A new documentary about Terry Fox, showcasing previously unseen footage, unveiled its trailer today, a month ahead of its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Titled “Run Terry Run,” the film delves into the 1980 Marathon of Hope by Terry Fox, the British Columbia athlete and advocate for cancer research, using close to 100 reels of recently recovered archival footage.
The trailer includes conversations and insights from Doug Alward, a friend and van driver, Darrell Fox, Terry’s younger brother, and Terry Fox himself as he embarked on his cross-Canada run at 21 years old to raise funds for cancer research following the amputation of his leg due to osteogenic sarcoma.
Director Sean Menard from Toronto retrieved the raw footage from filmmaker John Simpson, who had initially thought the footage was discarded after creating his own documentary, “Terry Fox: I Had A Dream,” sponsored by CBC in 1981. Motivated by the scarcity of high-quality footage available, Menard, in collaboration with the Terry Fox Foundation, located the footage in a storage unit in Toronto, just blocks away from his residence.
The restored footage, upgraded to 4K quality, was used by Menard to craft his documentary, which premiered at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto last year. The documentary, as reviewed by Canadian Running, avoids traditional interviews, opting for voiceovers from key individuals like Alward, Darrell Fox, Leslie Scrivener, the first journalist to cover the Marathon of Hope, and Darryl Sittler, the former captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs who ran alongside Terry during a part of the marathon.
Terry Fox initiated his marathon on April 12, 1980, after being diagnosed with cancer three years prior. His initial objective was to run from St. John’s to Victoria, covering 5,373 kilometers before halting the attempt near Thunder Bay, Ontario, due to the spread of cancer to his lungs. Despite his passing in 1981, his marathon raised over $24 million at the time, equivalent to $1 from each Canadian. This year, the Terry Fox Foundation announced crossing the remarkable milestone of surpassing $1 billion in cancer research funds.
Various documentaries have previously highlighted Terry Fox’s journey, and in 2024, the Bank of Canada announced that Fox’s image would feature on the upcoming $5 banknote. Menard, in a statement to The Canadian Press in 2025, mentioned that his film portrays the transformation of a 21-year-old from an inexperienced runner driven by a grand vision to a young man navigating the global limelight while challenging his boundaries.
The documentary’s original music score was created by U.S. composer Tom Caffey, known for his work on the Michael Jordan Netflix series, “The Last Dance.” “Run Terry Run” is set to premiere at TIFF on September 19, a day before the 46th annual Terry Fox Run, with a theatrical release scheduled for October 9, 2026.