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15 years ago, Tom Cruise revived his career with an uncredited role in Tropic Thunder

After a string of controversies and a split from longtime studio paramount, cruise was slipping out of favour with hollywood. that was, until he suggested the character of a diet coke-guzzling terror of a movie producer for his friend ben stiller’s new film, article bookmarked.

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Fifteen years ago, Tom Cruise took on a role that has since been credited for reviving his career. Now, with the latest Mission: Impossible film just released and Cruise enjoying his time as one of the top 10 highest-grossing lead actors of all time, it’s hard to imagine. But back then, he was falling out of favour due to a spate of controversial public behaviour.

In 2006, Cruise was a PR nightmare dominating headlines for all the wrong reasons. The previous year, he’d caused uproar with his notorious couch-jumping stunt during an interview with Oprah. He was supposed to be promoting Steven Spielberg ’s movie War of the Worlds , but instead decided to declare his love for fellow actor Katie Holmes , in the most over-enthusiastic manner possible.

The clip was viewed millions of times around the world thanks to a new website called YouTube, sparking a reported feud with Spielberg, who apparently believed that Cruise’s behaviour had damaged War of the Worlds ’ success at the box office. (Cruise would later tell Oprah in a 2015 interview that the moment was “real” for him and he was unsure if he’d take it back.)

That same year, Cruise was heavily criticised for his remarks about Brooke Shields, where he accused her of spreading “irresponsible misinformation” about antidepressants. Shields, who struggled with conception, revealed in her book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, that she’d taken medication to help treat her condition.

In a heated discussion on The Today Show, Cruise told then-host Matt Lauer that Shields “didn’t understand the history of psychiatry”, and went so far as to brand her “dangerous”. Shields then wrote a New York Times op-ed, in which she suggested Cruise “stick to fighting aliens”. He was also criticised by medical experts who warned that he risked increasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

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Shields said that Cruise apologised for his remarks in person, and that she’d been impressed by his apology, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “He apologised for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened,” she said.

“And through it all, I was so impressed with how heartfelt it was. And I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it.”

By 2006, Cruise was rapidly falling out of favour with Hollywood, even as he was ranked as the world’s most powerful celebrity by Forbes . His influence and box-office success were indisputable, of course, but industry figures – and the public – appeared to be growing tired of his highly publicised antics.

Evidence of this emerged when Paramount Studios cut ties with Cruise after a 14-year relationship, and Sumner Redstone, then-chairman of the studio’s parent company, Viacom, cited the actor’s public behaviour as one of the reasons behind the decision.

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“It’s nothing to do with his acting ability, he’s a terrific actor,” Redstone said at the time. “But we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”

This shocking upset, which landed after years of success since Cruise first starred in Top Gun in 1986, caused many Hollywood critics to wonder if this was the end of his career. That was, until 2008, when Cruise showed up in a cameo role in his friend Ben Stiller ’s box office hit, Tropic Thunder – about a cast of prima donna actors shooting a movie in Vietnam – as the balding, Diet Coke-guzzling, expletive-uttering movie executive Les Grossman.

Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey in ‘Tropic Thunder'

Opening up about Cruise’s role in an Esquire interview, director Stiller revealed that it was actually his friend’s idea to play Les. “Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie,” Stiller says. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving.”

Cruise certainly committed to the role. In a 2019 interview with Conan O’Brien, he recalled that his two stipulations for the role were that he wanted “fat hands”, and he wanted to dance. Wearing a fat suit, prosthetic hands and a bald cap, he was virtually unrecognisable as the suave Hollywood star the world knew, dancing to Ludacris’s “Get Back” one moment, screaming at a film crew the next (OK, the latter sounds more familiar after his notorious Mission Impossible diatribe in 2020 ). For many watching Tropic Thunder at the cinema, it wasn’t apparent that Cruise was behind the character until the end credits began to roll.

The film itself was controversial, not least for Robert Downey Jr’s performance, which involved wearing blackface to play method-loving Australian actor, Kirk Lazarus. Cruise’s character was also scrutinised: the New York Times noted how Grossman was “heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish…the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest”.

Yet audiences adored Cruise in the movie, and in the years since, his performance in Tropic Thunde r has been widely credited for “resurrecting” his career, along with proving he could do comedy, as well as action. Since then, fans have been begging Cruise to reprise the role, and it seems they might actually get their wish. Last year, in a Deadline report about him and his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, it was claimed that the duo are “fixated” on the character of Les Grossman, and are working out how best to bring him back.

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Examining Tropic Thunder’s Legacy 15 Years Later

  • Oops! Something went wrong. Please try again later. More content below

Sometimes, films just come way harder than they need to, and this seems especially true for R-rated comedies. Tropic Thunder comes, and then it comes again, and it, honestly, probably comes one too many times, but that’s why we remember it. This movie was relentless, took no prisoners of war, and lingers like an old wound that we want to tell stories about, even if it hurts. Every few years we recall the shared trauma Tropic Thunder caused these brave actors and are reminded of why this particular piece of cinema isn’t soon to be forgotten.

The plot doesn’t matter much. It’s the old classic, a play within a play, Shakespeare in the Jungle, as a group of filmmakers attempts to make art based on a lie and one really bad idea to try and shoot the thing for real strands the main actors in a hotbed of danger. The heart of Tropic Thunder is its characters, Tugg Speedman ( Ben Stiller ), Kirk Lazarus ( Robert Downey Jr. ), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a group of actors and one rapper all at different points of their careers and a whole heap of baggage between them. This is the role of a lifetime for several of these men, and definitely, an adventure that will bring everything out, good or bad. Thankfully for us, most of this is handled in hilarious ways.

Tropic Thunder is layered, not just in the realms of acting and reality, but in how it attempts to deconstruct the ways some creatives perceive race, disability, and self-importance. The jabs are meant to come at Hollywood’s expense, reaching for deep satire without bordering on derision. Films like Platoon and Apocalypse Now are referenced in the beginning to give examples of the projects that historically did the things it attempts to lambaste.

Asking most people who haven’t seen the movie in a while to recall it usually leads them to remember either: RDJ in blackface, the “Never go full retard” speech, or Tom Cruise in a fat suit dancing to Ludacris. This is a bit sad, as the more progressive parts of the film (like Chino and Lance) are overshadowed by these controversial components. Tropic Thunder uses insensitive elements to criticize, but may accidentally come across as condoning as these acts well. This is a full gag that requires the audience to think a little like the creators and those who know the industry extremely well, and thus, may be too ‘inside baseball’ for the intentions to reach everyone who watches it.

Though RDJ’s character having surgical blackface is often one of the first problems with the film to come up, it’s actually the element that received the least pushback upon its initial release. Obviously, not everyone was happy and there were concerns, but all parties involved in making it knew the ground they were treading on and attempted to handle things as best they could. The movie was shown to the NAACP and RDJ said about the role, “I get to hold up to nature the insane, self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion.”  

Next to this was the criticism of the Les Grossman character, played by Tom Cruise in an abundance of makeup and prosthetics. Some saw this portrayal (which, like many characters in the movie, was inspired by real people) as a disgraceful depiction of harmful Jewish stereotypes. His despicable actions are certainly fueled by pride and greed, but it’s hard to tell if that’s more the position or the specific type of person at the top being skewered. The movie also doesn’t give much for any of its female characters to do, but the real uproar and protests came from the disabled community.

The fake film starring Speedman, called Simple Jack, about a mentally challenged boy living on a farm who can communicate with animals, caused some controversy, as well as websites promoting the fictitious project, and the repeated use of the word “retard.” DreamWorks did take down the site and arrange a screening for members of these groups that were angry about the depiction, but this did nothing to sway their feelings toward the material.

Recently, Stiller said that he continues to be proud of the work everyone did on the film. “I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” stating that it has always been a contentious movie, but some of his statements on the project, apologies, and the controversies surrounding it are disputed .

The film still has much to offer outside of the problematic material. Speedman watching Star Trek TOS on his iPod and then brutally killing the panda like Captain Kirk versus the Gorn makes me laugh every time. There’s a scary kid drug lord, Jack Black saying wild shit while tied to a tree, and some gnarly explosions all rock, but in the end, it’s the actors and their interactions that make this movie about the absurdity of actors great.

It’s an absolutely excellent cast with wonderful smaller characters and cameos. There are people here that viewers may have forgotten about and many actors that were just about to hit their stride (scope out who plays Peck’s secretary). Here we have performers outside of their usual environments, but enjoying it so much. It may feature my favorite performances from Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise. There were a ton of people who were considered for the movie, several in different roles, but the cast we received is fantastic.

The movie performed well at the box office , finally blasting The Dark Knight out of the number one spot and landing a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination , which may go against what the movie was poking fun at, but meant a lot for a raunchy comedy. There are a couple of interviews that do sound like those involved with the film may have been a little self-congratulatory, but I won’t hold that against any of them.

As far as directing goes, this may be Stiller’s best outing, and certainly, his most balanced when it comes to tone and characters. Tropic Thunder isn’t bulletproof like some fans like to think it is, not all of the jokes land, some segments needed to be trimmed, and the first half is much more solid than the second, but even the ridiculous and bloated stretches don’t hurt what remains an incredibly enjoyable laugh out loud comedy.

