Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
Glen Powell almost lost his hand after accidentally being stabbed with a retractable knife on the set of The Running Man.
An altercation at the end of the 2025 dystopian thriller film, in which Evan McCone (Lee Pace) stabs the hand of Ben Richards (Glen), went horribly wrong, but the actor did not realise the severity of his injury due to being too focused on the production.
Glen, 37, told Esquire: “Running Man had a release date, and I had the J. J. Abrams movie on deck.”
The pain of the injury and the continued swelling of his hand saw Glen be rushed to an emergency room in Bulgaria, where he “learned not only that the tissue had been severed completely but also that he had a septic infection”, the publication reports.
Sepsis is a life-threatening illness where the body’s extreme response to an infection causes inflammation, which can damage organs and tissues.
Glen recalled doctors telling him: “This is the real deal.”
The entertainer subsequently underwent surgery, and attendants warned him he “could wake up without a hand” afterwards.
His surgery was successful, and medical staff recommended Glen to “keep the injury dry, warm, and at rest”.
However, the Golden Globe nominee went straight back to film The Running Man the next day, with the need for a bandaged arm to be written into the script for Ben.
Glen shot a scene that saw his alter ego scale an apartment building in just a bath towel wrapped around his waist.
He noted that he filmed that sequence in “negative 10-degree weather with one arm”.
The Running Man took a toll on Glen, admitting he “left that movie broken, physically and emotionally”, which caused him to ask questions to himself, such as: “Do you keep sprinting?”
Glen performs “non-stop, bad a**” stunts in the film, which is set in a titular game show, and pits contestants, “runners” against a team of murderous Hunters, who attempt to locate and kill them. If a runner stays alive for 30 days, they bag $1 billion.
Audiences see his “authentic” reactions to the sequences, such as “jumping off exploding bridges”, as well as tumbling off roofs.
And Glen’s Top Gun: Maverick co-star Tom Cruise, 64, who also performs his own stunts, gave him some top tips to perfect the daredevil sequences.
In October 2025, Glen told the Saturday Guardian magazine: “The fact that Tom is such a close friend now – when I got The Running Man, he was literally my first call.
“I said, ‘Dude, you’ve been doing this for decades.’ He has picked up every trick in the book. And he’s so generous – I thought I was going to talk to him for 10 minutes. He stayed on the phone for two hours plus.
“He’s like, ‘Tell me some of the stunts you’re doing.’ I said, ‘OK, I’m jumping off exploding bridges, falling off roofs.’
“He said, ‘Are you running at night?’ Yes. ‘OK, that means you’ll probably wrap at five in the morning. Don’t do any sprinting shots at five in the morning. Your body’s going to be out of whack, and you’ll get hurt. They’re always going to do a wetdown at night.’
“So Tom says, ‘That’s fine if you’re running straight. If you’re taking a corner, no.’
“He goes, ‘If you’re hanging 11 storeys up, make sure people see how high you are. Make sure the shot reflects depth and dimension. You are selling the fact that you are doing these things.'”
