In 1982, Stephen King just might have been one of the most prescient men in America. He released a novel titled “The Running Man,” which was published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was a paperback original. Did King predict the future about a chaotic American society?
The book is set in a dystopian United States during the year 2025. The economy is falling apart and violence around the country and the world is rising. The nation is controlled by corporations, with many decisions being made by giant media conglomerates. The story follows protagonist Ben Richards as he participates in a reality television show called “The Running Man” in which contestants can win large amounts of money by evading a team of hit men sent to kill them. It’s survival of the smartest.
A 1987 movie version of the novel stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Richards and performed acceptably at the box office, although it wasn’t a mega-hit. In the story, Schwarzenegger plays a policeman framed by other police officers after the chaos of a deadly riot. He can reclaim some semblance of a normal life by participating in a dangerous television show, which celebrates earning a reward for taking risks. The villainous host of that show is played by a real-life game show host, Richard Dawson of “Family Feud.” The film has developed a cult following.
In this era of redundant remakes, a new version of the book is in theaters. The United States is an authoritarian police state. It’s run by by corporate media networks, and most average citizens live in poverty with almost no access to healthcare. People are pacified by FreeVee, a dangerous concentration of grisly so-called entertainment that overwhelms and controls the population with violent game shows and questionable reality programs. Most Americans must contend with the most extreme form of twisted television presentations, crushing economic inequality, and the political weaponization of manipulative media imagery.
The core story features Glen Powell as Richards; however, this time around the character is a blue-collar worker of limited means and minimal job opportunities, who is married to Sheila (Jayme Lawson), a hostess at a “gentleman’s club.” They live in the Co-Op City slums with their infant daughter Cathy, who is extremely ill. Unable to afford medicine for the baby, Ben tries out for an all-powerful network’s slate of game shows, where his physical fitness, intense anger, and willingness to exhibit hatred cause him to be selected for “The Running Man,” which is a very dangerous and extraordinarily popular show.
Contestants on “The Running Man” are known as “runners. They can win a billion dollars if they survive for 30 days while the network’s Hunters, led by the ruthless Evan McCone (Lee Pace), as well as ordinary civilians, try to hunt and kill them. The smarmy producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) senses something special about Richards and gives him an advance payment for his daughter’s medication and also offers a safe house for his family if he agrees to participate. Colman Domingo plays Bobby “Bobby T” Thompson, the host of the program.
The movie is directed by England’s Edgar Wright, a filmmaker who has always appreciated being edgy and has exhibited a willingness to go over the top. The screenplay is by Wright and Michael Bacall, an American actor who also writes movies. They have the lunatic action thrust of King’s novel down perfectly, but there is most assuredly something missing from the overall production.
It’s possible that actual world events have made the act of people killing people relentlessly for sport less acceptable, even if it’s in a fictional sense. The government controlling information and the media that disseminates it may not be a comfortable fit as so-called entertainment. It’s also a little bland as a visual concept. The hunt for humans, albeit shocking at times, works because crowds, bedlam, and madness are right up Wright’s creative alley. He knows how to depict the infliction of punishment. But there is an incoherence factor that keeps setting up roadblocks to a smoothly functioning film. Overall, the film is acceptable, but not mandatory.
Where “The Running Man” is also weak is at its core. Powell is a very likable actor. In the Hollywood studio system of the 1930s and 1940s, he would have fit right in as a leading man in wisecracking screwball comedies, especially performing in something such as “The Thin Man” series. In a feature such as the viscerally ugly and relentlessly cruel “The Running Man,” he seems incapable of shedding his innate nice guy demeanor. Acting friendly comes naturally to Powell. Wright and Bacall have not written a comedy. Game player Richards may join forces with others during the game being shown on television, but the game is for real — one’s life — and there is no room for laughter. I don’t blame Powell for the slow grinding down of the movie’s appeal. He’s suitably muscled up and ready to roll with the punches, but too much of his own personality affects the vicious power he is required to highlight. Powell, the person, doesn’t have the killer instinct.
“The Running Man” is most successful regarding two essential characters who are portrayed with a keen understanding of who they are and what they should be. Domingo and Pace breathe welcome life into the goings-on. As the host, the always watchable Domingo is sensational. He is all razzle-dazzle and deliriously over-the-top. His costuming is as colorful as the vocal parade in which he marches. As the leader of the hunters, Pace never lets the mask he wears get in the way of his malevolence. He is relentlessly narcissistic and perfectly enigmatic. There is a lot of evil in the movie and Pace knows exactly how to make his character’s form of evil jolt the audience. More of Domingo and Pace on-screen would have been deliciously better for the film. Their performances are gutsy. They take chances as actors and truly deliver the goods.