Someone called this movie nasty, and at times it might feel that way, but the sights of the jokes are firmly set on the people causing the problems in the industry, even if some viewers see a little friendly fire there as well. Tropic Thunder is a movie that should be viewed a couple of times at least to pick up on everything and understand how the comedy is withstanding the test of time, even if blemished. It’s still hilarious, but it’s also easy to get lost in the jungle, as some people will always miss the forest for the trees. A movie means a little more when we can enjoy it, understand its intentions, and keep in mind how it’s perceived.

The post Examining Tropic Thunder’s Legacy 15 Years Later appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More .

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tropic thunder

Examining Tropic Thunder’s Legacy 15 Years Later

By Stephen Wilds

Sometimes, films just come way harder than they need to, and this seems especially true for R-rated comedies. Tropic Thunder comes, and then it comes again, and it, honestly, probably comes one too many times, but that’s why we remember it. This movie was relentless, took no prisoners of war, and lingers like an old wound that we want to tell stories about, even if it hurts. Every few years we recall the shared trauma Tropic Thunder caused these brave actors and are reminded of why this particular piece of cinema isn’t soon to be forgotten.

The plot doesn’t matter much. It’s the old classic, a play within a play, Shakespeare in the Jungle, as a group of filmmakers attempts to make art based on a lie and one really bad idea to try and shoot the thing for real strands the main actors in a hotbed of danger. The heart of Tropic Thunder is its characters, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), a group of actors and one rapper all at different points of their careers and a whole heap of baggage between them. This is the role of a lifetime for several of these men, and definitely, an adventure that will bring everything out, good or bad. Thankfully for us, most of this is handled in hilarious ways.

Tropic Thunder is layered, not just in the realms of acting and reality, but in how it attempts to deconstruct the ways some creatives perceive race, disability, and self-importance. The jabs are meant to come at Hollywood’s expense, reaching for deep satire without bordering on derision. Films like Platoon and Apocalypse Now are referenced in the beginning to give examples of the projects that historically did the things it attempts to lambaste.  

Asking most people who haven’t seen the movie in a while to recall it usually leads them to remember either: RDJ in blackface, the “Never go full retard” speech, or Tom Cruise in a fat suit dancing to Ludacris. This is a bit sad, as the more progressive parts of the film (like Chino and Lance) are overshadowed by these controversial components. Tropic Thunder uses insensitive elements to criticize, but may accidentally come across as condoning as these acts well. This is a full gag that requires the audience to think a little like the creators and those who know the industry extremely well, and thus, may be too ‘inside baseball’ for the intentions to reach everyone who watches it.  

Though RDJ’s character having surgical blackface is often one of the first problems with the film to come up, it’s actually the element that received the least pushback upon its initial release. Obviously, not everyone was happy and there were concerns, but all parties involved in making it knew the ground they were treading on and attempted to handle things as best they could. The movie was shown to the NAACP and RDJ said about the role, “I get to hold up to nature the insane, self-involved hypocrisy of artists and what they think they’re allowed to do on occasion.”  

Next to this was the criticism of the Les Grossman character, played by Tom Cruise in an abundance of makeup and prosthetics. Some saw this portrayal (which, like many characters in the movie, was inspired by real people) as a disgraceful depiction of harmful Jewish stereotypes. His despicable actions are certainly fueled by pride and greed, but it’s hard to tell if that’s more the position or the specific type of person at the top being skewered. The movie also doesn’t give much for any of its female characters to do, but the real uproar and protests came from the disabled community.

The fake film starring Speedman, called Simple Jack, about a mentally challenged boy living on a farm who can communicate with animals, caused some controversy, as well as websites promoting the fictitious project, and the repeated use of the word “retard.” DreamWorks did take down the site and arrange a screening for members of these groups that were angry about the depiction, but this did nothing to sway their feelings toward the material.

Recently, Stiller said that he continues to be proud of the work everyone did on the film. “I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder,” stating that it has always been a contentious movie, but some of his statements on the project, apologies, and the controversies surrounding it are disputed .

The film still has much to offer outside of the problematic material. Speedman watching Star Trek TOS on his iPod and then brutally killing the panda like Captain Kirk versus the Gorn makes me laugh every time. There’s a scary kid drug lord, Jack Black saying wild shit while tied to a tree, and some gnarly explosions all rock, but in the end, it’s the actors and their interactions that make this movie about the absurdity of actors great.

It’s an absolutely excellent cast with wonderful smaller characters and cameos. There are people here that viewers may have forgotten about and many actors that were just about to hit their stride (scope out who plays Peck’s secretary). Here we have performers outside of their usual environments, but enjoying it so much. It may feature my favorite performances from Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise. There were a ton of people who were considered for the movie, several in different roles, but the cast we received is fantastic.

The movie performed well at the box office , finally blasting The Dark Knight out of the number one spot and landing a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination , which may go against what the movie was poking fun at, but meant a lot for a raunchy comedy. There are a couple of interviews that do sound like those involved with the film may have been a little self-congratulatory, but I won’t hold that against any of them.

As far as directing goes, this may be Stiller’s best outing, and certainly, his most balanced when it comes to tone and characters. Tropic Thunder isn’t bulletproof like some fans like to think it is, not all of the jokes land, some segments needed to be trimmed, and the first half is much more solid than the second, but even the ridiculous and bloated stretches don’t hurt what remains an incredibly enjoyable laugh out loud comedy.

Someone called this movie nasty, and at times it might feel that way, but the sights of the jokes are firmly set on the people causing the problems in the industry, even if some viewers see a little friendly fire there as well. Tropic Thunder is a movie that should be viewed a couple of times at least to pick up on everything and understand how the comedy is withstanding the test of time, even if blemished. It’s still hilarious, but it’s also easy to get lost in the jungle, as some people will always miss the forest for the trees. A movie means a little more when we can enjoy it, understand its intentions, and keep in mind how it’s perceived.

Stephen Wilds

Playing video games and watching old cartoons in the basement of Raccoon City's Police Department, where misplaced commas and lack of pizza are the biggest problems.

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tropic thunder tom cruise matthew mcconaughey

Why Tropic Thunder Was the Last Comedy to Actually Take Chances

F ifteen years ago, Tropic Thunder took aim at Hollywood in a way that felt ahead of its time. Directed and co-written by Ben Stiller, with an assist from Justin Theroux and Ethan Cohen, the film poked fun at the studio system, actors wanting acclaim at all costs, and filmmakers in search of respect in the industry. What makes it stand out now is that from a comedic standpoint, it walked a fine between laughs and jokes that could offend, but in 2008, comedy could still take those chances. Despite the film's take on Hollywood being even more relevant today, Tropic Thunder now lives in a landscape where there is a desire not to cross the line. Basically, they don't really make these like they used to.

Starring Stiller, Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, and Robert Downey Jr. , Tropic Thunder follows a set of prima donna actors making a Vietnam War film. The film's director (Steve Coogan), growing frustrated, drops the actors in the middle of the jungle, where they are forced to rely on their skills as actors to survive the very real danger they're actually in. On paper, this all sounds a bit serious, but the movie is a hilarious parody of various war films, method acting, and the Hollywood studio system. Driving these jokes home are more appearances by other actors, including Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Danny McBride.

Tropic Thunder Serves a Very Honest and Funny Send-Up of the Hollywood Machine

As a look into the Hollywood machine, Stiller and his team fire on all cylinders lampooning how some of the biggest names in Hollywood can use war films as a way to gain prestige in the industry. Some could very well be viewed as Oscar bait, and it's something that Tropic Thunder is hyper-aware of while also speaking on ballooning budgets on the projects and the egos that come along with it.

Some actors feel like literally putting themselves through the trenches will get them noticed by critics and the Academy, and the movie had fun toying with that self-seriousness. Mixed in with all the parodies are a series of controversial moments that still get spoken about today. They were universally celebrated for hitting all right notes in 2008, but if time has done a number on a particular genre the most, it's comedy, and it's clear that a movie like Tropic Thunder most likely wouldn't be able to be made today.

Related: Robert Downey Jr. Is Open to a Tropic Thunder Sequel

The role that generated the most conversation is that of Kirk Lazarus, expertly played by Downey Jr. in one of his best showings as a performer. Method acting in the industry has been the subject of conversation for years, but it has hit a new level with the likes of Jared Leto and Jeremy Strong taking it to new heights.

Every new role they take comes with stories about how they have immersed themselves in their characters so much that you don't get to meet the real ones while on set. Kirk Lazarus takes this several steps further than most by darkening his skin to play a Black character. Even though the character is clearly a parody of actors that insist on "transforming" to portray a role, the choice by Stiller and his writers to touch this subject in this way has turned into a bone of contention.

There was talk about Downey Jr.'s Australian method actor being racially offensive in 2008, but the film was released during a time when a studio would be braver to embrace the joke because they trusted the audience to get it. Today, a studio wouldn't touch this out of fear of the potential backlash.

