The one big problem plaguing Tom Cruise’s movies for the past decade

THERE’S one big, glaring issue in Tom Cruise’s movies — and it’s been getting bigger, film by film, for the past decade. Have you noticed it?

HOLLYWOOD A-lister Tom Cruise gets older with each passing year — but his leading ladies stay exactly the same age.

It’s a phenomenon tracked by movie industry website Film School Rejects in a new article tracking Cruise’s career — complete with a Google Doc showing that as Cruise gets older, the age gap widens between he and his big screen female (and often romantic) leads.

At 55, Cruise may be well into middle age, but if this trend continues, his leading ladies will stay at around 30 years old for many years to come.

Don’t believe us? Take a look at Cruise’s film roles over the past decade of his career:

Mission Impossible III (2006)

Mission Impossible III.

Michelle Monaghan, 30, played Cruise’s wife in this instalment of the much-loved franchise. AGE GAP: 14 years

Valkyrie (2008)

Cruise with Carice.

Carice van Houten, then 32, played Cruise’s wife in the historical thriller. AGE GAP: 14 years

Knight and Day (2010)

An all-star pairing.

Fellow A-lister Cameron Diaz, then 37, teamed up with Cruise for this action caper. AGE GAP: 10 years

Rock Of Ages (2012)

Akerman and Cruise.

Actress Malin Akerman, then 34, played Cruise’s love interest in this poorly-received musical. AGE GAP: 15 years

Jack Reacher (2012)

Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike in a scene from film Jack Reacher

A 33-year-old Rosamund Pike stars alongside Cruise in this thriller. AGE GAP: 17 years

Oblivion (2013)

Cruise and Kurylenko.

Cruise and 33-year-old Olga Kurylenko play interstellar housemates in this sci-fi drama. AGE GAP: 18 years

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Blunt and Cruise

Cruise teams up with British star Emily Blunt, 31 for another sci-fi adventure. AGE GAP: 20 years

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)

Rebecca Ferguson.

Rebecca Ferguson, 31, is an undercover M16 agent working alongside Cruise in this Mission Impossible instalment. AGE GAP: 22 years

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Cruise and co-star Cobie Smulders in the front seat in last year’s Jack Reacher sequel.

Actress and model Cobie Smulders, 34, teamed up with Cruise for this next instalment in the Jack Reacher franchise. AGE GAP: 20 years

The Mummy (2017)

From left: Annabelle Wallis, Cruise and Sofia Boutella at The Mummy’s New York premiere.

This resurrection of The Mummy franchise pairs Cruise with actress Annabelle Wallis, 32, playing an archaeologist who has a complicated history with Cruise’s character. AGE GAP: 22 years

American Made (2017)

Tom Cruise and Sarah Wright Olsen in American Made. Picture: AP

In his latest film, a biopic about drug runner Barry Seal (who died at the age of 46, almost a decade younger than Cruise), Sarah Wright Olsen, 33, plays the star’s on-screen wife. AGE GAP: 22 years

While sexism is rife in Hollywood, where actresses routinely struggle to find work after ‘a certain age’, some of the blame for Cruise’s endless stream of age-inappropriate leading ladies could fall at the actor’s feet, if reports from the set of The Mummy are to be believed.

Calling it a “textbook case of a movie star run amok,” Variety quoted several sources from the film who say Cruise “exerted nearly complete creative oversight, essentially wearing all the hats and dictating even the smallest decisions on the set.”

The mag reported that Cruise was contractually afforded input into just about every aspect of the film’s production and promotion, from script approval through to when it would hit cinemas.