Tom Cruise has embraced legacy sequels to his classic films, with Top Gun: Maverick already released and a Days of Thunder follow-up featuring Anne Hathaway now in the works. This piece argues that one of his other defining 1980s roles, the 1986 pool hustler drama The Color of Money, is more deserving of a similar revival than Days of Thunder, given its rich characters and pedigree.

Directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Richard Price, The Color of Money starred Cruise opposite Paul Newman, who reprised his "Fast Eddie" Felson role from 1961's The Hustler decades on, making it an early example of a legacy sequel before the term existed. The film reworked its source novel to focus on the toxic mentor relationship between Newman's ageing hustler and Cruise's brash young pool player, echoing themes Scorsese later revisited in Goodfellas and The Departed, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio co-starring as Vince's girlfriend Carmen.