tom cruise age the firm

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Common sense media reviewers.

Grisham thriller has lots of twists, turns but is overlong.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

There's considerable lying, manipulating, spyi

A lot of off-screen violence: talk of two lawyers

Mitch makes out with his wife, talks about cooking

Considerable salty language, including "son o

We see quite a few Mercedes, and there's menti

Several characters drink to the point of being dru

Parents need to know that this thriller based on a John Grisham novel contains considerable discussion of violence, corruption, and sexism. Women are treated as objects to either have affairs with or to bear their husbands' children. Mitch cheats on his wife. Several characters die, three of them on-screen and two…

Positive Messages

There's considerable lying, manipulating, spying, blackmail, and terrorizing. One man talks about raping a girl, saying, "It was just statutory rape." Another man refers to the only female lawyer in the firm as "affirmative action on stilts."

Violence & Scariness

A lot of off-screen violence: talk of two lawyers being killed on a boat that inexplicably explodes, talk of suicide and death. Some thugs repeatedly wound a man by shooting off a part of his ear and then grazing his shoulder before killing him on screen. Mitch kills one man by dropping heavy weights on him and beats another man to death.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Mitch makes out with his wife, talks about cooking food naked, and has sex with another woman on a beach. Nothing graphic is shown other than some finger sucking and the unbuttoning of clothes. Avery flirts with and tries to seduce Abby.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Considerable salty language, including "son of a bitch," "hell," "f--k," "motherf--ker," "c--ksucker," and "s--t."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

We see quite a few Mercedes, and there's mention of Red Stripe beer and Hilton hotels.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Several characters drink to the point of being drunk. Avery drinks so much he passes out. Lamar drinks beer and smokes after he realizes that his coworkers have been killed. Abby drinks when she's unhappy with her husband.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that this thriller based on a John Grisham novel contains considerable discussion of violence, corruption, and sexism. Women are treated as objects to either have affairs with or to bear their husbands' children. Mitch cheats on his wife. Several characters die, three of them on-screen and two of them by the supposed good-guy. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 1 parent review

The firm rating

What's the story.

Tom Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a poor kid who grew up to graduate from Harvard Law School as one of the top five students. He's a whiz, but he's worked for everything he's got and he never got over his mom living in a trailer park. So when Bandini Lambert and Locke, a small Memphis law firm, offer him a huge salary, a house, a car and, most importantly, a sense of family, he moves his life, and his wife, Abby ( Jeanne Tripplehorn , who looks oddly similar to Katherine Heigl in this film) to the south. There, he discovers that, like a quiet suburban neighborhood, all is not what it appears. But can he get himself and Abby out before it destroys his life, his career, and his family -- and before he loses his life?

Is It Any Good?

Like all good dime-store thrillers, The Firm keeps you guessing and moves the plot along quickly through its many twists and turns. Still, that's not enough to make up for the indulgent length (2 1/2 hours) and one-dimensional characters. That is, except for slimy mentor Avery ( Gene Hackman ), who is conniving, scared, remorseful and libidinous all at once. He's fun to watch and the movie's only comic relief.

Don't expect the Hitchcock-level suspense The Firm clearly aims for. It twists and turns successfully, but the running time is tiring and the plot still sticks to a formula. You know Cruise's character will survive. The only question is How? Unlike thrillers like The Bourne Identity and its sequels, The Firm is predictable.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the importance of wealth. Do you believe, like Mitch, that there's not enough money to feel rich? How important is having things and money to you? What would you do to get it?

In classic literature, the character Faust makes his deal with the devil. Can you think of other movies or books where characters do the same thing?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 22, 1993
• On DVD or streaming : May 23, 2000
• Cast : Gene Hackman , Jeanne Tripplehorn , Tom Cruise
• Director : Sydney Pollack
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Paramount Pictures
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 154 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language and some violence
• Last updated : February 11, 2024

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The Pelican Brief

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including Risky Business , A Few Good Men , The Firm , Jerry Maguire , and the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Who Is Tom Cruise?

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, better known as Tom Cruise, was born on July 3, 1962, in Syracuse, New York, to Mary and Thomas Mapother. Cruise's mother was an amateur actress and schoolteacher, and his father was an electrical engineer. His family moved around a great deal when Cruise was a child to accommodate his father's career.

Cruise's parents divorced when he was 11, and the children moved with their mother to Louisville, Kentucky, and then to Glen Ridge, New Jersey, after she remarried. Like his mother and three sisters, Cruise suffered from dyslexia, which made academic success difficult for him. He excelled in athletics, however, and considered pursuing a career in professional wrestling until a knee injury sidelined him during high school.

At age 14, Cruise enrolled in a Franciscan seminary with thoughts of becoming a priest, but he left after a year. When he was 16, a teacher encouraged him to participate in the school's production of the musical Guys and Dolls . After Cruise won the lead of Nathan Detroit, he found himself surprisingly at home on the stage, and a career was born.

'Taps,' 'The Outsiders'

Cruise set a 10-year deadline for himself in which to build an acting career. He left school and moved to New York City, struggling through audition after audition before landing an appearance in 1981's Endless Love , starring Brooke Shields. Around this same time, he snagged a small role in the military school drama Taps (1981), co-starring Sean Penn .

His role in Taps was upgraded after director Harold Becker saw Cruise's potential, and his performance caught the attention of a number of critics and filmmakers. In 1983, Cruise appeared in Francis Ford Coppola 's The Outsiders , which also starred Emilio Estevez , Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe —all prominent members of a group of young actors the entertainment press dubbed the "Brat Pack." The film was not well received, but it allowed Cruise to work with an acclaimed director on a high-profile project.

'Risky Business'

His next film, Risky Business (1983), grossed $65 million. It also made Cruise a highly recognizable actor — thanks in no small part to a memorable scene of the young star dancing in his underwear.

In 1986, after a two-year hiatus, the budding actor released the big-budget fantasy film Legend , which did poorly at the box office. That same year, however, Cruise's A-list status was confirmed with the release of Top Gun , which co-starred Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan . The testosterone-fueled action-romance, set against the backdrop of an elite naval flight school, became the highest-grossing film of 1986.

'The Color of Money,' 'Rain Man' and 'Born on the Fourth of July'

Cruise followed the tremendous success of Top Gun with a string of both critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. He first starred in The Color of Money (1986) with co-star Paul Newman , and then went on to work with Dustin Hoffman on Rain Man (1988). Cruise's next role, as Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in the biopic Born on the Fourth of July (1989), earned him an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm' and 'Interview with a Vampire'

In 1992, Cruise proved once more that he could hold his own opposite a screen legend when he co-starred with Jack Nicholson in the military courtroom drama A Few Good Men . The film grossed more than $15 million its first weekend and earned Cruise a Golden Globe nomination. He continued to demonstrate his success as a leading man with The Firm (1993) and Interview with a Vampire (1994), which co-starred Brad Pitt.

'Mission: Impossible,' 'Jerry McGuire'

Next, Cruise hit the big screen with two huge hits—the $64 million blockbuster Mission: Impossible (1996), which the star also produced, and the highly acclaimed Jerry McGuire (1996), directed by Cameron Crowe. For the latter, Cruise earned a second Academy Award nomination and Golden Globe for Best Actor.

