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10 Best John Grisham Movies, Ranked

John Ray Grisham Jr., commonly known as John Grisham, a name profoundly recalled among Law & Legal Fraternity. An Attorney and Politician, Grisham became a worldwide sensation after following his second calling. As an author, his first book A Time to Kill published in 1989, which took him nearly 4 years to complete. Grisham tasted his first success with novel The Firm, turning into a bestselling novel of 1991. Since then, John Grisham has turned the face of legal thriller through his sheer brilliance. With a Literature world obsessed with Romance and Fantasy , the genre of law and legal thriller gripped their readers. After his novels conquered nearly all Best-selling charts, legendary Director Sydney Pollack provided a reel life to his pages.

The success of Pollack’s legal thriller, put Grisham on the graph for filmmakers of 90’s. With time, he became the most desired author of his time. Many John Grisham books started being made as movies and TV shows. Movies adapted from his novels were both critical and commercial success. Many great Director of 90’s, utilised Grisham’s books and novels to create a masterpiece with it. Alan Jay Pakula, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola with ensemble cast turned his novels into successful cinematic venture.

John Grisham’s influence on entertainment industry is exceptional with his works ranging from films to TV series. The author also helmed sports genre apart from crime thrillers . With numerous awards and accolades to his name, Grisham is considered as the most significant author of his time. With that said, here is the list of top John Grisham movies ever, ranked. You can watch some of these good John Grisham movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu.

10. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas, a New York Times Best-seller, adapted into Joe Roth’s Christmas with Cranks is a Christmas comedy film , written and produced by Chris Columbus. The film follows a couple which decides not to celebrate Christmas without their Daughter. Due to this, the couple is considered an outcast and are oppressed by the neighbourhood. Though the film received generally unfavourable reviews, it was a moderate box-office success.

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9. The Chamber (1996)

The story involves Adam Hall (Chris O’Donell) returning to his hometown to appeal against his grandfather’s death sentence. Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman) is convicted of murder of two Jewish children 30 years ago. Adam faces a dilemma as his grandfather was the reason for his father’s suicide. The Chamber (Novel) was incomplete when author sold the rights, which Grisham considers a reason for failure of the film. Gene Hackman , appearing a third time in the list, stole the show with his crude performance. The Chamber was a ‘box-office bomb’ and failed from the critical perspective as well. Unlike the novel, that gained popularity when published in 1994. Critics believed, that Director James Foley was unable to transform the novel’s artistic writing successfully into the movie.

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8. Mickey (2004)

‘Mickey’ is the only film in the list not based on John Grisham’s novel, but a script conceived by him. It is a sports drama involving a widowed father, who wrongfully files a suit for being bankrupt during his wife’s illness. IRS department disclose the truth, forcing him to shed the town and identity with his son. In a new place, his son outshines in baseball and becomes popular. This puts them under IRS radar, leading to disqualification of his team and his father’s arrest. Mickey is a rather less-known movie compared to others in the list. It was unsuccessful at the box-office, but critics praised the different take by Grisham, part from his usual genre.

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7. The Pelican Brief (1993)

Alan J. Pakula’s final film as a producer and writer, Pelican Brief starred Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in the leading roles. Released in the same year as ‘The Client’. Based on John Grisham’s third novel The Pelican Brief in 1992. The film is a political-thriller, following the assassination of two supreme court justices. Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts), a law student accurately debriefs the murder mystery of the judges, but later faces life threats. Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington), a journalist later contact Darby regarding the assassinations to unsolved the mystery. Huge secrets are revealed as the story progresses. Roger Ebert hailed a favourable review for the film describing it a fast-paced and chilling thriller. According to the author, he considered it a justified adaptation to his successful novel. The film was a Box-office success, making John Grisham one of the most popular writer among film industry.

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6. A Time to Kill (1996)

Joel Schumacher praised Grisham’s writing and work. A Time to Kill became his second Directorial venture based on author’s novel. Grisham’s first novel made through an ensemble cast of  Matthew McConaughey , Sandra Bullock , Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey . The film follows a girl named Tonya being brutally raped by two racists and his father fighting against them in the court. When justice is not served, he takes matter in his own hands. One of the finest performed courtroom drama, with an emotional story-line. Excellent performances from the cast as well as the Director. Roger Ebert praised the film for its convincing plot and performances. A controversy regarding the movie spilled out due to the apology of death penalty and right of self-defense. In France, it was released with the tittle ‘A Right to Kill?’ Nevertheless, the film became a commercial and critical success.

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5. Runaway Jury (2003)

Based on the seventh novel by Grisham, Director Gary Fleder consolidated two cinema giants: Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. However, there are differences between the novel and the movie, yet both proclaim similar cat and mouse chase. A mass murder-suicide case is revoked when a woman files a suit against the gun manufacturers. Case comes into the limelight, bringing together the legends. Rankin Finch (Gene Hackman), a ruthless and brilliant jury consultant against Wendall Rohr (Dustin Hoffman). Suddenly, this seemingly cat and mouse chase is manipulated and the whole scenario is changed. Jury is set for sale, agitating the minds of both the characters. John Grisham considered it “smart” and “suspenseful” but was disappointed because of the marginal collection. We saw the ‘Clash of Titans’, where both veterans stole the show, with their brilliant performance. Gene Hackman appeared second time in the list. The first one being ‘The Firm’.

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4. The Gingerbread Man (1998)

The Gingerbread Man proves the significance of Grisham as a writer. A discarded manuscript by him was considered vital enough for filmmakers. Directed by one of the most revered auteur of all time, Robert Altman. The Gingerbread Man is a thrilling experience of crime drama, focusing on a corrupt Lawyer Rick Magruder (Kenneth Barnagh) who files a suit against Dixon Doss ( Robert Duvall ). He does it under the influence of Dixon’s daughter and sends him to Mental Asylum. Eventually he breaks-free and threatens Rick and his family. As the story picks up, truths are unravelled. Robert Altman received critical appraisal for his Direction and his modifications to the script. Kenneth Barnagh’s performance was highly appreciated alongside Robert Duvall. Although, the film faced debacle in its post-production and release. It is considered one of the best thrillers made by Robert Altman. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel gave their famous “two thumbs-up” after their review on the movie.

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3. The Firm (1993)

John Grisham’s first walk to fame The Firm, the best-selling novel of 1991. Sydney Pollack adapted this legal-thriller into a feature film starring  Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. The film depicts Mitch McDeere, an ambitious Law student lured by money and perks offered from a law firm. Eventually, he finds himself in hostile condition when dark truths about the firm are revealed. Considered as one of the best thrillers, The Firm, turned out to be a lucrative venture. Critics like Roger Ebert gave 3 out of 4 stars, praising the performances of Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. The influence of John Grisham’s bestseller is seen later on Television, with a series of same name aired on NBC . Grisham turned into a producer for the series.

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2. The Client (1994)

Director Joel Schumacher made this legal thriller , based on John Grisham’s fourth ‘The Client’. With the cast of Susan Saanson and Tommy Lee Jones and a thrilling story-line, the film turned out to be an overall success. Two brothers witness the suicide of a mob lawyer, because of it one of them faces serious mental condition. Mob and authorities are concerned whether the lawyer has revealed their secrets to those kids. The kids face a grave danger as an assassin follows them. They later seek the help of an alcoholic advocate Regina “Reggie” Love (Susan Saanson), who helps them. Critics and audience equally praised the pace, thrilling and chilling atmosphere. Susan Saanson’s performance is considered brilliant as she received nomination for “Best Actress in The Leading Role”. She won the Golden Globe the same year.

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1. The Rainmaker (1997)

This time it was Francis Ford Coppola , who took his piece of John Grisham. The Rainmaker, Grisham’s sixth courtroom thriller was adapted with splendid cast of Matt Damon , Claire Danes, Jon Voight and Danny DeVito . It can be considered as one of the ‘Best Directed Movie’ based on Grisham’s novel. The film focuses on a young man, Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), from an impoverished background. He makes his way through Law studies but languishes with an unsuccessful career. Eventually he turns into an ‘ambulance chaser’ for money and work. Later after a chain of events and cases, Rudy realizes that clients are more than just wealth but are victims. Critics praised the performances of Matt Damon and Danny DeVito with Jon Voight receiving various nominations for his Supporting role. A moderate commercial hit, ‘The Rainmaker’ garnered critical accolades. Coppola amazed through his Direction and Screenwriting. The film surely deserves to be on the top of the ranking.

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Review/Film: The Firm; A Mole in the Den of Corrupt Legal Lions

By Vincent Canby

• June 30, 1993

At the time it was published in 1991, "The Firm," John Grisham's best-selling suspense novel, was described by one critic as "mean and lean." Mean, possibly, but lean? The book is 501 pages.

Now Sydney Pollack's film version far more accurately characterizes the source material. The movie is extremely long (two hours and 34 minutes) and so slow that by the end you feel as if you've been standing up even if you've been sitting down. It moves around the map a lot, from Boston to Memphis to the Caribbean to Washington, without getting anywhere. It is also physically elaborate, the cinematic equivalent of the book's relentlessly descriptive prose. One of its sets is reported to have required seven and a half miles of 2-by-4 lumber and 225 gallons of glue to hold it together.

But, you may well ask, what about the story? After all, underneath Mr. Grisham's verbiage but not quite suffocated by it, there is an entertaining moral tale about the 1980's:

Mitch McDeere, a bright young man, born poor and deprived, lusts for the good things in life. He graduates from Harvard Law School near the top of his class and joins a small, conservative, very rich firm of tax and corporate law specialists in Memphis. Almost immediately, he discovers that he has sold his soul to the devil. Or, as a Federal agent tells Mitch in the movie, "Your life, as you've known it, is now over."

Bendini, Lambert & Locke is a front for a conspiracy of delicious malevolence and, early on, anyway, quite persuasive complexity. Only its senior partners know its full scope. The firm has a policy of bringing aboard crackerjack young lawyers of Mitch's hungry background, and then overpaying and materially spoiling them to the point that when they find out the firm's true nature, they can't afford to quit.

There are only two ways for lawyers to exit Bendini, Lambert & Locke. They can stick around until they retire as thoroughly compromised, multi-millionaire senior partners, or they die before their time in mysterious circumstances.

Not long after he joins the firm, Mitch is approached by the F.B.I. The bureau wants him to act as a mole. They point out that his house and his office are bugged by the firm, and that at least three of his restless predecessors have been murdered. On the other hand, Mitch realizes that the firm's business associates have long memories and that no witness protection program is 100 percent reliable. What is a guy to do?

As in the novel, what the guy does is the heart of the film directed by Mr. Pollack and written by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel. Mitch (Tom Cruise) plays each side against the other in a manner that becomes increasing mysterious until, near the end, even someone who has read the book is likely to be lost. Whether the problem is in the writing, the direction or maybe the editing is anybody's guess. Whatever the reason, the film's end is a long time coming and, when it finally does arrive, is unable to do justice to the buildup.

"The Firm" has been so extravagantly cast that its two liveliest performances are by stars in comparatively small roles. Holly Hunter, who was named the best actress at this year's Cannes festival for Jane Campion's "Piano," has a ball as a cheeky Memphis secretary, who's married to an Elvis Presley impersonator and who turns into an unlikely heroine when the chips are down. Equally good is Gary Busey as a cheerful, down-and-dirty private eye who figures in Mitch's initial investigations into the firm's darker associations.

