Glen Powell Reveals The Running Man Stunts Were Seriously No Joke Onset
“The Running Man” hit theatres this past Friday. In the world of high-stakes Hollywood action, few names carry the weight of Tom Cruise. Glen Powell, his co-star from “Top Gun: Maverick” and the face of sci-fi thriller “The Running Man,” found himself on the receiving end of a crucial, two-and-a-half-hour phone call from the master of on-screen action. The topic? How not to die.
The Brutality of “The Running Man”
The new film sees Powell as Ben Richards, a desperate man in a collapsing society who enters a deadly reality show to save his sick daughter. The premise is simple and terrifying: survive for 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, and win a fortune. Fail, and you die on live television for the entertainment of a bloodthirsty public.
The production spared no effort in capturing this raw intensity. One stunt required Powell to rappel down an eight-story building, half-naked in freezing conditions. It’s a far cry from the polished cockpits of “Top Gun.” Even the original “Running Man,” Arnold Schwarzenegger, acknowledged the difficulty of the film’s action sequences, praising the new adaptation’s commitment to authentic, high-stakes grit.
Glen Powell echoed this sentiment to Screen Rant, explaining the deceptive nature of on-screen violence. “It’s a process to really sell stunts. From an outsider’s perspective, when you’re watching a movie, you’re like, ‘Okay, I’m sure they’re padded up or whatever,’ but you’re delivering and taking a lot of hits over the course of a movie. And Arnold really appreciated that [about this film]. He’s like, ‘One of the hardest action movies–those are just not easy things to get right.'”
The mentorship from Cruise to Powell highlights a deep respect for the craft. For Cruise, performing one’s own stunts isn’t just about ego; it’s a “great privilege” and a commitment to the audience. He believes that if viewers are paying for a ticket, they deserve to see an actor fully invested in the reality of the character’s peril. Powell has taken this lesson to heart, understanding that the bumps, bruises, and sheer exhaustion are part of selling the story in “The Running Man.”
Glen Powell Talks “The Running Man” Advice With Tom Cruise
Powell stepped into a role that demands intense physicality, a gritty reimagining of the Stephen King classic. This new take on “The Running Man,” directed by the acclaimed Edgar Wright, promises a visceral experience, far removed from the stylized action of the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film.
It’s a return to the source material, King’s 1982 novel written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which paints a grim picture of a dystopian America where survival is the ultimate prize in a televised bloodsport. To bring this brutal world to life, Powell knew the stunts had to feel real, a challenge he didn’t take lightly. Per Fox News, Powell said on “The Graham Norton Show,” Tom rang me to give me the low down and, what I thought would be a 10-minute call, lasted two and a half hours – he basically told me how not to die!”
The conversation wasn’t about advice for “The Running Man,” just a casual chat; it was a masterclass in survival from a man who has famously broken bones and pushed his body to the limit for his craft. Powell told Entertainment Weekly, “One was clearly stating that stunts are just as painful as the real thing.
He added, “He’s like, you’ve got to really fortify your body because it’s like a normal fight — those physics are still the physics of what is actually happening… It was made very clear after talking to him that there was a real sense of discipline around these things, and to treat these stunts with reverence, because you can get extremely hurt, and he knows it better than anyone.”
Final Thoughts
The film’s grounded tone and intense physicality aim to create a story that feels both thrilling and disturbingly relevant. As Powell threw himself into the grueling demands of the role, backed by the guidance of an action legend, audiences who haven’t yet seen “The Running Man” can expect a performance that is as emotionally resonant as it is physically demanding.