'Eyes Wide Shut,' 'Magnolia'

Cruise and then-wife Kidman spent much of 1997 and 1998 in England shooting Eyes Wide Shut , an erotic thriller that would be director Stanley Kubrick 's final film. The movie came out in the summer of 1999 to mixed reviews, but that year Cruise enjoyed greater success with the release of Magnolia . His performance as a self-confident sex guru in the ensemble film earned him another Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

'Vanilla Sky,' 'The Last Samurai'

Cruise then starred in the long-awaited smash hit Mission: Impossible 2 in 2000, alongside Anthony Hopkins , Thandie Newton and Ving Rhames. In 2002, he starred in Vanilla Sky , his second collaboration with Crowe, as well as Steven Spielberg 's Minority Report . The following year, Cruise traveled to Australia to shoot the $100 million war epic The Last Samurai, which earned him another Golden Globe nomination.

'War of the Worlds'

Cruise proved he remained a top draw by starring in the Spielberg-directed remake of the science-fiction classic War of the Worlds (2005), which grossed more than $230 million at the box office.

His next effort, Mission: Impossible 3 (2006), also scored well with audiences. However, Cruise was faced with a professional setback in August when Paramount Pictures ended its 14-year relationship with the actor. The company's chairman cited Cruise's erratic behavior and controversial views as the reason for the split, though industry experts noted that Paramount more likely ended the partnership over Cruise's high earnings from the Mission: Impossible franchise.

Cruise quickly rebounded and on November 2, 2006, he announced his new partnership with film executive Paula Wagner and the United Artists film studio. Their first production as a team, the political drama Lions for Lambs (2007), proved a commercial disappointment despite a strong cast that included Meryl Streep and Robert Redford .

'Tropic Thunder'

Taking a break from weighty material, Cruise delighted audiences with his performance in the comedy Tropic Thunder (2008). Despite his relatively small role in a movie that featured Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller , Cruise stood out by obscuring his trademark good looks to play a balding, obese movie studio executive.

'Valkyrie,' 'Rock of Ages'

In December 2008, Cruise released his second project through United Artists. The film, Valkyrie , was a World War II drama about a plot to assassinate German leader Adolf Hitler . Cruise starred as a German army officer who became involved in the conspiracy.

Cruise returned to one of his most popular franchises in 2011 with Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol . Breaking into new territory, he then starred in the 2012 musical Rock of Ages . Although Cruise received some positive reviews for his performance as a rock star, the movie failed to attract much of an audience.

'Jack Reacher,' 'Edge of Tomorrow'

Returning to his mainstream action roots, Cruise starred in the 2012 crime drama Jack Reacher , based on a book by Lee Child. He then headlined a pair of science-fiction adventures, Oblivion (2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014). Showing no signs of slowing down, the veteran actor in 2015 delivered his usual high-energy performance for the fifth installment of his blockbuster franchise, Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation .

Latest Movies and Familiar Franchises

In 2016, Cruise reprised the role of Jack Reacher for Never Go Back . He then headlined a reboot of The Mummy (2017), which performed respectably at the box office but was savaged by critics, before earning better reviews later that year for the crime thriller American Made .

2018 brought a return to familiar territory for Cruise, who starred in Mission Impossible —Fallout that summer. Prior to its release, he tweeted a photo to mark day 1 of production on the long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick , scheduled for a June 2020 release.

Scientology and Personal Life

Cruise married actress Mimi Rogers in 1987. It was through Rogers that the actor became a student of Scientology, the religion founded by writer L. Ron Hubbard. Cruise credited the church with curing his dyslexia, and he soon became one of its leading proponents. However, while his spiritual life flourished, his marriage to Rogers ended in 1990. That same year, Cruise made the racecar drama Days of Thunder alongside Kidman. Though the movie was unpopular among critics and fans alike, the two lead actors had real chemistry. On Christmas Eve 1990, after a brief courtship, Cruise and Kidman married in Telluride, Colorado.

Divorce from Kidman

For much of the 1990s, Cruise and Kidman found themselves fiercely defending the happiness and legitimacy of their marriage. They filed two different lawsuits against tabloid publications for stories they considered libelous. In each case, the couple received a published retraction and apology, along with a large monetary settlement which they donated to charity. The couple has two children, Isabella and Connor.

On February 5, 2001, Cruise and Kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage. The couple cited the difficulties involved with two acting careers and the amount of time spent apart while working. Following the divorce, Cruise briefly dated his Vanilla Sky co-star Penelope Cruz , followed by a much-publicized relationship with actress Katie Holmes. A month after his ties to Holmes became public, Cruise professed his love for the actress in a now-famous appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, during which he jumped on Winfrey's sofa, shouting "Yes!"

Marriage to Katie Holmes

In June 2005, after a two-month courtship, Cruise proposed to Holmes in a restaurant at the top of the Eiffel tower. In October, they announced that they were expecting their first child together. The hasty proposal and surprise pregnancy quickly became tabloid gossip. But Cruise made even bigger headlines that year as an outspoken advocate for Scientology. He openly criticized former co-star Brooke Shields for using anti-depressants during her recovery from postpartum depression. He also denounced psychiatry and modern medicine, claiming Scientology held the key to true healing. Cruise's statements led to a heated argument with news anchor Matt Lauer on The Today Show in June 2005, for which Cruise later apologized.

In 2006, Cruise and Holmes welcomed daughter Suri into the world. That year, they were married in an Italian castle, with celebrities Will Smith , Jada Pinkett Smith , Jennifer Lopez and Victoria and David Beckham among those in attendance. However, the storybook romance wouldn't last, and in June 2012, the couple announced their separation.

QUICK FACTS

• Birth Year: 1962
• Birth date: July 3, 1962
• Birth State: New York
• Birth City: Syracuse
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Actor Tom Cruise is the star of several box-office hits, including 'Risky Business,' 'A Few Good Men,' 'The Firm,' 'Jerry Maguire' and the 'Mission: Impossible' franchise.
• Astrological Sign: Cancer

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Tom Cruise Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/actors/tom-cruise
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: March 26, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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Before Tom Cruise Saved Action Movies, He Kick-Started the Legal Thriller

In the ’90s, all Cruise needed to take down a villain was a fax machine.

Hundreds of years from now, historians will think the people of the 1990s considered it an unforgivable faux pas to board an airplane without a John Grisham novel in their possession.

That would help them explain Grisham’s staggering success. His legal thrillers dominated airport bookstores, regular bookstores, grocery and drugstore bookracks, library shelves, retirement homes. “Airport read” can be derisive, but Grisham’s legal career and stint as a member of Mississippi’s House of Representatives brought verisimilitude to his tales of corrupt judges and criminal schemes.

Over 300 million sales followed. Grisham was a living license to print money, which soon led to a steady stream of movie adaptations. The Client was a hit that earned Susan Sarandon an Academy Award nomination, and A Time to Kill was a shot in the arm to Samuel L. Jackson’s post- Pulp Fiction career. But it all began with The Firm. Hollywood’s first Grisham adaptation, based on his first bestseller, needed a star worthy of the burgeoning brand. Originally conceived as a modest vessel worthy of Charlie Sheen, its budget and ambitions grew until Sydney Pollack was behind the camera and only one man was fit to stand in front of it. Enter Tom Cruise.

Cruise’s career is generally split into the part where he was a serious actor and the part where he dangles from helicopters, airplanes, and unusually tall buildings. The former is best remembered in movies like A Few Good Men and Rain Man, but with Cruise about to release his danglingest movie yet , it’s worth remembering that the man could act, even when the material around him was a little shaky.

In The Firm, Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a hotshot Harvard law graduate who turns down job offers from big New York firms in favor of a small Memphis-based office. They throw money, perks, and praise at McDeere, who’s enticed by their insistence that associates are treated like family. Then it turns out their family is the family, as in Chicago organized crime.

