We Asked A Real-Life Marathon Runner: Does Tom Cruise Have Good Running Form In His Movies?

If you were to ask a random person to picture someone running in a movie, the odds are pretty damn good they would imagine Tom Cruise. Across more than three decades of being one of Hollywood's biggest A-list stars and action heroes, Cruise has spent a fair amount of time running in his movies. From thrillers like "The Firm" to his work as Ethan Hunt in "Mission: Impossible," running is a staple of Cruise's on-screen persona. But is he actually a good runner?

"When it comes to running form, obviously there's different types of running," Jeremy Miller, an accomplished endurance athlete who has run everything from half marathons to 100-mile races and everything in between, and who has developed a loyal following on Instagram, told /Film. He knows his stuff, and he helped us answer a very simple question: Does Tom Cruise have good running form?

"I do a little bit more of the endurance type stuff where I'm running maybe a half-marathon or a marathon," Miller said. "The thing with Hollywood is you only see him running for like three seconds at a time. So I doubt he's running more than 100 meters or something at any given point in time."

Cruise has a weird rule about running scenes in his movies. He typically runs alone. But that does make it a little easier for someone like Miller to analyze what he's doing. To his eye, at least, Cruise has the goods as a runner. It doesn't just look good on screen. As Miller explained:

"I think his form looks great but the question would then be, how long can he sustain that for? Because it's very different running 100 meters versus running 26 miles."

"I would say he's definitely great at sprinting," Jeremy Miller added. He also noted that Tom Cruise is "a fit dude," especially for his age (he's 63 as of publication). Form is difficult to fake, and Cruise has that down.

"When it comes to running form itself, my rule of thumb is like if it looks good, generally it is good," Miller said. "If it looks natural, then it generally is pretty good because everybody's body anatomy is a little bit different. Some people have longer legs or longer torsos, so everybody has their own unique running form."

Cruise's running form is unique and unmistakable, and it definitely looks good. There's a reason why the more Cruise runs in his movies, the more money they generally make. Yes, that's a real thing.

"I don't know if you've ever seen somebody that has inefficient running form, but you can tell almost immediately just by looking at them because it just looks weird," Miller said. "It looks uncomfortable. It looks kind of painful."

For Cruise, it's certainly been painful at times. He pushed through the pain of a broken ankle to finish a scene in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout," but it never looks weird or inefficient. Sprinting effectively enough to convince people that someone is literally attempting to save the world on foot isn't exactly normal, but running is running.

One can fake a lot of things as an actor. Cruise can't effectively fake running as much as he does on screen. Even if it's only 100 meters at a time, he's actually got to do it. And he could probably do it for much longer if needed.

I myself am a deeply average runner. At times, I've genuinely pictured Tom Cruise running in low moments as motivation. I also think of Daniel Craig running down the street in "Skyfall," which is James Bond at his finest. If people look to these cinematic icons as north stars for motivation with running, it's important to ensure they're actually good at it.

Jeremy Miller pulled up clips of Cruise running during our conversation and became more convinced the actor knows his stuff. Miller explained how sprinting differs from marathon running in practice. As he explained:

"When you're doing more of the marathon stride or almost the ultra-marathon shuffle, you're kind of closed in a little bit more. It's not super flowy, but when you're sprinting, you're just fully opened up. You're pushing hard. Your knees are pressing forward. That's kind of the biggest cue I have for myself if I'm doing sprints is driving the knees forward and up."

"[Cruise has] got it pretty dialed in," Miller added. "He's got great arm drive because if you've ever tried running without your arms, it's very awkward. People underestimate how much your arms actually help when you run. He's got a great knee drive."

Upon further examination, Miller also pointed out something else that Cruise has that tends to be the mark of a good runner — a good cadence.

"If you look at any fast runners, whether they're a marathon runner, like Usain Bolt, having a really high cadence is super important," Miller said. "Your steps per minute. I'd have to actually look at it and count them out, but it looks like [Cruise] has a really great cadence because if you're taking these big, clunky, long, slow steps, it's just really inefficient."

But what are some examples of bad running? "Rocky" arguably has the greatest training montage of all time, and Sylvester Stallone's running in that movie is legendary. However, Jeremy Miller earmarked many of these Hollywood training montages as areas where the running tends to be rougher around the edges.

"It always seems to be the scene where someone is trying to get in shape where there's the little training montage," Miller said. "They're going out their front door, and they're running around their neighborhood or something. It always just looks a little awkward, I feel like, because you can tell that person probably doesn't normally run. I think a big part of it is the cadence. These big, clunky, jaunty steps. It just doesn't look very smooth."

Oddly enough, running slower is harder for people to emulate if they don't normally have to do it. "It's almost kind of awkward for most people who don't run to kind of run at that easier, slower, jogging pace," Miller said. But what about Rocky Balboa? How does he stack up against Ethan Hunt? There is a clear winner in his eyes:

"Rocky looks pretty good. I think Tom Cruise has a better running form than Rocky, but also Rocky is gonna go for an hour long run, he's gonna run six miles or something. Whereas Tom Cruise, he's sprinting away from an explosion or something."

"It still falls into that slower cadence, just a little clunky," Miller concluded.

So there we have it. When you see Tom Cruise running on the silver screen, be it "War of the Worlds" or "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol," it's not just movie magic; it's the real deal.