A Dystopian Tale Comes of Age- a Review of The Running Man

The Running Man is less like the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film and more like the 1982 novel it was based on, but it still tells us much about our own culture and its obsession with entertainment.

The Running Man is a not intended to be a remake of the 1987 action film of the same name starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, but is instead a close interpretation of the original 1982 novel by Stephen King (who wrote it under the pen name Richard Bachman). The film stars Glenn Powell as Ben Richardson who lives with his wife and young daughter in the dystopian Co-Op City in the year 2025 (just as in the novel). While Richardson is a skilled worker in the trades, we learn through a series of conversations that he has been blacklisted from working in his field because of his “defiant” and “deviant” attitude, i.e., he has continuously put the safety of his workers above the profit margins of the mega-corporation which runs the city, known simply as “The Network.”

In need of money for his sick daughter, and with his wife already overworked as a waitress at a night club, Ben decides to try out for one of the many television game shows that the Network runs. When he arrives at the Network’s headquarters, a clerk uses a sort of credit-score program to study Ben’s work and criminal record. After being put through a series of physical and mental tests, he is told to report to the office of Dan Killian (wonderfully played by Josh Brolin), who is the producer of the game show called The Running Man.

Killian tells Ben that his defiant and willful attitude, coupled with his willingness to do whatever it takes to support his family, makes him the perfect candidate for the Running Man game show. Ben, however, is reluctant to participate knowing that hardly anyone survives the show, but after Killian offers him a cash advance to provide for his wife and child, as well as offering to move them to new and safe place to live, Ben agrees to play and is explained its rules.

Unlike the 1987 film, where the “contestants” are let loose in a maze until they are killed or defeat all of the hunters sent after them, the runners are given $1000, a backpack of supplies, and a kind of vlog recording device with which they must record and mail in an “I’m still alive” video each day. They are then released onto the streets with a twelve-hour head start and may run to anywhere in the country before the show’s hunters, led by their masked leader “McConne” (Lee Pace), are released to chase after them. The runners earn money for each day that they survive, but civilians, who are also part of the game, also earn rewards for spotting them and tagging their location to the hunters. If the contestants can survive for thirty days, they are given a billion “new” dollars (with a humorous Easter egg on the money).

Of course, as in the novel and the 1987 movie, the game is rigged not just to favor the Network’s hunters, but also through manipulation of the videos sent in by the runners as well as the news coverage about their efforts. They are turned into deepfakes which cast the runners in the worst light, in order that the viewers will despise them and continue to support the Network, and of course, to drum up ratings for the show. The rest of the film chronicles Ben as he manages to outsmart and kill several of the hunters and live longer than any of the other contestants. Along the way he also meets up with various characters who help him that are part of an underground rebellion against the Network, and a woman whom he kidnaps and takes as a hostage. Ben uses the woman as leverage in the film’s stirring climax where he is confronted with the bitter truth about the game show and forced to make a hard moral decision about his future. The ending, like in the 1987 film, was changed to something more palatable than the novel’s bleak ending in which everyone dies.

A Dystopian Tale that Predicted and Mirrors Our Own Time

The Critical Drinker had a rather dour take on the film, saying that it was way too long with too many slow periods, and had too many characters popping in and out of the storyline. I concur with him on the first two points in that at over two hours long, there were quite a few moments or scenes that could have been taken out of the film without affecting the overall story. However, I will disagree on the third. The various characters that show up in the film are in the novel, so they may seem like useless filler that detract from (according to the Drinker) “the pace and urgency” of a standard action film storyline. However, this is something that is bound to happen because of the differences between the manner in which people interact with the written word and with films. Specifically, some elements of written stories do not suitably transfer to film. This is something Stephen King himself found out in 1997 when he decided to produce a version of his book the Shining that was more to his liking (since he has always hated Kubrick’s version). But while the five-hour miniseries that essentially followed the novel scene-for-scene was praised at the time, it is not well-known or fondly remembered today.

The Running Man is a cyberpunk and dystopian tale in which a single corporation exists as the de facto government of the nation, and that uses high-tech “bread and circus” shows to entertain and placate a cowed and suppressed population by mitigating their frustrations and feelings of helplessness with deadly game shows. As is the case with similar dystopian films, these gladiatorial-style games allow the governing forces to weed out free-thinking alpha figures, the ones who are most likely to foment and lead a revolution, by offering them a “chance” to take on and beat their oppressors at their own game. Arguably King’s original novel was inspired by such films as Rollerball, Death Race (both made in 1975), and to a certain extend Logan’s Run (1976). Later films such as The Hunger Games films (2012-15) and more recently The Squid Games (2021) were inspired by both King’s story and the 1987 film.

While the The Running Man is not without its flaws, it does distinguish itself in one respect, which has to do with the fact that the film happens to take place in our current year of 2025. King’s dystopian tale, as well as all the other films and stories which came before and after it, have finally come of age. It is a story which in many ways mirrors our own culture today, not in the sense that a mega-corporation rules over our lives, or that we watch people kill each other on games shows, but in the fact that video screens and entertainment are used as the weapon of choice for those seeking to control the masses.

This state of affairs was foretold by author Neil Postman in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death- Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Reading the signs of the times, Postman predicted that television (called “FreeV” in The Running Man) would gradually transform the way we think, talk and interact with one another, to the point where every aspect of our life from politics to religion would become merely another form of entertainment. He observed that,

“Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely without protest or even much popular notice. The result is that we are a people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death.”

Postman’s thesis is that while many of us worry about an Orwellian future, the real danger is found in the future of Aldus Huxley’s A Brave New World,

“Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.”

The world of The Running Man certainly has some elements of Orwell’s totalitarian state in 1984 or even the 2013 film Elysium, where the people like Ben live in an oppressive poverty where there are few options available to survive, let alone to get ahead, while the ruling elites live in perpetual wealth and luxury. Nevertheless, there is a lot more of Postman’s take on a more Brave New World-style of future to this film. Much like our own world of 2025, the setting of The Running Man is one where a mammoth corporation exerts it dominance over the populace, not through fear, but through thrills and entertainment.

Unlike our own world that has game shows and even competitive elimination programs like Survivor or The Amazing Race, the reality of Ben Richardson’s world is one in which people are both figuratively and literally amused or entertained by death. The populace is given a lot of excitement, but only a small glimmer of hope, in order to make them forget about their wretched lot in life, so that even if they will never be free of their misery, they are inspired by the thought of someone else doing so.

This is the role of Ben Richardson and the various members of the underground rebellion movement who publish pamphlets and produce YouTube style videos to reveal the truth behind the manipulation being done by the “Network.” They are the gadflies and truth-tellers who play the same role as the alternative media in our own world today, which expose and rails against the information stranglehold of the Big-Tech/Legacy Media axis.

Thus, while The Running Man may not be the most exciting film, it is still an interesting (and sometimes humorous) commentary on our contemporary culture. While it may not be the most action-packed film filled with iconic “Arnold” one-liners, it is still a decent story about a flawed but relatable hero who is willing to risk his life (while at work or on a deadly game show) to protect and support his family. And finally, even though the ending is not as depressing as the novel, it is still a grim tale of defiance and sacrifice in the face of oppression that allows us to break free of a prison created by our own disordered desires. For those who are fans of Stephen King, the original movie, or keen on this genre of science fiction, the film is worth seeing.

Photo Credits- Screen Rant, Action Flix, The Wrap and Comics Gaming Magazine.