The joke continued in real life when Downey Jr. was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTAS, and SAG Awards. A character he played that donned blackface for potential Oscar glory actually put him in that very real position. It's tough not to get a chuckle that this role led him here, but even his awards attention for the role sparked its own bit of controversy that continues today.

Tropic Thunder also came under fire from the disability advocacy community for the film's portrayal of Simple Jack, played by Stiller's Tugg Speedman in another movie. Speedman is trying to reboot his career after appearing in a film about a mentally-disabled farm boy, and while the main joke is that some actors will play roles like this for Oscar attention (think Sean Penn I Am Sam ), that didn't stop 20 disability advocacy groups for calling the movie out for its repeated use of the offensive "R" word that is often used to describe someone who is mentally challenged.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the intended use of a joke, but Tropic Thunder isn't making fun of the mentally disabled through the use of Simple Jack. Actors that try to use serious subjects to gain awards attention are the real target, and that's why the joke works.

Some of the Film's Controversial Jokes Might Not Fly Today

There have also been complaints about the film casually using anti-Semitic undertones in order to generate laughs. Les Grossman, the profanity-laced studio executive played by Tom Cruise , has references made about his 'Jewface' while other criticisms were leveled at the film for portraying some of its South Asian cast as caricatures.

There is a running joke that there are a lot of Jewish people in positions of power in Hollywood, and Les Grossman is just a funny play on that notion. That's not to say that the use of harmful Jewish stereotypes isn't warranted, but it's important to realize that the film isn't seeking to be offensive. It's just commenting on an aspect of Hollywood that many in the industry discuss. Some are just louder than others.

Related: Tropic Thunder Writer Says The Film Isn’t Controversial To Him Because of Who The Jokes Are Aimed At

Despite perceived controversies, Tropic Thunder was incredibly successful upon release. The film is 82 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes , and the movie knocked The Dark Knight out of the top spot after that film spent four weeks at number one during the summer of 2008. Tropic Thunder spent three weeks at number one and ultimately grossed over $110 million at the domestic box office, becoming Stiller's most successful release as a director.

In the years since its release, R-rated comedy has taken a definite hit at the box office. It's a genre that no longer guarantees financial success, and you're seeing less and less of them getting made. There is a significant opinion that comedy has been hurt recently due to potentially hurt feelings and making sure you don't make any waves that might paint your film in a negative light.

Tropic Thunder certainly feels like one of the last of its breed. A comedy brave enough to take chances even if it made the movie a topic of more serious debate. What's refreshing is that Stiller still stands by the film today , even if there is an attempt to view it through a condemned lens.

Speaking on the film via Twitter, when someone suggested he apologized for the use of blackface in the film, Stiller said, "I make no apologies for Tropic Thunder . Don't know who told you that. It's always been a controversial movie since when we opened. Proud of it and the work everyone did it." As you should be, Mr. Stiller.

Why Tropic Thunder Was the Last Comedy to Actually Take Chances

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Ten Years On, Tropic Thunder 's Still a Brutal Kick In Hollywood's A--

Five reasons ben stiller's controversial, career-reviving satire still sticks in the memory and in the industry's craw..

tropic thunder tom cruise matthew mcconaughey

(Photo by © DreamWorks)

In 2008, Tropic Thunder hit screens like a dynamo, shocking audiences with its stunt casting and blunt satire and racking up $110.5 million in domestic box office receipts. Ten years on, it still stands out as an audacious and controversial piece of American comedy – and we’re digging into why.

Written, directed, and produced by Ben Stiller, the movie sits Certified Fresh at 82% on the Tomatometer and earned  Robert Downey Jr. a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Kirk Lazarus, a white Australian method actor portraying a black character, Staff Sergeant Lincoln Osiris, in a fake movie. It was also blessed by  Tom Cruise ’s brilliant cameo as ostentatious douchebag Hollywood agent, Les Grossman.

Performances are one thing, substance is another. Tropic Thunder might have been just another big studio comedy when it landed in theaters on August 13, 2008, but it had weight to it and stuck in our memories in a way that few comedies-of-the-week do. Here are some of the reasons it cut through, and holds up.

1. It Surpassed Some Of Its Most Notable Influences

Chances are, you’ve seen 1999’s Galaxy Quest , a Star Trek parody so funny, rich, and solid that some Trekkies even hold it among the canonical Star Trek movies. (Critics liked it too – it sits at 90% on the Tomatometer.) The film told the story of a band of down-and-out actors from a  Star Trek -like   series who are forced to play their TV roles when they’re kidnapped by a beleaguered alien race that thinks their TV reruns are real-life documentaries. Chances are, too, that you’ve herd of  Three Amigos! , released 13 years earlier, which also saw a band of actors mistaken for their onscreen characters, this time South of the Border. The two films’ influence on Thunder – in which, yet again, the story of actors mistaken for their characters is used to skewer aspects of the movie-making business – is such that some online writers have dubbed them an unofficial trilogy. The trilogy’s finale, though, takes its satire to the darkest place: the very heart of the dream factory.

If Galaxy Quest captured Star Trek and its surrounding culture in a nutshell, Tropic Thunder captured Hollywood itself. Stiller’s script held a funhouse mirror to his contemporary actors, portraying its entitled prima donna actor characters with zero self-awareness about themselves, their peers, or their impact on audiences. More, Stiller held that same mirror to the Hollywood industrial complex, with the characters’ agents being varying degrees of oblivious, short-tempered, and manipulative. Despite all this, nearly every character in Tropic Thunder learns to get over themselves in a Sullivan’s Travels sort of way (yep, it even had a very Hollywood ending). While Galaxy Quest posits that even disposable entertainment has intrinsic value, Tropic Thunder argues that most folks in Hollywood, while often misguided, ultimately have the best intentions at heart.

Well, everyone but Les Grossman.

2. It Gave Tom Cruise a Much-Needed Post-Couch Big Win

The mid-2000s were rough for Tom Cruise’s image. Mission: Impossible III   didn’t exactly light up the box office, Lions for Lambs bombed outright, and then there was the Oprah couch incident. It seemed like the impossible had happened: Cruise’s star was fading. That was until his explosive performance as Hollywood agent Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder . Rumored to be based on Harvey Weinstein, Grossman was a hilarious, over-the-top deconstruction of the stereotypical Hollywood executive: brash, profane, arrogant, egotistical, manipulative, greedy, and grandiose. He might be a bit much to swallow – and a bit harder to watch, given what we know about the man who some say inspired him – but his meme-able dance moves go down smooth.

3. IT WAS PART OF THE “YEAR OF ROBERT DOWNEY JR.”

Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of Kirk Lazarus, who plays the black Sergeant Lincoln Osiris in the movie-within-the-movie, is one of Tropic Thunder’s most memorable — and infamous — elements. Already riding a big career uptick following 2005’s Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang   and 2007’s Zodiac , Downey Jr. had a truly banner year in 2008 with the releases of  Iron Man and Tropic Thunder . The actor proved he could lead a blockbuster with the MCU’s first entry, but Tropic Thunder  reminded people that he also had range to spare. It was an uproarious and uncomfortable satire of Hollywood whitewashing and the industry’s often problematic casting decisions – and let’s face it, one that is still relevant today.

4. IT HELPED KICK OFF THE MCCONAISSANCE

Make no mistake, we were riding the Matthew McConaughey train well before  Tropic Thunder – he was a rom-com king in  Failure to Launch ,  How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days , and Fool’s Gold , and he gave us a decent villain in the apocalyptic Reign of Fire . But he was rarely given serious consideration for roles that were, shall we say, more challenging. He changed that perception in Tropic Thunder  playing Rick Peck, a comically oblivious agent who was absolutely hellbent on getting his client a TiVo. From there, McConaughey enjoyed a string of successes including Mud , Magic Mike , and Dallas Buyers Club , and notably on TV’s True Detective .  Prior to  Tropic Thunder , he starred or appeared in just five Certified Fresh movies across a span of 15 years; in the 10 years since the movie’s release, he’s been in nine.

5. IT WAS WOKE AS HELL, ESPECIALLY FOR THE TIME

Another infamous element of  Tropic Thunder ? Ben Stiller’s action star Tugg Speedman formerly played the titular character in  Simple Jack , an in-universe critical-and-financial failure centered on a young man with learning disabilities. As with the Tropic Thunder ‘s treatment of blackface, the concept of Simple Jack held Hollywood’s feet to the fire, skewering the way able-bodied actors have portrayed people with disabilities to earn those awards-season accolades. Tropic Thunder also featured Brandon T. Jackson as Alpa Chino, a hyper-masculine – but closeted – rapper-turned-actor. When he accidentally comes out to his co-stars, he is met only with encouragement. We also got to see Chino with his boyfriend at the end of the film in a heartwarming moment.

The 2000s saw their share of important comedies, with Superbad , The 40 Year Old Virgin , and Knocked Up digging into a number of issues on the tip of people’s tongues, but Tropic Thunder  cracked the egg of Hollywood itself. For that – and for its rollicking deconstructions of entitlement, race, fame, the creative process, and self-actualization – it won’t soon be forgotten.

