While Tom Cruise has more recently become known for his death-defying stunts in the Mission: Impossible movies, he has been a critical and commercial hitmaker for many years. His movies have collectively grossed more than $13 billion, earned him four Oscar nominations, and allowed him to work with many notable directors, including Steven Spielberg (War of the Worlds, Minority Report), Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), Rob Reiner (A Few Good Men), Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia), Barry Levinson (Rain Man), Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July), Tony Scott (Top Gun, Days of Thunder), and Ridley Scott (Legend).
Cinema · A Ridley Scott Production Ridley Scott Filmography Trivia
👽Sci-FiIn space
⚔HistoricalEpic
🎥ThrillerTension
🏆LegacyLegend
🚀ModernVisionary
01
Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece introduced audiences to one of cinema’s most terrifying creatures and launched a massive franchise. The film’s tagline was “In space, no one can hear you scream.” What is this iconic film?
✓ Correct! Alien (1979) redefined both the sci-fi and horror genres. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley became one of cinema’s greatest heroines, and H.R. Giger’s nightmarish creature design created an icon of terror that has endured for over four decades.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Alien. Released in 1979, it combined claustrophobic horror with science fiction in a way never seen before. The film spawned multiple sequels, prequels, and crossovers, becoming one of the most successful franchises in movie history.
02
Ridley Scott’s 1982 neo-noir sci-fi film, initially a box office disappointment, went on to become one of the most influential films ever made. It explores the question of what it means to be human through artificial beings called replicants. What is this film?
✓ Correct! Blade Runner (1982) is now considered one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Based on Philip K. Dick’s novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” it pioneered the cyberpunk aesthetic and raised profound philosophical questions about consciousness and identity.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Blade Runner. Despite underperforming at the box office in 1982, it became a cult classic and is now widely regarded as a masterpiece. Its rain-soaked neon cityscape and Rutger Hauer’s “tears in rain” monologue are etched into cinema history.
03
Ridley Scott directed a 2000 epic historical drama starring Russell Crowe as a Roman general betrayed by the emperor’s son and forced to fight as a gladiator. The film won five Academy Awards including Best Picture. What is this film?
✓ Correct! Gladiator (2000) revived the sword-and-sandal epic genre and earned Russell Crowe the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film’s iconic line “Are you not entertained?” and Hans Zimmer’s thunderous score cemented it as one of the greatest historical epics ever made.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Gladiator. Russell Crowe’s portrayal of Maximus Decimus Meridius is legendary. The film won five Oscars and single-handedly revived the historical epic genre, inspiring countless imitators in the years that followed.
04
In 1991, Ridley Scott directed a groundbreaking road thriller starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as two women on the run after a tragic incident. The film became a cultural landmark for its feminist themes. What is this film?
✓ Correct! Thelma & Louise (1991) was a cultural phenomenon that challenged Hollywood conventions. Written by Callie Khouri, who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the film’s iconic final scene of the 1966 Thunderbird sailing over the Grand Canyon remains one of cinema’s most memorable images.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Thelma & Louise. This 1991 road thriller starred Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis and became a landmark of feminist cinema. It also featured a young Brad Pitt in a breakout role that helped launch his career.
05
Ridley Scott directed a 2001 war film based on the true story of a U.S. military operation in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, where a mission to capture a warlord went catastrophically wrong. What is this film?
✓ Correct! Black Hawk Down (2001) is a visceral, unflinching portrayal of the Battle of Mogadishu. Based on Mark Bowden’s book, the film won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Its intense, documentary-style combat sequences set a new standard for war films.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Black Hawk Down. This 2001 war film depicted the harrowing 1993 Battle of Mogadishu with unflinching realism. American Sniper was directed by Clint Eastwood, while The Kingdom and Body of Lies were directed by other filmmakers.
06
In 2015, Ridley Scott directed a survival sci-fi film starring Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on Mars who must use his ingenuity to survive until rescue arrives. The film was based on Andy Weir’s novel. What is this film?
