The Reality Of Running Away From Stuff

We've all seen movie characters escape from a lot of stuff. Some of it almost believable, some of it downright silly. The movie The Time Machine shows our heroes free-climbing up a 100 foot cliff and then racing to safety up a mountain to escape a large explosion. In The Mummy Returns, a hero actually outruns the sunlight streaming over the horizon. Just how unbelievable are these feats of speed?

Here's a chart showing maximum speeds for some of the more common Hollywood hazards measured against the fastest speeds that an Olympic level human can deliver (all in meters/second).