Tropic Thunder was released in theaters August 13, 2008

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How Tom Cruise clawed his way back to the top with the weirdest character of his career

Tom cruise was battling professional and personal setbacks in the mid-2000s, when he conceived, from scratch, the character that would take his career to the next level..

tropic thunder tom cruise matthew mcconaughey

Tom Cruise’s stardom , which he has sustained for over four extraordinary decades, was further cemented some weeks ago with the release of Top Gun: Maverick. The film proved that Cruise is still a big draw at the box office, especially when he’s playing iconic characters in large-scale spectacles. Maverick has since become the year’s biggest hit, grossing over $1 billion worldwide and setting the stage for the next two years in Cruise’s career, with back-to-back Mission: Impossible films up for release.

From the outside, it might look like things have never been this good for Cruise, at least professionally speaking. But this is a position that he has had to claw his way towards. It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Cruise, but thanks to a carefully crafted last decade–both professionally and personally–the actor has managed to hit greater heights than probably any 60-year-old star ever.

tropic thunder tom cruise matthew mcconaughey

On his birthday today, here’s looking back at the exact moment thing started turning around for him. In the mid-2000s, Cruise experienced the worst PR crisis of his life. His antics on Oprah’s couch made him the butt of all jokes before social media was even a thing. It was around the same time that Cruise said publicly that Brooke Shields’ use of antidepressants to battle postpartum depression was ‘irresponsible’. And then there was the leaked video in which he spoke passionately (and to regular folks, rather menacingly) about Scientology. His affliation with the Church of Scientology seemed to be the bedrock for virtually every controversy he found himself involved in, and certainly, this is something that has always proven to be a thorn in his side.

In desperate need of a career reinvention and after two full years without a proper hit–the third Mission: Impossible underperformed–Cruise bounced back with a role that would not only recontextualise him in popular culture as someone who was willing to poke fun at himself, but also an actor first and a star second. In 2008, Cruise appeared in a surprise extended cameo in director Ben Stiller’s war/film industry satire Tropic Thunder . He played the fat, balding studio head Les Grossman (a character that may or may not have been modelled after Harvey Weinstein) and earned himself a place in the audience’s good books, and also a nomination at the Golden Globes.

The idea of Grossman, who pops in regularly to scream obscenities at people on the phone and dance to pop music while sipping soda, was entirely Cruise’s, Stiller told Esquire some years ago. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy. And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving,” he said.

Festive offer

Cruise had said something similar a couple of years before that. “I read the script, and he had all of the characters, but the studio wasn’t there,” he told BBC Radio 1 in 2017. “There was a structural compression missing down on those characters, you know, that keeps the pressure on these guys that really drives the story. I was like, ‘You need the studio.’ So he came back, like a few weeks later, and I started reading. I read this character and I went, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘This is fun,’ I said, ‘Do you mind Ben? I want to play this character. I said, ‘I want to have fat hands, and I’m gonna dance.’ And he looked at me, he was like, ‘What?’ …”

Cruise continued, “He said, ‘Look, are you sure you can’t just be you? Like, look like you and do it?’ I said, ‘No, no, no man, I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to play this character.’ So then I did the makeup test, we’ve tested the fat hands, you know, and the whole look, and so we’re doing the wardrobe and there was no music playing … I said, ‘Look, let me just—I wanna do some moves for you…’ He just called me, and it was—he was laughing… He picked the music out, he edited this thing together, he was just pissing himself.”

Of course, it’s unlikely that Grossman could exist in a movie today. The character hasn’t aged particularly well. And neither has the movie. Even then, Tropic Thunder (despite being a hit that made nearly $200 million worldwide and scored Robert Downey Jr an Oscar nod, further his own career comeback) had attracted criticism for its treatment of mental illness and its use of Blackface. But despite everything, there still seems to be an appetite for the character–something that mirrors Cruise’s own career, which has thrived in spite of his connections with Scientology, and his famously demanding nature on set.

Cruise reprised the character at the MTV Movie Awards in 2020, which was followed by the news of a Les Grossman spinoff being put into production with Cruise returning.

Click for more updates and latest Hollywood News along with Bollywood and Entertainment updates . Also get latest news and top headlines from India and around the World at The Indian Express .

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The Ending Of Tropic Thunder Explained

Tugg Speedman looking past the camera

It's been nearly 14 years since Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" first hit theaters, and to this day it endures as one of the most unique comedies ever made. The film follows a group of fictitious celebrities during the filming of a movie called (you guessed it) "Tropic Thunder," which is based on the memoirs of Vietnam war veteran Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte). The stars of "Tropic Thunder" include struggling action film star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), popular rapper Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson), drug-addled comedian Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), newcomer Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel), and intense method actor Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr) — the latter of whom famously refuses to break character until after the DVD commentary is recorded.

Due to the conflict among all of these massive personalities, the film-within-a-film is months behind schedule. Fledgling director Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) decides to simply drop all of these actors into the middle of the Golden Triangle (at the borders of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand) and complete the movie through the use of hidden cameras, as the actors wander through the jungle and improvise scenes. Unfortunately, the actors are accidentally dropped into the territory of a militant gang known as Flaming Dragon, and they are quickly forced to fight for their lives in a real-world survival scenario.

"Tropic Thunder" continues to stand the test of time as one of the most inventive comedies ever, blurring the lines between a ludicrous parody and a genuinely thrilling action film — and like all great action films, it has an incredibly exciting ending.

The cast escapes the jungle in a helicopter (with the help of Matthew McConaughey)

In the film's climax, Tugg Speedman (who has been captured by the members of Flaming Dragon and forced to reenact his role from the fictional comedy "Simple Jack") is rescued by the other actors, who infiltrate the Flaming Dragon camp in disguise. The actors all flee the camp in a hail of gunfire and destroy a bridge using the film's excessive pyrotechnics, cutting off the pursuit of the Flaming Dragon gang members.

The actors all manage to board a helicopter and are on the verge of escaping when Flaming Dragon's 12-year-old gang leader Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo) fires an RPG at the vehicle. In perhaps one of the funniest examples of "deus ex machina" in film history, Tugg's agent Rick Peck ( Matthew McConaughey ) suddenly emerges from the forest holding a TiVo DVR. Earlier in the film, we learned that Tugg's contract for "Tropic Thunder" entitled him to a TiVo, which producer Les Grossman (Tom Cruise) never provided. The implication here is that Peck flew all the way into the Golden Triangle and braved an entire war-torn jungle just to provide his client with said TiVo. As the RPG is about to collide with the helicopter, Peck throws the TiVo box into the air, where it blocks the oncoming RPG and explodes.

Thus, the TiVo ends up saving the day, and the actors fly off to safety as Peck cheers from below. This final escape scene manages to capture everything that makes "Tropic Thunder" so great: pulling off a thrilling action climax in an absurd, absolutely hilarious way.

Tugg helps Kirk discover who he truly is

One of the greatest strengths of "Tropic Thunder" is that, despite its absolutely ludicrous premise, the film manages to create a host of genuinely touching emotional moments. One such moment comes just before the cast escapes to the helicopter, when Kirk Lazarus runs back to help an injured Tugg Speedman get on board. As the two sit beside a puddle, Tugg tells Kirk, "I know who you are ... you're my friend. You're my brother."

Throughout the film, Kirk has been shown to have a generally tenuous grasp on his own identity — unable to differentiate between his acting roles and his own personality. This conflict culminates in an earlier scene where Tugg ridicules Kirk for being "a dude who has no idea what dude he is," and the latter ends up breaking down, switching between a host of different personalities, and crying. As such, this moment at the end of the film helps to reconcile the rift between Tugg and Kirk, while also helping Kirk accept who he truly is. He is Kirk Lazarus, not just some actor but a true person with friends and family, and one who has made a genuine difference in the world outside of his film performances.

Like most of the scenes in this movie, the subtext is absolutely ridiculous (concerning a method actor who is unable to differentiate between his award-winning roles and his own persona) though the moment is touching nonetheless.

Tugg finally wins his award for Tropic Blunder

Following the group's climactic escape from the jungle, we cut over to the Academy Awards, where it's revealed that the team used the hidden camera footage to create "Tropic Blunder: the true story behind the making of the most expensive fake true war story ever." Kirk Lazarus, now using his natural Australian accent, presents the Academy Award for Best Actor to Tugg Speedman – his first Academy Award ever.

At the beginning of the film, we learned that Tugg was once the highest-paid actor in Hollywood for his role in the fictitious "Scorcher" franchise and that he had recently fallen on hard times due to a series of box office bombs (including the aforementioned "Simple Jack"). Fearing that his career was in jeopardy, Tugg only took on the role of Four Leaf Tayback in an attempt to save his dying career, which is why completing "Tropic Thunder" was so important to him early on. Thus, watching him win this award completes his character arc from a Hollywood laughing stock to an award-winning, well-respected actor.

