Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy: Tom Cruise's Dick Has 'All the Right Moves'

Throughout cinema history, there have been some iconic nude scenes that have transcended the bounds of the films in which they appeared. Our weekly column Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy will take an in-depth look at these scenes, their history, their deeper meanings, and their legacy. This week, Tom Cruise caps off his breakout year of 1983 with his one and only dick flash inAll the Right Moves!

While it seems like a distant memory now, there was once a time when the world at large had no clue who Tom Cruise was. All of that changed in his 21st year on earth, 1983, when Cruise appeared in major roles in four fairly major films: The Outsiders, Losin' It, Risky Business, and the film we're here to talk about today, All the Right Moves. While he had a much smaller role than his co-stars in The Outsiders and most folks don't remember the Porky's knockoff that was Losin' It, the other two have entered the cultural zeitgeist, albeit for vastly different reasons.

Risky Business was a monster hit in the late summer of that year, earning $63 million dollars at the box office, which would roughly equate to three times that amount today, putting it on a par with such contemporary hits as Mamma Mia! and American Pie, which all sold roughly the same number of tickets. That film launched Cruise into the stratosphere, paving the way for the much more modest hit All the Right Moves two months later.

All the Right Moves is your standard high school sports movie where a gifted young quarterback dreams of landing a scholarship that will give him the boost he needs to leave his dead-end small town existence behind him. Cruise plays Armenian-American QB Stefen "Stef" Djordjevic, whose only hope of escaping his small Pennsylvania steel mill hometown is a lucrative scholarship to play college football, but those dreams go up in smoke when his coach (Craig T. Nelson) kicks him off the team following a big loss to their rivals.

While Cruise may be ridiculously miscast as an Armenian-American—he has English, German, and Irish ancestry—he was the right man at the right time for this film and the film never really dwells on his heritage. One thing the film did require of him, however, is something he has yet to do since: show his dick on film. I'm sure he's a lot more protective of his junk in this day and age but it does demonstrate at least a bit of that fearlessness which has come to be his trademark in the ensuing decades.

Cruise's love interest in the film is played by Lea Thompson, who had just made her big screen debut inJaws 3 earlier that same year, but was herself still two years from breaking out in a big way with Back to the Future. An hour and four minutes into the film, Cruise and Thompson decide it's time to take their relationship to the next level and have sex. They awkwardly undress in front of one another in one of the more honest love scenes of the era, displaying the utter vulnerability of appearing nude in front of your lover for the first time. As Cruise slips out of his tighty whities, we catch a quick look at his cock...

While this scene was well-known in certain circles, its popularity didn't really explode until Wes Craven's Scream 13 years later when Rose McGowan's character name drops it while talking to Neve Campbell...

"I'm gonna swing by the video store, I was thinking Tom Cruise All the Right Moves? You know if you pause it just right you can see his penis!"

I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but I'd be willing to bet this raised the film's profile substantially. It will also likely remain the one and only place to catch sight of Tom's tallywacker, so don't be surprised if this film's profile remains high for decades to come.

Catch up with our other editions of Anatomy of a Scene's Manatomy...

Two of History's Manliest Men Wrestle Naked in Women in Love

Ewan McGregor Has Got It, Flaunts It in Velvet Goldmine

A Pair of Stars are Born in Y Tu Mamá También

Harvey Keitel Goes Hog Wild in Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant

Viggo Mortensen is Naked From Every Imaginable Angle in Eastern Promises

There's No Shame is Michael Fassbender's Dick Game

Kevin Bacon Steals the Show Going Full Frontal in Wild Things

How We Met Jason Segel's Dick in Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Jack Reynor is Uniquely Vulnerable for a Man in Midsommar

Jaye Davidson Knows All There is to Know About The Crying Game

David Bowie Battles Rip Torn for Dick Supremacy in The Man Who Fell to Earth

Al Pacino Doesn't Get In All That Deep for William Friedkin's Cruising

John Cameron Mitchell's Ass Gives Hedwig and the Angry Inch the Perfect Ending

Ross Lynch Makes One Sexy Future Serial Killer in My Friend Dahmer

Rocketman Not-So-Boldly Goes Where Bohemian Rhapsody Refused

Color of Night Brings Us the Return of Bruno's Dick

Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu Get Serviced in Bertolucci's 1900

Future Oscar Winner Mark Rylance Gets Real and Really Nude in Intimacy

Louis Garrel Lets It All Hang Out in the French New Wave Biopic Godard Mon Amour

Bronson Makes Tom Hardy and His Uncut Cock a Star

Henry June Ushers in the NC-17 Rating with a Distinct Lack of Parity in Nudity

The Gay Cowboys of Brokeback Mountain Do More Than Eat Pudding

Pretty Boy Eddie Redmayne Makes One Very Pretty Danish Girl