Anderton Goes On The Lam In Minority Report

“everybody runs, fletch.”.

Steven Spielberg’s breathtaking sci-fi noir Minority Report stars Cruise as John Anderton, the sharpest cop in a futuristic police department that can predict crimes before they take place. Anderton gets a taste of his own medicine when he’s accused of a murder that he’ll supposedly commit in a couple of days.

RELATED: All Of Steven Spielberg's Sci-Fi Movies, Ranked

When Officer Fletcher tells Anderton not to run, Anderton tells him, “You don’t have to chase me.” Fletcher quips back, “You don’t have to run,” and Anderton retorts, “Everybody runs, Fletch.”

Ron Kovic Outlines His Ethos In Born On The Fourth Of July

“i love america.”.

Oliver Stone made a spiritual trilogy of films surrounding the Vietnam War , in which he served. One of these Vietnam-themed movies was Born on the Fourth of July , a biopic of Ron Kovic. Kovic was a staunch patriot who went to Vietnam and became an anti-war activist upon returning home.

His opposition to the war was misconstrued as an opposition to America. Cruise’s Kovic outlines the distinction very clearly in one of his impassioned speeches: “People say that if you don’t love America, then get the hell out. Well, I love America.”

Vincent Explains His Trade In Collateral

“max, i do this for a living”.

Michael Mann’s most beloved L.A.-set noir will always be Heat , the three-hour epic that united Robert De Niro and Al Pacino on-screen for the first time, but the director returned to the sun-drenched city for the slick, stylized thrills of Collateral .

Collateral is a tense two-hander starring Cruise as a sadistic hitman opposite Jamie Foxx as the cabbie whose taxi he commandeers for a night of contract killings.

Les Grossman Has Very Little Patience In Tropic Thunder

“now, i want you to take a step back, and literally f*** your own face”.

Throughout his career, Cruise has only given a small handful of overtly comedic performances, but easily his funniest role is large-handed Hollywood mogul Les Grossman from Ben Stiller’s showbiz satire Tropic Thunder .

RELATED: 10 Best Movie References In Tropic Thunder

Les’ ruthless Hollywood tactics are hilariously contrasted with the threats made by the Flaming Dragon heroin producers in the middle of the Golden Triangle.

Jerry Maguire Wants To See The Money

“show me the money”.

Cruise gave one of his most iconic performances as the titular sports agent in romcom Jerry Maguire . There are plenty of memorable lines in the movie – like the genre-defining “You had me at hello” – but arguably the most famous quote from the film is “Show me the money!”

When Rod Tidwell decides to stay with Jerry as a client, he repeats his family motto, “Show me the money.” Eventually, he gets Jerry saying it over and over again.

Ethan Hunt Completes A Supposedly Impossible Mission

“mission accomplished”.

Mission: Impossible was a popular franchise from the very beginning, but it became a must-see blockbuster extravaganza with the fourth movie, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol , in which Cruise boldly scaled the facade of the tallest building on Earth for the audience’s entertainment.

In the movie’s final set-piece, after defeating the villain and foiling his plan, Ethan Hunt cries out, “Mission accomplished!” The team later makes fun of him for literally saying, “Mission accomplished,” after accomplishing his mission.

NEXT: Brad Pitt's 10 Most Iconic Movie Quotes

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Warner Bros. Spends Big: ‘Joker 2’ Budget Hits $200 Million, Lady Gaga’s $12 Million Payday, Courting Tom Cruise’s New Deal and More

By Tatiana Siegel

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In January, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group chiefs Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy jetted to London to connect with the new crown jewel of the studio, Tom Cruise . The three met to identify a film that would kick off their nonexclusive “strategic partnership.” Sources say a raft of possibilities were discussed, including an “Edge of Tomorrow” follow-up and Quentin Tarantino ’s “The Movie Critic,” which currently isn’t set up with a distributor and has Warner Bros., like every major studio, salivating.

In Tarantino, Cruise could find the rare auteur who marries box office performance and awards-season heat. However, securing the project won’t come cheap. The biggest roadblock for De Luca and Abdy is potentially Sony. Sources say Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Tom Rothman has the edge, having distributed Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.”