The firm hires eagers neophytes, lets them luxuriate in their new lifestyle, then reveals the truth. Anyone who tries to leave is blackmailed or meets a mysterious demise. But the FBI is interested in McDeere too; the firm is on their radar, but they need a man on the inside. If McDeere risks his life and career for them, his imprisoned brother could benefit at his next parole meeting. But if he says no, they’ll find another rat and McDeere can join his brother in the clink. It’s all a lot to handle, especially once his wife (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and a secretary out for revenge (Holly Hunter) get involved.

Gene Hackman’s droopy dog lawyer orients Cruise in the legal world while lusting after his wife.

The Firm is overlong and overplotted; by the time Hunter’s Elvis-impersonating cuckold husband shows up to help, you get the sense that 20 minutes could have been shaved off. But this is Cruise’s movie, and his manic energy keeps you invested. It’s not exactly a stretch to buy the 31-year-old Cruise as young and ambitious, and when the conspiracy begins to open up before his wild eyes, he makes us root for a petulant man who only does the right thing once he realizes there’s no easy way to worm out. It’s fun to watch Cruise and Hunter’s scheme unspool, and we get brief glimpses of the action hero that Cruise would become.

Hunter and composer Dave Grusin earned Oscar nominations, and Cruise enjoyed a wealth of critical praise. The Washington Post ’s Joe Brown was typical in noting that Cruise was “born to play company man, and the role is an opportunity to sum up his old roles and transcend them with his most potently emotional work.” It’s not exactly Shakespeare, but Cruise wrang enough emotion out of McDeere’s marital woes to prove he was no longer a one-note heartthrob. Then, not long after kick-starting the legal thriller genre, he would star in Mission: Impossible and begin his long journey to action movie savior.

Aside from Cruise, The Firm is a delightful parade of “Hey, it’s that guy!” Dean Norris and Tobin Bell are glowering hitmen, Ed Harris is a tough FBI agent, Gary Busey is a manic private detective with two brief but memorable scenes, and Wilford Brimley, the firm’s head of security, fights Cruise in the biggest cinematic mismatch since xenomorph versus squishy spacemen. Gene Hackman, in a larger role, plays McDeere’s charming but bitter drunk of a mentor, and his quiet despair is a good foil to Cruise’s wide-eyed energy. It’s all a solid excuse to mix yourself a martini and take a long lunch.

The Firm is a popcorn movie at heart, but Cruise and Tripplehorn keep you invested in the fate of their marriage.

On The Firm’s 20th anniversary, Grantland argued the legal thriller was on life support , both because later Grisham adaptations bombed and because of the broader demise of the midbudget adult drama. That we would bet a million dollars on you being unaware of The Firm ’s 2012 TV adaptation is proof enough of the genre’s collapse. Grisham’s star has faded too; he’s not exactly a has-been, but we’re probably not getting a big-budget take on Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer anytime soon.

A decade after Grantland’s prognosis, The Firm has sunk further into obscurity but is still a reminder of what we’re missing. It used a modest budget, smart casting, and a wisp of action to deliver a profitable , crowd-pleasing thriller. It’s silly, but it works. And as awesome as Cruise’s work on the Mission: Impossible series has been, it’s nice to remember that we used to let stars like him outsmart their opponents instead of just shoot them.

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Watching "The Firm," I realized that law firms have replaced Army platoons as Hollywood's favorite microcosm. The new law thrillers have the same ingredients as those dependable old World War II action films: various ethnic and personality types who fight with each other when they're not fighting the enemy. The law movies have one considerable advantage: the female characters participate fully in all the action, instead of just staying home and writing letters to the front.

In "The Firm," a labyrinthine 153-minute film by Sydney Pollack , Tom Cruise plays Mitch McDeere, a poor boy who is ashamed of his humble origins now that he has graduated from Harvard Law fifth in his class. He gets offers from the top law firms in New York and Chicago, but finally settles on a smaller firm headquartered in Memphis. His decision is salary-driven; he sees money as security, although later in the film he is unable to say how rich he'd have to be to feel really secure.

Mitch moves to Memphis with his wife, Abby ( Jeanne Tripplehorn , the peculiar psychiatrist in " Basic Instinct "). They are provided with a house and a shiny new Mercedes - both bugged, as it turns out. And gradually McDeere begins to realize his new law firm is in league with the devil. An FBI man spills the beans: only a quarter of the clients are above-board, and the rest are thieves, scoundrels and money-launderers, with the firm's partners acting as bagmen shipping the money to offshore banks.

Some movies about the law oversimplify the legal aspects.

This one milks them for all they're worth. Without revealing too much of the plot, I can say that McDeere is eventually being blackmailed simultaneously by both the FBI and the firm's security chief (kindly old Wilford Brimley , very effective in a rare outing as a villain).

To save himself, he has to use both brain and muscle, outrunning killers and outthinking lawyers, to save both his life and his license to practice law.

The story is fairly clear in its general outlines, but sometimes baffling on the specifics. Based on the novel by John Grisham , as adapted by three of the most expensive screenwriters in the business ( David Rabe , Robert Towne and David Rayfiel ), "The Firm" takes 2 1/2 hours to find its way through a moral and legal maze. By the end, despite McDeere's breathless explanations during phone calls in the middle of a chase sequence, I was fairly confused about his strategy. But I didn't care, since the form of the movie was effective even when the details were vague.

Sydney Pollack, the director, likes to make long, ambitious movies ("Out Of Africa," "Havana") and he's comfortable working with familiar stars; he uses them as character-building shorthand. One glimpse of Hal Holbrook as the head of the Firm, for example, and we know it's a shady outfit. Holbrook almost always plays the seemingly respectable man with dark secrets. One look at Gene Hackman , as the law partner who becomes Cruise's mentor, and we know he's a flawed but fundamentally decent man, because he always is. One look at Cruise and we feel comfortable, because he embodies sincerity. He is also, in many of his roles, just a little slow to catch on; his characters seem to trust people too easily, and so it's convincing when he swallows the Firm's pitches and pep talks.

The movie is virtually an anthology of good small character performances. Ed Harris , sinister with a shaved head, needs only a couple of brief scenes to convincingly explain the FBI's case against the Firm - and to reveal its cheerful willingness to subject a potential witness to unendurable pressure. Another effective performance is by David Strathairn , as the brother McDeere hasn't told the Firm about, because he's doing time for manslaughter.

Strathairn is emerging as one of the most interesting character actors around (he was the slow-witted movie usher in " Lost In Yonkers ," and the local boy who came courting in " Passion Fish ").

There are also colorful performances by Gary Busey , as a fast-talking private eye, and by Holly Hunter , as his loyal secretary who witnesses a murder and then becomes McDeere's courageous partner.

The large gallery of characters makes "The Firm" into a convincing canvas; there are enough believable people here to give McDeere a convincing world to occupy. And Pollack is patient with his material. He'll let a scene play until the point is made a little more deeply. That allows an actor like Hackman to be surprisingly effective in scenes where he subtly establishes that, despite everything, he has a good heart. A late, tricky scene between Hackman and Tripplehorn is like a master class in acting.

The parts of "The Firm" are probably better than the whole, however. The movie lacks overall clarity, and in the last half-hour audiences are likely to be confused over what's happening, and why.

As I said, that didn't bother me overmuch, once I realized the movie would work even if I didn't always follow it. But with a screenplay that developed the story more clearly, this might have been a superior movie, instead of just a good one with some fine performances.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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The Firm (1993)

Rated R For Language and Violence

153 minutes

Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere

Jeanne Tripplehorn as Abby McDeere

Gene Hackman as Avery Tolar

Hal Holbrook as Oliver Lamber

Directed by

• Sydney Pollack
• Robert Towne
• David Rayfiel
• John Grisham

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How old was Tom Cruise in the movie The Firm?

