Show me the money. A quintessential A-List movie-star for a whopping forty years, Tom Cruise refuses to slow down anytime soon. With each new daring array of stunts he tackles in his Mission: Impossible franchise, though, the less time he has to star in films from other genres he's proven to equally master in years past.
There have actually been many that he just missed out on. The following films were either turned down by the three-time Oscar nominee due to prior engagements or were originally written for him - but for whatever reasons, never made it to him in the form of an offer.
Jericho Cane in End of Days (Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Rather than plunge into the supernatural action-horror genre upon his return to the box-office following a grueling two-year and all-consuming shoot on Stanley Kubrick's final film, Eyes Wide Shut, Cruise instead chose a low-time-demand/high-reward role in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia to complete his 1999 slate.
The religiously-charged and far-out concept-wielding End of Days would ultimately serve as a comeback vehicle for another missed after a brief hiatus star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who at the time had taken a couple of years off while recovering from heart surgery.
John Gage in Indecent Proposal (Woody Harrelson)
Noted romantic drama director Adrian Lyne - who is back after nearly twenty years off this fall - divulged that at one point, Indecent Proposal could have been a starring vehicle for Tom Cruise and then-wife Nicole Kidman.
The film ultimately featured Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore as the couple thrust into conflict when a billionaire (Robert Redford) offers them a fortune in exchange for one night of intercourse between him and the latter.
Jack Traven in Speed (Keanu Reeves)
Cruise was not the only star almost chosen over a pre-Matrix Keanu Reeves to headline what's been accurately deemed "Die Hard on a Bus."
According to co-writer Graham Yost, Tom Hanks, Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson, and Stephen Baldwin were also in contention.
Edward Scissorhands in Edward Scissorhands (Johnny Depp)
As the story goes, Cruise had the off-beat and off-brand role "in the bag" before over-inquisition caused him to psych himself out of the part no one these days can imagine anyone other than Johnny Depp playing.
The first of many collaborations between the frequent costume transformer and director Tim Burton, one wonders how much more nightmare fuel its alternate universe cut with Cruise as the shy barber from the high-rise mansion watching over Blandtown, USA would produce.
Tony Stark in Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)
At this point, most everyone knows Cruise was an early front runner for Iron Man (2008) - with the logistic uncertainties regarding the then-only recently-been-sober Robert Downey Jr.
A decade and a half later, the consensus agrees that they love Kevin Feige and Jon Favreau's choice 3000. But would Cruise have sported the goatee? Only the multi-verse may hold the answers of that which the MCU faithful seek.
John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard)
Cruise flirted with the role that would ultimately net Russell Crowe his third consecutive Oscar nomination for best leading performance.
Had he not passed on A Beautiful Mind, Cruise would have teamed up with his Far and Away director, Ron Howard, on the picture. For his 2001 big-budgeted outing, Cruise instead chose to follow up the previous year's critically-divisive Mission: Impossible sequel with even more polarizing fare.
Charlie Fineman in Reign Over Me (Adam Sandler)
Cited in many reviews at the time of its release, like Peter Travers' for Rolling Stone, filmmaker Mike Binder originally wrote the 2007 drama - about a dazed-and-in-denial out-of-practice dentist who lost his entire family years earlier in 9/11 - with Cruise in mind.
When the funding came in, Cruise turned down the role that would ultimately go to funnyman (but not completely inexperienced dramatist) Adam Sandler. Notably, Michael Mann offered Sandler the part eventually played by Jamie Foxx opposite Cruise in Collateral (2004).
Ren in Footloose (Kevin Bacon)
An entire feature-length outing of Cruise demonstrating the dance moves he iconically put on display for the Bob Seger's "Old Time Rock & Roll"/home alone bit in Risky Business could have been something.
However, producers had to settle for a more-than-adequate back-up in Kevin Bacon when Cruise's schedule on the little-seen football drama All The Right Moves forced him to reject the offer to play the Footloose lead.
Phil Spector in an unmade biopic (Al Pacino in Phil Spector)
Ideally, Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe can complete the third leg of their trilogy together at some point. The film they had lined up next following the Oscar-darling Jerry Maguire (1996) and the misunderstood but-still-a-box-office-smash Vanilla Sky (2001) stalled indefinitely when its subject got himself in hot water.
Originally intended as a biopic on the complicated life of music producer Phil Spector, the "Let it Be" salvager's 2003 arrest and subsequent conviction years later for the murder of Lana Clarkson would ultimately alter what type of movie could be made about him.
Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs (Michael Fassbender)
"Though both (Scott Rudin and Danny Boyle) remain concerned about (Cruise's) age (me less so), everyone agrees that he's an actor who can really handle language (Lions for Lambs, Magnolia, A Few Good Men) and a movie star who feels comfortable owning the stage," wrote acclaimed screenwriter Aaron Sorkin in an e-mail leaked via the 2014 Sony Hack.
By the time it had been made public that Sorkin's A Few Good Men teammate Tom Cruise was his first choice to play the late Apple founder and innovator Steve Jobs in the film of the same name, Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio and others had already circled the rounds before Michael Fassbender was cast. Not a bad consolation prize in the slightest.