The ever-reliable Gene Hackman appears as Avery Tolar, the firm's partner who becomes, in effect, Mitch's control, the man assigned to break in the new recruit and to guide him on the downward path. Mr. Hackman has reached that plateau in his career where he can play almost any kind of part in a way that gives it both credibility and humanity.

For that matter, there's nothing wrong with any of the performances in "The Firm." Mr. Cruise and Jeanne Tripplehorn, who plays Mitch's wife, Abby, are attractive as a young, rather vacuous couple in distress, defined more by their actions than by anything they are given to say, which is as it should be. David Straithairn appears as Mitch's somewhat enigmatic brother, Ray, a jailbird, and Ed Harris gives a strong performance as an F.B.I. agent whose shiny, eye-catching bald head would not make it easy for him to go unnoticed in a stakeout.

As if to change his television image as a lovable old geezer who can't eat enough Quaker Oats, Wilford Brimley turns up as the firm's most vicious hit man. Aw, shucks.

In spite of all this talent, "The Firm" is something less than a nonstop pleasure. The adjustments made in the story are intelligent ones even if, by the end, Mitch has come to seem almost as devious and opportunistic as the people he's fighting. That could be the film's own comment on the time, place and characters.

A more difficult problem is the film's pace, which may have something to do with the editing. "The Firm" maintains its sluggish gait even through its concluding sequence, which frantically cross-cuts between simultaneous actions in the Cayman Islands and Memphis. One will accept almost anything in a suspense movie as long as the payoff satisfies. That's what they're all about.

"The Firm" ultimately provides no liberation from the sweet tyranny of its own plotting.

"The Firm" has been rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has a lot of vulgar language and some violence. The Firm Directed by Sydney Pollack; written by David Rabe, Robert Towne and David Rayfiel, based on the novel by John Grisham; director of photography, John Seale; edited by William Steinkamp and Fredric Steinkamp; music by Dave Grusin; production designer, Richard MacDonald; produced by Scott Rudin and John Davis; released by Paramount. Running time: 154 minutes. This film is rated R. Mitch McDeere . . . Tom Cruise Abby McDeere . . . Jeanne Tripplehorn Avery Tolar . . . Gene Hackman Oliver Lambert . . . Hal Holbrook Lamar Quinn . . . Terry Kinney William Devasher . . . Wilford Brimley Wayne Tarrance . . . Ed Harris Tammy Hemphill . . . Holly Hunter

The Firm Review

01 Jan 1993

155 minutes

Sydney Pollack's adaptation of John Grisham's 1991 best­seller is a big, lumbering, occasionally invigorating Star Vehicle, with most of the menace that propelled Grisham's gripping page-turner diluted in favour of a more Gary Grant-ish take on the classic Hollywood conspiracy thriller. Lacking the paranoia of Pollack's own Three Days Of The Condor, it's also gelatinous, sloppy and over-indulgent, yet somehow manages to make the grade as a pulpy, old-fashioned movie experience.

Tom Cruise is Mitch McDeere, a brash, grin-flashing hotshot, top in his Harvard law class and Wall Street-bound until the small Memphis law firm of Bendini, Lambert & Locke lure him down South with a stupendous salary, gorgeous house and new Mercedes. It seems too good to be true, and, of course, it is, with McDeere's more intuitive, earthy wife Abby (Tripplehorn) smelling a rat when wholesome cult-like firm members start sounding like a cross between Dan Quayle and the Stepford Wives. No one has ever left The Firm alive, but McDeere isn't totally clued into the fact that he's made a Faustian career deal with a pit of wire-tapping, blue-blooded vipers until abrasive cue ball FBI agent Ed Harris fills him in on Bendini's Mafia money-laundering ways and offers him two choices: break the legal code of honour and get enough dirt to indict the firm, or prepare for 20 years in the slammer when Bendini inevitably goes down.

This is a film powered along by several meaty and flamboyant character turns. Besides Harris, the more memorable etchings are made by Hackman, brilliant, as always, as Cruise's cynical, ultimately remorseful mentor, Avery Tolar; Gary Busey as a seedy private investigator; Holly Hunter as Busey's tarty secretary and Cruise's partner-in-Mob-busting; and David Strathairn as McDeere's wise, soulful convict brother. Indeed, without the performances, this would mostly be a non-starter, since Pollack didn't so much direct this as blandly guide it along the safest, risk-free path to commercial bonanza, making numerous plot changes en route from page to screen. Nonetheless, Cruise fans won't be disappointed and there are enough dizzying new twists in the somewhat convoluted final act to keep Grisham fans entertained without totally alienating them. Instantly forgettable, but with undeniable pulp appeal.

Related Articles

Movies | 06 07 2015

Tom Cruise stars in director Sydney Pollack's adaptation of John Grisham's novel, following a hot-shot young lawyer seduced into a firm with a sinister side. Co-stars Gene Hackman.

Mitch McDeere (Cruise) 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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The Firm | Ratings & Reviews

Rotten tomatoes® rating, audience score rating.

"“The Firm” is a smooth adaptation of John Grisham’s giant bestseller that is destined to be one of the summer’s strong audience pleasers."

"For all the money and talent lavished on filming The Firm, the best seller by former lawyer John Grisham, you can’t help feeling let down. The book moved at turbo speed. At two and a half hours, the movie crawls..."

"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."

The Firm | Details

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Film / The Firm

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"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 does know 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. What it actually does is 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 : In the film, 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 : In the film, the Morolto brothers get a moment of this when Mitch has the audacity to show up on their doorstep with a proposition when seconds earlier Tony was talking about killing 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 jewel thief 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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Every John Grisham Movie, Ranked Worst to Best (Photos)

On the 25th anniversary of his first feature adaptation, “The Firm,” how do the novelist’s movie versions stack up?

It’s been 25 years since “The Firm” raced its way into theaters, introducing audiences to the dynamic storytelling style of John Grisham. The success of “The Firm” made Grisham’s distinct blend of clever legal thrills and pulpy melodrama attract some of the best filmmakers of the decade, turning smart dramas into blockbusters and earning multiple Oscar nominations in the process.

Although the wave of Grisham adaptations eventually died down, they helped define a box office era. So let’s take a look at every feature-length film based on a Grisham story to see which films are classics, and which ones should be found in contempt.

11. The Chamber (1996)

Chris O’Donnell is a young lawyer trying to keep his racist grandfather, played by Gene Hackman, out of the gas chamber. James Foley’s adaptation tries to balance serious conversations about the death penalty and racism with heavy melodrama, but O’Donnell is completely lost here, and the mystery is drawn out and unremarkable. Even Hackman and Faye Dunaway don’t add any real flavor to this completely bland, tedious and forgettable legal “thriller.”

10. Christmas with the Kranks (2004)

John Grisham’s comedic novel “Skipping Christmas” became a shrill, generic family comedy starring Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as a middle-aged couple who decide to skip Christmas one year, which somehow throws the whole neighborhood into chaos. There’s something to explore in that premise, about the importance of community and tradition and even the economic system during the yuletide season. But Joe Roth’s film instead relies on dumb, awkwardly staged sight gags and an off-putting, cult-like interpretation of Christmas cheer.

9. Mickey (2004)

Based on an original screenplay by Grisham, “Mickey” stars Harry Connick Jr. as a lawyer who would do anything for just one more year of Little League with his talented son, played by Shawn Salinas. So it’s a blessing in disguise when they have to run from the IRS and adopt new identities, giving a (too old) Salinas one more chance at glory, under the name of “Mickey.” But Mickey becomes a national sensation, and the government debates whether to let him cheat just so America can humiliate the tough-as-nails Cuban team. There are a lot of emotional justifications for cheating in this family-friendly sports movie, which makes it a confusing watch… but Connick and Salinas almost make it work.

8. The Gingerbread Man (1998)

Robert Altman co-wrote (under a pseudonym) and directed this creepy thriller about an unscrupulous lawyer, played by Kenneth Branagh, who gets embroiled in a case involving cult leaders, murder and a femme fatale, played by Embeth Davidtz. The set-up is genuinely intriguing, but the payoff is disappointingly conventional. Fortunately, Branagh seems to relish this weaselly role, and Altman takes every opportunity to make this one of his most atmospheric movies. It’s a wet and windy looming hurricane of a noir, let down only by its so-so plotting.

7. A Painted House (2003)

Grisham’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel became an earnest, endearing TV movie directed by Alfonso Arau (“Like Water for Chocolate”). A young Logan Lerman (“Fury”) stars as a boy who encounters both love and danger when his family hires extra hands to help farm cotton in 1952. Scott Glenn, Robert Sean Leonard and Pablo Schreiber round out the fine cast, and Arau keeps the tone earthy and nostalgic. It’s largely overlooked, but “A Painted House” emerges as a slight, but quality production.

6. The Pelican Brief (1993)

Two Supreme Court justices have been assassinated, and only a young law student played by Julia Roberts knows why, leading to murder, conspiracy and corruption at the highest levels of government. Alan J. Pakula directs the hell out of the first half of “The Pelican Brief,” but the film’s dynamite set-up and spectacular cast lose energy halfway, after the conspiracy is revealed, and the only thing left is to clean up the mess. Denzel Washington co-stars as a journalist who gets wrapped up in Roberts’ story, and he’s as charismatic as you’d expect. But that only makes it all the more disappointing when their obvious chemistry goes nowhere.

5. The Rainmaker (1997)

Matt Damon is a young lawyer learning the hard way that ambulance-chasing is a financial necessity in “The Rainmaker,” a slick and exceptionally well-acted drama directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Jon Voight, Mickey Rourke and Danny DeVito steal every scene they can, and the emphasis on Damon’s day-to-day struggle to find his footing is funny and fascinating. The only problem is the film’s main storyline — an idealistic and conventional courtroom drama about a shady insurance company, which goes exactly as you’d expect and constantly distracts from the film’s best and most original material.

4. A Time to Kill (1996)

Samuel L. Jackson murders the men who raped his daughter, and it’s up to young lawyer Matthew McConaughey (in his star-making role) to get him a fair trial in a deeply racist southern town. As directed by Joel Schumacher, “A Time to Kill” is easily Grisham’s most melodramatic melodrama. Every dramatic beat is enormous, every speech might as well have “For Your Consideration” stamped on it, but every member of the incredible cast gets their own moment to shine. Unfortunately, the pulpy airplane-novel writing can’t sustain the movie’s obvious attempts at dramatic grandeur. But, if nothing else, it keeps your attention every step of the way.

3. Runaway Jury (2003)

Gary Fleder’s oft-overlooked Grisham adaptation is, in many ways, the most entertaining adaptation of the author’s work. Gene Hackman stars as a jury fixer, hired to manipulate the outcome of a high-profile 2nd Amendment case, and John Cusack plays a manipulative juror who decides to sell the verdict to the highest bidder. Unexpected, clever and surprisingly funny, the film deftly balances modern cynicism about the legal system with a hopeful message about how the law should work. Rachel Weisz and Dustin Hoffman round out the fantastic cast.

2. The Firm (1993)

The first Grisham adaptation is still one of the very best legal thrillers. Tom Cruise stars as a hotshot young lawyer, wooed into a life of conservative values and financial affluence by a major law firm. Only his wife, played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, notices the creepy red flags, but by the time Cruise realizes he’s in over his head and their lives are in danger, it’s too late. Sydney Pollack relishes tying the noose so slowly that his protagonist doesn’t even notice it, and he understands too well the insidious allure of capitalistic success.

