Review of The Running Man (1987) by Ola G — 05 Jun 2017

In 2017, after a worldwide economic collapse, the U.S. 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 gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers", armed mercenaries, around a large arena, and near-certain death for a chance to be pardoned by the state. By 2019, Ben Richards (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 resistance fighters, Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre) and Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto), and finds refuge at a resistance camp headed by their leader, Mic (Mick Fleetwood). Instead of joining the resistance, Richards seeks shelter at his brother's apartment. He finds it is now occupied by Amber Mendez (María Conchita Alonso), a composer for ICS, the network that broadcasts The Running Man. Richards asks Mendez about the whereabouts of his brother, and she says that he was taken for "re-education." Taking Amber 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 learns that Killian had enrolled them as runners anyway. He swears revenge. As the game begins, Richards and his friends are attacked by the first stalker, "Subzero," (Professor Toru Tanaka) 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" (Gus Rethwisch) critically wounds Laughlin, but is killed by Richards. Weiss and Amber locate the uplink and learn the access codes, but "Dynamo" (Erland Van Lidth De Jeude) finds them and electrocutes Weiss. Amber'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 that 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" (Jim Brown). Fireball chases them into an abandoned factory, where Amber discovers the decomposing corpses of the previous seasons' "winners" - realizing that they were killed by Fireball and their victory was faked. Fireball goes after Amber, but Richards rescues her and kills him using his own weaponry. Will Richards and Amber manage to get out alive and clear Richards name?...

"The Running Man" is not one of Arnold Schwarzenegger´s best ones, but the film has it moments for sure. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself thought Paul Michael Glaser was a terrible choice to direct, with Glaser coming from a TV background, and having no film experience as a director at all. He thought Glaser shot this film like a TV show, losing all of the script's deeper themes, and I can only agree with that. The film has a looming feeling of a tv-film all over the production. The film is loosely based on the 1982 novel of the same name written by Stephen King and published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. What I do like about "The Running Man" is the portray of a realistic and futuristic tale of reality TV gone bonkers with a nod to the old roman gladiator games and the thirst for blood and mayhem. The satire is high and the scary message that the Government and the media are in cahoots is something that is always current. Yes, the script has a very typical Arnold formula and we get some classic Arnold one-liners during the film. The action is ok and the ensemble ok, while the production, acting and dialogue is a bit more so so. Nice to see a radiant María Conchita Alonso and a pleasure to see Jesse Ventura going over the top as Captain Freedom.

Trivia: Prior to Paul Michael Glaser being hired as director, executive producer Rob Cohen had hired four other directors in his attempts to make the movie. The first was George P. Cosmatos, who had impressed Cohen with his work on Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). However, when Cosmatos announced that he wanted to relocate the entire film to a shopping mall, Cohen let him go, feeling that Cosmatos was taking the script in an unacceptable direction. Cohen next offered the project to German director Carl Schenkel, having been impressed with Abwärts (1984), but Schenkel turned him down as he didn't feel comfortable taking on such a large project. Next, Cohen hired Ferdinand Fairfax, based upon his work on Savage Islands (1983). Like Cosmatos, however, Fairfax began to take the screenplay in a direction which Cohen disliked, so once again, he let him go. Cohen then turned to Andrew Davis, having enjoyed Davis' movie Code of Silence (1985). Davis actually got the project off the ground and into production, but only eight days into the shoot, he was already $8 million over budget and four days behind schedule. As such Cohen let Davis go, and ultimately hired Glaser, whom he had worked with on the first season of Miami Vice (1984).