“The strategy at Warner Bros. right now and the reason they made some of these big star deals is they’re basically playing with other people’s money,” says one insider. “They’re shopping for Quentin or Cruise with the notion they can use it as a shiny object that is going to be additive when Zaslav sells the company.”

That time may be approaching. In April, Warner Bros. Discovery can entertain offers to buy, sell or merge with a studio like NBCUniversal, as many on the lot believe will happen. That’s when the two-year lock-up period expires as part of the 2022 deal that united WarnerMedia and Discovery. All of the recent moves, from a first-look pact with Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap to the quest to land Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” follow-up are akin to painting a house before it hits the market.

And this is one splashy renovation. The budget for Todd Phillips’ musical “Joker” sequel — one of De Luca and Abdy’s first green lights — has ballooned to about $200 million, a significant bump from the $60 million cost of the first film. Sources say Joaquin Phoenix is getting $20 million to reprise his role as the clown prince of crime, while Lady Gaga is taking home about $12 million to play Harley Quinn. “Joker” took in more than $1 billion, but musicals are tricky. Case in point: Warners lost $40 million on last year’s “The Color Purple,” according to sources. Though that one can be blamed on the previous regime.

Some argue that spending big is essential when releasing movies in theaters.

“There’s only so much top talent in Hollywood, and it’s very competitive and stretched thin because a lot of talent have deals in streaming,” says Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “If theatrical is going to work, you need the A-lister like Tom and Leo, and Warner Bros. is spending what they need to spend to keep this talent.”

But executives across town believe Warners’ math sometimes doesn’t add up, with the studio decried as fiscally irresponsible. The Anderson film, for instance, was greenlit with a $115 million budget, according to sources. Underscoring the gamble, none of the director’s movies has crossed $80 million at the box office. His latest, 2021’s “Licorice Pizza,” made $33 million worldwide. Even with Cruise’s star power, “Magnolia” only mustered $48.5 million. (It was De Luca, then a New Line exec, who convinced Cruise to play “Magnolia’s” misogynistic self-help guru.) The pair are said to be less pumped about another auteur’s latest: Bong Joon Ho ’s “Mickey 17.” In January, Warner Bros. pulled the $150 million Robert Pattinson sci-fi starrer from its schedule and then moved it to 2025. A Warner rep insists: “There is, of course, enthusiasm for it.”

As merger mania draws near, De Luca and Abdy seem unwilling to push back on talent asks. But apparently they did just that during the Coogler-Jordan negotiations. The director and star wanted 25% of first-dollar gross to split and two guaranteed theatrical release slots for future films. Both deal points were nixed.

Despite the pressure to acquiesce to demands from top talent, De Luca and Abdy can still say no.

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Critics are calling Netflix's 'Ripley' a stunning Hitchcockian thriller. But like its criminal anti-hero, it ends up overstaying its welcome.

Netflix's "Ripley" offers up a fresh take on Patricia Highsmith's famous chameleon-like conman.
The show, which premiered Thursday, has gotten mostly positive reviews from critics.
However, some reviewers have said the series unfolds too slowly and has some crucial flaws.

Netflix's "Ripley" has arrived. The eight-episode series premiered Thursday on Netflix and is a fresh take on Patricia Highsmith's chameleon-like conman, who the world was first introduced to in her 1955 novel, "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

Audiences are likely to be familiar with the overall plot of the series, which has been written and directed by Steven Zaillian, best known as the writer behind "The Irishman," "Schindler's List," and "Moneyball."

Like Anthony Minghella's 1999 sun-dappled adaptation, which starred Matt Damon in the central role, and the French take on the story "Purple Noon" released in 1960, "Ripley" follows the titular grifter (Andrew Scott) as he ingratiates himself into the life of two wealthy Americans living la dolce vita on a never-ending vacation in Italy.

Critics have praised the series, citing its striking film noir visuals and compelling cast performances. But for some, the pacing of the show is an issue; the slow, almost languid nature of the episodes (the longest of which clocks in at 76 minutes) means it's not necessarily one you could — or should — sit down and binge in one go.

Here's a rundown of what reviews for "Ripley" have been saying.

The series is a slow-burn thriller that might not work for everyone.

