Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
The Running Man - Movie Review by Lisa Blanck
How far would you go to win $1,000,000,000.00 in 30 days? Would you crawl through rat-infested sewers? Swing on a rope from the top of an run-down hotel, naked, in the dark, while people shoot at you? How about kill ... would you do that? And not just people who want to kill you, but those who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. All to save your daughter, get your family out of poverty and escape the slums of NYC.
That's the premise for the new film The Running Man, and it's an adrenaline rush. It's based on Stephen King's 1982 novel penned under his Richard Bachman pseudonym. First released in 1987, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, our hero, Ben Richards, is now played by Glenn Powell. Powell is not as large a physical presence as Schwarzenegger, but brings more than enough wild intensity, humor and charisma to carry the role.
The Running Man is a state-controlled game show in an American dystopian future. How dystopian, well, that remains to be seen. There are many game shows run by the 'Network', a news media organization who functions hand in hand with the current police state. They broadcast nothing but lies and reality programming, 24-7. It's as addictive as a drug, and it's everywhere. The game shows are created by Dan Killian. In the 1987 version, that role went to Richard Dawson. This time, Josh Brolin plays the avaricious producer, and he does it with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face. He truly relishes the "I'm better than all of you peasants" role. When people arrive at the Network to audition for a show, they're forced to stand in line with armed soldiers, barking "eyes forward, mouth closed, do not sit down, do not lay down" in their faces. And everyone, except Ben, complies. Which, in the eyes of Killian, makes him a perfect contestant for Running Man.
In addition to the grand prize, Running Man contestants also earn bonuses for each hour they stay alive and for each 'Hunter' or corporate enforcer they eliminate. To prove they're still alive, they have to send a ten-minute videotape of themselves, every single day, back to the studio. These tapes also enable the Network to track them, so the contestants always have to be on the run. The tapes are used by Network as they see fit, using Artificial Intelligence to manipulate clips to raise the fever of the viewers. In this Running Man, A.I. is definitely a collaborator/partner with the police state. This is one of the ways the new film differs from the original. In the original, the oppressors are human and the totalitarian state humans have created. In the 2025 version, A.I. is complicit in the degradation of humanity. King himself views A.I. with a 'dreadful fascination'. He knows it can't be stopped, he just worries about the future of mankind if A.I. gets its tentacles into all aspects of our lives.
Anyone on the street can win acclaim and money by ratting out the location of Richards, or any of the contestants, to Network. It's hard to know who to trust, when everyone on the street, every 'man in black' is gunning for you. Richards does find compassionate people along the way, especially Michael Cera, who plays Elton. His character is absolutely wild, a survivalist, who is ready and willing, even ecstatic, to be able to help out a runner and stick it to Network. The scenes in his home are some of the best in the film, with absolutely crazy stuntwork.
There's even a live Greek chorus, the audience, who cheer on their favorite 'runner' from their seats in the arena. They're a slavering crowd, who bring their own signs and weapons to each episode. And raising them all to a fever pitch, for each segment is Coleman Domingo as Bobby Thompson, the host of the show. Thompson loves the fame, but he does straddle both sides of the fence. He expresses compassion for the runners, but his job is to keep the hype going.
The stuntwork is remarkable. There's so much of it that I really wanted LESS of it, to experience what was going on in each scene. At its height, we get a visceral rapid-fire-machine-gun-rat-a-tat of explosions, flips and falls. The theater seat literally shook. Maybe one day these actors will get recognized by the Acacemy for the work, the talent and the excitement that their stuntwork brings to so many films.
Most ironically, in this world where "you're watching us watching you" is the norm, the characters eventually all scream "stop watching me!" If you're looking for a triple jolt of epinephrine, catch The Running Man. It's impossible to stop watching.
