This track, about a final shot at stardom, featured in the Mickey Rourke movie The Wrestler. The actor told ComingSoon.net that he is friends with Springsteen, and that Bruce penned the song for The Wrestler after Rourke had written a letter to the singer-songwriter telling him how proud he was of the film. Said Rourke: "The only reason I wrote Bruce Springsteen a letter was because after about six days, I knew something magical was happening on the movie. Darren (Aronofsky, director) sort of brought me back to just really wanting to be the best thing I could be. Stuff started happening with Evan (Rachel Wood) and then stuff made it personal with the speech at the end and the way Darren was shooting the movie and his direction, I felt this tremendous sense of pride and privilege to be associated with Darren and the people in this movie, and that's what gave me the gumption to write Bruce. I told him, 'We have no money, but we did it in New Jersey.'"

Springsteen called Rourke some time later after reading the script and told him, "I wrote you a little something." The actor told ComingSoon.net that after he first heard the song, "I had to listen to it like 100 times. He really got it... The song sums up the whole character. He did me such an honor and such a favor."

This won the award at the 66th Golden Globes held on January 11, 2009 for Best Song. It was Springsteen's second Golden Globe. He also won in 1994 for "Streets Of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.

This song is a bonus track on Springsteen's Working on a Dream album.

Springsteen told the Observer Music Monthly January 2009 that this "was a song about damage, about what it does to somebody with the inability to get in to normal life. The inability to stand the things that nurture you. Because much of our life is spent running. We're running, we're on the run; one of my specialities."