All hail Tom Cruise and the era of the equal opportunity action movie
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Version 0 of 1. Tom Cruise may ... ahem ... get the odd bit of bad press, but he remains Hollywood’s most dependable action hero. There’s been the odd clanger (Oblivion, Knight and Day) in recent times, but the couch-jumping poster boy for Scientology has been on a hot streak of late with last year’s alien invasion romp Edge of Tomorrow and the new Mission: Impossible movie – Rogue Nation, right up there with the best. Related: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation review: Tom Cruise just won't let this franchise self-destruct What’s intriguing about both movies is that they largely feature Cruise playing second fiddle to his female co-star. Rogue Nation boasts all the spy movie tropes you might expect when watching the rival Bond series, from exotic, far-flung locations to dramatic car chases through the streets of London and a plot centred on an international criminal mastermind bent on world domination. It even has a femme fatale of continental extraction in the shape of Sweden’s Rebecca Ferguson, best known for the BBC’s The White Queen. Related: Mad Max: Fury Road's strong women won't surprise true genre fans And yet one difference from 007’s last outing is that Ferguson isn’t just there to look pretty: the newcomer is at the centre of every intrigue and spends much of the movie making Cruise look like her sidekick. It’s a spectacularly confident performance bristling with big-screen charisma which lights up the latest instalment of a spy saga that only seems to improve with age. But it’s also a sign of Cruise’s own humility, his willingness to share the spotlight. Last year’s underrated sci-fi romp Edge of Tomorrow saw a similar dynamic, with Emily Blunt cast as the alien-mashing sergeant Rita Vrataski, otherwise known as the “Full Metal Bitch”, with the Top Gun star introduced as a cowardy custard PR man who does everything he can to get out of battling the movie’s brutal extra-terrestrial menace. And it’s not just Cruise who’s proven ready to share the stage: Tom Hardy found himself trailing desperately in the wake of amputee desert warrior Charlize Theron through much of Mad Max: Fury Road earlier this year, despite having the title role. Could it be that (much to the chagrin of certain “men’s rights” bloggers) the equal opportunities action movie is fast becoming a Hollywood thing? If so, we ought to be thankful, because the injection of a little oestrogen seems to be channelling more vital storylines to the big budget action arena than filmgoers have been used to for a while. Ferguson’s enigmatic presence in Rogue Nation intelligently subverts the traditional spy movie dynamic by making a female secret agent the movie’s paramount exponent in the art of using sexual charisma as a weapon of espionage. Fury Road’s tale of male-sponsored oppression in a post-apocalyptic future reminds us how the most basic tenets of decency – caring for the weak – will be the first cherished fruits of civilisation to be ground into the dust beneath the boots of tyrants. And Edge of Tomorrow presents a gender dynamic so unorthodox that we’re left bamboozled at every turn – not to mention the chance to see poor old Cruise hilariously battered into oblivion for two hours. Related: Tom Cruise rules out CGI for Top Gun 2, but special effects have their place Are these realistic visions? Frankly, who cares when the alternative seems to be the formula presented in Sylvester Stallone’s The Expendables, where the female of the species’ prime role is to be rescued from harm by an ageing musclebound hunk with a lifetime subscription to Semtex Monthly. There are some movie franchises which will probably steer clear: Bond himself has never looked too comfortable fighting alongside capable female counterparts, as weaker 007 efforts Quantum of Solace and Die Another Day helped prove. But it seems almost certain that JJ Abrams’ upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens will move characters such as Daisy Ridley’s Rey to the centre stage in a way gold-bikinied Princess Leia never quite managed, thereby forging a new path forward for the long-running space saga. So, all power to those in Hollywood embracing the idea of self-sufficient, pugilistic women. And props to the likes of Cruise and Hardy for helping to usher in a big-budget action movie era that suddenly looks refreshingly unpredictable. |