Summary
Since making his big screen debut inBlack Hawk Down,Tom Hardy has built a career as a versatile leading man, working with many of the best directors in the business. Hardy first made a name for himself in HBO’s war dramaBand of Brothers.Like many of the stars of that show, he has since gone on to bigger and better things. Hardy steadily built a career as a supporting actor before establishing himself as a leading man with hits such asBronsonandWarrior.With the success of a few big-budget blockbusters, includingInception,Hardy quickly became a star.
Tom Hardy is a versatile performer known for making bold choices. Even his most divisive performances show more creativity and flair than most other actors ever dare to muster. That isn’t to say that he isn’t capable of acing subtler dramatic roles. His performances inTinker Tailor Soldier SpyandLockeshow that he has the fundamentals to back up his splashier roles. Hardy has starred in action blockbusters, crime dramas and much more. The one constant across his entire career has been his dedication to creating immersive, believable characters.
Why Christopher Nolan Cast A Then-Unknown Tom Hardy In Inception
Tom Hardy is a huge movie star, but before 2010’s Inception he was a much lesser-known actor. Here’s why Christopher Nolan cast him as Eames.
35LD 50 Lethal Dose (2003)
Matt
LD 50 Lethal Doseis a low-budget horror movie about a group of animal rights activists who break into a remote laboratory to free one of their imprisoned comrades. Although he had already been in a few high-profile projects, includingBlack Hawk DownandBand of Brothers,Tom Hardy isn’t given much to do. He blends in with the rest of the group in this schlocky horror movie, which suffers from an uninteresting plot and a dependence on nonsensical sci-fi mumbo jumbo.Tom Hardy will likely never appear in a worse movie for the rest of his career.
34Minotaur (2006)
Theo
Minotauris a loose adaptation of the Greek myth of Theseus. This story has lasted for millennia, butMinotaurmanages to make it feel like a dreary slog.Minotaurcould have had the making of an interesting horror movie if it had dared to stray further from the tired formula of historical dramas. Ultimately,Minotaurtakes itself too seriously, and its alterations to the original myth strip the legend of its meaning. It’s a low-budget TV movie that takes a well-known story and butchers it for no discernible reason, butit also doesn’t have enough originality to enter so-bad-it’s-good territory.
33Flood (2007)
Zak
Floodis a paint-by-numbers disaster movie, but it doesn’t feature anything as cinematic as a plane crash or a volcanic eruption. Instead, the threat facing London is a big, although not biblical, flood. From this lame starting point,Floodhits all the disaster movie clichés, such as the politicians squabbling in a crisis room and rescue workers battling their personal shortcomings to get people to safety. The stakes are relatively low, and the special effects are utterly underwhelming, both of which help makeFlooda generic and forgettable flop.
32Sucker Punch (2008)
Rodders
Tom Hardy looks out of place inSucker Punch,a movie that looks cheap and lacks any real filmmaking guile. He only has a minor role to play, and perhapsSucker Punchwould be more interesting with him as the star. The story follows a fighter who wants revenge after a humiliating defeat, but there isn’t enough going on outside the ring forSucker Punchto stay interesting.The film’s one saving grace is that the fight scenes are often genuinely compelling. There are no camera tricks or sleight of hand, just stunt performers putting on a show.
31EMR (2004)
Henry
EMRis another one of Tom Hardy’s early-career movies that would have benefited from giving him a bigger part to play. The story weaves together a few urban legends, such as kidney harvesting and secret psychotropic drug experiments, and they are all filtered through the skeptical worldview of a protagonist who spends his days reading about conspiracy theories.Not all the twists deliver a decent payoff, butEMRhas a creative approach to its subject.With a little more intelligence and some more interesting visuals,EMRcould have been an indie gem, rather than a merely passable drama.
30Deserter (2002)
Pascal Dupont
Deserteris based on the true story of Simon Murray, who also helped write the script. Murray joins the French Foreign Legion filled with youthful idealism, but his illusions are soon shattered when he meets his fellow recruits, who have less noble reasons for signing up. Tom Hardy plays Pascal Dupont, the man who best typifies the self-serving, cynical worldview of some soldiers.Deserterisn’t the greatest war movie, but it does benefit from Simon Murray’s real-life experiences, particularly with the brutal scenes of the training camp.
Child 44is based on the novel by Tom Rob Smith, which itself was inspired by the haunting case of Andrei Chikatilo, the most notorious serial killer in the Soviet Union.Tom Hardy brings a potent mix of surly menace and suppressed emotion to the role of Leo Demidov, a hero from the Second World War who finds himself in the 1950s as a security agent on the trail of a killer.Child 44fails to deliver on its fascinating premise, and the conflict between Demidov and the state never truly boils over in the way it threatens to. Its ponderous pace made it a box office bomb.
28The Killing Gene (2007)
Pierre Jackson
The Killing Geneis a detective thriller in the same vein as David Fincher’sSe7en,but it also seems to take inspiration fromSaw.Ultimately, it isn’t as effective as either of these movies. WhatThe Killing Genedoes well is deliver plenty of nauseating torture scenes, coupled with an investigation into human nature.The philosophical themes are a little lightweight in the end, asThe Killing Genefocuses more on engendering an unsettling atmosphere. Its cast is more than capable of achieving this, especially Stellan Skarsgård who retreads familiar territory as a world-weary detective.
27Thick As Thieves (2009)
Michaels
Thick as Thieves,also known asThe Code, is a heist drama that sticks to every trope in the book. The thieves even task themselves with stealing Fabergé eggs, a particular treasure which appears so frequently in crime dramas and cartoons that one would think they are vital to global trade in some way. Morgan Freeman does what he can to bring some gravitas to the drama, but he can only do so much to put some new luster on a collection of old ideas and unnecessary twists. There is just enough quality on show to makeThick as Thievesseem competent, but it isn’t breaking any new ground.
26The Reckoning (2003)
Straw
Tom Hardy plays one of his most unusual roles inThe Reckoning.He’s part of a merry traveling theater troupe in the 14th century who decide to use their relative impunity to present an alternative story of events when a woman is sentenced to death. Hardy is the troupe’s crossdressing performer, who delights in daintily applying makeup before strutting sensually around the stage. His character and the period setting makeThe Reckoningfeel like William Shakespeare’s version of a murder mystery, although that isn’t to say that the script is up to his standards.
