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, Yaphet Kotto 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 as the film was more of an action-packed adventure while the novel was played out as a science fiction survival psychological thriller; 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. The most popular and sadistic of these shows is The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless and cocky Damon Killian, who is also the head of the game shows' network and the government's commander of executions.
Ben Richards is a pilot of a military police helicopter gunship patrolling Bakersfield, California. Upon discovering a food riot, the superior commands Richards to eliminate the rioters. He refuses to do so, noting that the rioters are unarmed. The rest of the crew is ordered to overpower Richards, after which they assume command and kill a number of civilians. To cover up the incident, state propaganda revises the story. In their version, Richards defied the military's orders to spare the civilians and fired into the crowd. Richards is sent to prison as being responsible for the "Bakersfield massacre", titling him as 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. Prisoners are detained through the use of detonating cord collars placed on their necks, which behead prisoners who cross an electronic "dead line." Harold Weiss learns the code to deactivate the deadline. Richards and Laughlin stage a fight to cover their escape. The three escape to a shanty town hideout on the outskirts of Los Angeles, where they encounter Mic, leader of a resistance group in which Laughlin and Weiss are also members. Mic removes the collars from the men (but was hesitant and unsure at first about releasing Richards, either letting him live or die, since Richards was blamed for the Bakersfield massacre) and asks Richards to join their efforts. Richards declines, choosing instead to visit his brother's apartment in the city.
He enters only to find out it is now occupied by Spanish music 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 to plan a way to clear himself for the massacre and liberate the society. While at the airport, she manages to alert security and Richards is caught. Again, altered footage of the event appears on national television, which says that Richards shot innocent people. Amber is shocked at the staged content, as she saw Richards merely trying to escape to freedom, and he carried no weapon at the airport. Thereby, Amber realizes the government network's been lying all the time and Richards was right and innocent the whole time.
Richards is taken to the ICS studios in downtown Los Angeles, where the host, Killian, requests that he compete in "The Running Man." Richards agrees when he learns that Laughlin and Weiss—who were re-captured separately—would enter the show in his place. At an elaborate dance number which starts the show and introduces the host, Killian reveals that he lied to Richards, as Laughlin and Weiss have been enrolled as runners anyway.
"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. The stalkers became celebrities for killing runners on the game show.
The three runners first encounter "Subzero," an Asian stalker who uses a bladed hockey stick. Richards stuns the show's viewers by killing Subzero 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. She is caught in the ICS archives while looking for the original tapes of the case and is subsequently sent into the game grid.
Amber meets the other three runners just as two stalkers, the chainsaw-wielding "Buzzsaw" and the opera-singing "Dynamo," ambush them. The runners split up, with Richards and Laughlin pursued by Buzzsaw. During the battle, Buzzsaw wounds Laughlin, but eventually he too is killed by Richards. Elsewhere, Weiss and Mendez are able to find the uplink system, and Weiss hacks the system to find the codes, asking Amber to remember them. He completes the code 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 Dynamo's 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 to be fatal. Before he dies, Laughlin reveals that the resistance has a hideout within the game zone, and that it's imperative to get Amber, who has the code for the satellite, to them. Back at the ICS studio, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing from a convicted "villain" to a popular player of the game (as the audience began to sense not only his amazing skills, but his goodness as well which could turn away his "Butcher of Bakersfield" title). With the Justice Department becoming increasingly frustrated by a convict doing well on the show, in an off-camera moment, Killian offers Richards a job as a stalker, which he vehemently declines.
Returning to the game zone, the next stalker, "Fireball," pursues Amber and Richards into an abandoned factory. The pair separates, with Amber finding an old locker room, within which are the charred and decomposing bodies of the previous season's "winning" runners, who apparently were executed anyway despite winning or they never had won. Fireball finds her, and is about to incinerate her with his flamethrower when Richards severs his fuel line, dousing the stalker in gas. Richards tosses a lit flare at the incapacitated Fireball and escapes with Amber just before the room erupts into flames, killing Fireball by his own flames.
Running out of options, Killian orders that Captain Freedom, a highly decorated and once proud 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," have becoming disillusioned with the game show, thinks Killian is altering the odds unfairly to defeat an man he likely considers a true warrior and defies orders to battle him in person. As a result, Killian fires Captain Freedom and dismisses him. Meanwhile, Richards and Amber are caught by Mic and the resistance and taken to their hideout. They watch as Killian stages the death of Richards and Amber in the final match of the episode, through computer-generated imagery, at the hands of a virtual Captain Freedom.
During the post-show wrap-up, Mic is able to take over the ICS satellite and broadcasts what really happened to the previous winners and the raw footage of the Bakersfield massacre. Richards leads the rebels to the ICS studios, shocking the live and at-home audiences who supposedly watched him die at the hands of Captain Freedom. The rebels defeat the guards in a shootout and invade the control room, preventing any chance for the network to censor the events. Meanwhile, the spared Dynamo confronts Amber alone, and instead of being grateful, tries to rape her after feeling humiliated by his non-fatal defeat with Richards. Amber manages to shoot the water sprinkler, spraying Dynamo and causing his electrical power pack to electrocute him. Richards finds Killian, who explains that he had created the show for huge ratings and appease American viewers' love for television with a mixture of wrestling, combat and contact sports, and violence. Richards ignores the excuse, instead strapping Killian into the rocket-sled used to transport convicts into the game grid. Enraged at getting tricked by Richards, Killian tells Richards to drop dead, Richards responds by telling him he don't take requests before launching him. However, this time there is no net at the end and so the sled flies into a billboard of Killian promoting his soda brand, causing a giant explosion. Killian's death is seen by audiences watching live television and they cheer. Richards and Amber embrace, kiss, and walk off together hand in hand as the now freed society begins to rebuild into a better world.
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]
Richard Dawson won a Saturn Award for his performance as the cocky, swindling, but utterly very sinister, villain Damon Killian.
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
