Tom Cruise has become pretty well known for his willingness to do absolutely ridiculous, potentially life-threatening stunts in the name of cinema, but one of his earliest and least-beloved roles nearly earned him a broken nose. Long before he was stunt fighting onboard a real, speeding train for "Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning," Cruise was playing former soldier-turned-bartender Brian Flanagan in the 1988 movie "Cocktail." "Cocktail" isn't a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, following Brian as he tries to find love or direction in life, going from New York City to Jamaica and acting like an obnoxious jerk the entire way. He flips bottles and treats women as disposable, roll credits. There are a few memorable moments in "Cocktail," of course, but nothing that would put Cruise in any real danger... right? Wrong.

It turns out the actor's face was in danger of being smashed courtesy of his co-star Gina Gershon,...