1. The Client (1994)

The most perfectly balanced John Grisham movie. A great set-up, a fantastic payoff, smartly explored themes and exceptional performances from every member of the cast. Brad Renfro stars as a tough kid who witnesses a suicide, and learns some information that the mob would do anything to keep secret. He’s just smart enough to know he’s not smart enough, so he hires bus-bench lawyer Susan Sarandon to defend him from a smarmy U.S. attorney, played by Tommy Lee Jones, who will do anything to get the kid to talk. Joel Schumacher’s film gives every actor a juicy part, and the story is so deeply entrenched in class warfare that the film’s depths reveal themselves naturally as the thrilling plot unfolds. And, of course, every actor gives a spectacular performance, from the magnetic young Renfro, to the charmingly snide Jones, to the Oscar-nominated Sarandon, who delivers one of her greatest performances.

The 32 greatest Tom Cruise movies

F or decades, the name Tom Cruise has been synonymous with Hollywood movies. With so many classic movies under his belt, it's not hard to understand why.

Though his career has had its share of controversies, Cruise has maintained high altitude as one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars in its history. Raised in near poverty under an abusive father, Cruise took up acting in high school after he was cut from the varsity football team when he was caught drinking beers before a game. 

After starring in his school's production of Guys and Dolls, Cruise caught the acting bug and moved away - first to New York, then to Los Angeles - to pursue a career in TV and movies. He made his movie debut in the 1981 movie Endless Love, and then had a supporting role in the film Taps. After several more small parts, he starred in Paul Brickman's Risky Business, where Cruise won over audiences everywhere with a killer lip-sync routine.

With numerous accolades and just as many controversies to his name, Tom Cruise is the definition of a Hollywood superstar whose presence alone can move mountains. With a career still going strong, we rank the 32 greatest Tom Cruise movies of all time. 

32. Oblivion (2013)

Well into his career as a top-tier Hollywood star, Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski aimed to prove that the old ways of original, star-driven spectacles could still draw audiences without attaching a known superhero IP. Enter: Oblivion. Based on Kosinski's own unpublished graphic novel (which Kosinski said was always just a pitch for a movie anyway), Tom Cruise stars as a maintenance technician in the far future who, on the brink of retirement, is drawn into the mystery of both himself and the true nature of the war that destroyed Earth. Oblivion was a modest success at the box office and drew mixed reviews from critics. But it has aged very well, being an expansive original sci-fi epic with breathtaking imagination. 

31. Knight and Day (2010)

From director James Mangold comes Knight and Day, a satirical action romp that set fire to romantic comedy conventions. Tom Cruise leads the movie as a spy on the run from the CIA who bumps into, and then whisks away, a beautiful vintage car dealer played by Cameron Diaz. (The two previously starred together in Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky.) Although Knight and Day was just the first of many Hollywood rom-coms that felt obligated to double as action movies to attract a wide demographic, the movie succeeds with legitimately impressive set-pieces that violently whip Tom Cruise across the screen.

30. Tropic Thunder (2008)

Tom Cruise being unrecognizable in heavy makeup and prosthetics, all while playing a sleazy Scott Rudin-type caricature, is like only the fourth or fifth funniest thing about the R-rated comic blockbuster Tropic Thunder. In Ben Stiller's napalm-coated parody of Vietnam War films and the pampered lives of Hollywood stars, Cruise features in a minor supporting role as Les Grossman, a truly gross man and ruthless studio executive. Cruise's role was meant to be a secret, though leaked paparazzi photos and internet blogs ruined that fun by spoiling it ahead of time. Nevertheless, Cruise's sharp and venomous performance was and still is hailed by critics and audiences as one of Cruise's all-time best movie roles.

29. The Firm (1993)

In 1993, two movies were based on John Grisham novels. The first was The Pelican Brief, a legal thriller starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The other was Sydney Pollack's The Firm, with Tom Cruise leading in an adaptation of Grisham's 1991 novel. Cruises plays a young, talented Harvard Law grad who is recruited by a prestigious Tennessee firm who specialize in mob clients. Soon enough, Cruise finds himself in the crossfire between the FBI, the mob, and his own colleagues ready to sell him out. Although The Firm is one of Cruise's more overlooked movies in his career, it makes a solid case for being one of his greatest.

28. Valkyrie (2008)

In this solid World War II thriller from Bryan Singer, Tom Cruise leads as one of several German Nazi Army officers, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, who seek to enact Operation Valkyrie – a national emergency plan to take control away from Adolf Hitler. In preparation for the role, Cruise spent months devouring history books and even interviewing members of the real von Stauffenberg's family. Because von Stauffenberg had several physical disabilities including a lost left eye and a missing right hand, Cruise spent a lot of time affecting those ailments while doing things like dressing himself and writing letters. The results speak for itself, with Cruise dependably engaging as a soldier loyal to his country and not a political ideal.

27. Days of Thunder (1990)

While Tony Scott's Days of Thunder was criticized during its 1990 release as a derivative copycat of his own box office smash Top Gun, Days of Thunder still burns rubber like few movies can. Set in the world of professional NASCAR, Tom Cruise plays hotshot rookie driver Cole who clashes with veteran driver Rowdy (Michael Rooker). Eventually these rivals become brothers on the track, with Cole driving Rowdy's car against their common enemy, a cheat named Russ Wheeler (Cary Elwes). Even if Cruise is basically playing Maverick again, Days of Thunder easily satisfies anyone with a need for speed.

26. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

After Hong Kong director John Woo made his way to Hollywood in the '90s, the legendary action filmmaker collaborated with Tom Cruise on the first sequel to Cruise's 1995 mega-hit Mission: Impossible. The follow-up sees Cruise return as daredevil agent Ethan Hunt, who teams up with a beautiful thief (Thandiwe Newton) to secure a modified disease held by her ex-lover and rogue IMF agent (Dougray Scott). While a box office hit, Mission: Impossible 2 remains divisive among M:I aficionados, being one of the more elaborately designed and even melodramatic entries in the otherwise stone cold sober series. 

25. Legend (1985)

Mystifying but magnetic in equal measure, Legend is basically a dark Disney fairy tale through the eyes of master filmmaker Ridley Scott. Tom Cruise stars as Jack, a free-spirited forest dweller who must stop the demonic Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry in the illest devil makeup you've ever seen) from plunging a fantastical world into eternal night. Although Legend was praised for its gorgeous production design, critics complained the movie was nothing more than a pretty storybook in motion. Honestly they are kind of right, as Legend severely lacks forward movement and meaty action. Still, the movie is drop-dead gorgeous to look at, with a score by Tangerine Dream that feels otherworldly. 

24. Jack Reacher (2012)

While it's true that Lee Child's literary antihero Jack Reacher is a walking, talking slab of meat and that Tom Cruise is decidedly not that, Cruise still kills it in the role. In the first Jack Reacher movie from director Christopher McQuarrie, which adapts the ninth Reacher novel One Shot from 2005, Cruise plays the title hero, an ex-U.S. Army Major and military police investigator who is mysteriously named by a mass shooting suspect in custody. Never mind that Cruise is several shirt sizes smaller than what Reacher is supposed to be. His movie has all the muscle and swagger to make up for it. 

23. Magnolia (1999)

In Paul Thomas Anderson's celebrated (and quite long) ensemble drama inspired by the music of Aimee Mann, a number of interrelated characters look for happiness in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. While the movie features a number of actors like Jeremy Blackman, Philip Seymour Hoffmann, William H. Macy, Julianne Moore, and John C. Reilly, a standout among them all is Tom Cruise, a misogynist motivational speaker who lectures rooms full of men how to pick up women. While Cruise's character Frank lacks humanity on paper, Cruise's performance imbues rare pathos into the role that you might find yourself pitying him instead of spitting at him. The Oscars seemingly agreed and nominated Cruise for Best Supporting Actor at the 72nd Academy Awards. In a 2015 interview on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast, Anderson revealed that the inspiration for Cruise's role was pickup artist Ross Jeffries.

22. Risky Business (1983)

You only need a pair of white socks, a white button-up shirt, and Ray-Bans to dress as one of Tom Cruise's most memorable movie characters for Halloween. In 1983, a young Tom Cruise became a movie star overnight with the release of Paul Brickman's Risky Business, which is about an overachieving high school senior who parties up with a sex worker while his parents are on vacation. Often compared to The Graduate in its timeless portrayal of promising youth indulging in self-destructive vices, Risky Business launched Tom Cruise to Hollywood stardom, and for good reason. He's simply sensational, an instant star in the making who makes it impossible to hate him while he's kicking his feet up to some old time rock 'n roll.

21. Minority Report (2002)

In Steven Spielberg's blockbuster adaptation of Philip K. Dick's sci-fi novella from 1956, Tom Cruise plays a psychic cop in the future year of 2054. While his department of "Precrime" use the power of foreknowledge to apprehend criminals before they actually commit a crime, Cruise's John Anderton winds up being accused of a crime yet to happen and races to prove his innocence. A dizzying mix of crime noir, speculative science fiction, and whodunit mysteries, Minority Report entertains as a strange hybrid of Total Recall and The Fugitive, made sublime simply because of a master like Spielberg present on directing duties. Eerily and quite fittingly, a lot of the movie's speculative future technology like multi-touch interfaces, eye scanners, and autonomous cars have come to fruition in our real world.

20. Mission: Impossible 3 (2006)

Before J.J. Abrams took on both Star Trek and Star Wars, he made his directing debut with the third Mission: Impossible installment. Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, now retired from the IMF, who is forced back into action to hunt down a sinister arms dealer played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. While Mission: Impossible 3 was a hit when it opened in 2006 and considered by many much better than John Woo's previous film, Mission: Impossible 3 struggles to stand out in the shadow of other sequels like Ghost Protocol and Fallout. Still, M:I 3 is solid popcorn fare with Cruise doing what he does best.

19. The Last Samurai (2003)

Despite its awkward optics of Tom Cruise in samurai armor, The Last Samurai is a majestic period drama that teeters between prestige war epic and pulpy action movie. (When a film stages Tom Cruise in a fist fight with ninjas, you know you're dealing with something that's hard to pin down.) Directed by Edward Zwick and following in the tradition of stories like Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai sees Cruise play an American captain who bears witness to the last generation of samurai amid the Meiji Restoration of 19th century Japan. An elaborate metaphor about modernization and adaptation, The Last Samurai is one of Cruise's most dad-core movies of his career, a high-grossing blockbuster that also earned several Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, including a Golden Globe Best Actor nomination for Cruise.

18. Vanilla Sky (2001)

In Cameron Crowe's sci-fi psychological drama Vanilla Sky, itself a remake of Alejandro Amenábar's 1997 movie Open Your Eyes, Tom Cruise stars as the playboy owner of a major publishing company in New York City who becomes disfigured in a vehicular crash caused by an obsessive lover (Cameron Diaz). In the aftermath, Cruise becomes smitten by a beautiful woman (played by Penélope Cruz) as his sense of reality starts to fracture. With a memorable plot twist and ambiguous ending, Vanilla Sky blew moviegoers away to become a massive box office hit despite being unpopular with most critics. In the years since its 2001 release, Vanilla Sky has become a must-see cult movie.

