Legend: Tom Cruise’s epic fantasy revisited

1986 was a big year for Tom Cruise, with Tony Scott’s Top Gun cementing his status as the era’s biggest star. Yet, earlier that year, Universal released a delayed Tom Cruise epic that actually carried a heftier price tag than Top Gun and paired him with that movie’s director, Tony Scott’s brother – Ridley Scott. The film was Legend, and while a pretty notable flop in 1986, it’s since gone on to become something of a classic in the fantasy genre, even if it scared Cruise away from ever attempting another fantasy epic. It remains the only time Ridley Scott directed Cruise and sorting through the myriad cuts of the film, which boasts not one but two exceptional musical scores (Tangerine Dream and Jerry Goldsmith), is a chore. Yet, there’s something to be said about this Grimm’s Fairy Tale for adults – with Tim Curry stealing the show as the movie’s diabolical villain, with Mia Sara nabbed a star-making role in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off thanks to the right people seeing this.

In this episode of Tom Cruise Revisited, written and narrated by Chris Bumbray and edited by Jeremy Hamley, we examine where the movie sits in Cruise’s exceptional filmography. We try to sort through the various cuts and explain why Universal seemed bent on shelving the film after a tortured production process.

Which Legend cut is your favourite? Let us know in the comments!