A final victory for Les Grossman

Despite the fact that "Tropic Thunder" manages to hit so many of the same beats as a typical action blockbuster, at the end of the day it is still a spoof of those movies, and a satirical take on movie-making in general. Indeed, the film is constantly poking fun at Hollywood as a whole, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the heinously greedy studio executive Les Grossman.

Les is the epitome of Hollywood sleaze: insulting his subordinates with reckless abandon, denying even the smallest accommodations for cast and crew, and even opting to let the cast of "Tropic Thunder" die just to take advantage of the insurance payout. Yet, in the film's closing scene, Les' part in "Tropic Blunder” is heralded as a resounding success. His assistant, Rob (Bill Hader), lists the film's extensive accolades to Les before departing. Les, alone at last, turns on "Get Back" by Ludacris and dances as the credits roll. Despite his complete mismanagement of the film and its cast members, Les is praised by everyone around him, and absurdly celebrates his victory with a series of profane dance moves.

The closing scene is the film's final jab at Hollywood absurdity — showing how a studio executive as narcissistic and horrible as Les Grossman can still come out a winner despite being horrible at his job.

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15 years ago, Tom Cruise revived his career with an uncredited role in Tropic Thunder

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Fifteen years ago, Tom Cruise took on a role that has since been credited for reviving his career. Now, with the latest Mission: Impossible film just released and Cruise enjoying his time as one of the top 10 highest-grossing lead actors of all time, it’s hard to imagine. But back then, he was falling out of favour due to a spate of controversial public behaviour.

In 2006, Cruise was a PR nightmare dominating headlines for all the wrong reasons. The previous year, he’d caused uproar with his notorious couch-jumping stunt during an interview with Oprah. He was supposed to be promoting Steven Spielberg ’s movie War of the Worlds , but instead decided to declare his love for fellow actor Katie Holmes , in the most over-enthusiastic manner possible.

The clip was viewed millions of times around the world thanks to a new website called YouTube, sparking a reported feud with Spielberg, who apparently believed that Cruise’s behaviour had damaged War of the Worlds ’ success at the box office. (Cruise would later tell Oprah in a 2015 interview that the moment was “real” for him and he was unsure if he’d take it back.)

That same year, Cruise was heavily criticised for his remarks about Brooke Shields, where he accused her of spreading “irresponsible misinformation” about antidepressants. Shields, who struggled with conception, revealed in her book Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression, that she’d taken medication to help treat her condition.

In a heated discussion on The Today Show, Cruise told then-host Matt Lauer that Shields “didn’t understand the history of psychiatry”, and went so far as to brand her “dangerous”. Shields then wrote a New York Times op-ed, in which she suggested Cruise “stick to fighting aliens”. He was also criticised by medical experts who warned that he risked increasing the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Shields said that Cruise apologised for his remarks in person, and that she’d been impressed by his apology, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. “He apologised for bringing me into the whole thing and for everything that happened,” she said.

“And through it all, I was so impressed with how heartfelt it was. And I didn't feel at any time that I had to defend myself, nor did I feel that he was trying to convince me of anything other than the fact that he was deeply sorry. And I accepted it.”

By 2006, Cruise was rapidly falling out of favour with Hollywood, even as he was ranked as the world’s most powerful celebrity by Forbes . His influence and box-office success were indisputable, of course, but industry figures – and the public – appeared to be growing tired of his highly publicised antics.

Evidence of this emerged when Paramount Studios cut ties with Cruise after a 14-year relationship, and Sumner Redstone, then-chairman of the studio’s parent company, Viacom, cited the actor’s public behaviour as one of the reasons behind the decision.

“It’s nothing to do with his acting ability, he’s a terrific actor,” Redstone said at the time. “But we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.”

This shocking upset, which landed after years of success since Cruise first starred in Top Gun in 1986, caused many Hollywood critics to wonder if this was the end of his career. That was, until 2008, when Cruise showed up in a cameo role in his friend Ben Stiller ’s box office hit, Tropic Thunder – about a cast of prima donna actors shooting a movie in Vietnam – as the balding, Diet Coke-guzzling, expletive-uttering movie executive Les Grossman.

Opening up about Cruise’s role in an Esquire interview, director Stiller revealed that it was actually his friend’s idea to play Les. “Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie,” Stiller says. “That part did not exist. He said, ‘Well, there’s no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.’ And he had this whole idea of what the guy should look like. It was his idea to dance. And I remember when we did a makeup test, someone handed him a Diet Coke and then he just started moving.”

Cruise certainly committed to the role. In a 2019 interview with Conan O’Brien, he recalled that his two stipulations for the role were that he wanted “fat hands”, and he wanted to dance. Wearing a fat suit, prosthetic hands and a bald cap, he was virtually unrecognisable as the suave Hollywood star the world knew, dancing to Ludacris’s “Get Back” one moment, screaming at a film crew the next (OK, the latter sounds more familiar after his notorious Mission Impossible diatribe in 2020 ). For many watching Tropic Thunder at the cinema, it wasn’t apparent that Cruise was behind the character until the end credits began to roll.

The film itself was controversial, not least for Robert Downey Jr’s performance, which involved wearing blackface to play method-loving Australian actor, Kirk Lazarus. Cruise’s character was also scrutinised: the New York Times noted how Grossman was “heavily and heavy-handedly coded as Jewish…the character is murderous, repellent and fascinating, a grotesque from his swollen fingers to the heavy gold dollar sign nestled on his yeti-furred chest”.

Yet audiences adored Cruise in the movie, and in the years since, his performance in Tropic Thunde r has been widely credited for “resurrecting” his career, along with proving he could do comedy, as well as action. Since then, fans have been begging Cruise to reprise the role, and it seems they might actually get their wish. Last year, in a Deadline report about him and his regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, it was claimed that the duo are “fixated” on the character of Les Grossman, and are working out how best to bring him back.

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Tropic Thunder (2008)

Matthew mcconaughey: rick peck - peck's office, photos .

Matthew McConaughey in Tropic Thunder (2008)

Quotes 

[Tugg has just killed a panda] 

Tugg Speedman : I killed one, Rick... the thing I love most in the world.

Rick Peck : A hooker. Alright, you killed a hooker. Calm down. Here's what you're gonna do: Get your hands on some bleach, some hydrogen peroxide, and a shit load of lime.

Rick Peck : You can't be serious?

Les Grossman : You kick in the door to my house all ants in your pants, sucking my left nut to get a TiVo scrap for the 3rd runner-up "sexiest man alive" 1998... And you're asking if I'm SERIOUS?

Les Grossman : Speedman is a dying star. A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That's physics. It's inevitable.

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : We've been handed an incredible opportunity here, Peck.

Les Grossman : The universe... is talking to us right now. You just gotta listen.

[turns on T-Pain's Apple Bottom Jeans and begins to dance to the beat] 

Les Grossman : See, this is the good part, Pecker. This is when the job gets fun! Ask... and you shall receive!

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : [dancing along]  Right...

Les Grossman : You play ball... we play ball. I knoowwww... you want the goodies!

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : Welcome to the goodie room!

Les Grossman : You paying attention? I'm talking... G5, Pecker! That's how you can roll. No more frequent flyer bitch miles for my boy! Oh yeah! Playa... playa! Big dick playa!

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : Swinging past ya knees!

Les Grossman : Big dick, baby!

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : Yep.

Les Grossman : [turns off the music]  Or... you can grow a conscience in the next five minutes and see where that takes you.

Rick Peck : Let me get this straight. You want me to let my client of 15 years, one of my best friends, die in the jungle alone, for some money and a G5?

Les Grossman : Yes.

Rick Peck : [pause]  A G5 airplane?

Les Grossman : [whispering]  Yes... and lots of money... playaaaa!

[turns on the music and dances again] 

Rick Peck : How's the adoption thing going?

Tugg Speedman : Not good.

Rick Peck : At least you get to choose yours. I'm stuck with mine.

Rick Peck : [about Speedman]  They're going to kill him!

Les Grossman : And we'll weep for him... in the press, set up a scholarship in his name, eventually - and I'm talkin' way, way down the road - we file an insurance claim.

Studio Executive Rob Slolom : Preferably before the end of the fiscal year. Actually, the claim alone would net us more than the movie would lose.

Rick Peck : [to Tugg]  Yo Tuggernuts! It's the Pecker!

[Peck bursts into Grossman's office unannounced] 

Les Grossman : What do you need, Peck?

Rick Peck : What do YOU need, Les? Glasses?

Les Grossman : ...What?

Rick Peck : I got the TiVo!

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This Unexpected Cameo Is Tom Cruise’s Best Performance Ever

Tom Cruise’s cameo in Tropic Thunder demonstrates how thoroughly he can disappear into a role.

To say that Tom Cruise is one of the biggest Hollywood celebrities ever to exist would either be hyperbole or an understatement, depending on the era and measurement. His career thus far has spanned three decades and is about to exit Earth’s orbit - literally . He is known for pushing the boundaries of what his body and skills can portray on film, such as the incredible stunts he regularly performs for his mega-franchise Mission Impossible, or the meticulous training he puts himself through to perfect a character . His global celebrity has restricted him to only a few chances to let his hair down and have fun for a change, but when he does the result is unforgettable. In fact, arguably his best performance ever given was just such an occasion when he played Les Grossman in 2008’s brilliant Tropic Thunder.

