Back in high school I had a friend who liked to scam his way through book reports by blowing off the assigned texts and writing about the movie adaptations. He was successful in this gambit until he tried it with THE RUNNING MAN, a 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle based on a novel by Richard Bachman, a.k.a. Stephen King. My friend’s teacher, it turned out, was a King buff, and made sure to call out the fact that THE RUNNING MAN, directed by the veteran actor Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky of STARSKY AND HUTCH) and scripted by action movie specialist Steven E. de Souza (of 48 HRS., DIE HARD and many others), has very little to do with the novel.
THE RUNNING MAN (1987) Trailer
THE RUNNING MAN (2025) Trailer
Said novel, a paperback original initially published in 1982, had a premise suspiciously similar to that of Robert Sheckley’s 1958 story “The Prize of Peril.” That story was first adapted for the screen as the German telefilm DAS MILLIONENSPIEL (1970), and later the French feature LE PRIX DU DANGER (1983), whose director Yves Boisset successfully sued THE RUNNING MAN’s makers for plagiarism (resulting in a settlement that “barely covered the legal costs”).
The premise in question involves a dystopian America dominated by a TV game show called THE RUNNING MAN, a WWE (or, as it was known in 1987, the WWF) like spectacle whose contestants are hunted and killed. The latest “running man” is Ben Richards (Schwarzenegger), a police captain who in a (much too) elaborate set-up is framed by his corrupt authorities for an atrocity he didn’t commit (a far cry from the unemployed protagonist of the novel who’s desperate to provide for his family). After breaking out of prison, Richards tries to contact his brother Edward, only to find Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso), an employee of the network that broadcasts THE RUNNING MAN, inhabiting Edward’s apartment.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso
Richards ends up competing on THE RUNNING MAN at the behest of the show’s slimy host Damon Killian (Richard Dawson). This entails Richards and his cohorts Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto) and Weiss (Marvin J. McIntrye) being put in rocket powered sleds and blasted through a long tube that deposits them in a wasteland. There they take on a retinue that includes the demented hockey player Professor Subzero (Professor Toru Tanaka), the chainsaw equipped biker Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch), the lightning bolt hurling Dynamo (Erland van Lidth) and the flamethrower wielding Fireball (Jim Brown). Guessing who wins all those fights isn’t at all difficult.
Richard Dawson, Arnold Schwarzenegger
THE RUNNING MAN is every bit as cheerfully moronic as other 1980s Schwarzenegger vehicles like COMMANDO (1985), RAW DEAL (1986) and RED HEAT (1988), and comes complete with the requisite smart-assed Schwarzenegger quips (such as “He had to split,” said after slicing a guy in half with a chainsaw, and “What a hothead,” in response to a baddie getting set on fire). This leads to a tonal issue that afflicted many a Schwarzenegger movie, which in an effort at alleviating the acting deficiencies of their leading man played up the script’s silly aspects, and so unwittingly turned the material into a comedy.
Glen Powell
Another common Schwarzenegger movie problem is that from the start he’s presented as invincible, rendering his many confrontations predictable and suspense-free. Furthermore, his decimation of the bad guys, and the power structure of the film’s dystopia, seems far too easily achieved (it seems odd that the program’s overseers don’t bother posting reinforcements in case their far-from-invincible assassin quartet get overpowered).
Much has been made about the film’s supposedly prescient depiction of the excesses of reality TV. It does admittedly contain some satiric swipes that remain potent (such as the cheering gameshow crowd members interviewed about their favorite assassins) and was apparently the direct inspiration for AMERICAN GLADIATORS (1989-96), but THE RUNNING MAN is too lightweight and synthetic in look and feel—too TV-like, in short. That makes sense, as it was made largely by TV veterans (Glaser was obviously very TV-savvy, while de Souza got his start as a game show contestant).
But the movie is fun. Dumb fun, yes, but fun, nonetheless. Plus, the casting of former FAMILY FEUD host Richard Dawson as the head baddie was a stroke of genius that, as with Glaser and de Souza, offered an industry insider prominent play in a film about TV.
Vital Statistics
THE RUNNING MAN
Tri-Star Pictures
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
Producers: George Linder, Tim Zinnemann
Screenplay: Steven E. de Souza
(Based on a novel by Stephen King)
Cinematography: Thomas Del Ruth
Editing: John Wright, Mark Warner, Edward A. Warschilka
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland Van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Gus Rethwisch, “Professor Toru Tanaka” (Charles J. Kalani Jr.), Mikc Fleetwood, Dweezil Zappa, Karen Leigh Hopkins, Sven Thorsen, Edward Bunker