Tom Cruise is one of the biggest movie stars in the world and if there are two things that we can be fairly certain we’ll see in any of his action movies, it’s that Cruise will do all his own stunts, and that he will do all his own running. Yesterday was Global Running Day and so it was only fitting that the actor take to his rarely used Twitter account to have a little fun by celebrating and poking a bit of fun, at all the running that he does.
It’s not an understatement to say that Tom Cruise does a lot of running in his films and especially within the Mission: Impossible franchise. Just like there is usually at least one major stunt sequence that Cruise takes part in for every entry in the franchise, there is usually at least one significant running sequence. The trailer for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One includes a fair amount of Cruise running, so he dropped an endless gif of some of that as part of his recent tweet.
Running in #MissionImpossible movies since 1996. #GlobalRunningDay pic.twitter.com/woQKYQ20iaJune 7, 2023
Tom Cruise’s own Twitter bio lists him as “running in movies since 1981” so he’s been very aware of the fact that running in movies is something he does a lot. With a lot of his career having been focused on Mission: Impossible for the last couple of decades, much of the running has been there as well, but a lot of his films include major running sequences.
If nothing else, it probably helps the actor keep in shape, by all accounts Tom Cruise is actually really fast too, which has been known to make filming the running scenes with Cruise difficult when they also include others. But watching him run is also strangely hypnotic and relaxing. There's clearly something about these scenes that filmmakers feel is necessary, or we wouldn't have so many of them.
Of course, Tom Cruise filming running scenes doesn’t always work out in his favor, at least when it’s combined with his need to do his own stunts. It was while shooting the major running sequence in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, and jumping between buildings, that Cruise famously broke his ankle, causing some delays in production. Of course, then Fallout ended up using the take where Cruise hurt himself in the final film, so I guess...worth it?
When Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One hits theaters next month fans will get to see Tom Cruise running once again, as well as performing epic stunts like jumping motorcycles off of cliffs. One assumes that Part Two will have its own running scene, at this point, like the stunts it’s basically a required part of the Mission: Impossible franchise that fans have come to expect.