Undoubtedly known as a serious actor and an action star, Tom Cruise rarely puts himself in comedies of the magnitude that is Tropic Thunder . The outrageous and hilarious spoof brought out the best of Cruise’s comedic talent and teased audiences to a future movie that sadly never materialized. Tropic Thunder starred Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and several other Hollywood celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Dany McBride. Though controversial in many regards, it became a global success and one of the funniest comedies of the early 21st Century. This already perfect comedy is elevated by sneaking in Tom Cruise behind a fat suit and a bald cap!

RELATED: These Movies Are Perfect Parodies Of 80s And 90s Action

“Mm, That’s Good Satire”

Tropic Thunder operates on many layers of comedy, satire, parody, and unintentional real-life irony. First, as a comedy, it is a movie about making a fake movie that turns “real life” dangerous. Second, in satire, it skewers the bloated Hollywood organism . Third, the characters parody a range of Hollywood types like the cocaine-addled comedian, the overzealous Oscar hound, and the chiseled action star diva. Figures behind the camera are also parodied like the first-time director type, the brown noser executive assistant, and the high adrenaline power-mad Studio Executive. All these types so common to Hollywood are turned into caricatures on screen for the industry and audiences’ amusement.

A fair example of how Tropic Thunder 's once-praised satire has not exactly aged well is Robert Downey Jr.’s character. This is where it gets ironic as well. 2008 is the same year Downey starred in the first Iron Man . He was regaining his celebrity after recovering from years of addiction abuse. He was already a marquee actor from his Oscar nomination sixteen years earlier for Chaplin (1992). Most likely just for kicks, he decided to star alongside Ben Stiller in Tropic Thunder as the Australian method actor and five-time Oscar winner Kirk Lazarus.

Lazarus is such a serious actor that to portray the black soldier Lincoln Osiris he undergoes a skin alteration to change his own skin color black. He deepens his voice as well to play Osiris, but it is a naïve, misunderstood, offensive, yet almost innocent to the point of gross stupidity, performance. Lazarus is so “focused” and “committed” to the role that he blindly dives headfirst into blackface. Despite the fact that the movie is supposedly making fun of the idea of blackface, at the same time, it is still doing it. This is the sort of "satire" that has (thankfully) fallen out of favor with audiences.

Lazarus is so dedicated to winning another Oscar that he creates an unrestrained, horrible, racist stereotype of a character – the exact opposite of what would get him nominated for another Academy Award. The unintended irony to all of this is that in real life, Robert Downey Jr. then gets an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing Kirk Lazarus playing Lincoln Osiris in Tropic Thunder .

Tom Cruise as Les Grossman

Tropic Thunder is already an unrivaled comedy by those chops alone , but to feature a cameo from Tom Cruise in a role so debauched as Les Grossman is just unbelievably awesome. Cruise has played in comedies before, such as his brief appearance playing Austin Powers in 2002’s Goldmember but never with the same commitment and depth as Tropic Thunder. Never before or since, sadly.

Originally, Cruise was supposed to play Ben Stiller’s agent Rick Peck ( ultimately played by Matthew McConaughey ). Instead, Cruise offered up a new character of his own invention. Wearing a fat suit, a bald cap, enlarged plastic hands, and a whole lot of chest and arm hair, Cruise became Les Grossman, the Studio Executive providing the money behind the movie who is also a raging foul-mouthed ogre. The personality of Grossman and the villainous role he would play in the film was all initiated by Cruise and developed alongside Ben Stiller. This proves that on top of everything else Cruise can do on camera , he can also be an original source of enormous comedy.

Les Grossman could be considered Tom Cruise’s best performance because he essentially erases himself in the character. If one was not told that Les Grossman was played by Tom Cruise, one would have a very hard time recognizing the actor. The mannerisms, the dance moves, the look are all out of the ordinary for a superstar like him, which is why the performance is such a magnificent sight to behold. Grossman is such a unique character it highlights the talent of Tom Cruise to a new degree. The fact that he never played a role like this again is a heavy loss for the greater movie-going public.

Tropic Thunder is a brilliant high watermark for comedy. To quietly contain Tom Cruise’s best performance ranks it even higher on the scales as one of the best movies ever made. Hopefully, after Tom Cruise finishes with the Mission Impossible franchise he launches the Les Grossman Cinematic Executive Universe .

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Tom Cruise, in Bit Role, Nips Studio’s Top Gun

By Michael Cieply

  • April 3, 2008

LOS ANGELES — Take that, Sumner Redstone.

At an industry screening Tuesday night of the forthcoming comedy “Tropic Thunder” from Paramount Pictures and its unit DreamWorks, Tom Cruise brought down the house with his surprise portrayal of a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools.

The several hundred Hollywood agents, managers, publicists and reporters at the screening on the Paramount lot here couldn’t have missed the joke. In August 2006 Mr. Cruise — after spending many years at Paramount and appearing in some of its biggest hits, including “Top Gun” and the “Mission: Impossible” series — was sent packing by Mr. Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, the studio’s parent.

Two years later Mr. Cruise is back in a Paramount movie, playing a craggy ingrate in what is shaping up as one of the studio’s best prospects for the summer. The movie, a raunchfest directed by Ben Stiller, about a bunch of actors whose jungle war movie turns unexpectedly real, also stars Mr. Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Nick Nolte.

The humor may have been heightened by knowledge that Mr. Cruise and Mr. Redstone only last week kissed and made up over a very public lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Mr. Cruise, 45, has been a hunk (“Cocktail”), a heartthrob (“Far and Away”), an action hero (“Minority Report”) and a series of extraordinary ordinary guys (from “Taps” to “War of the Worlds”). He has also done some comic scenes. In 2002, for instance, there was a bit as Austin Powers, in “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

But nothing on his résumé predicted the rapturous reaction he received Tuesday night. (Only a turn by Mr. Downey — who plays most of the movie in blackface, as a present-day white Australian trying to get inside the head of an African-American grunt during the Vietnam War — received as warm a reaction.)

Mr. Stiller, speaking before the screening, said he expected the movie to be rated R. The first few words out of Mr. Cruise’s mouth would guarantee that. As for his dance, that will be best described by the critics.

Representatives of Mr. Cruise, Mr. Stiller and Paramount declined on Wednesday to discuss the role.

Mr. Cruise’s latest appearance comes on the heels of a flop, “Lions for Lambs,” which was released by United Artists, a studio he now oversees with his longtime associate Paula Wagner. And the comedy’s August release will precede Mr. Cruise’s performance in “Valkyrie,” a fall film from United Artists, in which he plays a German officer who tries to assassinate Hitler.

Mr. Stiller, who played Mr. Cruise’s obsessive stunt double in a popular Web video (and who is expected to co-star with him in “Hardy Men”), first talked with Mr. Cruise, his friend, about taking a role more than a year ago, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with the film’s promotion. Mr. Cruise chose the studio chief’s role, and went through four days of makeup tests in order to get it right.

The director had planned to keep Mr. Cruise’s uncredited performance a surprise. The studio has not included Mr. Cruise in the movie’s trailer and has declined to release any images of his character. But a photo of a mostly bald Mr. Cruise donning a fat suit popped up on the Web late last year.

In any case, the performance is likely to draw attention, since Paramount is weighing a plan in which it would build buzz with extensive screenings of “Tropic Thunder” before its Aug. 15 release, much as 20th Century Fox did in 2006 with “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” At Tuesday’s screening Mr. Stiller told attendees that his new film was still in rough form. “If you have any suggestions, feel free to post them directly on the Internet,” he said.

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The Lost Roles of Tropic Thunder

Casting is one of the most important processes in moviemaking. Placing the right actors in the right roles can determine whether or not an entire film rings true. Thus, casting directors and filmmakers consider a variety of possibilities before production begins. Lost Roles is a weekly series that examines the missed opportunities — the roles that could have been — and explores how some casting choices that almost happened could have changed the film industry and the comedy world, at large.

Ben Stiller had been kicking around the idea for Tropic Thunder since filming a small part in the 1987 Steven Spielberg World War II epic Empire of the Sun , so it’s no wonder a whole bevy of possible actors went through his head before the eventual cast was set. After There’s Something About Mary made him a bonafide movie star a decade later, Stiller had the power to get the film made. He began writing the script with Justin Theroux (and later Etan Coen), and they developed the project off and on for nearly ten years before production finally began. Ben Stiller assembled an impressive ensemble cast that also included Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, and cameos from a dozens of other big names. While Tropic Thunder is expertly cast and doesn’t have any weak links, some of the original ideas are pretty intriguing.

Keanu Reeves as Tugg Speedman with Ben Stiller as Rick Peck

Stiller originally planned on casting Keanu Reeves as action star Tugg Speedman, a role he eventually ended up playing. With Reeves as the movie’s lead, Stiller envisioned himself as two-faced agent Rick Peck, a role that went to Matthew McConaughey in the actual movie.

