19. They Had One Final Moment Together

Tom Cruise left the film to make one last visit to his ailing father in hospital. Before he arrived, his father told him that in order to see him, Cruise had to fulfill one bizarre condition. He wasn’t allowed to confront his father about anything that had gone on between them in the past. Despite his lingering anger over his childhood, Cruise agreed.

The pair saw each other one last time before Thomas Cruise Mapother III passed on. Cruise later made a heartbreaking confession about the visit, saying that “When I saw him in pain, I thought, 'What a lonely life.' […] It was sad."

20. He Made It To The Top

Tom Cruise returned to Hollywood—and his next project was one that would take him to superstar status. Top Gun was Cruise’s biggest hit yet—but despite its success, it would be a film he’d come to regret. After talking to Paul Newman on the set of his next film, Cruise began to regret the tone of Top Gun, which many felt glorified war and amplified the Cold War politics of the era.

Despite this walkback, Cruise has said that he’d be involved if the filmmakers were ever to make a sequel…