The Running Man

Starring

Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards Maria Conchita Alonso as Amber Mendez Richard Dawson as Damon Killian Yaphet Kotto as William Laughlin Marvin J. Mclntyre as Harold Weiss Mick Fleetwood as Mic Professor Toru Tanaka as Professor Subzero Gus Rethwisch as Eddie "Buzzsaw" Bitowski Jesse Ventura as Captain Freedom Jim Brown as Fireball Erland Van Lidth De Jeude as Dynamo Dweezil Zappa as Stevie Kurt Fuller as Tony Rodger Bumpass as Phil Hilton Sven-Ole Thorsen as Sven Karen Leigh Hopkins as Brenda Edward Bunker as Lenny Bryan Kestner as Med Tech Anthony Pena as Valdez Ken Lerner as Court Appointed Theatrical Agent Dey Young as Amy Dona Hardly as Mrs. McArdie Lynne Stewart as Edith Wiggins Bill Margolin as Leon George P. Wilbur as Lieutenant Saunders Thomas Rosales Jr. as Chico Sondra Holt as Suzie Checkpoint Roger Kern as Travel Pass Guard Kim Pawlik as Newscaster Lin Shaye as Propaganda Officer Franco Columbu as Security Officer Noah Sanchez as make-up artist

Director

Paul Michael Glaser

Movie Release Date

November 13, 1987

Packagers

Braveworld Productions Home Box Office (HBO) Keith Barish Productions TAFT Entertainment Pictures

The Running Man was a science-fiction action film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Jesse Ventura and Jim Brown where in a dystopian United States between 2017 and 2019 about a popular deadly reality television game show on the ICS television network called The Running Man where convicted criminals (or "runners") must escape death at the hands of professional killers (or "stalkers"). It was very loosely based on the 1982 novel of the same name written by famed horror writer Stephen King and was published under the pseudonym by Richard Bachman.

(Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the mid 80s popular dance trend or the 1963 British-American neo noir drama film of the same names respectively.)

Plot

In 2017, after a worldwide economic collapse, the United States has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The U.S. government pacifies the populace by broadcasting game shows where convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the American Gladiators-styled The Running Man hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian (played by Richard Dawson) where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers" who are armed mercenaries around a large arena and near-certain death for a chance to be pardoned by the state.

By 2019, Ben Richards (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) a police helicopter pilot wrongly convicted of a massacre during a food riot in Bakersfield, California; escapes from a labor camp with two rescue fighters, Weiss and Laughlin (played by Marvin J. Mclntyre and Yaphet Kotto respectively), and finds refuge at a resistance camp headed by the leader, Mic (played by Mick Fleetwood). Instead of joining the resistance, Richards seeks shelter at his brother's apartment. He finds it is now occupied by Amber Mendez (played by Maria Conchita Alonzo), a composer for ICS, the network that broadcasts The Running Man. Richards asks Mendez about the whereabouts of his brother and she says the he was taken for "re-education".

Taking Mendez hostage, Richards attempts to flee to Hawaii, but she alerts airport security and Richards is captured and taken to ICS. There, Killian coerces him into participating in The Running Man in exchange for Laughlin and Weiss not participating, but Richards learns that Killian had enrolled him them as runners anyway and swears revenge.

As the game begins, Richards and his friends are attacked by the first stalker "Subzero" (played by Professor Toru Tanka) but they fight back, with Richards killing Subzero - the first time a stalker has ever died on the show. Then Laughlin and Weiss search for the network's uplink facilities, which they realize are in the game zone. Amber sees a falsified news report on Richards' capture and suspicious of the media's veracity does some investigating, she learns the truth about the massacre, but is captured by her own ICS colleagues and sent into the game zone.

The runners split up, each pair pursued by a different stalker. "Buzzsaw" (played by Gus Retwisch) critically wounds Laughlin, but is killed by Richards. Weiss and Amber locate the uplink and learns the access codes, but "Dynamo" (played by Erland Van Lidth De Jeude) finds them and electrocutes Weiss. Mendez's screams lead Richards to her and as the two evade Dynamo, the stalker's buggy flips, trapping him inside. Refusing to kill a helpless opponent, Richards leaves Dynamo alive. He and Amber then return to Laughlin, who before dying, says the resistance has a hideout within the game zone.

