No other star has pushed himself further - or stayed in the fight longer - than Tom Cruise. For more than forty years, Tom Cruise has remained one of Hollywood's most driven, bankable and physically committed performers. From his rise as a defining star of the 1980s - through Top Gun, Rain Man and Born on the Fourth of July - to his modern reinvention as the producer-star of the Mission: Impossible franchise and the box-office phenomenon Top Gun: Maverick, his career has repeatedly defied trends, setbacks and expectations. Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star offers a definitive, career-spanning analysis of that evolution, featuring exclusive insights from six of the most respected voices in contemporary film criticism: A. A. Dowd (The A.V. Club), Bilge Ebiri (New York Magazine / Vulture), Dan Jolin (Empire), Geoffrey Macnab (The Independent), Scott Mendelson (The Wrap / Forbes), and Richard Roeper (Chicago Sun-Times). Tracing Cruise's rise, reinvention and resilience - from early superstardom through creative gambles and public backlash - this book explores how he reshaped his onscreen persona by placing personal risk at the heart of his performance and appeal, transforming into a totally unique figure in modern cinema. Clear-eyed, authoritative and deeply engaging, Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star examines one of the most extraordinary careers in film history, and the singular form of stardom Cruise has sustained against the odds.