Cruising With Tom Cruise

by Driveway on Thursday, March 12th, 2015

“The probability of an alien invasion seems just as unlikely as a decidedly unmotivated N.Y. dockworker owning such a rare car as a Shelby!”

Hollywood star Tom Cruise has driven dozens of cars in his 40-plus movies.

Here are the top five coolest cars featured in movies:

Vanilla Sky

In this reality warping, romantic drama, Tom plays David Aames – the head of a New York publishing firm with access to whatever he pleases. In the opening scene, Cruise drives a Ferrari 250 GTO replica through a deserted New York City, ultimately ending in Times Square. Aames’ daily driver throughout the film is a1967 Ford Mustang, and after he falls in love with a different woman, his ex-girlfriend Julie (played by Cameron Diaz) tries to kill them both by driving off a bridge in her 1970 Buick Skylark.

Rain Man

After his father’s death, Charlie Babbitt (played by Cruise), a grey market sports car dealer (seen importing Countaches in the film’s opening), flies home to Ohio to settle the estate. After learning he has an older brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), who is inheriting the full estate, the two set out on a cross-country road trip back to California in their father’s 1949 Buick Roadmaster.

Jack Reacher

Tom plays Jack Reacher, an ex-Army MP who is investigating the murder of five innocent victims of a sniper shooting. The real highlight of the film is a six-minute car chase in which Cruise drives a 1970 Chevelle SS. He tries his best to chase down an Audi A6 while being pursued by police. The driving stunts are of quite a remarkable quality; especially considering Cruise did all of his own driving throughout the movie.

Risky Business

In this 1983 dark-comedy drama, Tom Cruise plays Joel Goodson, a high school student living with wealthy parents in suburban Chicago. His parents go away on a trip, giving Joel strict orders to not touch the stereo system or his father’s 1979 Porsche 928. Joel’s unruly friend convinces him otherwise, leading Joel into a downward spiral of trouble that includes a car chase in the Porsche, and later some major water damage.

War of the Worlds

Cruise plays Ray Ferrier, a divorced dockworker in New York City. His pride and joy seems to be his 1966 Shelby GT350H rather than his two kids – this all changes after an alien invasion of Earth. The probability of an alien invasion seems just as unlikely as a decidedly unmotivated N.Y. dockworker owning such a rare car as a Shelby!

But then this is the movies.

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Nick Gravlin writes for Hagerty Insurance. Hagerty is the world’s leading specialist provider of classic car and boat insurance. Learn more at hagerty.ca.