Back at ICS, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing with viewers betting on him instead of the stalkers. Off-camera, Killian tries to offer Richards a job as a stalker, but when Richards refuses, Killian sends the next stalker "Fireball" (played by Jim Brown). Fireball chases them into an abandoned factory, where Mendez discovers the decomposing corpses of the previous seasons' "winners" - realizing that they were killed by Fireball and their victory was faked. Fireball goes after Mendez, but Richards rescues her and kills him using his own weaponry.

Frustrated and running out of options, Killian seeks "Captain Freedom" (played Jesse "The Body" Ventura) a retired stalker to kill them. However, when Freedom refuses, the network creates digital body doubles of Freedom, Richards and Mendez, which are then used to fake Richards' and Mendez's deaths on screen. In the game zone, Richards and Mendez are found by Mic and taken to the resistance's hideout, where they learn of their "deaths" Using the access codes, the rebels get into ICS' control room, broadcasting footage that exonerates Richards and reveals the truth about the game's previous "winners". As Richards heads to the main studio floor, shocking the audience who had watched him supposedly die, Mendez fights and kills Dynamo, the last remaining stalker.

Richards confronts Killian after having dealt with security, who tried to kill him and the audience to cover up everything, not knowing it was being broadcast. Killian begs for his life, saying he created the show to appease the U.S. love of reality television and televised violence. In response, Richards decides to give the audience what they want right now by sending Killian to the game zone in a rocket sled. The sled hits a Cadre Cola billboard featuring Killian himself and explodes, killing Killian to the delight of the audience. Both Richards and Amber then romantically walk out of the studio.

Reception

Box Office

In the films opening weekend, it was released in 1,692 theaters and grossed $8,117,465. The film's total domestic gross was $38,122,105.

Critical Response

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, complaining that "all the action scenes are versions of the same scenario", but praised Dawson's performance, stating that he "has at last found the role he was born to play". Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film "has the manners and gadgetry of a sci-fi adventure film, but is, at heart, an engagingly, mean, cruel, nasty, funny send-up of television. It's not quite Network, but then it also doesn't take itself too seriously". Variety wrote that the fun "coarsens the star's hitherto winning formula" and "works only on a pure action level" calling the satire "paperthin and constantly contradicted by the film wallowing in the sort of mindless violence for the roller derby-addicted masses it is supposedly criticizing". Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave the film two stars out of four and wrote "It's a format all right, but it may be too much a format for a feature-length film. With Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former state security officer framed as the perpetrator of a notorious public massacre, sitting in as victim-of-the-week, The Running Man has little to do but run through the game's four stages". Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times declared: "The Running Man is, by far, Schwarzenegger's best vehicle since The Terminator-not such high praise if you recall what came in between-and it suggests that his Frank Frazetta frame shows best in these fantasy sci-fi settings ... for the right audience, it'll be fun. It's for action fans with a taste for something off the beaten track-but not too far". Rita Kempler of The Washington Post called the film "A fast-paced, futuristic puree of Beat the Clock, Max Headroom, professional wrestling and The Most Dangerous Game. Pumped and primed for self-parody, the burly star proves as funny as he is ferocious in this tough guy's commentary on America's preoccupation with violence and game shows".

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 67% based on reviews from 45 critics with an average rating of 5.6/10. The site's critical consensus states "The Running Man is winking sci-fi satire with ridiculous clothes and workmanlike direction". On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 45 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a A+ to F scale.

On the film's 30th anniversary in 2017, The Running Man was cited by a BBC journalist as having three made accurate predictions about life in 2017, including an economic collapse and offering a critique of American television culture. The film's writer, Steven de Souza himself reinforced these predictions in a podcast interview with Vice Magazine's "Motherboard" section. Reed Tucker of The New York Post said in 2019 that the film "correctly predicted ... the widening gap between the rich and the poor", depicting homeless shantytowns and skyscrapers for the wealthy resembling the real New York City and Los Angeles, and societal obsession with reality TV. De Souza said one of the producers from American Gladiators sold his show with clips from the film, telling the network "We're doing exactly this, except the murdering part".

