Is the gritted-jaw, arms-pumping greatest runner in film only impressive because he has a no-run rule for fellow actors?
Tom Cruise is the big screen’s greatest runner. It doesn’t matter what films he makes any more; so long as there’s a scene where he grits his jaw and pumps his arms while he tears along at an improbable speed, people will buy tickets. This is why nobody seemed to be too cut up when Top Gun 2 was yanked from summer schedules. There isn’t enough space inside the cockpit of a cutting edge
fighter jet to let him run around, so what’s the point in even watching it?
However there are now whispers about the secrets of Cruise’s screen running. Namely, it only looks so impressive because he bans everyone else from running on screen at the same time as him. Think about it. In Vanilla Sky he ran alone. In Minority Report he ran alone. In the Mission: Impossible films he runs alone. In War of the Worlds people tried to run with him, but the
aliens vaporised them for their insubordination. In Collateral he chases after people a lot and always catches them because he is Tom Cruise, and therefore essentially two big pistons perched on top of a human torso.