Tobey Maguire is one of modern cinema's most iconic actors, with an immense range from comedy to drama, as seen in movies like The Cider House Rules, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville and The Great Gatsby. However, he's most famous for his action-packed Spider-Man trilogy under Sam Raimi, which allowed him to tell Peter Parker's story length and breadth. It painted a true character portrait, allowing him to showcase the web-head as a high schooler, university student and, overall, an ambitious young man struggling in the world with his superhero identity. It all culminated with him joining Spider-Man: No Way Home as a mentor, but as epic as his Spidey was, Maguire's best role was in Brothers.
Brothers was a 2009 American psychological drama war film directed by Jim Sheridan and written by David Benioff. Brothers received mixed reviews from critics but was nevertheless nominated for a couple of Oscars and a Critics Choice Award as it remade a 2004 Danish movie. Maguire starred as Captain Sam Cahill, who went missing in Afghanistan after his caravan got shot down. He was held as a prisoner of war, eventually killing one of his own colleagues as part of a twisted game the terrorists played for entertainment, making a gladiator arena of sorts.
Luckily, he was rescued in a raid. Still, the ghost of his comrade haunted him as Sam felt he was the very monster he fought against. He developed PTSD as a result of the incident and struggled to reconnect to life back home. However, Brothers wasn't just a slow burn about a brother-in-arms -- it was also about family. Sam grew paranoid his wife, Grace (Natalie Portman), had an affair with his brother, Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), when he was presumed dead, and it really messed with him.
To make it worse, his daughters were detached from him, not to mention Sam struggled with seeing the family of the man he killed, especially the newborn. This allowed Maguire to dive deep into the pit of despair, making a sociopolitical statement on war vets and those suffering depression after tours or rescue.
All of this had him feeling like a villain and that he was disloyal to the flag. As such, Sam became fearful and suicidal in another massive message about soldiers coming back home and not receiving proper mental health care. He eventually has a meltdown at home, wrecking his kitchen and threatening his wife and brother. With the kids screaming and neighbors calling cops, Sam grabbed his firearm and shot it up in the air.
However, it wasn't an act of defiance; he wanted the police to shoot him and put him out his misery. Hearing Sam tell the cops he wasn't a hero and, eventually, telling his family he was "drowning" in a tear-filled scene truly painted Maguire as someone who deserved an Oscar. Thankfully, a suffering Sam calmed down, sought help for his pain and confessed his sins, with Grace supporting him, giving a somewhat happy ending to a tragic story and testament to the human spirit.