It's no secret that Mission: Impossible star Tom Cruise enjoys an good sprint in his films. In fact, the age-defying actor has somewhat made it his trademark, putting millions of younger audience members to shame as he racks more pedometer steps in one film than most of us do in a year.

But does all that running actually make his films better? Well, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and science, the answer is yes.

The site compared the amount of running Cruise does in his movies to the amount of money they make and the Freshness score they receive on the Tomatometer.

In order to do so, the Rotten Tomatoes team counted every instance of Cruise's running on screen in seconds and calculated distances based on the assumption that he is running a six-minute mile, which makes for 14.6 feet per second.

They found that the movies in which Cruise runs more than 1,000 feet (eg Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) have a much higher score on the Tomatometer than movies in which he runs less distance – and those films also make more money at the box office too.

They also found that the older the actor gets, the more running he does – which can only be good news for the star's future films.

Although, the formula doesn't always work, with Rotten Tomatoes singling out The Mummy and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back as two of the exceptions to the rule, with both films featuring plenty of running, but disappointing box offices and critical receptions too.

Paramount

Still, Cruise shows no signs of slowing down in his newest movie Mission: Impossible – Fallout, the latest and most action-packed instalment of the franchise so far.

He performs some of craziest stunts yet, including dangling from a helicopter and leaping from one building to another – which, as we all know by now, led to him breaking his ankle.

He also became the first ever actor to perform a HALO (High Altitude Low Open) jump – but he wouldn't let co-star Henry Cavill do it with him.

Mission: Impossible – Fallout is in UK and US cinemas now. Book tickets here.

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