✓ Correct! The Martian (2015) was a critical and commercial triumph, earning over $630 million worldwide. Matt Damon’s charismatic performance as botanist Mark Watney, who “sciences the **** out of” his survival on Mars, earned the film seven Oscar nominations including Best Picture.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is The Martian. While Interstellar was directed by Christopher Nolan, Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón, and Ad Astra by James Gray, it was Ridley Scott who brought Andy Weir’s beloved novel about a stranded astronaut to spectacular life on screen.
07
Ridley Scott returned to the Alien franchise in 2012 with a prequel film that explored the origins of humanity and the mysterious Engineers who created the xenomorphs. What is the name of this prequel?
✓ Correct! Prometheus (2012) marked Ridley Scott’s return to the universe he created over three decades earlier. The film expanded the Alien mythology by exploring the Engineers, an ancient race responsible for creating human life, and introduced new questions about the origins of the deadly xenomorphs.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Prometheus. Alien: Covenant (2017) was actually the sequel to Prometheus. Aliens (1986) was directed by James Cameron, and Alien: Resurrection (1997) was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Prometheus was Scott’s grand return to the franchise.
08
Ridley Scott has directed over 25 feature films across multiple decades and genres. Despite his immense influence on cinema, he has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director multiple times but has never won. For which film did he receive his first Best Director Oscar nomination?
✓ Correct! Ridley Scott received his first Best Director Oscar nomination for Thelma & Louise (1991). He was nominated again for Gladiator (2000) and Black Hawk Down (2001), but has never won. Despite this, he received a knighthood in 2003 and remains one of cinema’s most respected and prolific directors.
✗ Even Ridley would call “Cut!” on that answer! The answer is Thelma & Louise. While many assume it was Gladiator, Scott’s first Best Director nomination actually came for the 1991 road thriller. He was subsequently nominated for Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, but the Oscar has remained elusive throughout his legendary career.
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Are you a Ridley Scott scholar — or still watching the director’s commentary?
However, one of Tom Cruise’s biggest hits in history is 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick. The legacy sequel, which is currently having a streaming resurgence, arrived more than three decades after the original 1986 hit. Featuring Tom Cruise reprising his role as the titular hotshot pilot, the movie grossed $1.496 billion against its reported $177 million budget. It is now the 15th highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide and the fifth highest-grossing in North America. As one of the biggest hits of the early 2020s, it is widely considered to have helped save the movie theater industry following widespread COVID-related closures.
FlixPatrol‘s latest data shows that Top Gun: Maverick is continuing to thrive four years after its theatrical debut. The website, which uses proprietary methodology to determine a title’s success on streaming, shows that the movie has shot to No. 1 on Pluto TV in the United States on May 7, less than a week after it debuted on the platform on May 1.
The only other new Pluto TV release on the chart is the 1995 crime movie Dead Presidents, which debuted at No. 10. The wide roster of other new Pluto TV movies for May failed to compete against the holdover titles on the chart, which includes the all-time classics The Godfather (No. 3), Clueless (No. 9), Grease (No. 4), The Godfather: Part II (No. 6), First Blood (No. 7), and Gladiator (No. 8). While Clueless has only been on the chart for 27 days, the remaining titles have all been in the Top 10 for more than 70 days apiece.
On the same day, Top Gun: Maverick was the No. 6 movie on Paramount+ in the United States, having been buffeted down the chart by PAW Patrol: Air Rescue (No. 1), Valiente: A Tracker Story (No. 2), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (No. 3), PAW Patrol: Rescue Wheels (No. 4), and Gasoline Alley (No. 5) after rising back to No. 1 on May 5.
This resurgence in interest in Top Gun: Maverick on streaming may partially be due to the fact that the Tom Cruise sequel is set to return to theaters on May 13 alongside the original Top Gun for a special limited run honoring the original movie’s 40th anniversary.
However, Top Gun: Maverick has already long since proven its ability to draw in streaming audiences on its own steam. In fact, the Tom Cruise hit has spent 628 days on the chart of the Top 10 movies on Paramount+, which accounts for more than half of the 1,233 days that have elapsed since it debuted on the platform on December 22, 2022. The fact that it has nevertheless proven its ability to top another streaming chart at the same time speaks to its almost unheard-of longevity as one of the most important movie hits of the century.