17. A Few Good Men (1992)

You can't handle the truth, but Tom Cruise can. In Rob Reiner's acclaimed film version of Aaron Sorkin's 1989 play, Cruise stars alongside other acting heavyweights like Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Cuba Gooding Jr., and Kiefer Sutherland. Cruise plays a Navy lawyer who must defend two Marines accused of killing another soldier. Memorably explosive and gripping with nary a single bullet fired, A Few Good Men culminates in an iconic courtroom confrontation that reveals the difference between following orders and fighting for justice.

16. The Color of Money (1986)

You can almost feel Paul Newman hand the torch of Hollywood heartthrob to Tom Cruise in Martin Scorsese's smoky and cool 1986 picture The Color of Money. A sequel to The Hustler, Newman returns as Fast Eddie Felson, who partners with an up-and-coming pool shark (Cruise), and his tough girlfriend (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) as they play their way to an Atlantic City tournament. While The Color of Money was compared unfavorably to The Hustler at the time of its release, it has earned greater appreciation as yet another showcase of Scorsese's talent - not to mention longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker's - and the pairing of Newman and Cruise representing the changing of the guard between two generations of Hollywood.

15. Rain Man (1988)

In this acclaimed drama directed by Barry Levinson, Tom Cruise plays a selfish and arrogant Lamborghini dealer who learns, after his estranged father's death, that he has a grown autistic savant brother, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman, in an Oscar-winning performance). As the two embark on a cross-country roadtrip in their late father's 1949 Buick convertible, they develop a bond long past due. Rain Man was a massive critical and commercial success in 1988, and it's a movie that still holds power to thaw even the most cynical hearts.

14. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

In 2014, Doug Liman helmed a cult classic sci-fi that paired Tom Cruise with Emily Blunt, making a real movie star out of her in the process. Essentially Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers, Tom Cruise plays a public affairs military officer, Major William Cage, who is forced to the frontlines of humanity's war against a violent alien race. Somehow, Cage ends up in a time loop, forced to repeat his first day on the battlefield until he teams up with a war hero (Blunt) to break the cycle. Despite mismanaged marketing including a clunky title, Edge of Tomorrow impressed a lot of critics and performed well enough at the box office. But its high production budget meant it wasn't the heroic success it could have been. In the end, Edge of Tomorrow maintains appealing status as a muscular, one-and-done sci-fi.

13. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)

With J.J. Abrams lost in the final frontier with 2009's Star Trek, the job of directing the next Mission: Impossible was accepted by Brad Bird. Previously a director of animated family movies like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, Bird revived the Mission: Impossible series with a clear eye and sharp sense of spectacle, helming an installment that saw Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt climb the Burj Khalifa and ingeniously sneak past guards at the Kremlin. The fourth Mission: Impossible was no reboot, but it was without question a rebirth that kicked off a new era for the aging franchise.

12. War of the Worlds (2005)

In a 2005 interview with Empire magazine, Steven Spielberg said that for the first time in his movie career, he was making "an alien picture where there is no love and no attempt at communication." We don't dare correct Spielberg, but he's wrong about one thing. In his magnificent and harrowing remake of War of the Worlds, Tom Cruise plays an estranged father who tries to get his children to safely reunite with their mom (and his ex-wife) in Boston. Only love can make a father go to the extreme lengths that Cruise does in War of the Worlds, which is still one of the darkest and finely crafted movies ever by Spielberg.

11. Mission: Impossible (1995)

The original movie that lit the fuse to one of the most dominant movie franchises in Hollywood history is still a mighty sight to behold. In the first Mission: Impossible, directed by Brian De Palma, Tom Cruise makes his first appearance as Ethan Hunt, an agent for the Impossible Missions Force who tries to figure out who framed him for the murder of his team. Being an adaptation of the popular 1960s television show (which is where the franchise's iconic theme song came from), the '95 Mission: Impossible established the formula and standards for all of its subsequent sequels. Throughout the 1990s, you couldn't throw a rock without seeing a parody of the memorable "wire scene." It can still make audiences sweat even now.

10. Interview with the Vampire (1994)

In one of a handful of movies where Tom Cruise plays the antagonist, Neil Jordan's 1994 film version of Anne Rice's 1976 novel features Cruise as the sinful vampire Lestat, who bites and transforms a Louisiana plantation owner named Louis (Brad Pitt). Together the two spend hundreds of years drinking human blood, eventually adding a little girl named Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) to their circle. Moody and atmospheric, Interview with the Vampire is a mid-'90s gem that feels most effective around autumn time. While the picture mostly belongs to Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise is unavoidably handsome and haunting as a seductive vamp who can really sink his teeth into all who look at him.

9. Collateral (2004)

With an off-putting blonde dye job and a steel gray suit that never wrinkles, Tom Cruise inhabits the part of a disturbing and charismatic hitman who hires an unsuspecting L.A. cab driver (Jamie Foxx) to take him up and down the City of Angels for one violent night. Arresting and unstoppable, Collateral is a fine demonstration for both Michael Mann as a filmmaker and Cruise as an actor, the latter keenly locked in as a man so skilled at his deadly job that he seems inhuman. Collateral is simply one of the coolest movies ever made. It makes a complimentary double-bill with Mann's own Miami Vice, both being emotionally-charged neo-noir action thrillers whose digital camera lenses harness an abstract uncertainty of the new millennium.

8. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

It may be the lowest grossing entry in the Mission: Impossible series, but that doesn't mean Dead Reckoning doesn't soar. While being so late into his career, Tom Cruise proves he can still hang - or ride off cliffs - with the best of the industry in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, the first of a two-part installment. With a plot centered around Cruise's Ethan Hunt and the IMF fighting against a rogue artificial intelligence, Mission: Impossible existentially wrestles with the precipice of Hollywood cinema's imminent evolution (or extinction) as an artform. With a diverse cast of exceptionally beautiful people, including Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, and Pom Klementieff, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One feels like an old school action epic in spirit that executes with cutting-edge style.

7. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

In Stanley Kubrick's last movie as a director and released posthumously after his heart attack, Tom Cruise plays an affluent New York doctor who infiltrates a masked orgy hosted by a dark and secret society. And it's all because his wife, played by Cruise's then-real spouse Nicole Kidman, admitted she almost cheated on him. With loads of sexually explicit imagery that really tested the boundaries of the MPAA's R rating, Eyes Wide Shut was initially divisive among critics and audiences before earning retrospective praise as a sterling classic of the 1990s. Its reputation still precedes it, being one of the most provoking and captivating movies Kubrick ever made.

6. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

The second installment of movies that illustrate Oliver Stone's artistic interest in the Vietnam War (of which Stone himself is a veteran), Born on the Fourth of July sees Tom Cruise play an eager volunteer for the U.S. Marine Corps who changes his tune during his deployment and physical paralysis in Vietnam; returning home, he becomes a vocal anti-war activist. Revered by critics and a smash hit at the box office when it opened in December 1989, Born on the Fourth of July earned Cruise's first Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Stone was initially dismissive of Cruise, finding his appearance in Top Gun "fascist." In an L.A. Times interview from 1989, Stone said he changed his mind when he thought Cruise's "golden boy" image would be interesting to see shatter. Said Stone: "I thought it was an interesting proposition: What would happen to Tom Cruise if something goes wrong?"

5. Jerry Maguire (1996)

When Tom Cruise yelled "Show me the money," audiences responded with a massive $273 million box office gross for a modest movie about a sports agent in love. In one of Cruise's all-time greatest movies, the star plays a hotshot sports agent whose crisis of conscience leads him to swing for the fences with just himself, a loyal accountant and single mother (Renée Zellweger), and a middling player for the Arizona Cardinals (Cuba Gooding Jr.). A warm time capsule of mid-'90s era professional sports and Hollywood romances, Jerry Maguire made us all learn how to say: "You complete me." Honestly, it had us at hello.

4. Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

When movie theaters were struggling in the era of COVID-19, Tom Cruise flew to the skies and saved the industry for all. With $1.4 billion gross in ticket sales, Cruise's return to the cockpits made sonic booms to keep theaters open, all while delivering an effective and emotional story about legacy and personal limits. Set over 35 years after the original Top Gun, Cruise's "Maverick" is assigned to oversee Top Gun at NAS North Island, where he must train a new generation of students for a very dangerous mission. As close to dying and seeing heaven as cinema can get, Top Gun: Maverick takes all our breaths away.

3. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015)

When Tom Cruise hung on to the side of a moving airplane in the first 10 minutes of Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, we knew instantly this is a sequel that was built different. In the first of several M:I films helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, the IMF reunite after their disbandment to fight The Syndicate, an international black ops group made up of rogue agents from around the world. Not only is Rogue Nation just a fist-pumping great time, it also introduces franchise favorite Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust, a disavowed MI6 agent working undercover. 2015 was a crowded year for tent poles, with blockbusters like Mad Max: Fury Road, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens all vying for attention. Rogue Nation didn't sell the most tickets, but there's no arguing it wasn't one of the year's best.

2. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) 

Man, even just its trailer can get the adrenaline going. In Christopher McQuarrie's second Mission: Impossible film, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt and the IMF race against time after a job in Berlin to obtain dangerous plutonium cores away from terrorists goes belly-up. Forced to pay for saving his team over saving the world, Ethan must stop a terrorist mastermind, played by Sean Harris, from blowing everything up. Among the people standing in his way: August Walker (Henry Cavill), a muscular CIA assassin. Featuring some of the most intricately designed set-pieces in the entire franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is the platonic ideal for all M:I sequels by doing one thing and one thing well: Letting Tom Cruise run wild.

1. Top Gun (1986)

Sometimes, a movie comes along and changes everything. Top Gun, directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, isn't just a perfect summer movie only Hollywood could deliver; it's a movie that understands what moves people, what draws them into dark rooms and casts spells to make them feel like they can fly. Set at the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School - aka, Top Gun - in San Diego, the movie stars Cruise as a young pilot who sets out to prove himself among the best of the best. While critics in 1986 didn't heap universal and unanimous praise on Top Gun, the movie soared to become one of the biggest commercial hits of all time. Mirroring its own story, Top Gun permanently cemented Tom Cruise's status as a Hollywood titan. At the time Cruise was a rising talent, but through Top Gun, he brandished a killer smile and scorching charisma that made him find his place among the stars. 

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John Grisham gives a positive brief on new series 'The Firm'

Those who remember the 1993 film adaptation of John Grisham's thriller "The Firm" may remember Tom Cruise's beleaguered character Mitch McDeere doing a lot of running around and hiding out from his fellow lawyers and bosses -- who wanted to make sure he wasn't sharing his company's criminal activities with the Feds. He was, and it changed his life.

"The Firm" also changed the life of its author, John Grisham, who spoke with TODAY's Matt Lauer Friday about the upcoming TV series adaptation on NBC, with independent film vet Josh Lucas in the Cruise role. At first, Grisham told Lauer, he couldn't get a book deal for his novel, but someone bootlegged the manuscript and started passing it around Hollywood.

"The first phone call I got for 'The Firm' was in January of 1990 and my agent said, 'Hey, we just sold the film rights.' I said, 'What about the book rights?'" recalled the author.

Naturally, with a film in the making, a book contract was quickly forthcoming; now, "The Firm" is a TV series that picks up where the story left off. The McDeere family has been in witness protection for ten years, and wants to resume living a normal life. If they could, there wouldn't be much fodder for a series so ... things start to go wrong.