As many critics have pointed out, "Ripley" indulges in every minute of its almost eight-hour run time. It may take a few episodes to engross audience members, but it's well worth the ride.

The Financial Times' Dan Einav noted that the series "takes its time to establish each location with a scene-setting collage of images," pointing out "wonderful details like the liver-spotted hand of a bus driver shifting gear to climb up towards Dickie's village and the bubbles of champagne in Ripley's glass as he acclimatises to a new life."

"The careful mapping of Tom's every move, whether in furtherance of his deceit or the covering up of his crimes, allows the tension to mount exquisitely," Lucy Mangan wrote for The Guardian .

"This kind of meticulous artistry deserves equally attentive viewing," Lena Wilson argued for IGN , adding: "Despite streaming in full on Netflix, 'Ripley' works best when watched in moderation."

However, Aramide Tinubu, writing for Variety, disagreed, arguing that "the episodes are painfully overlong and full of dead space."

"'Ripley' unfolds too slowly — as the trail of events attracts the attention of an Italian detective (Maurizio Lombardi) — while creating the risk that some people will bail out before the series reaches the good stuff," CNN's critic Brian Lowry stated.

Andrew Scott offers a mesmeric take on a familiar character — despite being much older.

In her review of the series for BBC , Caryn James wrote that Andrew Scott "brings a hum of sinister energy to the role of Tom Ripley."

The New York Times's Mike Hale said the Irish actor "does a meticulous job of portraying Ripley's transition from shifty timidity to insolent confidence, from lost boy to aesthete, through subtle shifts of expression and posture."

"Charismatic and scary in equal measure, Scott has never been better, and he's aided in his exceptional cause by Zaillian, whose writing is razor-sharp and his direction just as assured," the Daily Beast's Nick Schager said in his review.

But, as Daniel Fienberg wrote in his review for The Hollywood Reporter , Scott is "too old" to play the fledgling sociopath.

"It's one thing for Tom Ripley to be an unformed if still protean grifter at 21 or 22, but another thing still to be scraping by without an identity at 35," he argued.

The monochrome palette of the series adds to the unsettling atmosphere.

Zaillian, along with Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit — known for his frequent collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson, including "There Will Be Blood" and "Magnolia" — has shot the series in crisp, moody black-and-white, a decision that many reviewers praised.

"In an era where huge TV budgets often equate to cheap-looking visuals, Ripley is staggeringly, starkly beautiful," John Nugent wrote for Empire .

Cary Darling, writing for The Houston Chronicle , said that Elswit's monochrome palette is "almost a character of its own, one that throws the story into a sharp, film-noir relief."

Writing for Collider , Remus Noronha stated: "Every shot in 'Ripley' is perfectly composed, worthy of being showcased in a gallery as high art."

Don’t expect similarities to Matt Damon's "The Talented Mr. Ripley."

Ultimately, "Ripley" feels like it has been cut from an entirely different cloth to that of the 1999 film version of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," which is the best-known adaptation. Most reviewers agree that distinction is a good thing.

"The story may revolve around imitation, but 'Ripley' is a show determined to do its own thing," Einav wrote in his review for the Financial Times .

"'The Talented Mr. Ripley' has often been adapted in a way that felt sweaty, hot, and impassioned — this one is ice cold, drained of color and most human emotion. The choice really serves the reading of Ripley as an amoral creature, someone who doesn't cross boundaries of right and wrong as much as he never even considers them," reads the RogerEbert.com critic Brian Tallerico's review of the series.

Instead, it appears to be interested in older cinematic references.

As many reviewers pointed out, Zaillian's main point of reference for the series may have been the work of Alfred Hitchcock, the filmmaker best known for "Psycho," "The Birds," and "Strangers on a Train" (the last of which was adapted from another of Highsmith's novels).

"'Ripley' plays as if it were a Hitchcock series Hitchcock never made," reads the BBC review.

Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall called it "a masterpiece of Hitchcock-style suspense."

All eight episodes of "Ripley" are now streaming on Netflix .

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.

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After struggling against league's lesser teams, Bucks take on Knicks

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NBA: Portland Trail Blazers at Boston Celtics

Paolo Banchero scored a team-high 24 points to help lead the Orlando Magic to a 113-98 win over the visiting Chicago Bulls Sunday.

