9 Movie Heroes Who Lived Long Enough To Become The Villain

Now and again, Tom Cruise will agree to a less conventional movie role (Magnolia, anyone?), but these ventures are pretty few and far between when compared to the countless "I'm a hero!" films simply require him to run from explosions, aliens and evil-doers.

As such, the thought of Cruise as a full-on villain has always had a certain appeal, but it wasn't until Michael Mann cast him as a ruthless hitman named Vincent that he got to play a proper antagonist. As a contract killer who uses Jamie Foxx's taxi to make several hits over the course of a single night, it's arguably his best and most daring performance to date.

After years of watching Cruise's faceless knights save the world, it was fascinating to see him taking a risk and playing a cold, black-hearted killer with no redemptive features; the perfect antidote to the ambiguous hero persona that this actor spent more than a decade cultivating: here was a Cruise character you could actually hate.

It's a wonderfully cool and confident turn that showed audiences Cruise could do more than just run away from stuff.