Tom Cruise was 30 in The Firm when he played the character 'Mitch McDeere'.

That was over 31 years ago in 1993.

Today he is 61 , and has starred in 86 movies in total, 63 of those since The Firm was released.

How old do you think he looks in the movie?

In The Firm, I think Tom Cruise looks:

Did you know?

• Director Sydney Pollack has worked with Tom Cruise just once in his career.
• Tom Cruise's first movie was as 'Billy' in Endless Love, released in 1981 when he was 18
• The Firm scores 6.74 out of 10 on TMDB .

The cast of The Firm

Tom Cruise's other movies

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Film / The Firm

Edit locked.

"Power can be murder to resist."

The Firm is a 1993 legal thriller, based off the 1991 novel by John Grisham , starring Tom Cruise as a young attorney who gets in over his head when he begins working for a law firm with many secrets.

Mitch McDeere (Cruise) is a recent Harvard Law graduate who is offered a prestigious position as a litigator at the law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke, headed by co-founder Oliver Lambert ( Hal Holbrook ), and soon finds himself showered with gifts, money and a new car. At the same time, he strikes up a friendship with senior partner Avery Tolar ( Gene Hackman ) and begins to learn the ins and outs of the law field. Mitch and his wife Abby ( Jeanne Tripplehorn ) are living the good life — until two associates who worked with the firm are mysteriously murdered. Unaware of what's going on, Mitch is contacted by the FBI, headed by Agent Wayne Tarrance ( Ed Harris ), and told that the firm is a corrupt group of lawyers with massive influence and connections to the mob . Faced with the prospect of losing his career and his wife, and with more people being murdered, Mitch realizes the only way he'll get out alive is to follow his own plan.

The Firm was the first film adaptation of a Grisham novel, and featured an All-Star Cast of actors. The film was commercially and critically successful (racking up $270 million against a $42 million budget), and led to further adaptations of Grisham's works.

A television series based on the film began airing in January 2012 on NBC , and was developed by Entertainment One Productions. The plot picks up ten years after the events of the movie, with Mitch (played by Josh Lucas) and his family deciding to leave the FBI's Witness Protection Program in order to "take back their lives". After he attempts to start his own law firm in Washington, McDeere is solicited by a bigger firm, Kinross & Clark, who brings him onboard as a litigator. At the same time, the son of one of the mob bosses indicted as a result of Mitch's actions a decade before swears vengeance on the attorney and his family.

The film provides examples of:

• Adaptation Distillation : The ending of the book and film are radically different. Whereas Mitch uses his circumstances to skim money from the mob in the book, he breaks the firm and leaves with his integrity and ethics intact (but without much in the way of financial gain) in the film.
• Affably Evil : The entire firm of enticingly Amoral Attorneys throughout most of the film, and especially Avery Tolar.
• Alliterative Name : Mitch McDeere .
• Amoral Attorney : Every lawyer at Bendini, Lambert & Locke. It's stated by Tarrance that the firm has just enough legit clients (30%) to make it look like an upstanding law firm.
• Artistic Licence – Law : Denton Voyles claims that Bendini, Lambert & Locke are the sole legal representatives of the Morolto Crime Family. But they are tax lawyers first and foremost, so who do the Moroltos go to for issues of criminal law, such as when a mobster gets arrested?
• Bait-and-Switch : The firm's leadership stand in a room looking very displeased with Mitch like he might be their next victim, only to inform him that he didn't get the highest score on the Bar exam - he got the second highest.
• Bald of Evil : Wayne Tarrance, arguably. He's an FBI Agent , but he's such an utter asshole (his "I could kick your teeth down your throat and yank 'em out your asshole, and I'm not even violating your civil rights!" rant is a perfect example of a Rabid Cop at work) willing to force Mitch into a position where he will be inevitably killed in order to get evidence on the firm's (and hopefully its unlawful clients') actions that " Well-Intentioned Extremist " doesn't really fit.
• Beauty Equals Goodness : Cruise and Tripplehorn are high school sweethearts and generally moral and righteous people. For every other character, the older (and more unattractive) they are, the greater the chance they're corrupt.
• Being Evil Sucks : The last impression we have of Avery Tolar, Mitch's Evil Mentor . Abby walks away believing that he was, on some level, "decent". Abby: He was decent... and corrupt, and ruined, and so unhappy... and it could’ve happened to you, all of it.
• The firm arranges for Mitch to cheat on Abigail, photographs it, and then lets him know they've got this. They don't even suspect him of being an informant yet. This is standard procedure for the firm.
• Mitch photocopies all of the files the firm has on the Morolto Brothers and advises them that he has them when he meets them to discuss releasing their billing info so the firm will be nailed for overbilling, with the understanding that as long as the Moroltos don't try to assassinate him the files won't be sent to the Feds.
• Better to Die than Be Killed : Avery Tolar takes this way out when he realises that Mitch has betrayed the Firm and their clients will in all likelihood be coming for him.
• Book Ends : The film starts with Mitch and Abigail arriving at their new house in Memphis, and leaving the house (in the same car) at the end of the film when they decide to move to Boston.
• Boring, but Practical : This is how Mitch describes his proposal to charge the firm with overbilling rather than aiding and abetting organized crime; he says "it's not sexy, but it's got teeth."
• Ceiling Cling : Mitch uses this (hanging onto a pole running across a ceiling) when he's cornered by Devasher and the Nordic Man in the abandoned building.
• Chekhov's Gun : The trucks which get parked in the alley next to the firm's building, whose drivers are seen arguing about it with the security guards at least twice, become crucial when Mitch needs to leave an office via the window.
• Chekhov's Skill : When Avery Tolar first meets Mitch near the beginning, he makes it very clear that all lawyers should keep a careful eye on what they bill a client, and tells Mitch to remember it well. It comes back at the end of the film, as this is what finally results in the firm's downfall.
• Cigarette of Anxiety : Tammy Hemphill smokes in almost all of her scenes.
• Covert Distress Code : In the novel, Tarrance calls the firm and leaves a message with Mitch's secretary that "Judge Henry Hugo" wants to speak with him, which Mitch recognizes as Tarrance's "mayday code - a ' don't ask questions just run for your life ' signal" .
• In the book, Tarrance gives him a " don't ask questions, just run " alert by calling the Firm and using the name " Judge Henry Hugo " which allows him to just walk (actually run) out the front door.
• Also in the book, he deliberately let his bugged BMW get stolen so he could rent a car and then deliberately chooses a color for his new BMW that he knows would have to be special-ordered. When he runs, he just leaves the rental in the Firm's parking lot, which amuses Lazarov when he finds out.
• He also arranges to have Ray at the same hotel that he sends Abby to so that he can watch her back, which allows them to spot one of their mob associates, disable her and escape.
• Mitch picking Panama City Beach for the three to hide in counts as it's a large tourist town with numerous cheap hotels where they can pay cash, use fake names and lay low. When the mob starts looking for them, they only end up drawing attention from the police which forces them to spread themselves thin. It also faces the ocean, which makes it the ideal escape point for the three. Abanks collects them on an electric dingy and they escape on a sailboat he bought on Mitch's behalf.
• In the film, Mitch escapes the Firm's building by going to an office that faces the alley, breaking out a window and jumping into the back of a cotton truck parked in the alley instead of facing armed security guards at the front door.
• Also in the film, he arranges for Ray and Tammy to be in the Caribbean, have money to live on and a yacht to move around in with the copies of the records stowed below as part of the Dead Man's Switch while ensuring Ray's freedom.
• Dead Man's Switch : When Mitch assures the mob that their secrets are safe, he also issues a veiled threat by letting them know that he knows all their dealings (purely to better serve them as their attorney, of course) and that he's made copies. But don't worry, because of attorney-client confidentiality those files will remain secret for as long as he lives — emphasis on lives .
• Did Not See That Coming : In the film, neither the firm nor the Morolatos expected Mitch to take down the firm with Mail Fraud. When Mitch has Dutch unlock the door to the Office Manager to examine their bills before they open, he's not the least bit suspicious and doesn't report it. When they start shredding, they end up shredding the wrong files. When Mitch explains to the Moralto brothers that the firm has been over-billing their clients, they're quite surprised that he's actually planning to let them off the hook.
• Don't Ask, Just Run : Just before Mitch is called into a meeting with Lambert and the other partners, Tarrance reaches him through his secretary and tells him to blow his cover and run for his life. Instead of trying to bluff his way through the meeting, Mitch wisely does just that.
• Earn Your Fun : The firm makes Mitch deduce what his job offer entails by getting him to ask courtroom-style questions to the firm's hiring managers.
• Elvis Impersonator : Tammy's truck driver ex-husband, who (in the book) had changed his name to Elvis Aaron Hemphill and moved his family to Memphis shortly after the real Elvis' death.
• Every Man Has His Price : Tarrance tells Mitch about the firm's modus operandi: they "buy" the lawyer's loyalty with money, job security and support for private schooling, while gradually easing the lawyer into shadier activities. If the lawyer refuses to cooperate, the firm can threaten to bankrupt him, and if he persists, they kill him.
• Excuse Me, Coming Through! : When Mitch escapes the assassins trying to kill him, he runs down the "up" escalator in a public square, prompting this statement.
• And later on, when Devasher shoots a silhouette with a briefcase thinking it's Mitch - no, it's the nordic man, with noticeably longer hair than Mitch, who has worked with Devasher for a while (so he'd know about the hair length).
• And near the end, Mitch recovers the tape of Tarrance threatening him from his turned-over house - a tape the Firm's search squad somehow failed to locate, despite thoroughly turning over everything else.
• Faux Affably Evil : Both angels and demons, here. The firm is full of affable guys who have no problem blackmailing or killing Mitch and Wayne Tarrance is only affable until Mitch refuses to follow his request without anything in exchange (not even the promise of protection) and then cuts loose with a perfect example of a Rabid Cop 's rant: Agent Wayne Tarrance : Who gives a fuck? I'm a federal agent! You know what that means, you lowlife motherfucker? It means you've got no rights, your life is mine! I could kick your teeth down your throat and yank 'em out your asshole, and I'm not even violating your civil rights!
• When Mitch reports that the FBI approached him to the senior partners, the last thing they remark on is who they should bill the hour to that they've just spent talking about it. Billing looms large later
• A truck with sacks full of cotton appears in the scene immediately after - which provides a safe landing to Mitch later when he has to jump out of a window to escape the firm's enforcers
• Greed : What does Bendini, Lambert and Locke in at the end - if they'd just charged for what they actually did and taken their already massive revenue and profits from their Mob dealings, Mitch would likely have had to choose between disbarment (co-operating with the FBI) or potential prison time later (using his tape of Tarrance to get the FBI off his back). But thanks to their overbilling, not only could he Take a Third Option , but presumably the mob isn't happy about being ripped off by their (now ex) lawyers.
• Groin Attack : Mitch may or may not have been kicking Devasher in the family jewels once he had him on the ground (but due to the angle it's hard to tell).
• He Knows Too Much : Standard operating procedure in the firm is to kill any lawyers that try to leave because they may blow the whistle on their illegal operations. Mitch manages to exploit it in the final act by advising the Morolto brothers that yeah, he do knows too much — and as long as they don't kill him that information will be kept confidential under attorney/client privilege.
• Hero of Another Story : At the beginning of the story, two of Mitch's coworkers, Kozinski and Hodge, are trying to escape from the firm's grasp and are scheming to help the FBI bring down the Amoral Attorneys . This gets them killed before they can appear onscreen.
• Hot Teacher : Abby as she's played by Jeanne Triplehorn.
• Insistent Terminology : Mitch receives several job offers from Wall Street with all of them remarking how high he is in his graduating class - except for one of them. He wasn't in the top 5% of his class. He was in the top 5.
• Intimidating Revenue Service : Mitch decided to pursue a career in law when tax agents shut down the pizza parlor he worked at for his first job; in his eyes, that proved that either you were someone who used the law to your ends, or you were someone the law was used on. Mitch : I was a delivery boy for a pizza parlour. One day the owner got a notice from the IRS. He was an immigrant. He didn't know much English, even less about withholding tax. He went bankrupt, lost his store. That was the first time I thought about being a lawyer. Avery : In other words you're an idealist. Mitch : I don't know any tax lawyer who's an idealist. When he lost his store I lost my job. It scared me. Avery : Being out of work? Mitch : No. What the government can do... to anybody.
• Ivy League for Everyone : Played with. Mitch is a Harvard Law grad, and knows how exclusive and in-demand his education was, while people joke about his education (and the fact that he got absurdly high bar exam scores) throughout the film.
• Jerkass : FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance is cordial to a point with Mitch... until Mitch decides he doesn't want to play ball with the FBI if he's going to be disbarred. Tarrance then switches to an arrogant jerk who boldly tries to intimidate him and his wife.
