NEW YORK -- There are reflective people who take things in, and radiant people who beam light out.

Tom Cruise is definitely of the second kind. His eyes sparkle, his teeth sparkle, and so does his eternity ring, a wedding band inset with serious diamonds at its equator. In his presence, an SPF 30 sunblock is recommended, to protect against starburn.

At 46, the eternally boyish actor who, incredibly, has been top box office for 25 years is as polished and gleaming as a freshly buffed Vince Lombardi trophy. And for one who has a reputation as a control freak, Cruise comes across as unguarded and open about his life.

"A bright candle" is how filmmaker Bryan Singer ("X-Men") describes the actor and executive producer of "Valkyrie," a white-knuckle thriller about the real-life German officers who conspired, and failed, to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944.

"Alfred Hitchcock explained the difference between surprise and suspense," says Cruise, casual in an untucked navy-blue shirt and dark pants. "If a bomb under a table goes off, that's a surprise. But if we know that the bomb is under the table but not when it will go off, that's suspense."

"We literally have a bomb under the table," he says. "In movies, you want to create drama. In the case of 'Valkyrie,' which is a conspiracy thriller, the drama is actually true."

"Valkyrie" takes its name from the mythical handmaidens who carried fallen heroes to Valhalla. In the movie, Cruise plays Claus von Stauffenberg, hero of the German resistance, who lost an eye, a hand and two fingers on his other hand in battle, and with great difficulty crafts an explosive and smuggles it into Hitler's quarters.

An Oscar contender in a holiday movie season where everyone, it would seem, dies but Hitler, "Valkyrie" is one in a clutch of Nazi-era movies ("Defiance," "The Reader," "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas") coming to your arthouse or multiplex.

Cruise is as puzzled as everyone else by what may have spurred this boomlet. It may be, he allows, that the generation that resisted Hitler or survived his death camps is dying out, and thus there is an urgency to debrief these last eyewitnesses to history.

"I met with von Stauffenberg's daughter and other family members to get a measure of the man," he says.

When you think Tom Cruise movie, you think unprincipled contemporary youth who grows a conscience by the final reel ("Risky Business," "Rain Man," "Jerry Maguire").

Yet "Valkyrie" is one in a trio of Cruise historical dramas -- along with "Born on the Fourth of July" and "The Last Samurai" -- in which real warriors reconsider the morality of war. What makes Cruise the right man for the job, and different from most of his peers, is that even when his character is introspective he takes action. Cruise emotes with his whole body, not just from the neck up. He radiates electricity.

For him it's more about the mental workout than the physical one. "The fun thing about movies," he says, "is that I get to enter these historic worlds, to learn history from the figure's viewpoint."

He met with Vietnam vet and antiwar activist Ron Kovic while preparing for "Born on the Fourth of July." And read up on the French mercenary Jules Brunet, on whose life his character in "The Last Samurai" is based.

"When you have a real-life figure to play, you have more clues to approach the character," Cruise notes, "but greater responsibility to present the figure accurately."

"Valkyrie's" release marks Cruise's 27th year as a professional actor, his 25th as a star. He made his debut in "Taps" (1981) opposite Sean Penn. If an actor doesn't care whether he alienates his audience and a star does, then Penn is an actor and Cruise, though he has played unsympathetic in "The Color of Money," "Collateral" and "Magnolia," is undeniably a star -- with an actor's chops.

In any generation it's hard to sustain 25 years at the top of the entertainment industry, even harder today when the industry is so diffuse.

Was it intuition or good advice -- or a combination -- that has guided him?

"Gut instinct," he blurts. "And the decision not to make 'Top Gun 2.'

"I wanted to challenge myself, I wanted to work with Martin Scorsese ("The Color of Money") and Oliver Stone ("Born on the Fourth of July")," he says. "I was incredibly fortunate that I got to work with the likes of Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman."

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