Tom Cruise Is (Probably) Faster Than You
The sixty-two-year-old actor runs a lot in film
NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2021, but decided to make some light edits to coincide with the release of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning.
Step aside, Flash.
On your left, Cap.
Tom Cruise has been running circles around Hollywood for decades before today’s silver screen hobby joggers were born.
“Tom Cruise is to running what Nic Cage is to losing his shit,” writes Joshua Rivera for GQ. “Sure, other people try as hard—maybe even harder—but they’re all missing something primal, some crazy voodoo that causes Cruise to run on-screen and make the audience short of breath.”
Indeed, Mr. Rivera presents a compelling case for Cruise as Hollywood’s running GOAT. Other actors, including Cary Grant, Adam West, and Sylvester Stallone (aka Rocky Balboa), made fantastic efforts at super speed, but Cruise retains the title of fastest feet.
In October 2016, Andy Schneider and Jonathan Britnell of Burger Fiction created a video of every Tom Cruise run. All of them. Ironically, the video opens with Maverick and Goose (from Top Gun) walking across an aircraft carrier, though their iconic exchange quickly sets the tone for what’s to come:
“I feel the need. The need for speed.”
The Burger Fiction cardio montage concludes with Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation, released on July 31, 2015, in the United States.
Which means: Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), The Mummy (2017), American Made (2017), Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), Top Gun: Maverick (2022), Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023) and Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning (2025) will likely bump that 18:10 run time past twenty-three minutes. Is twenty-five a stretch?
Nah.
Watching Tom Cruise run for eighteen minutes straight is quite the undertaking, though as the films progress from year to year, subtle changes in his form emerge based on the aging process and the emotional gravity of the scene.
For instance, in Days of Thunder (1990), he races Robert Duvall (Harry Hogge) to victory lane after winning the Daytona 500. Of course, post-race adrenaline and some Mello Yello sodas probably provided him a boost. In Minority Report (2002), he frantically bolts into a home to prevent a husband from murdering his wife; and lest we forget Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011). Cruise, as the formidable IMF agent Ethan Hunt, runs down the Burj Khalifa and subsequently pursues a villain amid a sandstorm in Dubai.
Thank God for those handy glasses with clear lenses and a bandana.
So, Tom Cruise runs a lot. But what type of running appears across his lengthy filmography? Short sprints. The mesmerizing longer run through Shanghai in Mission: Impossible III (2006) notwithstanding, Cruise’s runs are usually brief.
A quick aside about the Shanghai run in Mission: Impossible III. How fast did Hunt run that stretch along the river? Someone on Quora did the math, and the figure is 6.85 meters per second (or 15.32 miles per hour). What’s more, Cruise bolted in pants and boots— not three-inch split shorts, a Tracksmith Van Cortlandt singlet, and the Nike Alphafly 3.
Kynan Eng, the Quora user behind the numbers, suggested that Cruise could run 100 meters in about thirteen seconds in his youth. Suppose for a moment that “youth” refers to racing from 20–30 years old. In the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, five days prior to turning 23, Usain Bolt won the 100-meter race with a world record time of 9.58 seconds.
The final finisher of the World Championships race, Darvis Patton of the United States, crossed in 10.34 seconds. With ample training, could Cruise finish 100 meters in the 10–11 second range in his mid twenties? Based on his commitment to superb cardiovascular health through running since he started acting, why not?
Lastly, what’s the takeaway from Tom Cruise’s runs for all runners?
His singular focus on form.
“On film it looks as though he’s expending a lot of energy while running—and he may be, because he’s sprinting—but really it’s quite an efficient run because he’s staying very still,” says Dr. Alice Holland, Director of Stride Strong Physical Therapy in Oregon. “There’s no waste of energy; everything goes into every single step.”
Better form emerges over time through the development of stronger abdominals (core strength), faster foot turnover (which results in a higher number of steps per minute and a lower likelihood of overstriding), and softer landings on the ground (like a ninja). Those practices should be coupled with the head looking forward, relaxed shoulders, and arms to the side. In short, if you want to see a runner with excellent form, grab a chair and study that Burger Fiction video.
Unsurprisingly, Cruise is well aware of the interest in his running. His Instagram account biography makes that abundantly clear:
“Actor. Producer. Running in movies since 1981.”
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P.S. As a fan of impressionists, I love seeing other actors imitate Tom Cruise. Check out Ben Stiller, Evan Ferrante, and Miles Fisher for some laughs. Have you seen all eight Mission: Impossible films? What’s your favorite in the franchise?