Tom Cruise’s Forgotten Dark Fantasy Movie Is Quietly One of His Best (& Tim Curry Stole The Film)

It’s hard to think of something Tom Cruise hasn’t done. Over the past few decades, he’s been pretty much everything, from a fighter pilot and secret agent to a lawyer, vampire, samurai, and even a man trapped in one of the most chaotic realities Hollywood has ever explored on screen. And at some point, he also decided to star in a fantasy that seemed to belong to a completely different career from the one he would eventually build. Do you remember it? Probably not, given that even though it’s a classic, this movie is much more of a cult favorite than anything else, and it came out when the actor hadn’t even considered becoming the practically indestructible action star we know today.

And here’s the craziest part: if you take a closer look at this production, you’ll find some choices that sound downright unlikely. Alongside a very young Cruise as the hero, you’ve got a director better known for sci-fi and dark thrillers, a few creatures that look like they came straight out of a children’s storybook, and a villain so over-the-top that he could have turned into a caricature. Yet instead of disappearing from Cruise’s filmography, this whole combination ended up creating a pretty strange, visually ambitious, and extremely remarkable film (despite its reputation not exactly doing it many favors).

Legend Is One of Tom Cruise’s (and Tim Curry’s) Most Underrated Movies

The ’80s were phenomenal for cinema, but when it comes to genres like fantasy, they were especially significant. Legend, released in 1985, follows Jack (Cruise), a young man who lives in a magical forest alongside creatures like fairies and unicorns, only to find himself facing the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) after he kidnaps Princess Lili (Mia Sara). The villain wants to kill the unicorns and plunge the world into permanent darkness, and Jack has to find a way to stop him. It’s a pretty basic fairy-tale story, but under Ridley Scott’s direction, it’s treated like the movie had enough money to build an entire world from scratch. And, at times, it really feels that way — except the film also doesn’t seem very interested in being as accessible as possible.

We’re talking about a story that could easily fit into a movie aimed at a younger audience, but then again, anyone familiar with Scott’s ambition knows that’s not exactly how he operates, right? He shoots everything with such seriousness that it makes the whole thing even stranger, and because of that, the forest doesn’t just feel like a pretty place where the characters happen to spend their time; it has a personality of its own, and that helps quite a bit, since the story isn’t the movie’s strongest point. If you go in expecting a fantasy with an incredibly elaborate screenplay, you’re probably going to be disappointed. However, if you accept that the experience relies just as much on the world Scott created as it does on the plot, everything starts to work a lot better. This is why there’s still plenty of debate over whether the movie has aged well or badly.

But Legend gets really good when you look at Cruise’s career, because at the time, he was still a long way from becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Just to give an idea, Top Gun wouldn’t hit theaters until 1986, so we’re talking about a much younger Cruise, before his image became so closely tied to confident, highly capable characters. And honestly, that’s also what makes the film so fun to watch today, since it’s almost like an alternate version of the actor. What if, instead of action (or even sci-fi), he had become one of the major names in fantasy? Legend shows that possibility was definitely there: he has the looks, physical presence, and leading-man energy needed to carry this kind of adventure (even though he has admitted that he regrets the role).

Overall, this is the kind of feature that’s worth discovering because of its cult status or revisiting just to see how your perspective on it changes over time. Still, let’s be honest: if you remember Legend, you possibly don’t remember it because of Jack — you remember it because of Darkness.

There is definitely no subtle way to describe the villain: Darkness has enormous horns, red makeup, and a presence that seems specifically designed to make every other character on screen look less interesting. All of that would have been enough to make him memorable, but Curry takes it much further because he knows how to play an enemy this big — that’s where he steals the show. The best thing about the actor is that he never tries to tone the character down to make him more “realistic” in any way. After all, this is a fairy tale, so it makes perfect sense for Darkness to be theatrical, arrogant, funny, and threatening all at once. The movie can spend several minutes following Jack, Lili, or the goblins, but the second the villain shows up again, it’s easy to start paying attention to the story all over again.

However, did you know this feature wasn’t a major success at the box office?

Despite Its Reputation, Legend Is a Major Cult Classic

With a budget of around $25 million, it made only about $23.5 million worldwide. It was only over time that its reputation started to change, and it began to gain a following, especially because there’s also a pretty complicated story behind the production. A big part of the negative reception came from the simple plot and the editing, which, according to reports, originally had around 50 minutes more footage before being cut down to the 89-minute theatrical version. So if you see someone saying Legend feels kind of basic and rushed, that’s not an unfounded impression, because yes, the film was literally cut down several times. The reason? Ironically, after test screenings, audiences reportedly found the feature slow and difficult to follow.

And the truth is that Hollywood would probably handle a movie like this very differently today — and that’s a compliment. A fantasy story starring a very young Cruise, directed by the iconic filmmaker behind Alien, and built almost entirely around a huge collection of practical sets and creatures would be much more focused on becoming a franchise. So it’s actually a good thing that it’s just a standalone movie, considering Hollywood seems determined to make everything into a major brand with multiple generic installments.

In the end, even though it’s not one of the most famous films or a flawless fantasy, it’s an unlikely combination of things that we simply don’t see very often anymore. Legend is a mix of hits, excesses, and strange decisions, but that’s what makes the experience worthwhile. You might not love everything it does, but it’s difficult to finish it without remembering something.

Legend is available to rent on Prime Video.