2. Captain Phillips (2013) Hanks’s terrified, vulnerable turn as the eponymous Captain Phillips is another prime example of his ordinary men in extraordinary circumstances.* Hanks’s Phillips is a good captain but also a flawed one, and one who is constantly adjusting to events that are entirely out of his control. He does his best just to stay alive, but when the ordeal is finally over and he is able to take stock, he breaks down in the most raw, wrenching scene of Hanks’s whole career. It’s a measured, calculated performance that builds to a moment of almost overwhelming power.