Intentionally comedic performances are rare for Keanu Reeves these days, but some of the actors first roles are in comedies like Parenthood and the Bill & Ted films. While Reeves was amusing as a spaced-out slacker in these early parts, that’s not exactly what the role of Tugg Speedman calls for. Speedman is a fool, sure, but he’s a different than the carefree pseudo-stoner Reeves is adept at playing. Reeves wouldn’t have been able to take the character to the strange depths that Stiller does, but he would have one advantage over Stiller in this part: his status as an action star. Reeves playing Speedman would have added an extra layer of reality to Tropic Thunder, especially considering Reeves and the fictional Speedman’s careers were in similar places at the time. Both actor’s fame has mainly come from action films ( Speed and The Matrix series for Reeves), and back in 2007 when Tropic Thunder was filming, they each needed a hit after a series of underperforming films. It would have been fun seeing Reeves send up his image, but, in the end, Ben Stiller was the right man for the job.

Ben Stiller played a sleazy Hollywood agent on The Ben Stiller Show , so he would have felt right at home as Rick Peck. Playing a supporting role would have allowed Stiller to devote more time to his directing and producing duties, but burying the popular actor in a small part could have hurt the film’s chances of success. One thing’s for sure: Ben Stiller’s version of Rick Peck would have been more over-the-top than Matthew McConaughey’s – and funnier too.

Placing Reeves as Tropic Thunder’s lead would have been a bold choice, especially considering the project’s already-high risk factor (i.e. Robert Downey Jr. in blackface, the film’s portrayal of mental retardation). Dreamworks may have been less-likely to hand over the $100 million budget Stiller received to make the film if it didn’t have a proven comedy star at its center. If Tropic Thunder somehow received funding and was made with Keanu Reeves and Ben Stiller occupying these parts, audiences might not have warmed to Reeves as a comic actor and the film may have failed. Depending on how he would have handled the part, Tropic Thunder could have turned into the kind of misguided big budget film it was satirizing. If Reeves had done well in the part, however, the film’s success could have brought about a resurgence in his career as a comedic actor.

Tom Cruise as Rick Peck

After Ben Stiller nixed the Keanu Reeves idea, he opted to cast himself as Tugg Speedman, leaving the role of superagent Rick Peck wide open. Stiller cast Tom Cruise in the part, which was a cameo at the time. The two had been friends since working together on Mission: Improbable , a short film parody for the MTV Movie Awards in 2000. After Cruise read the initial script, he suggested adding in a studio head character. Stiller and his co-writers reworked the script, adding in the foul-mouthed Les Grossman, who Cruise himself ended up playing.

Cruise wowed audiences as Les Grossman, with many unable to recognize him until the closing credits due to his bald cap, fat suit, oversized fake hands, and uncharacteristically gruff, foul-mouthed demeanor. Tom Cruise revived the character last year at the MTV Movie Awards in a popular series of sketches involving Grossman berating young stars, and plans for a Les Grossman spin-off film were announced shortly thereafter, with Ben Stiller’s company Red Hour producing. Even if the Les Grossman movie never makes it through the grueling development process, Cruise’s part in Tropic Thunder was still a very successful move for the actor. Tropic Thunder has been his highest-performing movie in recent years, and playing Les Grossman instead of Rick Peck has definitely been a good thing for Cruise.

Despite Tom Cruise’s success as Les Grossman, it would have been worthwhile to see his take on the agent character. Cruise famously played a sports agent in Jerry Maguire , and it’s one of his best-known roles. Tropic Thunder could have been an opportunity for him to lampoon the part, playing Rick Peck as a twisted, satiric version of Jerry Maguire. His smiley, nice-guy personality would have masked Peck’s duplicitous nature nicely, and it would have been funny to see Cruise lampoon one of his most famous roles

Owen Wilson as Rick Peck

After Tom Cruise switched roles, Ben Stiller cast his frequent co-star Owen Wilson as Rick Peck. Wilson dropped out of the project after an apparent suicide attempt, just prior to the start of production. Wilson and Stiller are always entertaining together in their frequent onscreen pairings, but I don’t know if Owen Wilson could have played Peck with the same level of sleaziness that Matthew McConaughey brings to the character. McConaughey was an unconventional choice for Peck, and he handled the role ably. Wilson has a much better track record with comedies (and movies in general), and he would have been very funny as Peck, but the character works fine with McConaughey playing him.

Mos Def as Alpa Chino

“I have no problem with having a sense of humor about it… I already did that. I think I did it to better effect in The Boondocks with Gangstalicious… the closeted gay rapper character… I think my version would have been much funnier.”

Mos Def was offered the part of closeted gay rapper-turned-actor Alpa Chino, but he came to an agreement with the filmmakers that he wasn’t right for the part. Not wanting to parody the rap industry, Mos Def asked the writers to change the character to an R&B musician. Mos Def plead his case in a 2009 interview , saying:It’s hard to agree with Mos Def on this one. Tropic Thunder is a satire of Hollywood, and it’s much more common for rap stars to make the transition to acting than R&B stars. Also, the trend of rappers trying out acting is a very specific comedic target and one that is well-observed in Tropic Thunder . Mocking R&B stars seem like going after low-hanging fruit, and making this change would have been a toothless choice in an otherwise-ballsy Hollywood comedy. And to be fair, Mos Def’s brash insistence on retooling the entire character and second-guessing the accomplished comedy writers behind Tropic Thunder is a bit unwarranted.

Brandon T. Jackson, the actor who got the part of Alpa Chino, does a great job with it, and he didn’t make any requests that would have weakened the satire. Appearing in Tropic Thunder was a huge boost to Jackson’s career, allowing him to land what I’m sure was a highly-coveted role in the passing-of-the-torch third installment in the Big Momma’s House franchise. Mos Def seems to be focusing more on his music lately, but if he had taken this part in Tropic Thunder and not insisted on any script changes, appearing in the blockbuster may have opened up some projects worth taking a break from the recording studio for.

Bradford Evans is a writer living in Los Angeles.

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The 15 best Matthew McConaughey movies and TV shows, ranked

The acclaimed actor has "kept livin', man. L-I-V-I-N!"

I currently write about Fast & Furious, The Office, and Will Smith. One day, I will write Hitch 2.

tropic thunder tom cruise matthew mcconaughey

Mary Cybulski; Gramercy Pictures/Courtesy Everett; Michele K. Short/HBO

Ever the charmer, Texas golden boy Matthew McConaughey got his start on the indie circuit in 1993 with Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused . Only he could make the aging partier and human slimeball David Wooderson so endearing, and that charisma has remained a central pillar of his many performances. He's spent the last three decades in both comedic and dramatic roles, playing soulful fugitives, poetic lawmen, and coked-out buffoons with equal aplomb.

With that acting range in mind, here are the 15 best Matthew McConaughey movies and TV shows, ranked.

15. U-571 (2000)

McConaughey jumped into the action genre with this WWII submarine thriller, playing a passed-over officer who is forced to lead a top-secret mission to hijack a crippled German U-boat in order to steal its Enigma encryption machine. It's perhaps the first time McConaughey got to show the grit behind the famous grin.

Where to watch U-571 : Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

14. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003)

Sixty years ago, Cary Grant would've had the role of the dashing ad exec who bets he can make any woman fall in love with him in just 10 days, but unfortunately targets a blonde journalist writing a story on how to sabotage a relationship in the same span. For all the rom-com dreck he did, this is the one that's more pleasure than guilt.

Where to watch How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days : Paramount+

13. The Beach Bum (2019)

Possible hot take: McConaughey is great in Harmony Korine 's trippy comedy. We say possible hot take because EW's critic called McConaughey's Moondog the most annoying character of 2019. It's understandable how some might not take to the performance and movie, but consider us completely charmed by the actor's delightful turn as the hard-partying, women's clothes-wearing poet.

Where to watch The Beach Bum : Max

12. A Time to Kill (1996)

Playing the heroic lawyer in John Grisham 's sweaty Southern courtroom drama made McConaughey a star. Some fans will likely want to see this higher on the list, but the actor's performance is comparable to a young attorney working his first big case; there are flashes of brilliance, but he's still unsure of his own abilities.

Where to watch A Time to Kill : Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

11. Bernie (2011)

McConaughey switched sides to play the Texas district attorney tasked with convicting Bernie Tiede ( Jack Black ), the real-life mortician charged with murdering his elderly companion ( Shirley MacLaine ). He's sort of a buffoon, but a clever buffoon, and McConaughey knows exactly how far to take it.

Where to watch Bernie : Peacock

10. Frailty (2001)

McConaughey was then known for playing slick characters, so it was refreshing to see him assume the role of a mysterious, guilt-ridden man who comes to the FBI with news about a serial killer. It's a terrific performance that plays upon and twists our affection for him.

Where to watch Frailty : Tubi

9. Killer Joe (2011)

William Friedkin 's adaptation of Tracy Letts' play was so inherently dark it got an NC-17 rating, and McConaughey plays a killer-for-hire whose soul is pitch black. But he brings a sense of propriety to his behavior that makes his bad deeds that much more shocking.

