Welcome to The Last Star In Hollywood! In this introductory episode, we set out our plans for the podcast, discuss what makes a star, and ask the tough questions!

This week, we discuss the melodramatic (and controversial) excesses of Franco Zeffirelli’s 1981 film Endless Love.

This week, we discuss Tom Cruise’s first take on masculinity and militarism in Harold Becker’s 1981 film Taps.

This week, we discuss an American classic: Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film The Outsiders.

This week, we head south of the border with Curtis Hanson’s 1983 sex comedy Losin’ It.

This week, Tom Cruise becomes a star in Paul Brickman’s tale of capitalist ennui and sock-slides, Risky Business.

This week, we have clear eyes, full hearts and we can’t lose as we discuss Michael Chapman’s 1983 football drama All The Right Moves.

This week, we reach the first milestone in the filmography of Tom Cruise with Ridley Scott’s 1985 fairy tale Legend.

This week, we could tell you all about Tony Scott’s 1986 military rollercoaster Top Gun, but then we’d have to kill you.

For this month’s Patreon-exclusive bonus episode, our listeners voted for an all-time favorite: Dirty Dancing!

This week, we invent the legacyquel with Martin Scorsese’s 1986 movie The Color Of Money.

This week, we need a stiff drink after Roger Donaldson’s 1988 movie Cocktail.

This week, we’re taking a swing at Oscar credibility with Barry Levinson’s 1988 movie Rain Man.

This week, things get grim with Oliver Stone’s 1989 anti-war biopic Born on the Fourth of July.

This week, it’s Top Gun on the ground as Tony Scott returns with 1990’s Days of Thunder.

This week, the movie that’s often considered the first flop of Cruise’s career: Ron Howard’s Far and Away!

This week, we prove that we can handle the truth in Rob Reiner’s 1992 movie A Few Good Men!

This week, we finally get the full, authentic Tom Cruise Run™ in Sydney Pollack’s 1993 movie The Firm.

This week, we slip into gothic melodrama with Neil Jordan’s 1994 movie Interview With The Vampire.

This week, we disavow any knowledge of Brian de Palma’s 1996 spy thriller Mission: Impossible.

This week, Cameron Crowe’s 1996 romantic comedy Jerry Maguire had us at hello.

This week, we dream our way through Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut.

This week, we realize that everything is connected in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia.

This week, we get as close as we can to killing a franchise with John Woo’s 2000 action drama Mission: Impossible 2

This week, it was all a dream — or was it? — in Cameron Crowe’s 2001 movie Vanilla Sky.

This week, a glimpse of the future with Steven Spielberg’s 2002 sci-fi thriller Minority Report.

This week, Cruise shoots for Oscar recognition in Edward Zwick’s 2003 historical drama The Last Samurai.

This week, Cruise plays the villain in Michael Mann’s 2004 thriller Collateral.

This week, Cruise is a bad dad in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds!

This week, Ethan Hunt returns with more guns in JJ Abrams’ 2006 action sequel Mission: Impossible 3!

This week, let’s get angry – but not in the way the movie wants – with Robert Redford’s 2007 political drama Lions For Lambs!

This week, let’s be controversial with Ben Stiller’s 2008 action-movie satire, Tropic Thunder!

This week, a rare late-period swing at legitimacy by Cruise in Bryan Singer’s World War II drama Valkyrie.

This week, Cruise and Cameron are reunited in a chaotic, excessive, and surprisingly fun action-comedy, James Mangold’s Knight And Day.

This week, Ethan Hunt returns to save both the world and Tom Cruise’s career in Brad Bird’s 2011 spy thriller, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

This week, Tom Cruise rawks in Adam Shankman’s 2011 adaptation of the jukebox musical Rock of Ages.

This week, Tom Cruise explores the road not taken with Christopher McQuarrie’s 2012 action-thriller Jack Reacher.

To mark American Independence Day, we’re unlocking our Patreon bonus episode on Rob Reiner’s 1995 political rom-com The American President!

This week, twists and turns in Joseph Kosinski’s 2013 high-concept sci-fi adventure Oblivion!

This week, the second in Cruise’s high-concept sci-fi double-header: Doug Liman’s Edge Of Tomorrow!

This week, Ethan Hunt returns for a fifth time, this time (mostly) written and (completely) directed by Christopher McQuarrie.

This week, Jack’s back in Edward Zwick’s 2016 franchise-killer Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

This week, the venture into the Dark Universe — but not for long — in Alex Kurtzman’s 2017 reboot The Mummy.

This week, a rare Tom Cruise character-actor performance in Doug Liman’s stylish satire American Made.

This week, Christopher McQuarrie returns to M:I with the biggest, splashiest, most ankle-breaking adventure so far.

This week, we feel the need for speed all over again with Joseph Kosinski’s much-delayed, hugely successful Top Gun: Maverick!

This week, Ethan Hunt returns for the seventh (and penultimate?) time in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning!

This week, we wrap up the first part of The Last Star In Hollywood, and look ahead to what’s next for Tom Cruise.