This Tom Cruise Legal Thriller Had Him Facing Off Against Gene Hackman

John Grisham's second novel, The Firm, was so popular that a film adaptation was already hotly anticipated by the time the book hit the shelves. In 1993, Sydney Pollack's feature adaptation was released, and combined with the success of the book, the two created a mutually massive hit, which soared on the screen as much as it did on the page. The Firm stars Tom Cruise as young hotshot attorney Mitch McDeere. Mitch begins working at a law firm in Memphis, Tennessee with Gene Hackman's Avery as his mentor. The dynamite combo of seeing Cruise at his peak powers between Top Gun and the first Mission: Impossible acting against the legendary Hackman is enough to make this movie worth watching, but the ensemble cast sprawled throughout the cat-and-mouse game that is The Firm leaves it even more exciting.