- For the 1963 film of the same name starring Laurence Harvey, see The Running Man (1963 film)
The Running Man is a 1987 film adaptation loosely based on the Stephen King novel The Running Man. Directed by Paul Michael Glaser, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Jesse Ventura, Jim Brown, and Richard Dawson.
The film, set in a dystopic year 2019, is about a television show called Running Man, where convicted criminal "runners" must escape death at the hands of professional killers. The film differed significantly from the novel; it recalls some scenes from a French film with a similar theme, called Le Prix du Danger, about a television show where participants must escape killers live on television.
Plot
In 2017, the economy has collapsed and society has become a police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives. In one game, Climbing for Dollars, contestants must climb a rope and collect money along the way, without falling down and being eaten by ferocious dogs below. The most popular and sadistic of these shows is The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian. The Running Man is portrayed as a gladiator-style competition that takes place in a section of Los Angeles ravaged by an earthquake in 1997. "Runners," convicted criminals, attempt to survive while being chased by "stalkers," executioners with ornate weaponry, costumes and nicknames. Members of the show's studio audience win prizes for selecting which stalker enters the zone or correctly picking the stalker who kills the runner. Runners who manage to evade the stalkers, it's said, are pardoned by the Justice Department.
Ben Richards is a pilot of a military helicopter gunship patrolling Bakersfield, California. Upon discovering a food riot, the military commands Richards to eliminate the rioters. He refuses to do so, noting that they are unarmed. Ordered to overpower Richards, the rest of the crew assume command and kill a number of civilians. To cover up the incident, state propaganda revises the story: Richards defied the military's orders to spare the civilians and fired into the crowd. Richards is sent to prison and dubbed "The Butcher Of Bakersfield."
Eighteen months later, Richards is shown imprisoned in a labor camp, where he plots his escape with two other prisoners, William Laughlin and Harold Weiss. After defeating a barbaric escape-prevention system, the three escape to a shanty town hideout on the outskirts of Los Angeles. There, they encounter Mick, the leader of a resistance group of which Laughlin and Weiss are also members. Mick asks Richards to join their efforts, but he declines, choosing instead to visit his brother's apartment in the city.
He enters only to find out it is now occupied by composer Amber Mendez, who works for ICS, the network that broadcasts Running Man. She explains that Richards' brother was taken away for "re-education". Richards kidnaps Amber and plans to fly to Hawaii. While at the airport, she manages to alert security and Richards is caught. Again, altered footage of the event appears on national television, which shows that Richards shot innocent people. Amber is shocked at the staged content, as she saw Richards merely trying to escape to freedom, unarmed.
Richards is taken to the ICS studios in downtown Los Angeles, where the host, Killian, coerces him to compete in "The Running Man" with the threat that if he declines, Laughlin and Weiss—who were re-captured separately—will be put in the show instead. Richards complies, but at an elaborate dance number which starts the show, Killian reveals that he lied—Laughlin and Weiss have been enrolled as runners anyway.
The three runners first encounter "Subzero," an Asian stalker who uses a bladed hockey stick and exploding pucks. To rescue Weiss from being murdered, Richards stuns the show's viewers by strangling Subzero with barbed wire and escaping with Laughlin and Weiss to the next zone. Weiss deduces that ICS' uplink facilities are within the game zone, and that they could find the access codes to the satellites that broadcast ICS programming. Meanwhile, Amber pursues the story Richards told her of his innocence. Caught in the ICS archives while looking for the original tapes of the case, she is subsequently sent into the game zone.
Amber meets the other three runners just as two stalkers, the chainsaw-wielding "Buzzsaw" and the electrified, opera-singing "Dynamo," ambush them. The runners split up; Buzzsaw wounds Laughlin but is eventually killed by Richards. Elsewhere, Weiss and Amber find the uplink system, and Weiss hacks it to find the codes, asking Amber to remember them. He completes this just as Dynamo finds the duo and electrocutes Weiss. Amber's screams lead Richards to her, and the two evade Dynamo long enough to cause his buggy to flip, trapping him inside. As Dynamo loudly pleads for the show to cut to a commercial, Richards merely pins him in the vehicle, proclaiming that he will not kill a helpless man.
Amber and Richards return to Laughlin, whose wounds prove fatal. Before dying, he reveals that the resistance has a hideout within the game zone; it's imperative to get Amber, who knows the satellite code, to them. Back at the ICS studio, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing, with viewers betting for Richards to win when they are supposed to bet only on the stalkers. With the Justice Department becoming increasingly frustrated by a convict doing well on the show, off-camera, Killian offers Richards a job as a stalker. He furiously declines.
Returning to the game zone, the next stalker, "Fireball," pursues Amber and Richards into an abandoned factory. The pair separate, and Amber inadvertently finds the charred bodies of the previous season's "winning" runners, whose victory was apparently faked. Fireball finds her and is about to incinerate her with his flamethrower, but Richards severs his fuel line. Tossing a lit flare at him, he escapes with Amber just before the room and the stalker explode into flames.
Running out of options, Killian orders that Captain Freedom, a highly decorated ex-stalker who became The Running Man's color commentator, be brought back to battle Richards. Captain Freedom, who respects Richards under the "code of the gladiators," thinks Killian is altering the odds unfairly and defies orders to battle Richards. Meanwhile, Richards and Amber are caught by Mick and the resistance and taken to their hideout. They watch as Killian stages, through computer-generated imagery, the death of Richards and Amber in the final match of the episode, at the hands of Captain Freedom.
During the post-show wrap-up, Mick is able to take over the ICS satellite and broadcasts the raw, true footage of the Bakersfield massacre, proving Richards's innocence. Richards leads the rebels to the ICS studios, shocking the live and at-home audiences who supposedly watched him die. The rebels defeat the guards in a shootout and invade the control room, preventing the network from censoring the events. Meanwhile, the spared Dynamo confronts Amber alone and tries to rape her; she manages to shoot a water sprinkler, causing Dynamo's power pack to electrocute him. Richards finds Killian, who explains that he had created the show for huge ratings and to appease American viewers' love for television with a mixture of wrestling, combat and contact sports, and violence, suggesting that he gives the viewers what they really want. Richards, ignoring the excuse, straps Killian into the rocket-sled used to send convicts into the game grid and launches him. However, this time there is no net at the end of the tube and so the sled flies into a billboard of Killian, causing a giant explosion, at which live television audiences cheer. Richards and Amber embrace, kiss, and walk off together hand in hand. Screens go black across the city, showing only the message: PLEASE STAND BY.
Cast
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 63% of critics gave the film a positive review based on a sample of 32 reviews, with an average score of 5.5/10.[1] In The Running Man's opening weekend, it was released in 1,692 theaters and grossed $8,117,465. The film's total domestic gross was $38,122,105.[2]
Video game
A video game based on the film was released for the ZX Spectrum,[3] Commodore 64,[4] Amstrad CPC,[5] Amiga, and Atari ST.[6] The game was developed by Emerald Software Ltd and published by Grandslam Entertainment.
See also
References
External links
