Tom Hanks

1995 · Ron Howard · 140 min · Drama / Historical

Apollo 13 turned a mission that never reached the moon into one of cinema's great suspense machines, a procedural about duct tape, slide rules, and thousands of people refusing to lose three men to the cold. Ron Howard shoots competence like action, Tom Hanks anchors the capsule, and Ed Harris's mission control turns arithmetic into drama, all of it rendered with a practical authenticity, real weightlessness included, that still embarrasses greener spectacle. The history gets streamlined and the sentiment gets a Hollywood polish. Neither dents the achievement, a thriller where everyone knows the ending and nobody breathes anyway.

2000 · Robert Zemeckis · 143 min · Drama / Adventure

Cast Away strands Tom Hanks on a Pacific island for an hour of nearly wordless cinema and proves a volleyball can break your heart. Zemeckis shoots the survival stretch with patient, dialogue-free confidence while Hanks, who transformed his body across a production hiatus, delivers one of the defining performances of his career. The framing acts in the connected world run longer and softer than the island earns, and the FedEx of it all remains a punchline. But Wilson, the whistle of wind on empty water, and that final crossroads shot have kept this one lodged in the culture for a quarter century.

2002 · Steven Spielberg · 141 min · Crime Comedy-Drama

Catch Me If You Can is Spielberg working in pure entertainment mode, and it delivers on every level. DiCaprio is magnetic as a real-life con artist whose charm is as dangerous as it is delightful, and Tom Hanks grounds the whole thing with his quietly affecting FBI pursuer. It's breezy without being shallow, funny without being silly, and surprisingly touching once you realize this is a film about two lonely men orbiting each other across a decade. Not Spielberg's most ambitious work, but few films of its era are this effortlessly enjoyable.

2013 · Paul Greengrass · 134 min · Thriller

Paul Greengrass turns a real-life piracy incident into a relentless survival thriller, with Tom Hanks delivering a career-highlight final scene and Barkhad Abdi making a stunning debut as the lead pirate.

2015 · Steven Spielberg · 141 min · Drama / History / Thriller

Bridge of Spies is the kind of film they mean when people say they don't make them like they used to. Spielberg directs with total command of his craft, Tom Hanks brings warmth and conviction to a role built for him, and Mark Rylance steals the film with an Oscar-winning turn that redefines quiet scene-stealing. It's methodical where a lesser film would be breathless, and it trusts that the drama of principle is as compelling as any action sequence. A thoroughly satisfying piece of classical filmmaking.

2022 · Baz Luhrmann · 159 min · Drama / Biography

Elvis is Baz Luhrmann at his most Baz Luhrmann, a maximalist biopic that prioritizes sensation over traditional storytelling. Austin Butler's transformative lead performance is the film's greatest asset, delivering a portrayal of Elvis Presley that goes far beyond impersonation into something that feels possessed. Tom Hanks' Colonel Tom Parker divides audiences sharply, and the film's frantic editing can be exhausting, but when Butler is performing on stage, the movie captures something electrifying about what made Presley a cultural earthquake.

2024 · 1 Season · Apple TV+ · Drama

A visually spectacular WWII aerial combat series that delivers breathtaking action sequences but struggles to develop the emotional connections that made Band of Brothers and The Pacific into television landmarks.

2004 · Steven Spielberg · 128 min · Comedy

The Terminal is minor Spielberg, and it knows it. Tom Hanks brings warmth and specificity to a character who could easily have been a caricature, and the airport as a self-contained world is more charming than it has any right to be. The plot is too thin for its runtime, the romance doesn't convince, and the sentimentality runs unchecked in the final act. But as a gentle, good-natured film about kindness and patience in a system designed for neither, it has a modest appeal that's hard to dislike even when it's impossible to love.