• Justice by Other Legal Means : Mitch successfully ensnares the firm by using lawyer-client privilege to reach an agreement with the Morolto mob while proving every legal partner was guilty of over-billing their clients, thus allowing him to keep his status as a lawyer. Mitch : It's not sexy, but it's got teeth! Ten thousand dollars and five years in prison. That's ten and five for each act. Have you really looked at that? You've got every partner in the firm on over-billing. There's two hundred-fifty acts of documented mail fraud there. That's racketeering! That's minimum: 1250 years in prison and half a million dollars in fines. That's more than you had on Capone .
• Loophole Abuse : Exhibited by the firm Mitch works for. As an example, they have connections with The Mafia and other unlawful groups, but as long as they maintain a certain percentage of innocent clients, they are still technically respectable enough to avoid an actual investigation (which is where Tarrance's strong-arming of Mitch comes in — he wants him to become The Mole so he will give the feds evidence under the table).
• Murder by Mistake : Devasher kills the Nordic Man (who picked up Mitch's briefcase while the lawyer was hiding, and stood up to face a door) by accident after thinking that the silhouette behind the door was Mitch.
• Mythology Gag : In the climax of the film, Mitch likens what he knows about the mob's money to a ship at sea that could never reach any port. In the ending of the book, Mitch and his wife end up in exile, sailing around the Caribbean on a yacht. Ray and Tammy get that fate in the film.
• Named by the Adaptation : Inverted with the Nordic Man, whose real name was Aaron Rimmer in the novel.
• Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy : The firm is a front for the mob .
• Throughout the film, everyone jokes to Mitch about his absurdly high bar exam score. This comes back to bite them in the ass when they inadvertently give Mitch the idea he needs to take down the firm.
• In the book, the Moroltos mislead the authorities into thinking the McDeeres had switched vehicles and moved inland. This ends their dragnet in Panama City Beach and leaves their group free to search for them. All it does it make it easier—though no less dangerous—for the McDeeres to slip away. They also end up spreading themselves thin since they attract unwanted attention from the remaining cops during their door-to-door search. By the time the McDeeres leave, they're working alone, hot, weary and lulled into boredom.
• No Escape but Down : Mitch has nowhere to go when he attempts to flee the firm's offices, so he breaks a window and leaps several stories down onto a flatbed truck filled with bales of cotton.
• Oh, Crap! : Tarrance once he realizes that Mitch taped their conversation, in which he overexerted his authority and threatened to destroy Mitch.
• Pair the Spares : Mitch's brother and Lomax's secretary.
• Peer Pressure Makes You Evil : Averted. Mitch is completely oblivious to the backroom dealings of the law firm until an FBI agent basically smacks him in the face with the evidence that he's working for very corrupt people.
• Pet the Dog : The Moroltos get a moment of this when Mitch has the audacity to show up on their doorstep with a proposition when the only reason they were in town was to kill him.
• Plot-Based Voice Cancellation : Inverted when Mitch comes home after finding out the truth about the firm. Abigail has the stereo, and he turns it up in order to tell her what he knows so no one can overhear, which works because we the audience know already.
• Pretty in Mink : Abby gets a fox coat for Christmas when Mitch first joins the firm.
• Punctuated Pounding : After Mitch dropkicks Devasher when hanging from the ceiling, he repeatedly beats the bigger man with his briefcase and kicks him, while yelling " YOU SICK! SON OF A! BITCH !"
• Rabid Cop : FBI Agent Wayne Tarrance tries to be this, once the affable act only makes Mitch dig his feet in and refuse to become his mole within the firm. It bites him in the ass: Mitch was wearing a Hidden Wire at that moment. He still pretends to relent and attempts to use Mitch's brother as leverage to strong-arm him in the third act, but much to his misfortune Mitch had a plan in place. Tarrance: How about you get down on your knees and kiss my ass for not indicting you as a co-conspirator right now, you chickenshit little Harvard cocksucker? McDeere : I haven't done anything, and you know it! Tarrance: Who gives a fuck? I'm a federal agent! You know what that means, you lowlife motherfucker? It means you've got no rights, your life is mine! I could kick your teeth down your throat and yank 'em out your asshole, and I'm not even violating your civil rights!
• Resignations Not Accepted : Up until Mitch escapes, the firm murdered every associate who either tried to leave or tried to alert the authorities as to what was going on.
• Rewrite : In the movie, Mitch and Abby get to drive away from the firm (and Memphis) without exposing the firm's ties to organized crime. In the novel, after Mitch does expose the firm's ties to the mob, they get to spend their lives in exile sailing a yacht around the Caribbean.
• The film's tagline is one to The Godfather .
• At one point, Mitch says (in regards to Tarrance's threats that Mitch must cooperate) that "They don't run me, and you don't run me," a reference to a line spoken by James Caan in 1981's Thief , which featured a hitman facing similar circumstances.
• Siblings in Crime : The Morolto brothers.
• Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer : Gene Hackman wasn't in any of the promotional materials. In fact audiences were shocked when he showed up.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot : Tarrance. Tarrance: How about you get down on your knees and kiss my ass for not indicting you as a co-conspirator right now, you chickenshit little Harvard cocksucker? McDeere : I haven't done anything, and you know it! Tarrance: Who gives a fuck? I'm a federal agent! You know what that means, you lowlife motherfucker? It means you've got no rights, your life is mine! I could kick your teeth down your throat and yank 'em out your asshole, and I'm not even violating your civil rights!
• When the mole meets up and is asked about McDeere , he denies knowing about him and needs two weeks to find answers despite already knowing everything and not giving them an answer right then.
• After meeting with them and exposing McDeere , the FBI immediately catches him and he breaks down and confesses on the spot. Which enables Terrance to immediately call and warn McDeere with a pre-arranged "don't ask questions, just run" code name.
• While he and the others manage to escape, it causes a major shake-up in McDeere 's escape plans and they end up with both the mob and the FBI on their tails.
• While the fax ends up being received successfully and prints out, it then falls and rolls underneath the fax machine; which saves the protagonists and gives them more time.
• That is until DeVasher checks the machine when it beeps and berates his staff for not realizing the unit is out of paper. Then he notices the curled up fax on the floor, picks it up, reads it and starts hunting for Mitch.
• At about the same time, the Warden at the prison contacts Terrance about the fax and manages to warn Mitch; enabling him to escape just in time.
• Spotting the Thread : Abigail gets suspicious of the firm when another wife informs her that the firm encourages children and won't disallow her from having a job of her own. Combined with the money and perks being thrown at them she quickly deduces that the firm is very controlling of its employees.
• Swiss Bank Account : Mitch orders Tarrance to provide him with $1.5 million deposited in an offshore bank account in exchange for collaborating with the FBI (prompting the reaction seen in the Sir Swears-a-Lot example).
• Take a Third Option : Mitch has two options, don't cooperate with the feds (which would risk jail time), or do cooperate with the feds and lose his license (while likely getting put into Witness Protection and/or getting killed by the Mafia). He manages to find a way to cooperate with the feds by getting evidence of his firm's criminal overbilling, which will not put him in the mob's crosshairs.
• Thrown from the Zeppelin : Lawyers who've been working at Bendini, Lambert & Locke for a few years find themselves being summoned to a private meeting with the firm's partners, who tell them that the firm engages in tax fraud and money laundering for The Mafia . In fifty years, only two lawyers (three in the book) have ever dared to quit. All of them promptly learned the meaning of the phrase Make It Look Like an Accident the hard way (as did two others who tried to go to the FBI ).
• To anyone who understands Attorney–Client Privilege, this is a potential plot hole. The privilege is void in cases where the attorney and client are engaged in a criminal conspiracy. Which is definitely the case with the two lawyers that are killed (See Thrown from the Zeppelin below) as they did speak to the FBI (in the book and implied in the film).
• Also noteworthy is that Mitch isn't in on the conspiracy, is working for legitimate clients and only suspects something is seriously wrong when the FBI approaches him. Which introduces another plot hole: stealing records from his law firm at the direction (actually threat of prosecution) of the FBI makes those records, and any searches or seizures that result, inadmissible in court as Mitch was acting as an agent of the police. The records he steals from the mob would make him part of the conspiracy but he uses them as a Dead Man's Switch instead to protect himself and his loved ones.
• Ungrateful Bastard : Tarrance, at the end - Mitch has given him enough to sink Bendini, Lambert and Locke utterly. And Mitch is correct that the mob can only launder their money via washing machine without lawyers - and while the mob might find replacements, there will be fewer takers after the downfall of Bendini, Lambert and Locke. And these things don't happen immediately - giving the FBI a small window in which to get the mob for tax evasion/avoidance if they put a foot wrong absent of lawyer assistance. And the arrested lawyers might talk, because disbarment is preferable to dying in prison (of old age, or of the mob taking revenge for being overcharged, or of the mob ensuring their silence). Despite all this, Tarrance still screams at Mitch for not doing things exactly as he demanded, and while he does finally let Mitch go after Mitch explains how and why his approach works, Tarrance does so begrudgingly and without even a word of thanks. Though after Mitch explained his end-game and gave him the blackmail tape, he is mollified and a bit amused—even impressed—and asks: Terrance: How in the Hell did you ever come up with Mail Fraud ? Mitch: It was in the Bar Exam. (Terrance lets out an amused scoff) Mitch: They made me study like Hell for it.
• Villainous Breakdown : Wayne Tarrance got one when Mitch's brother escapes. Tarrance: And get me a map of Louisiana. GET ME A MAP OF LOUISIANA!
• What Happened to the Mouse? : In the book, it's mentioned that four other lawyers besides Mitch are currently uninvolved in any of the firm's criminal activity. As it becomes clearer that the authorities are snooping around, the partners debate about whether or not to fire the lawyers to eliminate a security risk, but it's never revealed whether they do so or whether the four get caught up in the FBI investigation despite their innocence.
• Xanatos Gambit : Mitch pulls off a beautiful one by the film's climax, by giving the FBI enough evidence to bury the firm in thousands of years of incarceration and millions in fines, while convincing the Moroltos that he will not disclose any information he has while he is alive, and implies that his death would lead to their own destruction with full disclosure of everything to the FBI.
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That Moment In ‘The Firm’ (1993): Deceiving Avery

