Rashan Gary Is Going To Be Dangerous

2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the movie TAPS and with it, the fourth decade of Tom Cruise being in our lives. Growing up a huge S.E. Hinton fan, I can remember first seeing Cruise in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film adaptation of The Outsiders. The Outsiders–holy smokes. What a cast?!? Patrick Swayze (RIP). Matt Dillon (LET’S DO IT FOR JOHNNY). Rob Lowe. Emilio Estevez (Charlie Sheen’s less crazy brother). Diane Lane (meow). Leif Garrett (yikes). Tom Freaking Waits (unintelligible gargle)!!! I could go on, but I won’t because that would get incredibly boring. The craziest thing about The Outsiders is that, with a cast loaded up with pretty much every teen superstar of the 1980’s, how often Cruise grabs your attention, despite appearing in only four scenes. Charisma. Magnetism. Call it what you want. Cruise had it in spades. Six months later, Cruise and his tighty-whiteys would star in Risky Business and subsequently become the biggest star in the world, a role which he has pretty much held for 40 years now. How ubiquitous was Cruise in the eighties? Pretty much the only people in America who didn’t own a VHS tape of Top Gun in 1988 were homeless people and the Amish. I am pretty sure even some homeless people had a copy. Sometimes you can just tell. Talent so undeniable it slaps you in the face. I had that feeling watching The Outsiders in 1983. I had that same feeling watching Rashan Gary against the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020. 2020 was Rashan’s The Outsiders. The 2021 season, his version of Risky Business. 2022? Let’s just say Rashan Gary is going to be dangerous.

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