Tom Cruise Secretly Had A Big Impact On This Stephen King Movie

Stephen King's 1982 novel "The Running Man" is a gritty dystopian action thriller with a scrappy protagonist named Ben Richards. It was adapted into a campy movie in 1987 that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and has since been re-adapted into a movie for audiences in 2025. This new film, starring Glen Powell as Ben Richards, is presenting itself as a mix between King's book and the '87 "Running Man" movie; it features a lot of the campier elements of the Schwarzenegger film, but it also appears to be following the basic plot points of the original novel.

Probably the biggest adaptive flourish apparent in the trailer is the casting of Powell as Richards. In King's novel, the character is athletic enough to do well in the Running Man game show, but he's also malnourished on account of the poverty he endured for decades prior to the story's inciting incident. But when Powell has talked about Richards from the book, it seems like he's thinking more about the Schwarzenegger version instead.

"I knew that based on the Stephen King book, Ben Richards was a tank," as Powell previously explained in a GQ profile. "I was like, 'Okay, I got to be a bit of a weapon.' And so that's why I trained the way I trained on this. I put on a lot of muscle. A lot of it was functional. A lot of it was so I could absorb hits. But a lot of it was also authentically for an audience."

Of course, not every movie adaptation needs to be faithful to the book, and a version of "The Running Man" featuring a buff protagonist isn't inherently bad. So, if Powell was aiming to portray a muscular, flashy lead, it's good that action legend Tom Cruise was around to help him out. As Powell explained to GQ, Cruise not only advised him on how to train for the film's big stunts, but he also helped him become the tank that Ben Richards is apparently supposed to be. As Powell put it:

"I went from going, 'Oh, I'm an actor on a movie' to 'I'm a high-performance athlete.' And I'm just very lucky that I have someone like Tom who I could literally go, 'Hey, what do I do to survive something?'"

Powell worked alongside "Cruise" on the set of "Top Gun: Maverick," although he almost didn't star in the movie at all. As Cruise told GQ in the same profile, Powell had tried out for the role of Goose's son, who ended up being played by Miles Teller; Powell was instead offered the minor role of Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin, but he initially declined. It simply wasn't the leading role he was looking for. 

Cruise convinced him to take the job anyway, and the two appear to have developed a nice mentor/mentee relationship since then. Powell recalled how Cruise gave him advice not just on how to train his body, but also on how to deal with all the extra attention that's come with his rise in fame. As Powell explained:

"He basically said, 'Hey, it's going to get really, really loud. It's your job to just turn the volume down. Just remember you have your hand on that switch. You have your hand on the ability to turn up that noise or turn it down.' And really just turning down the noise and trusting your own gut has been a real godsend for me."

Cruise's mentorship of Powell makes sense given that the younger actor has similar dreams of being a long-lasting A-list star, i.e. someone who might even be leading his own eight-part action film series down the line (à la Cruise and the "Mission: Impossible" movies). Like Cruise, Powell also has a handsome-yet-distinct face and has shown himself capable of acting with far more range than many give him credit for (especially in movies like "Hit Man"). Powell may not have what it takes to give a 100% book-accurate depiction of Ben Richards from "The Running Man," but he does seem ready to stick around on the big screen for decades to come.

"The Running Man" will open in theaters on November 14, 2025.