Why does Tom Cruise run like that?
As his social media biography proudly proclaims, Tom Cruise has been “running in movies since 1981,” and it doesn’t even feel like a Tom Cruise movie if he doesn’t end up pounding the pavement.
At least the actor is savvy enough to realise that it’s become a meme, which he makes a point of embracing. If he’s handed a script that doesn’t involve a running scene, he’ll probably throw his creative weight around to ensure one gets added.
If Christopher McQuarrie is involved, which he usually is after becoming Cruise’s go-to collaborator over the last two decades, one will likely be included anyway. If Cruise is onscreen, then he’ll run. There are no ifs, buts, or maybes about it; the man is guaranteed to be involved in a sequence shot in an extended take to display his pulse-pounding prowess to the audience.
Science has proven that Cruise’s features fare better at the box office when he runs in them, and it’s not a far-fetched conspiracy theory to suggest that he knows it. After all, if ticket sales are higher when he sprints, then why wouldn’t he? It’s not even about the need for speed, either, but how he does it.
The Top Gun and Mission: Impossible headliner has a very distinctive form when he goes hell-for-leather. He keeps his back completely straight, he pumps his arms like there’s no tomorrow, and the position of his hands never shifts. Why does he run like that? Rob Lowe knows the answer.
The actor co-starred with Cruise in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders, and as it turns out, the instantly recognisable ‘Tom Cruise Run’ is another ‘Brat Pack’ member’s fault. “I think we both initially learned to run from Emilio Estevez’s running coach,” Lowe explained on David Spade and Dana Carvey’s Fly on the Wall podcast.
Triple-jump athlete Milan Tiff took Estevez under his wing and taught him the secrets of sprinting before welcoming Cruise and Lowe into the inner circle. The unmistakable way he keeps his elbows rigid and hands cupped has been seen in dozens of his films, which all came from Tiff.
“We were all training with Milan, the hand thing was the big thing,” Lowe explained. “You also make a flap, by the way. Little dolphin move.” Tiff has probably trained lots of people on how to maximise their running potential, and not all of them will be actors, but it feels safe to say that none of his students have made it a massive part of their whole personality, except Cruise, of course.
When was the last time he didn’t run in a movie?
It’s been a while. In fact, there have only been three movies in the last 20 years where Cruise didn’t run onscreen, and there are obvious reasons why.
Since the release of Michael Mann’s Collateral in 2004, the only times the actor hasn’t burst into at least a light jog were Robert Redford’s political drama Lions for Lambs, his cameo as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, and the jukebox musical Rock of Ages, a trio of pictures that don’t exactly lend themselves to it.
The latter hit cinemas in 2012, and Cruise has starred in 11 features since then, so he’s on quite a streak. He even broke his golden rule and let Annabelle Wallis run next to him in The Mummy, which is about as big an endorsement as any actor can hope to get.
When will the next time he doesn’t run in a movie be? It’s hard to tell, with Alejandro G. Iñárritu currently wielding the power to halt Cruise in his tracks. If it doesn’t happen then, who knows?
