Tom Cruise, of course, is GOAT. But here are some contenders that come close.
There’s a new trailer for The Mummy coming our way, and if it’s anything like the first one—which you might remember from that time it accidentally hit the internet with an incomplete sound mix that only featured Tom Cruise screaming—it’s going to have a lot of Tom Cruise running. Because that’s what you do when you put Tom Cruise in a movie: You make him run. There is simply no actor alive that’s so good at it. Tom Cruise is to running as Nic Cage is to losing his shit. 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.
I could watch the guy run forever. I mean, look at him!
Maybe it’s his perfect posture, his bug-eyed panic (that still manages to look handsome), the way he knows how to flail just enough so that he can sell sloppy desperation. Tom Cruise is the GOAT of cinematic running. But he’s not the only great one. There are many great chase scenes that hinge on how willing actors are to throw themselves into a sudden sprint—or at least, convince us that they did. When it works, it’s satisfying in a way a car chase can never be, able to flip on a dime from chase to fight and back to chase again. Here are some of the actors that have done it best:
Cary Grant
The crop duster scene in North by Northwest! It’s iconic as hell, and a case study in how to run for your life from a fighter jet and still cut a classic figure.
Adam West
Only kind of kidding. Hear me out: One of the reasons the Adam West Batman works so well is because of its sense of self-aware conviction. West’s performance is one built out of sincere affection for the character, but informed by how ridiculous it all looks—which is why this scene about how some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb deserves to immortalized in this age of modern superheroes that are mostly trash at running, because the CG does it for them.
Chris Evans
However, Chris Evans’s Captain America is the exception to this rule. As someone who likes behind the scenes footage in theory but never actually bothers to watch any of it, I know not how much of Steve Rogers running in Captain America: The First Avenger is real and how much is computers, but so much of it looks good—like a normal guy, only faster than you’ll ever be. Which is the point! And the chief reason The First Avenger wins out over the latter Captain America movies in this regard. In those, he’s more super than human, and they also don’t have the hilarious imagery of Cap running through a battlefield, boinking dudes on the head with his shield.
Angelina Jolie
It’s a shame Angelina Jolie has more or less moved on from the action movie phase of her career, but we weren’t exactly ready for her when she was game. And she was so game—Salt is not a great movie, but it’s a great showcase for how much fun she’d have as a Bourne-style action hero, with some really fun chases.
Scarlett Johansson
So, remember what I said about most superheroes being trash at running? ScarJo also doesn’t count. In many ways, Johansson is just racing down the path Jolie opened for her, but man, does she run through it. Johansson—and her stunt double, probably—just have a way of barreling, when she runs, something that directors like the Russo brothers like to leverage when selling Black Widow’s signature flips and throws. It’s one of the unique and consistent things about the Black Widow as a character—she doesn’t ever really run to get away, but to build momentum that she then channels into wrecking face.
Sylvester Stallone
I mean, come on.
Michael B. Jordan
I mean, come on.
Franka Potente
Another actress that’s more or less left action films behind, Franka Potente earns a spot on this list just through the sheer kinetic genius of Run Lola Run, an all-out sprint of a movie that’s all about how Franka Potente just has to… keep running. And she’s really damn good at it.
Daniel Craig
James Bond wasn’t really supposed to be a running sort of guy, you know? If he did have to run all the time, that kind of meant he blew the whole James Bond thing, you know? And then Daniel Craig got cast as Bond and Casino Royale happened and none of that matters anymore. Perhaps the best thing about Craig’s running in these movies is that it’s kind of reflective of how people didn’t think he was fit to be Bond—he just looks too big to be running that fast, like he’s not built to be that nimble. It results in a lot of great visual moments, like his tendency to only move his forearms like he’s a T-Rex in a thousand dollar suit, or that bit in the Casino Royale parkour chase where he straight-up trucks right through a wall.
Hugh Jackman
Now that his career as Wolverine is finally over, we likely won’t see him taking on any intensive running scenes any time soon. But we are so, so glad he went out with Logan, a movie that gave us a terrific finale with lots of Hugh running, and even better, this incredible video where Hugh Jackman works himself into a frothy rage recording Logan’s panting and snarling over the previously shot footage.
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