The Running Man (1987)

[markpud]

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0093894 -
SYNOPSIS:

A parody within an action thriller. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays an innocent man who is sentenced to the Running Man game show, a futuristic audience participation capital punishment television show. While running from champions with Chain saws and sharpened hocky sticks, the host (Richard Dawson) is busy with calls to the network about ratings.

______________________

A good action film, and another view of where society could go in the future... once again Arnie is excellent doing what he does best...

 

[Dave]

Worth renting the video, but not as good as Terminator, Total Recall, or True Lies.
Better than some of his 'Turkeys' though i.e. Junior, Kindergarden Cop, Jingle all the way.

A similar idea to the much older 'Rollerball' - I think so anyway. Bigger budget, better special effects of course.

 

[markpud]

thats true..but i give arnie respect for trying the comedy stuff, even if it doesnt always work out as well as the action stuff...

 

[peachy]

i liked running man, it was good to see the tv presenter guy get his comeuppence at the end.
i also liked kindergarden cop, but i didn't like junior.
i loved commando it was good...peachy

 

[Dave]

Peachy - your posts are catching up Mudpack!

 

[peachy]

still got away to go before i catch up with mudpack, he talks way more than me (haha) love the mudpack nickname...peachy

 

[Dave]

Good names for the bad guys -- Sub-Zero, Fireball, and Dynamo.

From a novel by Stephen King, who has announced his retirement, so unfortunately we won't get any more from him.

 

[Chilly]

hey

sub zero was a mortal kombat charactor too right?

 

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by Dave

A similar idea to the much older 'Rollerball' - I think so anyway. Bigger budget, better special effects of course.

Actually, the remake of Rollerball is a better comparion IMHO, closer to WWF (E?) wrestling "sports entertainment".

I liked this movie, the acting was unformly bad, but still enjoyable in a cheesy kind of way.

 

[Dave]

LOL. The 'new' version of 'Rollerball' hadn't even been conceived when I posted that comment, but you are correct.

I think that 'games' shows like 'Big Brother', the new 'Wudja Cudja', and those Japanese ones where people get humiliated have almost reached the 'Running Man' stage.

 

[Annette]

I didn't know this was written by SK. Thats something I've learned today.

Very good film tho. Bit gory in places. Arnie looked good in that 'lycra' suit. Not seen for a while but given the chance would watch it again.


annette

 

[Tabitha]

Originally posted by Annette
I didn't know this was written by SK. Thats something I've learned today.

I think it was written by King under his Richard Bachman alias. Although I could be wrong

 

[L. Arkwright]

The film on its own is good but if you read Stephen Kings the running man you might just wish that it had stayed true to the novel. True both versions have a gane show called the Running man but thats about where it ends. In the novel Ben Richards is not a cop but a poor un employed shmo whose daughter is dieing from influenza so Ben goes on the show to make some money so he can buy medicine. The premise then is that you have 24 hours headstart from the studio and can then run and go anywhere across America. You must make a recording every 24 hours and post it to the studio. If a member of the public spots you they win a cash prize. If the sighting they report leads to a kill they get an even bigger prize. The hunters are released, a bit like an evil bunch of US Marshalls in the fugitive and have to hunt you down. You have to stay out of their clutches for a predefined time to win. There is no pre-arranged arena, only the whole country.
The ending is completely different but im not gonna mention it and spoil it. If you can read the book. Its good stuff.

 

[Dave]

10 years later....

My son has been trying to get me to read 'The Hunger Games' by Suzanne Collins (there is a three-book series which is a real teenage page-turner at the moment and also has a film out - comparable to the Harry Potter phenomena -getting my son to read anything is an achievement!) I've been telling him that the premise sounds a lot like The Running Man and so I thought it was time that I re-watched it.

I have to say that I was a little disappointed in how much it had dated. It is really of its time (1987) with the costumes, hairstyles and music. Working Girl is another film from that time with the big hair and the lurid coloured lycra. I don't know what we were thinking back then. Arnie is really an atrocious actor, but he has the same one-liners that he is trademarked for - "I'll be back," "Guess Again!" and "He had to Split" (when Buzz-saw gets the chop.) For some reason, Amber and Fireball also gets some one-liners that could have been written for Arnie.

The cast is full of people I know from other films, but who never quite became huge stars - Maria Conchita Alonso from Predator 2, Yaphet Kotto from Alien and Live or Let Die are the most well known, but all the stalkers recognisable and it even has Mick Fleetwood in there!

The music is by Harold Faltermeyer, better known for Beverley Hills Cop and Top Gun. It was directed by Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky and Hutch). Again, you can see that eighties theme coming through strongly.

Given L. Arkwright's comments above, I think I really need to read the book as it sounds so very different, but also I read that (Stephen King writing as) Richard Bachman wrote it in 72 hours - which would mean it was either phenomenally good or phenomenally bad!

As for the storyline, since my first posts here, reality TV has now become mainstream everyday TV fodder, and it is becoming more combative. We watch Britains Got Talent, The Only Way is Essex, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, The Apprentice because of the bust ups, not in spite of them. It is difficult now to remember a time when Gladiators was a new TV concept since the idea has been frequently re-invented. I also see similarities to Fahrenheit 451 as well as Rollerball so not an original idea even in 1987. I will be reading The Hunger Games just to find out what all the fuss is about.

 

[paranoid marvin]

The book is brilliant - so much better than the film.

 

[Dave]

The film on its own is good but if you read Stephen Kings the running man you might just wish that it had stayed true to the novel. True both versions have a gane show called the Running man but thats about where it ends. In the novel Ben Richards is not a cop but a poor un employed shmo whose daughter is dieing from influenza so Ben goes on the show to make some money so he can buy medicine. The premise then is that you have 24 hours headstart from the studio and can then run and go anywhere across America. You must make a recording every 24 hours and post it to the studio. If a member of the public spots you they win a cash prize. If the sighting they report leads to a kill they get an even bigger prize. The hunters are released, a bit like an evil bunch of US Marshalls in the fugitive and have to hunt you down. You have to stay out of their clutches for a predefined time to win. There is no pre-arranged arena, only the whole country.
The ending is completely different but im not gonna mention it and spoil it. If you can read the book. Its good stuff.

I've now read it and I agree - they are like two different stories - only the characters names are the same.

There was actually a UK TV show like this in the 1980's or 1990's (not with the death obviously) but where members of the public had to spot fugitives and they had to mail in a video report and say where they were.

I was surprised when the woman hostage turned up, but near the end rather than the start. I've said something more about the ending here: http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/45478-on-the-endings-of-stephen-kings-novels-2.html#post1609956 which is much better than the film but I expect would now rule out any remake.