Tom Cruise Has Only Made 2 Sequels Outside The Mission: Impossible Movies In 42 Years

Outside the Mission: Impossible movies, Tom Cruise has only made two sequels in 42 years. Like Harrison Ford with Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Sylvester Stallone with Rocky and Rambo, or Keanu Reeves with John Wick and Neo, Cruise has two characters he’s returned to in a career that has been going strong since the ’80s. While Ethan Hunt, the protagonist of the highly successful Mission: Impossible franchise, remains a steadfast role he’ll be likely to play until he’s no longer physically able, these other roles show a deviation from that longstanding series that he keeps returning to every couple of years.The Hollywood star generally doesn’t like to revisit films once he feels like the story has been told. However, the Mission: Impossible movies changed Cruise’s mind about sequels. Eager to maintain his artistic integrity in the early days of his career, he worried that sequels signaled an end to credibility, but the success of playing Hunt didn’t mean that the films would become clones of one another or that he’d be taken seriously as an actor. Because of that, he decided to revisit other roles he’d played, one with minimal fanfare, the other which signaled a career resurgence, paving the way for Tom Cruise movies that still need sequels.