"I would not be here if I didn't like it," said Grisham, giving his stamp of approval on the book and calling Lucas "a movie star. This guy's got the presence, charisma, talent."

And he would know if a series isn't going to go well: His novel, "The Client," was made into a film in 1994 and a TV series that only ran for a season in 1995.

"I've had a bad experience on television," said Grisham. "'The Firm' is another story. This is going to be a hit."

The two-hour premiere of "The Firm" airs on NBC on Sunday, Jan. 8 at 9 p.m.

Will you watch? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

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Lawyers Deliver Their Verdict on ‘The Firm’ : Guilty of Overstatement, They Rule

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From Gregory Peck’s honorable Atticus Finch in the 1962 classic “To Kill a Mockingbird” to Paul Newman’s painfully human portrait in “The Verdict” to Tom Cruise as a tough-talking naval attorney in “A Few Good Men,” Hollywood has consistently shown its love for lawyers--even when public opinion swings against them.

Enter Sydney Pollack’s new legal thriller, “The Firm.” Based on real-life lawyer John Grisham’s best-selling novel, the Paramount movie starring Cruise (again) and Gene Hackman has already grossed $44.5 million and knocked “Jurassic Park” out of first place for the first time this summer--proving once again that filmmakers aren’t the only ones intrigued by life in the law.

But “The Firm’s” lawyers rub elbows with the Mafia and launder money in the Caribbean. Is the life of an attorney that exciting--or illicit? The Times asked movie-going lawyers what they thought about “The Firm.”

From the most senior corporate attorney to the youngest eager associate, the response was the same: We’re no movie stars. Take Eric Joss, who after 17 years in practice, has earned the right to judge the legal profession, which he found exaggerated by “The Firm.”

“Ninety percent of what we do is behind the scenes. The legal process by nature is not glamorous,” admitted Joss, a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky and Walker.

You mean all lawyers don’t dodge gun-toting maniacs and jet off to the Cayman Islands on a weekly basis? What about the three-martini lunches? Standoffs with the government? The beautiful women ?

“I don’t know anybody that leads the lifestyle that they led,” said Wayne Allen, a tax attorney with Walsworth, Franklin and Bevins in Orange. “That’s Hollywood, and John Grisham.”

“If they made (“The Firm”) realistic, it would be people sitting around in a library--and nobody would want to watch it,” explained Paul, Hastings associate Jon Meer.

But they didn’t, and many of the lawyers in Meer’s firm turned out for a private opening-night screening at downtown Los Angeles’ Laemmle’s Grande theater.

They laughed hysterically--almost familiarly--at the fierce and lucrative bidding war for the talented Harvard-man Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise), and nodded in understanding as the eager young associate worked ferociously through the night, night after night.

And after debating only a few minutes at the end of the movie, they came to the conclusion that even with a cast of bad guys doing bad things, the movie won’t make attorneys look any worse to the public.

Other attorneys agreed. “It’s yet another in a whole string of films depicting lawyers as an acquisitive group driven by greed and entirely bereft of moral fiber,” quipped David Graber, an attorney with the Beverly Hills firm Rosenfeld, Meyer and Susman. “But this is entertainment, this is fiction.”

“It’s a good thriller, with a great complex plot,” added Wendy Herzog, a divorce lawyer with the Los Angeles firm Deutsch and Rubin. “That it happens to deal with lawyers is a premise. I don’t think it’s going to change anybody’s opinions.”

That said, where else did Cruise and company go right--or wrong--with “The Firm”? Just ask the lawyers:

* Big Bucks and Bonuses: The on-screen seduction of Mitch McDeere in “The Firm” is enough to lure anyone to law school. But could a real-life McDeere really pull down the deal offered by a little-known firm in Memphis?

Most of the attorneys said that while first-year salaries are often lucrative--mostly to help defray the high costs of law-school loans--McDeere’s offer, which included a low-interest loan and a new luxury car, was too good to be true.

“There’s no first-year associate around that is worth $90,000,” according to Sheldon Fleming of the Orange firm Walsworth, Franklin and Bevins.

“There’s no Mercedes in my driveway,” an associate at Paul, Hastings joked.

* The Bar Exam: The images of McDeere being bombarded with casework and lessons for the notorious bar exam are some of the movie’s funniest. But as those who have tackled the test and passed tell it, they rarely do both.

“When you are in bar preparation mode, you can’t function on any other level. You get on autopilot,” Herzog said with a laugh.

“And you certainly don’t go to the Cayman Islands while you’re studying for the bar--at least if you plan on passing,” said first-year attorney John Spirtos with the Santa Barbara firm Mullen and Henzell.

* Bending the Law: One of the most probing questions raised by “The Firm” is whether law firms like Bendini, Lambert and Locke really exist. With a chokehold on its lawyers rivaling Big Brother’s in George Orwell’s “1984,” The Firm, as it is always referred to, seems larger than life.

Michelle Reinglass, president of the Orange County Bar Assn. with a practice in Laguna Hills, found “The Firm’s” premise amusing. “You don’t normally have firms killing off their lawyers. I don’t know of many firms that have Mafia security.”

Yet most of the lawyers acknowledged that certain practices, such as overbilling clients--a practice that figures heavily into the resolution of the plot of “The Firm”--are not just a thing of the movies.

Ken Christmas, a second-year lawyer with the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny and Myers, has heard horror stories about overbilling, including tales of attorneys billing clients for time spent in the bathroom. His favorite?

“The funniest story I ever heard was from a New York lawyer flying to California who double-billed his client for the time change. He billed 27 hours in a 24-hour period.”

Indeed, the challenge issued to McDeere by his mentor Avery Tolar (Hackman) to bend the law “as far as possible without breaking it” sends viewers a dangerous message about lawyers, according to Laurie Levenson, professor of ethics at Loyola Marymount School of Law:

“The message of ‘The Firm’ seemed to be a bit bizarre: that lawyers have a code of ethics, but that it is designed to protect the lawyers and the crooks.”

But for Barry Tarlow, an L.A. attorney known for his successful white-collar criminal defense record, there is a vast difference between defending people like the movie’s Morolto family and becoming co-conspirators with them.

“I represent people that are involved in organized crime,” said Tarlow, “but representing people doesn’t mean you do something illegal for them. It doesn’t mean you have anything to do with their personal affairs.”

* Happy Endings: “The Firm’s” dramatic conclusion, heightened by a personal transformation in Cruise’s McDeere, was of particular interest to the lawyers asked to put themselves in the young man’s shoes.

“He really had no other choice,” said Stephan DeSales, a criminal attorney from Fullerton.

Even so, McDeere’s decision should not be heralded as a heroic one, according to Loyola’s Levenson: “You don’t walk away thinking of him as any great hero. He found a convenient solution, and let the bad crooks get away.”

Convenience notwithstanding, many lawyers could not help rooting for McDeere, especially after watching him narrowly escape the path so often traveled by their legal counterparts.

“I’ve seen a lot of classmates fall into that trap. They end up working six or seven days a week, for four or five years straight. They get divorced, they have family problems, and they wake up with money in the bank but no social life,” Fleming said.

“And then they realize that money is not everything, and they turn around and go back to why they became a lawyer in the first place.”

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The Death of the Middlebrow Legal Thriller

Twenty-five years ago, Hollywood was enjoying a pipeline to success as clean and unobstructed as any. The paperback legal thrillers of author John Grisham featured in supermarkets across the nation, and starting with The Firm in 1993, were taking over movie theaters, too. The cinematic versions arrived with impeccable casts and big-name directors, all raking in over $200 million at the box office (when adjusted for inflation). Sydney Pollack helmed The Firm , starring Tom Cruise, Gene Hackman, and an Oscar-nominated Holly Hunter. That same year, Alan J. Pakula directed The Pelican Brief , with Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. Joel Schumacher would end up making Grisham’s debut novel A Time to Kill with Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock, and a breakthrough actor named Matthew McConaughey. But first he’d direct Susan Sarandon to a surprise Oscar nomination in 1994’s The Client .

With its incredibly simple yet compelling premise — a kid on the run from the Mob avails himself of the legal services of a self-made Memphis lawyer who works outside the system to get justice — The Client may well be the quintessential ’90s Grisham thriller, a genre that’s been seemingly lost to history despite the echoes it continues to have in the careers of the films’ stars. Think about how Jackson’s “YES, they deserved to die, and I hope they burn in hell!” line in A Time to Kill became a part of the Sam Jackson persona. Think about how The Firm came to define Tom Cruise’s precision-running era, or how The Pelican Brief perfected the parking-garage chase scene. In the mid-1990s, the legal thriller was every bit as legitimate a genre as the romantic comedy or the Die Hard– in–various–strange–settings action thriller: 1994 saw three legal/political thrillers in the box-office top 15 ( The Client , Clear and Present Danger , and Disclosure ); 1993 had three as well ( The Firm , The Pelican Brief , and Philadelphia ), and 1992 produced two ( A Few Good Men and Patriot Games ). The last time a legal thriller reached the box-office top 15? Erin Brockovich in 2000 (unless you feel like counting 2012’s Lincoln , which I do not).

It’s a familiar refrain, but today, the box office is dominated by Marvel superhero movies, Disney remakes, and animated sequels, a trend that doesn’t seem to be losing steam anytime soon. Beyond the theater, Netflix has begun to pick up the slack on certain forgotten genres — last year represented a confident step toward bringing the rom-com “back.” But the poor legal thriller remains untended. Which is why I am likely one of the few individuals to have acknowledged the 25th anniversary of The Client (today!), the dialogue of which has remained firmly embedded in my brain since I was a teenager first discovering it.

As a bookish indoor kid who hadn’t figured out his sexuality, I was a firm supporter of the middlebrow legal thriller. I eschewed bike riding, kissing girls (uh, see above), and learning how to smoke cigarettes for the clearcut satisfaction of a well-executed courtroom monologue, or Julia Roberts cryptically intoning that everybody she’s told about the brief is dead. The characteristics of the middlebrow legal thriller dovetailed so well with the tastes of a teen who imagined himself to be quite smart and sophisticated — they didn’t so much require a familiarity with the law but with the three or four legal concepts that particular film decided were important. In The Firm , the concept was “billable hours.” In A Time to Kill , it’s “change of venue.” Once you’ve got the concept down, the movies tend to be about chase scenes and tense cross-examinations. With Grisham, the Mob is very often involved, or else the government acting like the Mob. By the end, the two characters we care most about arrive at an understanding about each other. It ain’t Tolstoy, but it is deeply enjoyable.

The Client was easily the most teen-friendly of Grisham’s books because it had a teen protagonist: Young Mark Sway (played in the film by the late Brad Renfro) and his little brother, Ricky, are out wandering where they’re not supposed to and end up witnessing the suicide of a Mob lawyer who, before he offs himself, spills some secrets to the boys about where certain bodies are buried. The shock of the suicide sends Ricky into a catatonic state, and once word gets out that the boys were witnesses, the state — in the form of vainglorious prosecutor “Reverend” Roy Foltrigg (Tommy Lee Jones) — and the Mob come down on him. Mark ends up turning to a down-on-her-luck, and thus affordable, lawyer named Reggie Love (Susan Sarandon). Reggie’s scrappy lawyering and motherly affection for Mark are a potent combination, especially from Sarandon, who is at the peak of her powers in the early ’90s. She’s coming off back-to-back Oscar nominations in 1991 and 1992 for Thelma & Louise and Lorenzo’s Oil , earning a reputation as the best working actress to have never won an Oscar.