A woman plays a game of betrayal to both save and hurt the one she loves..

The Firm is a 1993 drama/thriller about a young hotshot lawyer recruited into a prestigious firm, only to be swept up in a conspiracy of corruption and betrayal.

There are few actors in mainstream cinema who have the staying power and box office longevity of Tom Cruise , an actor who has been making movies since 1981. Establishing himself early in the coming-of-age drama Risky Business and the military action epic Top Gun  to name a few, his good looks and natural acting talents made him a hugely popular figure on screen.

By the early nineties, he’d already had a ten-year string of blockbuster hits before starring in the crime drama  The Firm , landing the controversial part of Mitchell McDeere, the hero of the highly-acclaimed novel of the same name by John Grisham . Many were concerned that Cruise was not the right choice and hardly a fit for the character model of the book, but Cruise has made a career out of bending expectations. Think of Interview With A Vampire , Mission: Impossible , and Jack Reacher .

That aside, he joined a strong cast, with some now very familiar names, including Ed Harris , Holly Hunter , David Strathairn , Wilfred Brimley , and Hal Holbrook , not to mention Gene Hackman , whose name was removed from the end credits after a dispute about placement of his name above the title on the poster, a stipulation given only to Cruise. The movie’s story however, is often complex, filled with legal-speak and a sometimes aggressive commitment to layering it all in confusing attorney-client machinations but no matter the plot points, the pace is brisk and the objectives clear so that it rides along comfortably, even at 154 minutes.

THE STORY : Directed by Sydney Pollack , The Firm follows Mitch, a talented, hard-working Harvard grad, as he takes a lucrative offer from a small but highly-successful law firm in Memphis after being courted by others from all over the country. Bendini, Lambert & Locke specializes in accounting and tax law with a small list of clients willing to pay huge fees for the services, some of them not so much on the up and up. Showering Mitch in perks and promises of high earnings, they win him and his new wife Abby ( Jeanne Tripplehorn ) over with their family-like bond and additional benefits, including a new Mercedes and a house at low cost. The big money aside, Mitch feels right at home in the firm and takes to the job quickly, as Abby becomes a teacher at a nearby school.

Mitch has to study for the Bar Exam and is put under tremendous pressure while details about the firm’s possible shady practices linger, made all the more impactful by the presence of the FBI, who come poking around after a high number of lawyers have died unexpectedly. Abby suspects something is not right, and Mitch has his worries, but when he travels to the Caymans with his mentor Avery Tolar (Hackman), he learns about the firm’s sketchy off-shore practices. The problem though is that Mitch finds himself seduced by a sexy local girl in an encounter on the beach one evening, not realizing it’s a setup that garners images … and then blackmail.

The story builds from here with Mitch trying to escape the clutches of his new job, which isn’t so easy as he has to be tactful while the company’s security chief (Brimley)– a particular bit of nasty–remains hot on his heels. Meanwhile, Avery is bewitched by Abby, and as Mitch schemes to topple the giant, a plan is set into motion that involves incriminating files and a trip back to the Caymans. And it is here where we must stop and take a closer look a great moment, one where betrayal crushes with devastating weight.

Deceiving Avery

Avery is a married man but not happily. Resolved to his foibles, he runs around. A lot. He also claims his wife understands him, that she has lost interest, to which he thinks he has as well. One day, desperate for Abby’s attention, he spontaneously invites her to come with him to the islands and she, angered already by Mitch’s infidelity, not knowing it was a set up, is torn, not because she is tempted by Avery, but that she filled with rage.

Meanwhile, there is a plan in action to steal company files and deliver them to the FBI, one that demands Mitch have access to the firm’s island bungalow. It center’s on Avery’s habit of diving in the afternoon, but Abby learns Avery won’t be in the water after all. Unable to contact him, fearful he will be caught, Abby flies down to the Caymans without Mitch’s knowledge and an outdoor bar, surprises Avery. What Avery doesn’t know though, is she brought a gift, a baggie full of sleeping drugs she mixes in his drink.

The two head back to his room, he thinking she is here for sex, and she waiting for him to pass out. He begins to undress her, but coursing through his veins are a powerful sedative causing him to slurs his words. His head grows heavy. A smart man, he catches on something isn’t right, and with whatever he can muster, demands he tell her why she’s here, accusing her of not being truthful. Her answer weakens him, and as he succumbs, she kisses him for the sake of his dignity and as closure for a pain she bears inside.

This meaningful exchange is the film’s strongest moment, punctuated by another the next morning when Avery learns of the betrayal and the consequences of his actions. Ailing and immobile from the effects of the drugs, he accepts the injustice made upon him as penance of sorts, bearing no ill-will for Abby. His fate is sealed by a phone call from Memphis.

Hackman is the real star of this film, a secondary character who we think is one thing but ends up another, a mouse caught in the maze just waiting for the last door to close. He is a man of addiction, consumed by sexual passion and the company of beautiful women, now to the point where he feels entitled, not shying away from his ladies-man reputation but embracing it. Unfamiliar with rejection, he is incited by Abby’s resistance, she a prize worth losing much over. He risks everything to have just one night with her, himself not even sure what draws him to her.

This moment is about her exploitation of this weakness and both Hackman and Tripplehorn balance this with great skill in a sensational study on timing, reaction, partnership and trust, making this a gripping sequence of emotional distress. Hackman’s slow slump into unconsciousness as he grapples with a painful truth is matched by Tripplehorn’s delicate dance of reflection as she guides him to that betrayal before sealing it with a gesture of incredible kindness.

The significance of the moment comes only the next morning when all is lost for Avery, and as the film picks up steam again, we learn her efforts have helped, but have only caused even more danger. We also get a sense that though she traveled here for Mitch, a bigger reason was to settle a score in her heart, an act of defiance that left one man ruined forever while working to save and hurt another. It’s a great movie moment.

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The Wilford Brimley Meme That Helps Measure Tom Cruise’s Agelessness

By Ian Crouch

Tom Cruise was about to turn thirty-one when “The Firm,” the film adaptation of John Grisham’s best-selling novel , hit theatres. In the movie, Cruise plays a hotshot boy wonder just out of Harvard Law, who takes a job as an associate attorney at a law firm that turns out to be washing money for the Mob. In a pivotal scene, he has a meeting with the firm’s fixer, played by Wilford Brimley, during which he is blackmailed with a series of incriminating photographs showing his character having an affair. The meaning of the scene is made clear by the disparities between the two men: Cruise, a young man, being let in on the slimy truths of the real world by Brimley, an old man. Later in the movie, Cruise beats Brimley up with a leather briefcase .

When “The Firm” came out, Brimley was fifty-eight years old—plodding, portly, with a gray walrus mustache, his grandfatherly mien in this case turned sinister. He was just two years older than Cruise is now, appearing boundlessly vigorous as the super-agent Ethan Hunt in the latest “Mission: Impossible” movie . Cruise has been very, very famous for the past thirty-five years, and in that time it’s been difficult to reconcile his unchanging appearance with the flipping pages on the calendar. It’s easier to track his movements through the six “Mission: Impossible” movies by his haircuts—short in No. 1, long in No. 2, short again in No. 3, etc.—or the size of his cell phone, than by changes to, let alone diminishments in, his face or body. He fixed his teeth years ago; he’s in better shape than ever. And so we are left to search for other ways to keep track of Cruise’s allegedly advancing years. Thankfully, the release of his latest summer blockbuster has resurfaced one of the surest methods: comparing him to his old scenemate Wilford Brimley.

