Tom Hanks is easily one of the most beloved actors of all time. He has an uncanny ability to take on a wide variety of characters and make them believable. He’s turned in some very powerful performances over the years in memorable movies like Forrest Gump, Big, Castaway, and The Terminal. Hanks has won six Academy Awards, including a rare back-to-back win in 1993 and 1994 for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump, respectively. Some would argue his more recent movie A Man Called Otto should have earned Hanks an Oscar as well.
One of the reasons why people love Tom Hanks is his acting range. Whether it’s a funny character or a serious one, he’s able to figure out the nuances of the performance and make it his own. Crimethrillers are one of his specialties, and they show that his serious side is just as good as his silly side. There are so many good Tom Hanks crime movies and these are the best of the best.
10 Inferno
In Inferno, Tom Hanks plays respected symbologist Robert Langdon. It was the third time Hanks took on the role of the hero in a movie based on the novel by Dan Brown. When Langdon wakes up in a hospital with no recollection of how he got there, he teams up with doctor Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones) to figure out what happened.
The pair race across Europe, trying to stop a madman (Ben Foster) who will stop at nothing to unleash a virus that has potential to destroy humanity. Langdon and Brooks follow clues based on the works of the poet Dante and end up in Istanbul where they must detonate a bomb to avoid catastrophe. Directed by Hollywood legend Ron Howard, Inferno followed a simple story but was elevated by Hanks’ powerful performance.
9 The Ladykillers
The Ladykillers is one of Tom Hanks’ lesser known films. It’s an offbeat crime caper directed by Joel and Ethan Coen who are known for creating screwball comedies that are witty, funny, and absurd. The movie revolves around a professor named G.H. Dorr (Hanks) who tries to rent a room at a house occupied by a lonely, religious woman. The professor’s goal is to use the room to work and rehearse his classical compositions, but he soon learns that the other residents of the house have more sinister plans in mind.
When the homeowner finds out about the residents’ plan to rob a casino, they decide she must be taken out. Dorr is caught in the middle and a series of mishaps foil the gangsters plans. Hanks delivers the best of both worlds in The Ladykillers, turning in a funny and nuanced performance that is seriously underrated in the context of his career.
8 Angels & Demons
Angels & Demons is the second installment in the trilogy about symbologist Robert Langdon. When a vial of antimatter is stolen from a lab, it’s up to Langdon to fly to Vatican City and find out what the thief is up to. Langdon realizes that the plan is driven by a villain named the Hassassin with ties to an ancient society known as the Illuminati.
The Hassassin kidnaps four cardinals and threatens to kill them one by one. Langdon once again follows a series of clues to find the Hassassin’s true identity as well as his motive for decimating the Catholic Church. In his second turn as Langdon, Hanks portrays the character perfectly, showing off his intelligence and vulnerability in equal parts.
7 Captain Phillips
Paul Greengrass directs this action thriller about a group of pirates who take over a ship carrying cargo around the Horn of Africa. Hanks plays Captain Phillips, an experienced but stubborn ship captain who repeated ignores requests to sail further offshore to avoid the pirates. When the group of rebels uses guns to take over the ship, they hold the captain and his crew hostage until a ransom is paid.
Driven by amazing performances by both Hanks and the pirates’ leader (Barkhad Abdi), Captain Phillipsis a tense movie with lots of good twists and turns. The film was met with widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Many people consider it one of the best Paul Greengrass movies.
6 Bridge of Spies
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Tom Hanks’ performance in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies is excellent. At the height of the Cold War in the early ’60s, pilot Gary Powers (Hanks) is captured by the Soviet Union when his U-2 spy plane goes down. Knowing that Powers is high-ranking man with knowledge of the United States’ CIA and military secrets, the Soviets imprison and sentence him to three years of hard time.