Joel Schumacher was chosen to helm the endeavor. His career is dotted with disasters like The Phantom of the Opera and the Jim Carrey numerology dud The Number 23 . He’s the man who put nipples on the Bat-suit for Batman & Robin . But in focusing on the Bat-nips, we forget that he also made Batman Forever , a candy-colored comic-book extravaganza that was second only to Toy Story at the 1995 box office. We forget he made indelible cult classics like The Lost Boys and strange, daring character-based thrillers like Falling Down and Phone Booth . The Client might be Schumacher’s most purely entertaining film, as Renfro’s character gets into and out of scrapes with the kind of rude verve you’d expect from a real little shit of a kid. The film is also a perfect example of its genre; the legal maneuverings are engrossing enough but just this side of absurd, no better example of which is when Mark comes up with the idea to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify on the fly, while he’s on the witness stand, without any prior legal knowledge. Kids!

The Client ’s supporting cast is dense with familiar faces: Anthony LaPaglia, William H. Macy, the late J.T. Walsh, and Bradley Whitford and Mary Louise Parker (years before they would play tempestuous lovers–D.C. operators on The West Wing ). But the real gem at the heart of this movie is Susan Sarandon, who milks her star turn for all its worth. Her scenes opposite Tommy Lee Jones as they face off over the fate of this young boy are the kind of crackling movie-star showdowns that rarely appear outside the action drama. Whether she’s sliding through a legal loophole, casting a maternal glance Mark’s way, or nervously lighting a cigarette in a way that only 1994 cigarettes could be lit (between Pulp Fiction , Reality Bites , and this movie, it was a banner year for smoking), Sarandon is cresting on the charm and capability that defined her remarkable early-’90s run, a run that kicks off roughly around 1988’s Bull Durham and ends definitively with her Oscar win for 1995’s Dead Man Walking . That Oscar win was perceived universally as an acknowledgment that it was “her time” in that classic way Academy Award victories are hardly ever just about the performance in question.

Sarandon’s Oscar nomination for The Client, however, was perceived to be a fairly ridiculous reach by the Academy. The role was a crowd-pleasing turn in a summer potboiler, sure, but nothing approaching the tony theatrics of Jodie Foster in Nell or Jessica Lange (who ultimately won that year) in Blue Sky . Oscar observers received Sarandon’s nomination with all the begrudgment of a late-stage Meryl Streep Florence Foster Jenkins nod. Yet looking back on the performance 25 years later, this dismissive attitude feels … off . Sarandon’s Reggie Love is the kind of movie-star move that was easy to take for granted in the ’90s, when actors regularly carried $100 million films on their backs. Now, in the age of franchise characters and intellectual property, a lead performance like Sarandon’s in The Client feels far more valuable.

Susan Sarandon’s trajectory makes me think of Amy Adams, the six-time Oscar nominee whose Academy Award win seems forever just beyond the horizon. It’s fascinating that, with all those nods, Adams has yet to arrive at “her time.” Just last year, Adams was nominated for Vice , a polarizing movie but a Best Picture nominee nevertheless. She lost to Regina King for the unnominated If Beale Street Could Talk . King’s performance was more acclaimed, but Oscar history is littered with acclaimed performers losing out to individuals with more “career momentum.” That kind of momentum is what propelled Sarandon to her win for Dead Man Walking , ahead of critical faves like Elisabeth Shue ( Leaving Las Vegas) . That kind of career momentum is harder to come by when Hollywood is making movies for superheroes and cartoons and little else. The two most recent examples of such a phenomenon were Meryl Streep (for The Iron Lady in 2011) and Sandra Bullock. When Bullock won her Oscar in 2009, it wasn’t just for the performance she put onscreen in The Blind Side that earned her the statue. It was a career spent making movies that mainstream audiences saw and loved and remembered.

An actress like Amy Adams, whose career kicked off with 2005’s Junebug , doesn’t get to make movies like The Client . She divides herself between small, thankless roles in superhero movies (you’d be forgiven if you forgot that she plays Lois Lane in the DC cinematic universe) and indie–Oscar-bait fare, some of which penetrate the mainstream (look, somebody put $150 million worth of box-office receipts into American Hustle ) and some of which does not (like Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master ). If only there were middle-ground legal thrillers or romantic comedies through which Amy Adams could endear herself to the movie-going public the way Sarandon did with The Client or Sandra Bullock did throughout the ’90s in movies like While You Were Sleeping (and the aforementioned A Time to Kill ).

Losing that middle class of movies — not indie, not Avengers — means losing a lot of what is interesting to the layperson about so-called Oscar narratives. Every year it seems that ABC and the Academy wring their hands over how to get ordinary viewers invested in the Oscars. They try to shorten the ceremony, add categories to please the action-blockbuster crowd, add (or subtract) musical performances. Maybe part of the problem is that by squeezing out mid-budget dramas, rom-coms, and legal thrillers, you take away the home audience’s ability to follow a movie star’s career trajectory on its way to Oscar. Maybe if Amy Adams had been able to star in movies like The Client and Bull Durham , her momentum toward an eventual win would feel like a more compelling story for everybody, not just hard-core cinephiles and Oscar nerds (hello!).

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How to watch all John Grisham movies and TV shows in order

John Grisham’s expansive index of books may not all revolve around the law, but the writer does credit his vast experience in the courtroom as the reason he turned to novels. “I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial,” Grisham stated on his website.

His law experience inspired the first book in the Grisham catalog , A Time To Kill , a devasting examination of race in America. Though it was not the first book of his to be adapted for the big screen, it is a masterclass in balancing the drama of the courtroom with societal issues that continue in the world today. The book was just a precursor to an impressive career that turned many of his most famous works into films and attracted the biggest talent of Hollywood. Grisham’s adaptations are not connected in continuity, but according to release dates, here is every movie and television series released in order.

1. The Firm (1993)

The Sydney Pollack film was the second book that John Grisham wrote, but the first to make it to screen in a big Hollywood film. Starring Tom Cruise as the young and naive Mitch McDeere, The Firm follows the murky underbelly of prestigious law firms. After passing the bar, Mitch joins a high-powered law firm in Tennessee only to realize that they are on the wrong side of the law. Helping mobsters hailing from Chicago to hide tax fraud, Mitch realizes that this is not what he signed up for. But it isn’t so easy to turn in your two weeks’ notice. Mitch learns that no one quits the titular firm. You stay or you die. There is no middle ground.

With the help of his wife Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), Mitch turns against the company that literally paid and housed him to coordinate with the FBI. The Firm turns into a full-blown thriller as Mitch tries to avoid getting killed while leaving this life behind. All’s well that ends well as Mitch and Abby make it out with their lives. But Grisham did cite to Entertainment Weekly that the changed ending wasn’t what he intended. Instead of making off with mob money to live their lives in the Caymans, the McDeere family moves humbly back to Boston where they learn their lesson about getting involved with greedy corporations. The film was an honest first stab at Grisham’s source material, but his best adaptations were still to come.

2. The Pelican Brief (1993)

Release the same year as  The Firm ,  The Pelican Brief  shows another side to the legal thriller genre, but with far higher stakes. After the assassinations of two Supreme Court Justices, humble law student Darby Shaw (Julia Roberts), writes the titular brief theorizing why they were killed. Darby gives her findings to her love and law professor, Callahan (Sam Shepard), who passes them along to an FBI contact. But he dies soon after in an explosion, and Darby starts to suspect her theory is correct. She joins up with investigative journalist Gray Grantham (Denzel Washington) – who is the only person she can trust.

What culminates is confirmation that all of Darby’s suspicions were correct – the Justices were assassinated over oil drilling that would threaten an endangered species of pelicans. Rich oil tycoon Mattiece wants to commence drilling, and the Justices were the only ones in his way. As a legal thriller,  The Pelican Brief  shines with Roberts’ and Washington’s casting. Everything is wrapped up at the end as Grantham writes a story including evidence of the conspiracy. The pelicans are saved, and Darby only has to deal with the added trauma of watching her lover blow up in a car bomb. More than anything,  The Pelican Brief  is an exercise in idealism. After the report comes out, the oil tycoon is arrested, and the guilty go to jail. Everything turns out how it is supposed to, a concept that may seem foreign to modern viewers.

3. The Client (1994)

A who’s who of ‘90s stars,  The Client  utilizes its cast with some of the biggest names of the time. Earning an Acadamy Award Nomination for the film, the legal drama stars Susan Sarandon as recovering alcoholic lawyer Reggie Love who tries to protect a young boy — Mark Sway (the late Brad Renfro) — who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After witnessing the suicide of a mob lawyer, Mark becomes a target for D.A. Roy Foltrigg (Tommy Lee Jones), who becomes convinced the boy knows the location of a buried mobster. With little concern for Mark and only wanting to get his name in the press, Roy questions him without his mother’s consent, leading to a conflict between him and Reggie. But as much as Reggie wants to protect her client’s civil rights, a bigger problem arises when the mob tries to kill Mark before he can reveal where the body is. 

The two sides eventually come to terms, sending Mark and his family into witness protection. The moving story of Reggie and Mark’s relationship became such a hit that a short-lived television series was greenlit after the film’s release.  The Client  television series aired from 1995-1996 with all major roles recast. The series lasted only 21 episodes before cancelation. The original movie, however, remains an example of a gripping thriller with a heartwrenching story at its center.

4. A Time To Kill (1996)

Recalling famous lawyers in fiction may bring images of Atticus Finch from  To Kill A Mockingbird , but Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) in  A Time To Kill  should be remembered as one of the most impressive demonstrations of lawyers in film and television. The film explores Jake’s impossible task of defending a black man for murder in the South and the resulting philosophical quandaries.

After Carl Lee Hailey’s (Samuel L. Jackson) daughter is sexually assaulted by two white men, he takes the law into his own hands and kills them in public view. The issue isn’t if the two men are racist and guilty of the crime — which they definitively are — it is if Carl Lee can get a fair trial in Mississippi with an entirely white jury for a crime that is entirely justified. Jake faces constant obstacles with his role in the case, particularly from the Ku Klux Klan – who target his home. The violence doesn’t discourage him but further inflames his desire for justice.  A Time To Kill  is the legal drama at its pinnacle, especially because of its thematic relevance in American culture. But at its core, it asks the question: If it were your daughter, what would you do?

5. The Chamber (1996)

The same year that John Grisham’s magnum opus,  A Time To Kill,  premiered, another movie released also tackling race but with decidedly less prestige. Roger Ebert was one of many outlets that maligned the film, giving it a measly two stars. Set in the final days before unapologetic racist Sam Cayhall (Gene Hackman) is set to be executed for hate crimes, his grandson, newly minted lawyer Adam (Chris O’Donnell), appeals the case. Journeying from Chicago to the South has little to do with thinking that Sam is innocent and more to do with understanding why Sam blew up the building of a Jewish attorney 30 years ago. But the more Adam becomes involved, the closer he gets to the truth that his grandfather was not alone in the crime.