Where to watch Killer Joe : Amazon Prime Video

8. The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

Few knew it at the time — probably not even McConaughey — but this was the beginning of the McConaissance. In some ways, it's the same type of role he'd been playing for a decade, but he'd matured and perhaps finally understood his strengths as an actor. It's more Richard Gere in Primal Fear than Paul Newman in The Verdict , but it dwarfs what he did in A Time to Kill .

Where to watch The Lincoln Lawyer : Peacock

7. Tropic Thunder (2008)

McConaughey was a last-minute replacement to play the aptly named Hollywood agent, Rick Peck, after Owen Wilson dropped out. Memorably, Peck fights tooth and nail for contractual TiVo rights to Ben Stiller's doofus action star, Tugg Speedman; soon after, he's willing to let his client die in the jungle. But, Peck eventually saves the day, and the character and movie prove to be a comic high point for McConaughey.

Where to watch Tropic Thunder : Showtime

6. Mud (2012)

Dallas Buyers Club got all the ink, but McConaughey's performance as Mud, a lovesick fugitive who befriends two boys living on the Mississippi, is dripping with poetry and resonance. This is a classic role that would've been perfect for Robert Mitchum back in the day, and McConaughey knocks it out of the park.

Where to watch Mud : Max

5. Magic Mike (2012)

Quite simply, the list of actors who could've played Dallas, the dean of strippers, had only one name on it.

Where to watch Magic Mike : Tubi

4. Dazed and Confused (1993)

Director Richard Linklater feared that McConaughey was too good-looking for the creepy townie who refused to grow up, but the tiny role bloomed into something special when the 22-year-old no-name stepped on the set. Wooderson became such an essential McConaughey creation that his film company is named J.K. Livin Productions.

Where to watch Dazed and Confused : Amazon Prime Video (to rent)

3. Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

The weight loss represented dedication, but the great achievement was the vulnerability McConaughey brought to Ron Woodroof, the promiscuous homophobe who became an unlikely leader of the 1980s Texas gay community after contracting AIDS and opening a barely legal meds-smuggling business. It was Oscar bait from the get-go, but it was an uncompromising performance that fit McConaughey like a pair of cozy cowboy boots.

Where to watch Dallas Buyers Club : Peacock

2. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Another actor could've played Mark Hanna, the Wall Street rainmaker who mentored Jordan Belfort ( Leonardo DiCaprio ). But few could've made the impact McConaughey did in just a handful of scenes, especially the lunch meeting that introduced Belfort and the audience to a through-the-looking-glass world of hedonism.

Where to watch The Wolf of Wall Street : Showtime

1. True Detective (2014)

Time is a flat circle where we remember how damn good McConaughey was on True Detective . While he was originally offered the role of straight man Marty Hart in the anthology series, McConaughey was rightfully drawn to Rust Cohle, the equally talented and troubled detective. McConaughey tore through long, juicy monologues like Cohle tore through beer cans, so much so that it might be time to go back.

Where to watch True Detective : Max

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COMMENTS

  1. Tom Cruise's best role EVER

    Caution: Strong language.Les Grossman scenes, ft. Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey & Bill Hader, from Tropic Thunder (2008): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942...

  2. Tropic Thunder

    Tropic Thunder is a 2008 satirical action comedy film directed by Ben Stiller, ... Danny McBride, Matthew McConaughey, Bill Hader, and Tom Cruise. ... Some have alleged that the film's characterization—and the non-Jewish Tom Cruise's portrayal—of the Jewish character Les Grossman is anti-Semitic.

  3. Tropic Thunder: Revisiting Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey's roles

    And that's not to mention Tom Cruise under heavy makeup, Robert Downey Jr. under heavy makeup, and Matthew McConaughey in the wilderness years. Tropic Thunder was a phenomenon upon initial release ...

  4. Tom Cruise in the Tropic Thunder

    This is the best scene with Tom Cruise as Les Grossman in the comedy hit "Tropic Thunder". You will watch here the best quotes, such as "I will f*ck you up!"...

  5. Tom Cruise defiles Matthew McConaughey's soul

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  6. Tropic Thunder (2008)

    Tropic Thunder: Directed by Ben Stiller. With Jeff Kahn, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Ruivivar, Jack Black. Through a series of freak occurrences, a group of actors shooting a big-budget war movie are forced to become the soldiers they are portraying.

  7. Tropic Thunder: How Tom Cruise revived his career as Less Grossman in

    Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey in 'Tropic Thunder' (Dreamworks Llc/Kobal/Shutterstock) Opening up about Cruise's role in an Esquire interview, director Stiller revealed that it was ...

  8. Examining Tropic Thunder's Legacy 15 Years Later

    Tropic Thunder (8/10) Movie CLIP - Simple Jack (2008) HD. Watch on. The fake film starring Speedman, called Simple Jack, about a mentally challenged boy living on a farm who can communicate with ...

  9. Examining Tropic Thunder's Legacy 15 Years Later

    It may feature my favorite performances from Matthew McConaughey and Tom Cruise. There were a ton of people who were considered for the movie, several in different roles, but the cast we received ...

  10. Why Tropic Thunder Was the Last Comedy to Actually Take Chances

    Driving these jokes home are more appearances by other actors, including Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Danny McBride. Tropic Thunder Serves a Very Honest and Funny ...

  11. Ten Years On, Tropic Thunder's Still a Brutal Kick In Hollywood's A

    4. IT HELPED KICK OFF THE MCCONAISSANCE. Make no mistake, we were riding the Matthew McConaughey train well before Tropic Thunder - he was a rom-com king in Failure to Launch, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Fool's Gold, and he gave us a decent villain in the apocalyptic Reign of Fire. But he was rarely given serious consideration for roles that were, shall we say, more challenging.

  12. Tropic Thunder (2008)

    10/10. RDJ should've won the Oscar nods - Legendary comedy! UniqueParticle 18 June 2019. Originally saw "Tropic Thunder" in theaters, that was fun! Gargantuanly hilarious and witty; quite memorable too. Tom Cruise was gold, so was Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, and Jay Baruchel. Almost ...

  13. Tom Cruise shines from the sidelines in Magnolia and Tropic Thunder

    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 ...

  14. How Tom Cruise clawed his way back to the top with the weirdest

    Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey in a still from Tropic Thunder. Tom Cruise's stardom, which he has sustained for over four extraordinary decades, was further cemented some weeks ago with the release of Top Gun: Maverick. The film proved that Cruise is still a big draw at the box office, especially when he's playing iconic characters in ...

  15. The Ending Of Tropic Thunder Explained

    The actors all manage to board a helicopter and are on the verge of escaping when Flaming Dragon's 12-year-old gang leader Tran (Brandon Soo Hoo) fires an RPG at the vehicle. In perhaps one of the ...

  16. Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder

    Clip from Universal's Tropic Thunder Starring Ben Stiller, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr.

  17. 15 years ago, Tom Cruise revived his career with an uncredited role in

    Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey in 'Tropic Thunder' (Dreamworks Llc/Kobal/Shutterstock) ... "Tom Cruise had the idea to play Les Grossman in the movie," Stiller says. "That part did not exist. He said, 'Well, there's no studio executive and that would be really fun to be that guy.' And he had this whole idea of what the guy ...

  18. Tropic Thunder (4K UHD Review)

    The eclectic cast of Tropic Thunder also includes Danny McBride, Tom Cruise, Bill Hader, and Matthew McConaughey, as well as cameos from the likes of John Voight, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Alicia Silverstone, and others. In many ways, Tropic Thunder is a film at war with itself. It wants to satirize some very valid targets, but it also wants to be ...

  19. Tropic Thunder (2008)

    A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That's physics. It's inevitable. Studio Executive Rob Slolom : We've been handed an incredible opportunity here, Peck. Les Grossman : The universe... is talking to us right now. You just gotta listen. [turns on T-Pain's Apple Bottom Jeans and begins to dance to the beat] Les Grossman : See, this is the ...

  20. This Unexpected Cameo Is Tom Cruise's Best Performance Ever

    Tropic Thunder starred Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, and several other Hollywood celebrities like Matthew McConaughey, Nick Nolte, Bill Hader, and Dany McBride. Though controversial ...

  21. Tom Cruise

    At an industry screening of the forthcoming comedy "Tropic Thunder," Tom Cruise brought down the house with his portrayal of a dirty-dancing movie mogul. ... Matthew McConaughey and Nick Nolte

  22. The Lost Roles of Tropic Thunder

    Ben Stiller had been kicking around the idea for Tropic Thunder since filming a small part ... Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Steve Coogan, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey ...

  23. The 15 best Matthew McConaughey movies and TV shows, ranked

    10. Frailty (2001) McConaughey was then known for playing slick characters, so it was refreshing to see him assume the role of a mysterious, guilt-ridden man who comes to the FBI with news about a ...

  24. Tropic Thunder Ending / Tom Cruise Dance Scene #TropicThunder #

    Tropic Thunder Ending / Tom Cruise Dance Scene #TropicThunder #TomCruise #MovieMoments #DanceScene #FilmClassics #CinemaLovers #ComedyMov... | Instagram.