Which brings us back to Valkyrie and, in particular, its ending -- the one that some have suggested makes the movie a self-defeating enterprise and that, for all but the most historically oblivious, could only be made more apparent if the film had been titled The Assassination of Claus von Stauffenberg by the Coward Friedrich Fromm.

"I now must defend it," says Singer, who's heard this argument before. "Stauffenberg, at the very end, may not have known, personally, whether Hitler was dead or alive, really, because of Nazi spin propaganda. But the goal, as [Major General Henning von] Tresckow said in real life and says in the movie, was to show the world that not all Germans were like Hitler."

"And also to inspire others to stand up against tyranny," says Cruise. "It's timeless."

So, even when the guy fails to complete his impossible mission, he still manages to come out on top. What, really, could be more Tom Cruise than that?