The Chamber  is one of Grisham’s murkier adaptations, introducing an unequivocally racist character, only to attempt to absolve them of these acts. Thankfully, Sam isn’t completely forgiven and meets his destiny of execution. As a wound in the history of Adam’s family, Sam’s death means he can hopefully move on and heal.

6. The Rainmaker (1997)

The same year that Matt Damon wowed audiences with the Academy Award-Winning film — Good Will Hunting — the young actor also found himself in impressive company while starring in The Rainmaker . Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the legal drama became one of John Grisham’s more warmly regarded adaptations. This time, the film doesn’t revolve around a hot-shot lawyer who impresses courtrooms with his incomparable skill. Instead, The Rainmaker is far more subtle, focusing on Damon’s Rudy Baylor. After failing the bar exam six times, Rudy passes in Tennessee, where he comes across a family taken advantage of by an insurance company – ironically named Great Benefit.

In a story that could only exist in America, Rudy sets out to champion a young man, Donny Ray Black (Johnn Whitworth), who is dying of leukemia because his insurance company keeps denying his claims. The end of The Rainmaker has no triumphant conclusion with the underdog lawyer taking on the big insurance company. Donny Ray dies from his illness, and the insurance company goes bankrupt – therefore not liable to pay Rudy’s fee or damages to the family of the deceased. The film does, however, shine a light on the hard-working people whose ideals encourage them to keep fighting.

7. The Gingerbread Man (1998)

When The Gingerbread Man was released, it was the only movie not adapted from one of John Grisham’s novels. According to Entertainment Weekly , the source material came from an original screenplay written by Grisham and directed by Robert Altman. And just like when Stephen King directed an original story of his own in the horror film Maximum Overdrive , so too does The Gingerbread Man seem like a far cry from Grisham’s usual fare. Though the stacked cast has plenty of talent, from Oppenheimer ‘ s Kenneth Branagh to Robert Duvall, it lacks the subtlety of many of Grisham’s stories.

After Georgian lawyer Magruder (Branagh), embarks on a sexual relationship with waitress Mallory Doss (Embeth Davidtz), he quickly becomes aware of dark forces in his lover’s life. Plagued by her father — Dixon (Duvall) — who has an unhealthy obsession with her, Magruder goes the extra mile to use his influence in the legal realm to throw him in jail. The conflict at the center of the film had the potential to be interesting. Even if Magruder’s intentions are good, is he ultimately just as bad as Mallory’s father? He does anything and everything for a woman he has just met, including violating his custody agreement and breaking the law. This question is never fully answered, but there is still an element of entertainment in the film. The Gingerbread Man lacks the courtroom drama that is so prevalent in Grishman’s stories but leans into the delightful melodrama that such a film can afford.

8. A Painted House (2003)

A Painted House shies away from the usual subject matter of John Grisham’s bibliography. Instead of a gripping legal drama, the movie made for television is a quiet exploration of a humble family. CBS News reported that the story was based on Grisham’s childhood in Arkansas, and was originally published in six parts for the Oxford American magazine before being adapted as a television movie. Told through the perspective of young Luke Chandler (Logan Lerman), the period piece is a coming-of-age story about cotton farmers in the 1950s.

While exploring the difficulties of cotton farming, Luke learns life lessons about the nature of people. After working a hard harvest — and a few murders — a flood destroys the entire cotton crop. This event causes a lifestyle change for the entire family as they decide to move out of the farming business. By relocating to the city and working at a Buick plant, the family can move on from their dire straits. They have been struggling for generations in their poor circumstances and finally have a way out of it. This decision pleases Luke’s mother and provides a learning opportunity for Luke. While the genre of the story differs from Grisham’s previous works, it does have a similar ending. Grisham’s stories often preach idealism and allow characters to be able to look forward to their future. Although Luke had a difficult upbringing, his experiences allow him to become the person he is meant to be.

9. Runaway Jury (2003)

Gene Hackman returns in another John Grisham adaptation in Runaway Jury . Instead of the unrepentant racist he portrays in The Chamber , he turns his attention to the role of an alternately sordid character – Rankin Fitch. Fitch is hired as a jury consultant whose prime objective is to puppeteer a jury into being sympathetic in a case against a gun manufacturer. But while he blackmails jurors into voting the way he wants, Fitch is surprised to find that someone on the inside has a different objective. Juror Nicholas Easter (John Cusack) has teamed up with Marlee (Rachel Weisz) on the outside and plans on pushing the jury in whatever direction that pays the highest. This thriller is high stakes and points out just how corrupt the legal system is.

But what starts as a cat-and-mouse game that seems just for profit is later revealed as extremely personal. It turns out that Marlee’s sister died in a shooting, and Fitch’s role in the previous case meant that the gun manufacturer got off free. Now is Marlee’s chance to get retribution and justice for those who have been hurt by him in the past. Both she and Nicholas blackmail Fitch into retiring, using his own game of manipulation to stop his practices once and for all. While the concept on the surface is outrageous, Runaway Jury is a shining example of what makes legal thrillers so entertaining.

10. Christmas With the Kranks (2004)

Christmas With the Kranks was John Grisham’s foray into comedic writing. Based on his book, Skipping Christmas , the holiday comedy stars Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis as Luther and Nora – two parents that impulsively decide to go on a Caribbean vacation instead of celebrating Christmas. This decision begins an alarming reaction from the neighbors, who take it as a personal slight that one house in the neighborhood will go undecorated for the holiday season. Though this is plausible in a neighborhood where suburbanites have nothing better to do, that doesn’t excuse the rest of the film’s antics. When their daughter Blair (Julie Gonzalo) decides to come home with her fiancé for the holidays, it is a mad dash to abandon their idea of a cruise and prepare for the holiday with only days to spare.

The concept of the film makes one wonder about the logistics of this decision. Hadn’t they already paid for their cruise tickets? Couldn’t they just explain the situation to Blair? Who knows. What matters is the entire neighborhood bans together to throw the holiday celebration of a lifetime. A movie of this nature may have value as a saccharine holiday film to turn your brain off, but it also makes one long for even the melodramatic content of The Gingerbread Man . Grisham has excelled in legal dramas for a reason, and perhaps that is where he should stay.

11. The Firm TV series (2012)

The most exciting thing about the television series The Firm , is perhaps the Battlestar Galactica reunion between Tricia Helfer and Callum Keith Rennie. The two both played Cylons in the critically acclaimed sci-fi series. Other than that, the NBC series that only lasted a season pales in comparison to the property that gave it its name. The 2012 series is not a full reboot of the Tom Cruise film but a sequel. Set a decade after Mitch McDeere (Josh Lucas) put away gangsters from the Chicago mob, he — for some reason — decides to leave witness protection and return to his roots of practicing law.

Almost immediately the mob targets him, and he is in the same predicament he was 10 years prior. Once again, Mitch joins a prestigious law firm only to realize they have ties to people that want him dead. The series only lasted 22 episodes and failed to get picked up for a second season. While the show tried its best by bringing back characters from the original film, it fails to capture the high stakes of its predecessor and only succeeds in rehashing old news as a sanitized network television version.

12. The Innocent Man (2018)

The only movie in John Grisham’s repertoire that isn’t based on a fictional novel, Netflix’s  The Innocent Man  is based on the author’s true crime best seller of the same name. The film is a documentary that details the murders of Debbie Carter and Denise Haraway. Four men were convicted in connection to the crimes but went on to maintain their innocence. Like many characters in his previous works, the suspects in the case are part of what appears to be a larger conspiracy.

The documentary explores the likelihood that the police coerced these men’s confessions. Evidence for the case had not been properly gathered, and those arrested for the crime had come close to execution for the murders. The implication that the police furthered this false narrative is woven throughout the series, and though Grisham has only written about the events in a non-fictionalized version, that shouldn’t stop him from writing something inspired by the case. We all know what the former lawyer can do when he gets inspiration from life. If he ever writes a fiction book about these murders, we could have another  A Time To Kill .

The 13 Best Legal Thrillers, Ranked

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Bursting with gripping tension, electric character drama, and operating with grounded yet extreme stakes, legal thrillers have become an evergreen aspect of cinema, ranging from timeless classics released decades ago to clever and inventive spins on the genre in the modern day. Many of these movies have come to define the decades they were released in, featuring A-list talent eager to use the concentrated formula of courtroom drama to put their talents on full display.

Legal thrillers are also a perfect platform for filmmakers to explore contentious and even controversial topics of their time, exploring not only characters and themes but also placing the spotlight on the flaws of the legal system and bureaucracy. With that in mind, the verdict is in, and these movies stand as the best legal thrillers that have ever graced the screen .

13 'The Lincoln Lawyer' (2011)

Directed by brad furman.

Matthew McConaughey 's renaissance began long before he won the 2014 Best Actor Oscar. In fact, one could argue it started with the outstanding legal thriller The Lincoln Lawyer , based on the 2005 eponymous novel. The plot follows lawyer Mickey Haller (McConaughey), a charismatic DA who agrees to defend a wealthy playboy accused of attempted murder. What seemingly begins as a straightforward case soon evolves into something more sinister.

Although decidedly unwilling to step outside of the established legal thriller formula, The Lincoln Lawyer makes the most out of its familiar setting and premise. McConaughey shines in one of his most interesting roles, effortlessly blending charisma with cunning, supported by a stellar supporting cast, including Oscar winner Marisa Tomei . Solid and continuously twisting, The Lincoln Lawyer is an engaging legal thriller that hits all the right notes .

The Lincoln Lawyer (2011)

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12 'Presumed Innocent' (1990)

Directed by alan j. pakula.

Harrison Ford stars as the reserved prosecutor Rusty Sabich in the 1990 legal thriller Presumed Innocent . The story sees Sabich investigating the murder of a colleague, Carolyn Polhemus ( Greta Scacchi ), who was also his mistress. When evidence implicates him in the crime, Sabich's life comes crumbling down.

Presumed Innocent features one of Harrison Ford's most interesting and layered characters , the morally dubious, taciturn, and often puzzling Rusty Sabich. The film understands the importance of consistency in a thriller narrative, remaining tight and steady throughout its 127-minute runtime. Ford is key to its success, anchoring the riveting action with an arresting performance that ranks among his finest. Subtle yet impactful, Presumed Innocent is among the most intelligent and complicated entries into the legal thriller sub-genre .

Presumed Innocent

11 'the verdict' (1982), directed by sidney lumet.

The legendary Paul Newman delivers one of the best performances of his revered career in Sidney Lumet 's 1982 legal thriller The Verdict . The plot follows Frank Galvin, a once-promising alcoholic lawyer who takes on a case of medical malpractice, hoping to improve his standing. However, he soon becomes emotionally involved in the drama.

The Verdict is incredible in every possible level. Lumet's direction is precise and confident, and David Mamet 's screenplay is as insightful and biting as one would expect. Still, it's Newman who elevates the film to a new height, portraying Galvin with raw vulnerability and contagious passion, particularly in the now-famous courtroom scenes. The Verdict is a seminal entry into the legal thriller canon and an enduring testament to the magic that happens when the perfect director finds the perfect script and lead actor.

The Verdict

10 'a time to kill' (1996), directed by joel schumacher.

John Grisham ’s famous legal novels have made for several sensational film adaptations over the years, with 1996’s A Time to Kill one of many highlights of the genre throughout the 1990s. In Mississippi, Carl Lee Hailey ( Samuel L. Jackson ) kills the two white men who assaulted his 10-year-old daughter. Facing the death penalty and forced to stand what will surely be an unjust trial in a racist state, Carl turns to the young and hungry lawyer Jake Brigance (Matthew McConaughey) to represent him.

