Oscars 2019: 13 Biggest Acting Snubs

Tom Cruise has somehow never won an Oscar. He's been nominated three times (for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia) but has never won. This seems odd, given that Cruise has quite literally been risking life-and-limb for decades now for the sheer sake of our entertainment.

And Mission: Impossible - Fallout certainly features its fair share of that. In pushing the possibilities of stuntwork to their very limits, the team behind Fallout crafted some of the most thrilling action setpieces of the last decade, all of which were done with Cruise squarely at the center of them.

Beyond that though, Fallout also sees Cruise pushing the emotional center of his performance as Ethan Hunt farther than he ever has before. The narrative of Fallout centers on the ramifications of all of Hunt's choices and Cruise's performance knocks this out of the park. He deepens Hunt's characterization in ways both big and small, introducing distinct shades of grey to a character who once seemed like such a straight-man.

Personalized setpieces such as his run across London or the multi-stage chase sequence through France allow Cruise to show off his versatile performance physically, both literally in his physical abilities and also in how he has mastered the art of giving audiences a window into his character's mind with the smallest of facial tics. But the quieter moments, like his waking from a nightmare of losing all his loved ones because of his own choices, are where Cruise's refined and restrained performance really shines.