One reason to remake The Running Man, in theaters Friday, would be to adapt the Stephen King novel more faithfully than the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Yet in subduing the caricature from the dystopian future, the remake loses what made The Running Man prescient and relevant.
Richards intends to compete on a game show to secure funds, but producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) sells him on taking part in The Running Man. On The Running Man, Richards and two other contestants (Katy O'Brian and Martin Herlihy) have 30 days to outrun five hunters, while viewers can earn rewards for reporting their whereabouts.
The Schwarzenegger movie used only the name Ben Richards and the premise of a game show that kills contestants. Nevertheless, it anticipated a lot of what reality TV would become, without sanctioned executions... so far.
Stephen King, publishing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, also anticipated aspects of reality TV and a society constantly on camera. But over 25 years later, The Running Man now feels less modern than the world we live in, yet it's set in the future.
When Richard Dawson's Killian in the 1987 film constructed fake videos of Richards, it was troubling and still far from feasible. When this Running Man host Bobby T (Colman Domingo) does it, the result seems harmless compared to the real AI deepfakes that have emerged in the present day.Director Edgar Wright's adaptation of the book, which he co-wrote with Michael Bacall, make direct references to the media and government colluding to sell lies. However, as relevant as their dystopian vision is, it feels more derivative of other movies.
Like the book, Richards must record a video every day to send back to the show. Drone cameras film Richards when they find him, both of which were impossible technology when King wrote them.
The fake commercials in Paul Verhoeven's Robocop are a clear influence on the shows found in The Running Man. The Robocop commercials suggested other aspects of the world outside the movie, but the jokes in Running Man are so on message about the dystopian scenario that they're not satirical. They're just further examples.
A fake reality show is an obvious mix of The Kardashians and Jersey Shore, but those shows actually exist. It's not a joke about how far TV could go when it's already gone there.
The introduction to the film's Running Man casts the desperate contestants as evildoers who the audience should hate. In a real world in which politicians accuse Haitians of eating pets, The Running Man feels tame.
This year's earlier King/Bachman adaptation, The Long Walk, kept details of the dystopia vague. That proved more powerful, allowing viewers to fill in what might drive someone to compete in a death game.
The 1987 movie had more clever fake game shows airing along with The Running Man, while the new film has a clever homage to Schwarzenegger and some other King references.
The Running Man includes scenes where characters go in reverse on the freeway, use human shields in shootouts, run pursuers off the road and rappel off a rooftop into a window. These are not the inventive action beats of Wright's Baby Driver or Hot Fuzz.
Powell flies from explosions in obvious visual effects shots, when it would be preferable if he just walked away in slow motion because at least he would really be filming in front of the explosion in that case.
The most misguided choice is to conclude the film with a YouTube explainer video about what really happened at the end of the show. The point may be that the network lies, but denying the audience the experience of the true climax is committing the same sin.
This iteration is also lacking in quotable catchphrases. It's hard to compete with Schwarzenegger, but "I'm gonna [expletive] you up" and remarking on the small genitals of the studio audience leave one craving a genuine zinger.
Ever since Survivor aired, The Running Man has felt more relevant, although everyone on Survivor has lived. In 2025, The Running Man can't compete with what's on TV or even in the real news anymore.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