This meme seems to have had its beginnings in 2011, when Cruise turned forty-nine, the same age that Brimley was when he began filming his role in Ron Howard’s movie “ Cocoon ,” from 1985, a kind of “E.T.” for the olds about a group of seniors living in a retirement community who are given the chance to live forever by leaving Earth on an alien spaceship. In the years since Cruise blasted through what I’ll call the Brimley Barrier, people online have continued to make the comparison between the two men, citing the fact that Cruise was a year, or two, or three years older than Brimley when he starred in “Cocoon.” Last month, a new tweet on the subject drew the attention of Brimley himself, who retweeted it and said, “This is still hard for me to believe.” Brimley, who is eighty-three, has settled into a late-life role as a meme machine , known among a younger generation less for his years of acting than for his role as the Quaker Oats pitchman, or for his pronunciation of the word “ diabetes ” as the television spokesman for Liberty Medical.

It’s hard to imagine Cruise ever talking about Medicare eligibility. On his way to sixty, he is literally still kicking (and punching and jumping and hanging and remembering his long-ago co-stars’ birthdays ), and doing so in a way that seems to go beyond the commonplace celebrity cosmetic trickery of the moment. He seems, in ways both inspiring and unsettling , to have figured something out. The comparison of Brimley and Cruise in middle age doesn’t just make light of the former’s premature fogeydom and the latter’s eternal youthfulness; it also highlights how the mores, signifiers, and very science of aging have changed—that sixty is the new fifty, which is the new forty, and so on. That Cruise is the new Brimley.

But in “ Mission: Impossible—Fallout ” there are a few fleeting signs that Cruise may be somewhat aware of the concept of aging. Even with the help of Henry Cavill, who, at thirty-five, is a year older than Cruise was in the first “Mission: Impossible” movie, Ethan Hunt cannot subdue a foe in an elaborate bathroom brawl. Later, Hunt pauses, a bit daunted and out of breath, before tossing an office chair through a window and then jumping out of it. And Hunt is succumbing to at least one unfortunate aging-man foible. As he grows older, his love interests are getting younger. Hunt’s ex-wife is played by Michelle Monaghan, who is forty-two; his new partner in love and mayhem is played by Rebecca Ferguson, who is thirty-four; and a likely contender for his affections going forward is played by Vanessa Kirby, who is just thirty.

Yet one needs merely to watch the latest movie’s stunning dénouement—a helicopter chase in Kashmir—to be reassured of Hunt’s still sure chokehold on father time, and to be reminded of the uncanny distances that Cruise is travelling beyond Brimley. In “Cocoon,” despite being reinvigorated by extraterrestrial intervention, the only athletic feat Brimley could manage was a boisterous cannonball off a diving board. Later in the movie, weighing the opportunity to leave with the aliens, Brimley’s character explains to his grandson, “We’ll never be sick. We won’t get any older. And we won’t ever die.” He decides, in the end, to go. Cruise, meanwhile, seems to have achieved the first two parts of that trifecta right here on Earth. And as for the last one, who’d be willing to bet against him?

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By Richard Brody

By Anthony Lane

By Justin Chang

The Firm (1993)

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We checked for updates on 248 streaming services on April 13, 2024 at 3:02:53 PM. Something wrong? Let us know!

The Firm streaming: where to watch online?

Currently you are able to watch "The Firm" streaming on Paramount Plus, Paramount Plus Apple TV Channel , Paramount+ Amazon Channel, Hoopla or for free with ads on Pluto TV. It is also possible to rent "The Firm" on Microsoft Store, Amazon Video, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Vudu, Spectrum On Demand online and to download it on Amazon Video, Vudu, Microsoft Store, AMC on Demand, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, YouTube.

Where does The Firm rank today? The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

Streaming charts last updated: 1:16:17 PM, 04/13/2024

The Firm is 2839 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 1025 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than Bones Brigade: An Autobiography but less popular than My Best Friend's Girl.

Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in Law. About to sit his Bar exam, he is approached by 'The Firm' and made an offer he doesn't refuse. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, he is totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two Associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and suddenly his life is ruined. He has a choice - work with the FBI, or stay with the Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch figures the only way out is to follow his own plan...

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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The Firm (1993)

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Kirsten Dunst Still Gets the Famous Tom Cruise Cake 30 Years After 'Interview With the Vampire' (Exclusive)

Tom cruise still gifts kirsten dunst famous cake, 30 years after ‘interview with the vampire’, jojo siwa dropped $50k on new teeth, 'y&r's eric braeden giving health update after cancer treatment (exclusive), missy elliott and ciara react to ‘1, 2 step’ turning 20 ahead of new tour (exclusive), carnie wilson opens up about weight-loss journey and new cooking show (exclusive), morgan wallen appears calm while handcuffed for rooftop incident, alec baldwin accused of being ‘inattentive’ during firearms training prior to ‘rust’ set shooting, sylvester stallone accused of verbal harassment on ‘tulsa king’ set, beyoncé's daughter rumi breaks big sis blue ivy's record with new music milestone, zendaya opens up about having kids and how tom holland handles fame, ‘90 day fiancé’: jamal and luisa reveal they hooked up a ‘couple times’, jonathan scott asks james corden to officiate his wedding to zooey deschanel (exclusive), rihanna on motherhood: son's first word and how many kids she wants to have, drew scott explains why he's keeping baby no. 2’s sex a surprise (exclusive), 'the beach boys' documentary trailer no. 1, inside jessica simpson's family vacation to mexico for spring break, 'american idol' winner chayce beckham reacts to katy perry leaving show (exclusive), brittney spencer calls keeping 'cowboy carter' secret 'overstimulating' (exclusive), 'the voice': reba mcentire fights back tears over toni braxton cover in first knockouts round, former 'bachelorette' charity lawson reveals she underwent breast enhancement surgery, dunst co-starred alongside cruise in 1994's 'interview with the vampire.'.

Just like a vampire's lifespan, Tom Cruise 's famous holiday coconut cake is eternal! Kirsten Dunst sat down with ET's Kevin Frazier to reflect on the 30th anniversary of her hit film,  Interview With a Vampire , where the subject of her co-star, Cruise, came up. 

"Still getting that cake," Dunst, 41, revealed to ET. 

She added of her husband and frequent co-star  Jesse Plemons , "Jesse gets the cakes so we double up on our cakes."

Plemons and Cruise co-starred in 2017's American Made . 

Cruise's holiday cake gift is the dessert of legends with the A-lister reportedly sending the cake to a long list of fellow celebrities each year. 

As for Dunst's thoughts on the classic 1994 vampire film, which also co-starred Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas , she has nothing but positive associations with the film. 

"When I think back I have fond memories. It was a production like nothing I have experienced to this day. The costumes and the sets. It changed the course of my life," she shared. 

These days, Dunst is tackling another kind of horror film with her dystopian flick, Civil War . In the movie, Dunst plays Lee, a photojournalist documenting a civil war happening within modern-day America. Plemons appears opposite his wife and the mother of his two children, playing an extremist militia member. 

"He wouldn't have played a part like this if I wasn't in the film," Dunst shared. "He did a favor for us because that is a really disturbing role to play."

The couple has teamed up on several projects together, including their turn on Fargo , the show where they met.  

Civil War  is in theaters April 12. 

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