Production

Originally, the late Christopher Reeves (Superman) was once attached to play Ben Richards. In a 2015 interview about the film, Paul Michael Glaser says that he was originally approached to direct the film but declined because he felt that the pre-production period was insufficient. Director Andrew Davis was hired instead but fired after just two weeks because the production was one week behind schedule, so Glaser was now hired. Schwarzenegger has stated this was a "terrible decision" as Glaser "shot the movie like it was a TV show, losing all the deeper themes". L.A. Weekly stated that the film's tone changed from a dark allegory to a humorous action film with the change of the film's star. With Reeve, The Running Man was about an unemployed man who goes on a violent game show for a thirty-day period to feed his family. With Glaser and Schwarzenegger, the protagonists became a condemned, but innocent, criminal forced into a three-hour, gladiator-style game show by the justice system. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza wrote fifteen drafts of the script over the course of the film's development.

Pop, star Paula Abdul choreographed the pre-show dance sequences. This was her second film credit, though she had already choregraphed four Janet Jackson videos as well as ZZ Top, Duran Duran and Debbie Gibson. The music used for the pre-show entertainment was composed by Jackie Jackson and was dubbed "Paula's Theme" in her honor.

The film's released was postponed from summer 1987 until Thanksgiving due to the producers desire for the film to be the only action thriller released during the holiday season. The film opened on 1600 screens on November 13, 1987 to moderately positive reviews.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack was composed by Harold Faltermeyer and includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jackie Jackson, Glen Barbee and John Parr, who performed the main theme of the film called "Restless Heart (Running Away with You)" written by John Parr and Harold Faltermeyer and produced by Faltermeyer during the final scene and end-credits. An expanded Deluxe Edition, featuring the full score along with source music and previously unreleased alternate cues was released in 2020.

Merchandise

Video Game

In 1989, A video game based on the film of the same name was released for the MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and Atari ST. It was developed by Emerald Software Ltd and was published by Grandslam Entertainment.

Home Media

Artisan Entertainment released the film on DVD in 2002 and again in 2004. The 2004 release includes new special features, audio commentary and sound mix.

In 2010, Lionsgate released the film on Blu-ray.

Olive Films (under license by Paramount, who owns the film due to having the Taft Pictures library) made a second Blu-Ray release on February 19, 2013. Paramount owns the TV and streaming rights.

Lawsuit

At the time, it was determine that the movie was plagiarized from the 1983 science-fiction French film Le prix du danger (The Price of Danger)which was made after Robert Sheckley's 1958 short story The Prize of Peril just like the 1970 German TV movie Das Millionspiel (The Million Game).

Remake

On February 19, 2021; it was announced that a remake of this filmis in development at Paramount Pictures with Edgar Wright directing and Michael Bacall writing the script.

Trivia

For the role of Damon Killian, the production crew originally wanted Chuck Woolery due to his height being equal to Schwarzeneggers', however, Woolery later turned down the role due to scheduling conflicts as Schwarzenegger requested Dawson instead due to their close friendship.

The famous line "I'll Be Back!" was carried over from another famous classic 80s action film of Schwarzenegger's called "The Terminator", originally released on October 26, 1984.

Jesse Ventura, who played Captain Freedom, later hosted the short-lived, boxing-themed, syndicated game show The Grudge Match from 1991 until 1992.

Future voice actor Rodger Bumpass, who voices announcer Phil Hilton, would later go on voicing Squidward Tentacles on the long-running Nickelodeon nicktoon series SpongeBob SquarePants Since 1999.

Maria Conchita Alonzo, who played Amber Mendez, would later go on hosting the short-lived reality competition series Viva Hollywood for VH1 in 2008.

Dynamo played by Erland Van Lidth De Jeude was his last and final role before his passing on September 23, 1987 due to heart failure at age 34 a few months after finishing work on the film and after his first wedding anniversary.

Professor Toru Tanaka (who played Subzero in the film) died on August 22, 2000 due to heart failure at age 70. He was given a full military funeral.

Poster