The Vegas Golden Knights will be looking for a rebound after their disastrous last outing, and they could have a valuable reinforcement when they visit the Vancouver Canucks on Monday.

MLB: Los Angeles Dodgers at Chicago Cubs

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Magnolia: 10 Quotes That Will Stick With Us Forever
Magnolia: 10 Quotes That Will Stick With Us Forever. One of Paul Thomas Anderson's most iconic films, Magnolia, is a deep psychological drama with many layers. Here are the best quotes from the film. Paul Thomas Anderson is renowned for his deep psychological dramas that appeal to both the mind and the heart.
Magnolia Quotes, Movie quotes
Magnolia quotes: the most famous and inspiring quotes from Magnolia. The best movie quotes, movie lines and film phrases by Movie Quotes .com ... John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, Alfred Molina, Melora Walters, Michael Bowen, Ricky Jay, Jeremy Blackman, Melinda Dillon, April Grace ...
Magnolia (film)
Magnolia. (film) These strange things happen all the time. Magnolia is 1999 film about dramatic and humorous events in the lives of many people, intertwined in a 24-hour span of coincidence and chance in Los Angeles, California, on a day of extremely variable weather. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Magnolia (1999)
Magnolia: Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. With Pat Healy, Genevieve Zweig, Mark Flanagan, Neil Flynn. An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Magnolia (1999)
Frank T.J. Mackey : It's not going to stop / It's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up / No, it's not going to stop / 'Til you wise up / No, it's not going to stop. Stanley Spector : So just... give up. Frank T.J. Mackey : Respect the cock! And tame the cunt! Tame it! Take it on headfirst with the skills that I will teach you at work and say no!
Magnolia (1999)
Magnolia: Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. With Pat Healy, Genevieve Zweig, Mark Flanagan, Neil Flynn. An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Magnolia movie review & film summary (1999)
"Magnolia" is a film of sadness and loss, of lifelong bitterness, of children harmed and adults destroying themselves. As the narrator tells us near the end, "We may be through with the past, but the past is never through with us." In this wreckage of lifetimes, there are two figures, a policeman and a nurse, who do what they can to offer help, hope and love.
Magnolia
On one random day in the San Fernando Valley, a dying father, a young wife, a male caretaker, a famous lost son, a police officer in love, a boy genius, an ex-boy genius, a game show host and an ...
The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Tom Cruise's Character In Magnolia
In "Magnolia," Cruise plays a motivational speaker of sorts, Frank T.J. Mackey, whose main objective is "Seduce and Destroy." Mackey is an unrepentant misogynist preaching his seduction skills to ...
Magnolia movie review & film summary (1999)
"Magnolia" is operatic in its ambition, a great, joyous leap into melodrama and coincidence, with ragged emotions, crimes and punishments, deathbed scenes, romantic dreams, generational turmoil and celestial intervention, all scored to insistent music. It is not a timid film. Paul Thomas Anderson here joins Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich"), David O. Russell ("Three Kings") and their master ...
Best "Magnolia" Movie Quotes
Magnolia Quotes Total quotes: 2 Show Metadata Hide Metadata. ... Character Tom Cruise. Character Philip Baker Hall. Character Philip Seymour Hoffman. Character Jason Robards. Character Alfred Molina. Character Melora Walters. Character Michael Bowen. Character Jeremy Blackman. Character Emmanuel Johnson.
Fifteen Years Later: Tom Cruise and 'Magnolia'
Cruise leaped into his three-week stint on Magnolia almost immediately after Kubrick said "Cut.". He was in a rush to squeeze in Mission: Impossible II (2000) that same year — he did, after all, have his own production company to think about, and it'd been starving to get him back on the big screen.
Tom Cruise's Best, Strangest Role Was a Career Changer ...
Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia saw Tom Cruise like we had never seen him before. Tom Cruise has never gone as experimental as he did in this 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson film. Collider
Tom Cruise's 'Magnolia' Performance Will Never Not Make Me Cry
On good ol' Tommy C.'s 56th birthday, we're looking back at at the emotional weight of Frank "T.J." Mackey.
