Glen Powell was told he "could wake up without a hand" after a Running Man stunt went horribly wrong

One of the films Glen Powell starred in during 2025 is The Running Man. Directed by Edgar Wright, the film followed Powell's character, Ben Richards, in a fictional dystopian future where he had to compete in a dangerous reality show to win money to save his daughter's life.

The role required Glen Powell to do multiple stunts, most of which the actor enjoyed. However, there is one stunt that almost cost him his hand.

The stunt that went south for Glen Powell

In a recent interview with Esquire, Glen Powell opened up about his career, hits and flops, and his personal life. In the interview with the outlet, Glen Powell revealed that when he was shooting The Running Man's final fight sequence, he ruptured a tendon during a stunt.

In the scene, Lee Pace's character, Evan McCone stabs Powell’s character in the hand using a retractable prop knife. Although the knife was not sharp, the force of the impact caused Powell to rupture a tendon. However, he hadn't even realized he had injured himself seriously at the time.

2025 was a busy year for Glen Powell, as he had to film The Running Man, The Great Beyond, and Chad Powers Season 2. Powell thus did not have much time to rest or take a break in between filming projects. He was thus more focused on working. Explaining why he kept working despite the pain, Powell told Esquire that he had to give his best because The Running Man already had a release date and he was scheduled to start in The Great Beyond.

However, his condition gradually worsened; his hand swelled up due to pain. Powell eventually had to go to an emergency room in Bulgaria, where doctors discovered that while the tissue had initially been ruptured, it had been completely severed by then. Powell had also developed a sepsis.

As Glen Powell revealed, the doctors told him that he needed surgery and said:

“This is the real deal."

Before he was put under anesthesia, the attending doctors had told him:

"You could wake up without a hand."

Losing one's hand is an unimaginable pain, not just physically, but mentally. However, Powell pulled through, and luckily the surgery went well. But he was still under tremendous work pressure. Despite doctors advising him to rest, Powell had to go back to filming the next day.

Describing his working environment post-surgery, Powell said:

“... negative 10 degree weather with one arm."

Moreover, he had to film under such harsh weather conditions wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. Talking to Esquire, Powell also said:

“I left that movie broken, physically and emotionally."

Besides the accident, The Running Man was a difficult film for Powell given how badly it had flopped. While there were external factors as to why the film wasn't the success it was expected to be, Glen Powell revealed that part of it was the lack of promotions. He said:

“They let go of an entire marketing department a month before our movie came out in the middle of a merger."

Thus, on top of such a serious physical injury, the film hadn't done well in theaters, grossing only $69 million against its $110 million budget. Powell still said he loved filming The Running Man, barring that last stunt. The accident was a serious one, but he's doing well now.