The USA and the USSR eventually agree to a prisoner swap at Glienicke Bridge in Easy Germany, but neither side completely trusts each other. Hanks’ character Powers is used as leverage on both sides, with the two adversaries trying to figure out who his allegiance is truly with. Hanks’ performance is filled with nuance and subtlety, leaving viewers to question his motives until the very end.
5 The Da Vinci Code
Tom Hanks’ best turn as Robert Langdon happens in The Da Vinci Code. It’s the first film in the series based on Dan Brown’s controversial novels, and it’s also arguably the best. After someone is murder at the Louvre in Paris, Langdon is called in to search for clues hidden in Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings. With the help of Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) Langdon unravels a mystery about the Catholic Church that could damage the institution if it were to come to the light.
Hanks and Tautou have great on screen chemistry and are electric as the pair of amateur detectives. The Da Vinci Code contains all kinds of theories about the church, and it was quite controversial when it first came out in 2006. Even Tom Hanks slammed The Da Vicini Code for being hokey years after it was filmed. What’s undeniable is Hanks’ excellent performance as Robert Langdon. It’s hard to picture any other actor taking the role and running with it the way he did.
4 The Green Mile
The Green Mile is one of Stephen King’s best novels. The movie version, which was released in 1999, follows Tom Hanks as prison guard Paul Edgecomb who works on The Green Mile, a section of the penitentiary reserved for the worst criminals living on death row. Hanks and his fellow guards befriend a detainee named John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan) who seems to have a gift for performing miracles.
Although Coffey is condemned to die, Edgecomb has doubts about him and whether he is actually capable of committing the crimes he was found guilty of. Hanks plays the character with ease, showing audiences his calm demenour and sense of peace in such a chaotic environment. Moviegoers loved the film and flocked to theatres to help it earn $286 million against a $60 million budget.
3 Road to Perdition
In Road to Perdition, Mike Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is a mob enforcer for Midwestern mobster John Rooney (Paul Newman). Set in 1931 against the backdrop of the Great Depression, James Bond actor Daniel Craig plays Rooney’s son Connor, who is jealous of his dad and Sullivan’s relationship. When Sullivan’s son Connor witnesses a mob hit, Sullivan must flee and fend for himself before an all-out mob war erupts.
Hanks commits to a fine balance as Sullivan in Road to Perdition. He’s both a brutal gangster and a loving father. His sense of tenderness towards his son in a seedy underbelly of crime shows that Hanks has the acting chops to accomplish anything. With phenomenal performances by Hanks, Newman, and Craig, Road to Perdition is a crime movie worth watching over and over again.
2 Catch Me If You Can
Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can is an incredibly enjoyable film to watch. It’s based on a true story but somehow still feels original and fresh. Tom Hanks plays Carl Hanratty, a detective tasked with tracking down a conman named Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) who commits fraud everywhere he goes. Whether it’s impersonating an airline pilot or forging checks, Abagnale manages to escape the police at every turn. Each time, Hanratty is left speechless, and he can’t seem to get a step ahead of the criminal no matter what he does.
Catch Me If You Can is at different times funny, dramatic, and heart-pounding. Each time Abagnale escapes, Hanratty is left speechless, and he can’t seem to get a step ahead of the criminal no matter what he does. Hanks plays Hanratty with a certain whimsy that makes viewers want to cheer for him. The cherry on top is that Catch Me If You Can contains a great ending.
1 Philadelphia
Part legal drama, part crime thriller, Philadelphia is undoubtedly one of Tom Hanks’ best movies. When law associate Andrew Beckett (Hanks) is released from his firm due his status as an AIDS patient, he takes legal action against his former employer. Enlisting the help of homophobic attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), the two work through their differences and prejudices to win the case before Beckett inevitably passes away.
Philadelphia was groundbreaking when it was released in 1993. Few movies had the courage to tackle topics like the AIDS crisis, homophobia, and stereotypes back then. The movie broke barriers and Hanks was praised for his performance as Beckett. It landed him an Oscar for Best Actor and showed the world that he was capable of being a huge Hollywood star.
