20 Essential Movie Performances That Will Define 2016
2. Tom Hanks - Chesley Sullenberger (Sully)
Release Date: September 9
The Role: Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the American pilot who in 2009 successfully landed US Airways Flight 1549 with zero power and, miraculously, not a single fatality, becoming a national hero overnight.
Why It'll Define 2016: Tom Hanks has enjoyed a career resurgence as of late with cracking roles in Captain Phillips and Saving Mr. Banks, and this Clint Eastwood-directed effort looks set to join them.
Who better than the actor everyone loves and respects to play an American hero? If Eastwood amps up the intensity for the focal rescue sequence (which is reportedly shot almost entirely in IMAX) and manages to wring enough poignance out of Sully's life, then this could be an easy Best Actor Oscar nomination for Hanks, if not the win outright.
Eastwood is such a sturdy director (for the most part), and has such a ripe understanding of performance that it's hard to imagine him screwing it up.