We don’t usually associate Tom Cruise with villains. For much of his career, the man, the myth, the legend, has played heroic roles in films like Top Gun , Mission: Impossible , and War of the Worlds , while occasionally venturing into morally ambiguous territory in Eyes Wide Shut , Born On the Fourth of July , Magnolia , and Minority Report . Even Lestat, his violent, blood-sucking vampire in Neil Jordan’s Interview with the Vampire , is more antihero than outright villain, while Les Grossman, the cursing, bald producer of Tropic Thunder , is merely a company flunky in desperate need of a moral compass.

Indeed, it took more than two decades for Cruise to leap headfirst into the other side of the pond, resulting in perhaps his most nuanced work to date. Following a string of box office hits, Cruise teamed up with legendary director Michael Mann for the thriller Collateral, in which he played Vincent, a ruthless hitman who forces Jamie Foxx’s lowly cabbie, Max, to chauffeur him to various “appointments” around Los Angeles.

Dressed in a sleek suit and with steel-gray hair, Vincent is the epitome of evil. He roams the earth seeking victims, killing without hesitation and hiding his shame behind a shaky philosophy steeped in faux nihilism. He is, in fact, the Devil, rising from the underworld to claim his victims, and relishing every opportunity to demonstrate his incredible power.

Cruise disappears into the role, burying his trademark charisma under a steely facade that gradually unravels as he sees Max as more than just another notch in a long list of victims. His transformation takes time, but Vincent eventually finds a shred of humanity before his downfall.