Tom Cruise and "The Last Samurai" can also be considered to be part of this formula. "Widescreenings" noted that for Tom Cruise's character Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men", "[screenwriter] Aaron Sorkin interestingly takes the opposite approach of "Top Gun", where Cruise also starred as the protagonist. In "Top Gun", Cruise plays Mitchell who is a 'hot shot' military underachiever who makes mistakes because he is trying to outperform his late father. Where Maverick Mitchell needs to rein in the discipline, Daniel Kaffee needs to let it go, finally see what he can do." Sorkin and director Rob Reiner are praised
Tom Cruise critical and commercial successes. The following year Cruise starred in the romantic thriller "Vanilla Sky" (2001) with Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz. In 2002, Cruise starred in the dystopian science fiction thriller "Minority Report" which was directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. In 2003, he starred in Edward Zwick's historical drama "The Last Samurai", for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for best actor. In 2005, Cruise worked again with Steven Spielberg in "War of the Worlds", a loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells novel of the same