10 Intense Movie Performances NO ONE Was Ready For

Tropic Thunder is one of those comedies where every actor involved knew exactly what kind of film they were making. Of the five actors playing "actors playing soldiers", their performances on screen were the meta symbols Ben Stiller and Justin Theroux were angling for when the script was written.

And while Robert Downey Jr's controversial character might have distracted us initially, it's Tom Cruise as the vulgar Les Grossman that really catches us off guard.

Had Tom Cruise played someone like this before? What must the conversation that convinced Cruise to put on a bald cap have been like? Take away the knowledge that audiences had to double-check the awful studio head on screen WAS in fact Tom Cruise, it's still an in-your-face performance that really outshines the other cast.

This is smiling, running, stunt-performing Tom Cruise! He doesn't deliver hilarious f-bombs at every other sentence and steal the spotlight from the likes of Matthew McConaughey - but he does, and he did.

Maybe because we never expected Tom Cruise in this film, but his performance is the biggest take away from the movie.