While running for a lengthy two-and-a-half hours, A Time to Kill is a consistently enthralling film defined by its strong performances and stirring story of morality and justice . Critics were somewhat mixed or lukewarm on it, but its standing has certainly improved since its original release. Meanwhile, audiences responded well to A Time to Kill , turning it into something of an enduring hit of 90s Hollywood cinema and one of Joel Schumacher 's most celebrated movies .

A Time to Kill

9 'primal fear' (1996), directed by gregory hoblit.

An engulfing legal drama that also excels as a riveting psychological thriller and a tense unraveling mystery, Primal Fear is famous for Edward Norton ’s star-making performance and its shocking twist ending. It follows Martin Vail ( Richard Gere ), an esteemed lawyer who takes on a job linked to the highly publicized murder of the archbishop of Chicago at the hands of an altar boy. The more Vail looks into the suspect, the more complicated the case grows as the church’s heinous secrets are revealed.

Primal Fear is an exemplary procedural thriller, staying within the lines of the genre’s constraints while still milking every drop of tension and drama possible. Its central mystery stirs impassioned responses from the audience, making for a spirited viewing where what is right and what is legal don’t necessarily overlap. Rising on the strength of Gere and especially Norton's performances, Primal Fear is among the most celebrated and emblematic legal thrillers of the '90s .

Primal Fear

8 'the firm' (1993), directed by sydney pollack.

One of the best commercial successes based on John Grisham’s novels, The Firm hinges on a note-perfect Tom Cruise performance as a rollicking big studio thriller with its sights on toxic boardroom culture and shady, underhand dealings in major firms. It follows Mitch McDeere, an energetic but naïve young lawyer, fresh out of law school, as he lands his dream job at a prestigious firm. However, as Mitch learns more about their operations, he finds himself in a difficult moral conundrum that only grows more complex when the FBI gets involved.

Breezy while still consistently exciting, The Firm is brilliant as an effective legal thriller that uses its story to explore themes of corruption and crime . While its greatest strength is the litany of small yet crucial important parts it has, it is undeniably Tom Cruise’s film. The actor excels at making it his own, anchoring the increasingly anxious plot and cementing it as one of his best big-screen efforts.

7 'The Rainmaker' (1997)

Directed by francis ford coppola.

One of the most underrated directorial efforts from Francis Ford Coppola , The Rainmaker was not as big a box office hit as some of the other Grisham adaptations, but it does stand as one of the best adaptations of the author’s work. An emotionally stirring film, it follows Rudy Baylor ( Matt Damon ), a young and inexperienced lawyer who agrees to represent a young boy dying of leukemia when a corrupt corporation refuses to pay for his treatment.

The Rainmaker is one of the truest adaptations of Grisham’s work , thriving at realizing the author’s knack for making every character feel important while filling each of the supporting cast’s imperative stories with great drama and emotional heft. The result is a rewarding and powerful legal thriller, a beautiful display of Coppola’s excellence in his craft that makes the most out of its impressive cast’s immense talent.

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6 'A Few Good Men' (1994)

Directed by rob reiner.

Another Tom Cruise thriller that has become one of the most iconic pictures of the 1990s, A Few Good Men blends its legal intensity with military politics in a brilliant screenplay by Aaron Sorkin . Cruise stars as Daniel Kaffee, an inexperienced JAG Corps Lieutenant tasked with defending two Marines charged with killing a fellow soldier. As Kaffee grows suspicious of his assignment, he calls Col. Jessup ( Jack Nicholson ) to the stand in an attempt to expose a conspiracy.

Praised for being an old-school courtroom thriller with a modern and electric edge, A Few Good Men is an effective story about truth and justice that excels at stirring strong emotions . Buoyed by some powerful acting performances from Cruise, Demi Moore , and an Oscar-nominated Nicholson, A Few Good Men 's standing as one of the best Hollywood courtroom thrillers simply can’t be refuted.

A Few Good Men

5 'anatomy of a murder' (1959), directed by otto preminger.

Many of the greatest legal thrillers cinema has seen were released decades ago, with the 1950s proving to be an enduring goldmine of the genre. One of the decade’s best films is 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder , which follows small-town barrister Paul Biegler ( Jimmy Stewart ) as he defends an army officer standing trial for murdering the man who supposedly assaulted his wife. As the extensive trial plays out, the nature of the truth becomes harder to completely understand.

The 160-minute runtime breezes by as viewers are entrenched in a gripping and thought-provoking story that revels in the moral ambiguity of the courtroom . Fascinating characters brought vividly to life by some astounding performances further contribute to the film's piercing effect. Anatomy of a Murder also stands as one of the most realistic and thorough explorations of the legal system and a lawyer’s job, often celebrated for its educational value and engaging narrative.

Anatomy of a Murder

4 'to kill a mockingbird' (1962), directed by robert mulligan.

An enduring masterpiece of 60s cinema that, sadly, has a timeless quality about it, To Kill a Mockingbird sees Gregory Peck put in the defining performance of his career as Atticus Finch. Based on Harper Lee ’s 1960 novel, the film takes place in the South during the Depression as Finch defends a black man facing fabricated rape charges. As he struggles to rise above the public outcry, Finch also tries to raise his children to be fair and decent.

While it flaunts a strong and clear social message, To Kill a Mockingbird never allows it to completely overshadow the story. Indeed, the film excels as a gripping legal thriller with commanding overtones of the ugliest side of American society . To Kill a Mockingbird went on to win three Academy Awards, and while its politics haven't exactly aged without their problems, it remains one of the great American pictures.

To Kill A Mockingbird

3 'anatomy of a fall' (2023), directed by justine triet.

One of the major contenders throughout the most recent awards season, Anatomy of a Fall made an immediate impact on critics and audiences alike as one of the most enthralling and intelligent legal thrillers ever made. It transpires in the aftermath of the mysterious death of a man who lives in the French Alps with his family. As the investigation suspects his wife, Sandra ( Sandra Hüller ), of foul play, the couple’s blind 11-year-old son becomes a vital witness.

Anchoring its suspense in family drama and the outcome of Sandra’s trial, Anatomy of a Fall is unbelievably engrossing . Its ambiguity forces viewers to constantly second-guess their opinions on the story while its narrative keeps them on the edge of their seats. Director and co-writer Justine Triet received universal praise for her expert handling of a complicated narrative, even winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay alongside Arthur Harari .

Anatomy of a Fall

2 'witness for the prosecution' (1957), directed by billy wilder.

Based on Agatha Christie ’s 1953 stage play of the same name, Witness for the Prosecution was warmly received upon release, earning six Oscar nominations, and has only gotten better with age. It tracks Sir Wilfred Robarts ( Charles Laughton ), an esteemed lawyer recovering from a heart attack, who represents a seemingly good-natured man accused of murdering a wealthy woman. However, when the accused’s wife testifies against him, Robarts finds himself embroiled in a convoluted web of lies that leaves him facing an ethical dilemma.

With Christie’s trademark wit and mystery intrigue, the film is an enthralling crime thriller that uses its winding and unpredictable story to keep a distinctive sense of dread throughout the proceedings. Coasting off terrific performances from all involved, Witness for the Prosecution is a pristine example of legal thrills executed incredibly well . The fact that it is still regarded among the best films of the genre is a testament to its excellent screenplay and Billy Wilder ’s ingenious direction.

Witness for the Prosecution

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1 '12 Angry Men' (1957)

One of the true masterpieces of cinema that has stood the test of time and, remarkably, serves as director Sidney Lumet ’s feature film debut , 12 Angry Men is a simple legal drama in the style of a thriller done to absolute perfection. It follows 12 jurors sitting on the trial of an 18-year-old accused of stabbing his father. While 11 of the jurors vote that he is guilty, juror #8 ( Henry Fonda ) challenges their views as he argues there is reasonable doubt.

Based on Reginald Rose ’s teleplay of the same name, the entirety of the film takes place in one cramped room, with tensions rising between the jurors as their debate over the case intensifies. The result is a brilliantly written legal drama with thriller elements, bolstered by astute direction and several fine performances, that explores its themes and characters in great detail. It is universally heralded as one of the greatest movies of all time, the ultimate example of the one-versus-many narrative present in many modern thrillers.

12 Angry Men

NEXT: The 25 Best Crime Movies of All Time, Ranked

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Glen Powell Spent 6 Hours Watching a Tom Cruise Video ‘Breaking Down Everything He’s Learned About Filmmaking,’ Says Chris Pratt Helped Open the Door For His Success

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Glen Powell told some of his best Tom Cruise stories as part of a cover story interview with GQ UK magazine . The two actors became close friends during the production of “Top Gun: Maverick.” Powell originally auditioned for the role of Rooster, but he was beat out by Miles Teller. Cruise liked Powell and offered him the role of Hangman, but Powell had some notes.

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“Tom goes ‘oh no, oh no,’ and he starts dropping the helicopter over London,” Powell said. “I was like, ‘Am I about to be the unnamed guy that dies with Tom in a smoking hole in the middle of London?’”

Another memory is when Cruise sent Powell to a theater in Los Angeles to show him a “film school” video that Cruise had put together for his friends.

“Powell expected to be among a crowd – but no, it was just him alone, in an empty theater. For  six hours ,” GQ UK reports. “Watching Tom Cruise speak directly to the camera, breaking down everything he’s learned about filmmaking over the years. According to Powell, Cruise has no intention of putting it out into the public sphere.”

“He said, ‘This is just for my friends’,” Powell said. “[In the video Cruise] is like: ‘Do we all agree that this is what a camera is? This is the difference between a film camera and a digital camera…’ The funniest part is on flying. It was like he put together this entire flight school. So he would literally go, ‘Ok, this is what a plane is. Here’s how things fly. Here’s how air pressure works.’”

Powell is finally becoming one of Hollywood’s go-to leading men. He scored a box office hit last year with Sony’s rom-com “Anyone but You” and is front and center as a co-lead in this summer’s tentpole “Twisters.” It’s been a long time coming for the actor, who told GQ UK he screwed up auditions to play Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Han Solo in the “Star Wars” prequel “Solo.”

“I can joke about it now,” Powell said of his “Solo” casting process. “[But] I blew that final audition.”

Powell is no longer interested in superhero roles, although he did say that Batman would most likely be the only one worth his time.

“I was always a Batman guy,” Powell said. “I would have a wild take on Batman. It definitely would not be like a Matt Reeves tone – it’d probably be closer to [Michael] Keaton. 

According to Powell, Hollywood became a lot more favorable on him thanks to the success of actors like Chris Pratt in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and Chris Hemsworth in “Thor.”

“I really do feel like a lot of Hollywood is which actors are in vogue,” Powell said. “What everybody does is end up writing to that thing. All of a sudden, when Robert Pattinson pops off, they’re like, ‘We want a brooding Robert Pattinson type.’ You see it in every script.”

Once Pratt found blockbuster success with “Guardians,” Hollywood became more interested in goofier leading men and not just the brooding, self-serious type.

“These guys can take a punch and sell a joke,” Powell said of Pratt and Hemsworth. “I feel like that’s when I started catching friction on the sidewalk.”

Head over to GQ UK’s website to read Powell’s profile in its entirety.

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