Glen Powell is no stranger to stunts. In the last few years, he's battled both natural disasters in Twisters and a love interest's abusive ex-husband in Hit Man. However, it was Top Gun: Maverick that best prepared him to take on the role of Ben Richards, a contestant in a deadly reality show, in Edgar Wright's new adaptation of Stephen King's The Running Man.
"I think I did learn on Top Gun what it takes to deliver something specific for the audience. Like, riding in the back of those planes a couple times a day, you are exhausted, but what you do is you put your head down and you focus for this finite amount of time, because you know it'll last on film forever," Powell tells GamesRadar+.
"I kept that in the back of my head, you know, the 'film is forever' feeling, which is, 'do what you have to do' – don't take any shortcuts, so you give the audience that full experience. I think I've taken these last few years since Top Gun [and] I've had the best film education I can even imagine, which is I get to work with some of the top filmmakers in the world and I'm really trying to learn and treating it like my film school."
In The Running Man, Powell is on the run from a group of elite Hunters while America watches on at home. If his character Ben can outrun the TV network's goons for 30 days, he'll win a life-changing amount of money and be able to help his sick daughter – but no one has ever made it that far. What follows is an intense, action-packed cross-country journey, involving explosions, fight scenes, and high-stakes chases.
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