Tom Cruise has been one of Hollywood’s top leading men for four decades, but he has a hidden masterpiece from 2001 that doesn’t get enough credit. Five years after Cruise starred in Cameron Crowe’s mᴀssive romantic comedy hit Jerry Maguire, the two re-teamed for the psychological sci-fi thriller Vanilla Sky, a remake of a 1997 Spanish-language film.

Vanilla Sky tells the story of David Aames, Jr. (Tom Cruise), the wealthy owner of a publishing company he inherited. However, David is in prison for killing his lover and is telling his story to a court psychologist (Kurt Russell). Soon, the two men realize there might be a conspiracy against David, and the truth leads to an extraordinary discovery.

Why Tom Cruise’s Vanilla Sky Is Secretly A 2000s Movie Masterpiece

Cameron Crowe & Tom Cruise Created A Cult Classic

When Crowe and Cruise made Jerry Maguire, it was lightning in a bottle. Crowe used Cruise’s movie star looks and charisma to tell the story of someone who finds love in an unexpected place, and it worked perfectly. In Vanilla Sky, Crowe used Cruise’s looks differently, as he showed them from a point of vanity and then broke him down.

In Vanilla Sky, David is a wealthy womanizer who meets a new woman named Sofia (Penélope Cruz) and the two end up falling in love. However, David has a former jealous girlfriend named Julie (Cameron Diaz) who offers him a ride and then purposefully crashes the car, killing herself, and leaving David’s face disfigured.

David slips into a depression, which Sofia helps pull him out of. However, when he wakes up with her one day and sees that Julie has replaced Sofia, he freaks out and kills her. This leads to the main story, with unexpected twists and turns that reveal nothing in David’s world was as it seemed since the accident.

Having Vanilla Sky deconstruct Tom Cruise for what remains one of his most distinguishable traits was daring, and it worked perfectly. However, there was more to the movie than just breaking down Cruise’s persona. As expected from a Cameron Crowe movie, music played a considerable role in the storytelling.

Crowe’s career genesis was as a music journalist, and he knows how music tells a story. His wife at the time, Nancy Wilson of Heart, scored the movie, and it includes some iconic songs. The most memorable of these was The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” during the climax when the final mind-bending twist was revealed.

Vanilla Sky even earned an Oscar nomination for Best Song, for Paul McCartney’s “Vanilla Sky,” a track that the Beatles’ superstar recorded for the movie after seeing about half an hour of the film’s footage. The soundtrack also included songs by Radiohead, R.E.M., Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, and many more.

Why Vanilla Sky Wasn’t Appreciated More Upon Release

The Complex Structure Required Multiple Viewings

When Vanilla Sky was released, it was met with excitement by many fans. The last time Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise collaborated was on the highly successful Jerry Maguire, a romantic comedy that won Cuba Gooding Jr. an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and remains a beloved genre entry to this day. Vanilla Sky was very different though.

Before this, Crowe had made mostly real-life movies. He told stories about the Seattle grunge scene (Singles), a cute coming-of-age rom-com (Say Anything), and a semi-autobiographical look at a rock band on the road (Almost Famous). Vanilla Sky was his first foray into sci-fi, and it was the last time he would take a chance like this in his career.

It seems that, at the time, no one wanted to see Tom Cruise in a psychological thriller that seemed more confusing than his typical action roles. Even his other sci-fi movies seemed straightforward, and this wasn’t what fans of Cruise or Crowe wanted from them. The movie performed well at the box office, but its reviews were less than favorable.

Most of the reviews complained about its complicated structure, which was sure to turn off some moviegoers. Roger Ebert said as much in his positive review when he wrote that “This is the kind of movie you don’t want to analyze until you’ve seen it two times.” So, Vanilla Sky needed to become a cult classic to find its legacy.

Vanilla Sky Is A Remake Of A Movie That’s Also Brilliant

Penélope Cruz Starred In Both Versions

Vanilla Sky was the remake of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes). The two movies shared one star, with Penélope Cruz playing the love interest Sofía in each version. The film has the same basic story, with the womanizing lead character (Eduardo Noriega in this original) left confused after an accident left him disfigured.

Interestingly, while Vanilla Sky has a low 42% Rotten Tomatoes score, Open Your Eyes has a much higher 87% rating. While Tom Cruise’s movie has become a cult classic, Open Your Eyes was respected from the start. It even earned 10 Goya Awards nominations, Spain’s version of the Academy Awards.

What Open Your Eyes does differently from Vanilla Sky is that it tells the story in a darker and more introspective tone. While Vanilla Sky features a vain and arrogant man thrust into a horrific situation, that story is mostly overshadowed by the idea of a conspiracy, making it more of a thriller than a dark exploration of the protagonist.

Also, despite its confusing narrative, Vanilla Sky answered the questions and wasn’t anywhere near as ambiguous as Amenábar’s film. Both are great in their own ways, but they tell the story differently; the original is a complex drama, and the latter is more of a psychological thriller.