It’s a running joke in Hollywood and one that is well-known among cinema audiences — Tom Cruise loves to run, and he does it exceptionally well. It’s one of those odd things that make it as a popular meme, but with zero exaggeration of the facts. His love of running has received commentary from ESPN and measured against box office success by Rotten Tomatoes. A YouTube video titled "Every Tom Cruise Run. Ever.," which compiles nearly 19 minutes of the actor’s running scenes across various movies, actually has 2 million views garnered across the past six years.
With his relentless pursuit of excellence and love for daring stunts, Cruise has become a rare brand in modern-day Hollywood, often being called the last movie star. He knows what the audience expects of him, and seeks to deliver it to great satisfaction in every movie. And his unique run is simply indispensable in every movie he’s in — his chest blown-out, straight-backed, straight-palmed run that seems to model itself perfectly around the kind of role he’s doing. Ranking his running scenes across different movies makes pure cinematic sense. So, here are 10 of Tom Cruise’s best running scenes, ranked.
10 Making an Arrest — Minority Report
Minority Report has built a reputation as one of the classic sci-fi movies of the early-2000s. But as far as Cruise’s brand as an on-screen sprinter goes, the movie is also the best possible exhibit of this strange Hollywood phenomenon. The movie features Cruise as a futuristic police officer on the run from his own team. The very plot of the movie gives it an above-average potential for running scenes, and the movie utilizes much of it. But the best scene featuring Cruise running is near the beginning, when he runs across a street to the first-floor bedroom of a house in record time to stop a murder. Despite many cuts, the scene perfectly captures the unique kinetic energy of Cruise’s run.
9 Dream Run — Vanilla Sky
It is one thing to simply have good running form, but Cruise’s run is firmly established as a meme given that he tends to run even in non-action drama movies. Vanilla Sky has garnered a cult following as a psychological thriller, and stars Cruise as a wealthy socialite. But the movie still manages to start out with a scene of him running — the scene is famous for taking place in a fully deserted Times Square, and is set as a dream sequence in the movie. The great thing about this scene is that it makes complete sense, establishing a state of disoriented paranoia for Cruise’s character.
8 Samurai Assault — The Last Samurai
The Last Samurai is a rare achievement for Hollywood as a western-made samurai movie that stays true to the feel and themes of the original Japanese samurai movies. Cruise takes the role of a disillusioned war veteran in the movie, observing the final days of the samurai tradition during the Meiji Restoration of 19th Century. The movie’s climax involves a last stand by a group of samurai warriors against the modernized Imperial army. Dressed in full samurai garb, Cruise doesn’t get quite the opportunity to display his signature run during the assault. However, it is a fitting high point for the movie as the samurai warriors run towards the Imperial soldiers with a rousing battle cry.
7 The First Attack — War of the Worlds
Cruise’s running scenes aren’t just noted for their exceptional form — as noted by ESPN, they’re also a testament to his professionalism and skills as an actor. He has consistently proven that he can do everything that an actor is required to do while running at lightning speeds, take after take. Not just that, but based on his role, his run is also a versatile tool of expression. In War of the Worlds, Cruise’s character finds himself in the middle of a sudden attack by powerful aliens on earth. It’s a greatly involving scene that finds Cruise running helter-skelter for his life through the city streets as people are getting vaporized left and right. Given the nature of the scene, his gait appears quite topsy-turvy — and fittingly so.
6 Twilight Rooftop Run — Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation
You simply can’t have a big-budget spy action movie without a rooftop chase. One wonders how much Cruise and the Mission Impossible franchise have to do with this mandatory genre convention. The popular movie series has altogether too many rooftop chase scenes for a single franchise. But nobody can dispute that Mission Impossible does it quite well. A memorable scene in this category takes place during Rogue Nation, featuring Cruise and Rebecca Ferguson running across a picturesque backdrop dressed in full James Bond uniform. The romantic undertones of this scene are undeniable, and it’s a point of praise that the movie manages to pull it off during a running scene.
5 Running Through Shanghai — Mission: Impossible III
This particular sprint by Cruise stands out with its abject velocity. It is commonly known among Tom Cruise fans that he regularly has to slow down when running alongside other co-stars. This scene in Mission: Impossible III sees him run full-tilt across a crowded market corridor in Shanghai, and it captures the utter ferocity of Cruise’s run — one of its important qualities! It starts off with a gorgeous tracking shot that follows Ethan Hunt nimbly step down from a series of brick-tiled roofs and shoot through the corridor while screaming in a foreign language. It’s an underrated moment that perfectly displays Cruise’s dedication to the craft.
4 Overhead Bridge Run — Collateral
Collateral is one of Cruise’s most unique and memorable performances. Directed by Michael Mann, Cruise stars in the movie as a cold, highly proficient assassin who lands in Los Angeles for a night to do a job. The movie was praised for its neo-noir tones, and Cruise’s performance played a part in its overall success, even earning him an MTV Movie Awards nomination for Best Villain. His signature running style, with the jutted-out chest and stiff palms, stands out as something anomalous to the movie’s urban context. But it adds a feeling of terrifying tenacity to the iconic character, a feeling of predatory determination that is best seen during the overhead bridge scene. As is the general rule, Cruise running doesn’t go to waste in this movie either, and subtly sets him apart as a fundamentally different sort of entity masquerading as a regular person.
3 Rooftop Chase — Mission: Impossible - Fallout
Mission Impossible: Fallout features perhaps the best rooftop chase scene in the entire franchise. Cruise famously broke his ankle while jumping across a building for this scene, and chose to finish the scene with the injury so that the shot would be complete. This rooftop chase features some of the best examples of the sweeping camera angles that are now common in blockbuster spy movies. Cruise starts the sprawling one-pan chase scene against the backdrop of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, giving viewers 360-degree views of gorgeous skylines as it progresses.
2 Vertical Skyscraper Run — Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
The Mission Impossible franchise was also the instrument for Cruise to pull off some of his most daring stunts. One of the iconic stunts from the entire franchise takes place at the Burj Khalifa in Dubai in Ghost Protocol, and follows Ethan Hunt on a daring attempt to infiltrate one of the hotel rooms from the outside of the skyscraper. The scene gave audiences the unforgettable visual of Cruise running sideways across the Burj Khalifa. The run takes place at the tail end of a long stunt scene that is already fraught with tension, as Hunt navigates the glass walls of the building with hi-tech Spider-Man-style gloves. It is an all-around excellent stunt sequence that is designed with an entire structure of escalating tensions within it.
1 Running Away from a Sandstorm — Ghost Protocol
This is the scene that encompasses everything Cruise stands for, as an action star. Also taking place in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the scene captures Cruise’s signature running gait in a stunning low-angle shot as he runs out of the entrance of a skyscraper while a massive sandstorm begins to consume the building. It is a truly epic shot — the slow pan out revealing the sprawling architecture of the Dubai International Financial Center, with Cruise gradually moving in for a close-up that perfectly synchronizes with the backward movement of the camera.