Ross Jeffries Inspired Tom Cruise's Character In 'Magnolia'
Here I was scrambling to get in contact with the man who inspired Tom Cruise's pick-up-artist/self-help guru character in Magnolia, and I was attempting to do so in the same exact way Philip ...
Magnolia (film)
Magnolia is a 1999 American drama film written, directed and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson.It stars an ensemble cast, including Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Melinda Dillon, Philip Baker Hall, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ricky Jay, William H. Macy, Alfred Molina, Julianne Moore, John C. Reilly, Jason Robards (in his final film role) and Melora Walters.
Tom Cruise shines from the sidelines in Magnolia and Tropic Thunder
Ahead of this Friday's release of Top Gun: Maverick, our writers return to their favorite Tom Cruise movies, in appreciation of an on-screen persona that's evolved over decades. People like to say ...
Tom Cruise movie quotes
From the movie: Jack Reacher. more on this quote ››. "There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it's a family trade. Others are patriots, eager to serve. Next, you have those who just need a job. Then there's the kind who want a legal means of killing other people.". Tom Cruise - Jack Reacher.
Magnolia (1999)
In the opening prologue, a narrator goes over three events of incredible coincidence: 1) Sir Edmund William Godfrey, a resident of Greenberry Hill, London, was killed by three vagrants looking to rob his pharmacy. The surnames of these men were Green, Berry, and Hill. 2) Reno blackjack dealer Delmer Darion went scuba diving in a lake and was accidentally picked up by a firefighting plane in ...
Tom Cruise's Top 10 Movie Quotes: From 'Mission: Impossible ...
1. The Cameron Quote - Jerry Maguire (tie) - "You complete me." & "SHOW ME THE MONEY!". No one writes for Tom Cruise like Cameron Crowe, who served up a screenplay full of classic one ...
Magnolia: 10 Quotes That Will Stick With Us Forever
One of Paul Thomas Anderson's most iconic films, Magnolia, is a deep psychological drama with many layers. Here are the best quotes from the film. One of Paul Thomas Anderson's most iconic films, Magnolia, is a deep psychological drama with many layers. ... Magnolia: 10 Quotes That Will Stick With Us Forever. By Stephen Lagioia .
Magnolia Ending, Explained: What Do the Frogs Mean at the End?
I was in my late teens when I saw Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Magnolia' (1999) for the first time. Bits and pieces of how I felt afterward still remain with me. I remember initially feeling exasperated with the 180-minute runtime, but once the film started, I didn't even notice how fast the time went by. When […]
Tom Cruise's 10 Most Iconic Movie Quotes
Cruise gave one of his most iconic performances as the titular sports agent in romcom Jerry Maguire. There are plenty of memorable lines in the movie - like the genre-defining "You had me at hello" - but arguably the most famous quote from the film is "Show me the money!". When Rod Tidwell decides to stay with Jerry as a client, he ...
Warner. Bros Spending Spree: Joker 2 $200 Million Budget, Tom Cruise Deal
Warner Bros. Spends Big: 'Joker 2' Budget Hits $200 Million, Lady Gaga's $12 Million Payday, Courting Tom Cruise's New Deal and More. By Tatiana Siegel. Getty/Michael Buckner. In January ...
Watch Mission: Impossible
Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his IMF team embark on their most dangerous mission yet: To track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens all of humanity before it falls into the hands of a mysterious, all-powerful enemy. 13,320 IMDb 7.7 2 h 43 min 2023. X-Ray HDR UHD PG-13. Adventure · Action · Suspense.
Mission: Impossible's Simon Pegg Predicts Tom Cruise's Career ...
Simon Pegg believes Tom Cruise's career will be much different once he stops doing the death-defying stunts in Mission: Impossible.; Pegg enjoys the unique perks of his job, such as being picked ...
'Ripley' Reviews: Critics Call Andrew Scott Sensational in Slow-Burn Series
The series is a slow-burn thriller that might not work for everyone. Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn, and Andrew Scott in "Ripley." Netflix. As many critics have pointed out, "Ripley" indulges in ...
After struggling against league's lesser teams, Bucks take on Knicks
April 6 - The Milwaukee Bucks look to bounce back from three consecutive losses to teams well out of the playoff race as they welcome in the visiting New York Knicks on Sunday. The Bucks (47-30 ...

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