From “Mission: Impossible 7” or “Top Gun 2”: Here’s How To Stream The Really Best Thriller With Tom Cruise Tonight

Think what you will of Tom Cruise and his association with Scientology. There’s no denying that the man has played a major role in a dizzying 40-year career that has spanned a dizzying array of hit films and modern classics: from his breakthrough with Loose Deals, Top Gun, Rain Man, A Matter of Honor, Jerry Maguire, Magnolia, Edge Of Tomorrow and of course the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Hardly any other actor has been and has been as accurate in terms of public taste as the man from Syracuse, New York, for so long. While I enjoy watching and rewatching all the movies I just mentioned (and many more) featuring him, there is one title in Cruise’s filmography that is particularly close to my heart and that I consider his best: 1993’s The Company.

If you’re still looking for a streaming tip for tonight, I’d like to recommend “The Firm”. At Paramount+, the thriller highlight with Tom Cruise is even included in the subscription.

That’s what “The Company” is about

Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is a distinguished Harvard law student who receives lucrative offers from some of America’s most powerful law firms. In the end he chose the company Bendini, Lambert & Locke in Memphis. Not only is she very generous to him financially, the bosses (Hal Holbrook, Jerry Hardin) are also family-friendly and claim to be genuinely interested in their employees’ private welfare.

McDeere convinces his initially hesitant wife, the teacher Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), to move to Memphis with him. The couple gets a huge house and expensive cars and quickly settles in as the young man becomes the new star of the company under the guidance of his mentor Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman). However, the joy over all this does not last long. Because the FBI, in the person of Agent Torrance (Ed Harris), approaches McDeere and informs him that the law firm is in direct contact with the Chicago mob. In addition, several of her lawyers have been murdered under mysterious circumstances in recent years…

“The company” as a trigger for a big wave

When the thriller hit theaters worldwide in 1993, it became an instant hit. Apparently, like me, the rest of the audience was fascinated by the ruthless methods and clever tricks of the ‘converters’. We were only too happy to worry about the fate of the main character and whether she would take the morally right side.

Ex-lawyer John Grisham, already a hugely popular author, eventually mutated into a literary titan thanks to this adaptation of his second novel, completed barely two years earlier. From then on, the studios clamored for the rights to his works, and the box-office success of “The Firm” unleashed a wave of film adaptations of his justice novels well into the 2000s.

The most relevant so far are “The Files” with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington, “The Jury” with Matthew McConaughey and Sandra Bullock, and “The Rainmaker” with a very young Matt Damon. Some of these works are very well done, but none of them come close to The Firm. This may have something to do with the source material, as the model is one of the author’s best books to date. However, the most important element to the success of “The Company” for me is the performance of lead actor Cruise.

The pivotal film in Tom Cruise’s career

Almost parallel to his character, the mime shows a wonderful process of maturation. Sure, with “Born on the 4th of July,” for example, Cruise could already more than hint at it: there’s more to him than just being the cheeky daredevil, the sunny boy, or the sweet snob, and acting is quite capable of taking on much more complex roles. But I’m convinced that without the experience he gained while creating “The Firm”, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

Years later, he couldn’t be as authentic and effective in movies like Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut, or Lion and Lamb without the work he had to do to meet the demands of The Firm’s script. I’d venture to say that Paul Thomas Anderson, Stanley Kubrick and Robert Redford probably never would have offered him these roles if he hadn’t so outgrown his previous role schedule.

A book thriller

An immense portion of Cruise’s artistic flourishes certainly goes to the legendary filmmaker Sidney Polak. The Three Days of the Condor mastermind guided him during the shooting. He also gave him such geniuses as Holly Hunter, Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Margo Martindale, David Strathairn, and especially the brilliant Gene Hackman. With her help, her elegance, her efficiency and her commitment, the young star was able to grow so quickly.

But “The Company” is of course more than just the main character. With his expertly timed staging of the cleverly constructed, ambiguous story, Pollack continuously ramps up the tension and builds a thrilling atmosphere for two and a half hours. He never makes the mistake of sacrificing the integrity of his characters for the thriller effect.

The believable development of the characters is absolutely essential to the functioning of the plot and the fully satisfying finale, and ensures that “The Company” became the most gripping of the many glossy suspense dramas of the 1990s. Our official FILMSTARTS review put it very aptly: “A book thriller”.