The Running Man

The Running Man (1982) is a science fiction novel by Stephen King, written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. In 1987, the novel was loosely adapted into a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. The story is about a man who competes in a deadly game show. Some critics draw parallels between The Running Man and current reality shows such as Survivor or Fear Factor. The film also shares themes with the film The Contenders, itself a parody of Reality TV.

A similar kind of concept of the novel/movie was used by Williams for its video game Smash TV and more recently by Insomniac Games for Deadlocked.

Stephen King stated in "Why I Was Bachman" that the entire novel was written in the space of seventy-two hours.

Novel

Context

The dystopian theme of the book resembles that of another of King's books written as Bachman, The Long Walk. Both books appear in King's novel collection The Bachman Books.

The game show in the book bears a resemblance to a game show posited in the 1958 Robert Sheckley short story "The Prize of Peril" (that story was itself the basis for two movies, the 1970 German TV movie Das Millionenspiel and the 1983 French film Le Prix du Danger). It has been speculated that the short story was the inspiration for The Running Man, though King has not confirmed this.

Plot

The protagonist, Ben Richards, needs money for medicine for his gravely ill daughter, Cathy. Not wanting his wife Sheila to continue prostitution to pay the bills, Richards walks into the Games Federation, the producers of several violent TV contests. Show contestants win money according to whether, or for how long, they manage to survive their appointed tasks—such as, Treadmill to Bucks, where a person with a heart condition running on a treadmill. After rigorous testing, both physical and mental, Richards is selected for the most elite of these games, The Running Man.

To play the game, Richards is deemed an enemy of the state and then released to the outside world. He is given a twelve hour head start before an elite group called "the hunters" (essentially gladiators) begins their search to kill mission. The contestant earns one hundred dollars per hour he spends alive, an additional hundred for each law enforcement officer or "hunter" he kills, and a billion dollars should he manage to survive the entire month (which no player has even approached). But the game is not limited only to these players — the Network pays civilians for confirmed sightings of the fugitive, and it ups the ante for sightings that lead directly to a kill. The "runner" can travel anywhere in the world, if he can arrange anonymous transport. Every day the runner must videotape two messages, which he must send (by pre-paid, overnight mail) to the TV show. Failure to do so will result in a default of the prize money. Herein lies the secret behind the failures of previous contestants: despite the producer's claims to the contrary, as soon as the network receives a videotaped message, the hunters immediately know (from the postmark) the runner's approximate location. If/when the runner is caught, he or she is killed live on TV. Generally, there are two contestants released at the same time, with one in reserve in the event one of the contestants is killed too soon.

Richards manages to elude the hunters for more than nine days, traveling through New York to Boston, ultimately ending up in a rural area north of Portland, Maine. During a dangerous chase in Maine, in which Richards is wounded, he takes a hostage, Amelia Williams, to secure his safety to the Voigt Jetport, near Derry, Maine. Though Amelia is afraid of Richards and refuses to believe his truths about the disparity between the haves and have-nots, she assists him to prolong his survival. Richards holds a lengthy standoff against the chief of the Hunters, Evan McCone, in an attempt to secure an airplane, claiming he has a large amount of a powerful explosive hidden under his coat.

Richards boards the plane, taking Amelia and McCone as his insurance, during which it is revealed by the Network that they now know (by having planted an explosives detector aboard the aircraft) his "bomb" to be a fake and that he is currently the longest surviving contestant ever to be on the show. Richards is also given a surprise: he is offered the role of Chief Hunter, Evan McCone's post. One final bit of news awaits him, though. Shortly after he began running, Sheila and Cathy were brutally murdered. After some deliberation, and with assurances that he will be able to use his new post to track down and take revenge upon his family's killers, Richards accepts.

However, Richards ultimately undergoes a change of heart. Not wanting to become one of the people he has come to hate, Richards murders almost everyone on the plane, though he is mortally wounded by McCone in the process. He gives a parachute to Amelia and releases her before he crashes the aircraft into the Games Headquarters.

Movie

A film loosely based on the novel was released in 1987. Also titled The Running Man, it was directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as Ben Richards. It also featured future governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, Arnold's bodybuilding-buddy Sven-Ole Thorsen, and pro football legend Jim Brown. Richard Dawson, in a self-parody of his role as the host of Family Feud, plays the host of The Running Man television show, Damon Killian. The theme music was done by Harold Faltermeyer who is famous for the title tracks of Beverly Hills Cop (Axel F) and Top Gun (Top Gun Anthem).

In the year 2017, the world economy has collapsed. The great freedoms of the United States are no longer, as the once great nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state, censoring all film, art, literature, and communications.

With full control over the media, the government attempts to quell the nation's yearning for freedom by broadcasting a number of game shows on which convicted criminals fight for their lives. The most popular and sadistic of these programs is "The Running Man," hosted by Damon Killian

The film differed significantly from the novel. It is set in the years 2017 and 2019.

In 2017, an economic collapse has transformed the United States into an authoritarian regime. Ben Richards is a helicopter pilot who refuses to fire upon civilians in Bakersfield, California during a food riot. Since the government now held total control over the media, Richards, by not following his orders, is falsely framed by state propaganda for the resulting massacre and is ultimately imprisoned. Images of the event are plastered all over television, with Richards being given the moniker, "The Butcher of Bakersfield".

Two years later, Richards escapes from prison and attempts to board a plane to Hawaii with a hostage, Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso), but is subsequently captured after she alerts security, leading to a chase through the airport, where he is captured with a netgun (afterwards the media falsely states that Richards had killed several police officers and security guards at the airport).

Because Killian takes one look at Richards and sees him as a potential ratings draw, Richards is forced onto the game show called The Running Man, the most popular television show "in the whole, wide, world" with three other convicts, William Laughlin and Harold Weiss, whom Richards had escaped from prison with, and Amber Mendez, who was caught looking through disks that contained raw footage of "The Bakersfield Massacre" (and was later portrayed by the media as Richards' lover, among other things, to make the audience dislike her). The show is portrayed as a gladiatorial-style competition that takes place in an earthquake-ruined section of Los Angeles, in which several "Runners" attempt to survive while being chased by "Stalkers" for cash and prizes. These stalkers resemble professional wrestlers, with ornate weaponry, costumes, nicknames, and, in the case of Subzero, their own "Game Zones", areas where they would have a tactical advantage (Subzero's game zone was an ice rink, as he shared the look of a hockey goaltender, complete with ice skates and razor-sharp stick).

Richards evolves, through his "play" in the game, from an ex-con "villain" to a popular player of the game among the audience and people gambling on the show, as he confronts and kills each Stalker he faces. With the Department of Justice becoming increasingly frustrated at a convict that is doing well on the show, Killian, during a commercial break, offers Richards a role as a Stalker on the show, which he declines. Killian, ultimately, stages the death of Richards through computer-generated imagery by the hands of Captain Freedom (Ventura).

As the film progresses, Richards discovers and joins a group fighting the television network that airs The Running Man that had set up headquarters in the rubble of Los Angeles. They intend to, and ultimately succeed in, expose the "truth" behind The Running Man contestants in the past that were declared winners (but were actually killed at different points in the game by the Stalkers), and also, the truth behind the massacre in Bakersfield, where Ben Richards was portrayed as a savage murderer rather than someone who showed sympathy for rioters, so that the viewing public would learn to understand that the government is feeding them lies in order to control their way of thought.

The movie ends in an upbeat manner, in contrast to the novel, with the good guys defeating the bad. While in the novel, Richards crashes an airplane into the Games Headquarters, the movie featured Richards strapping Killian into a rocket-powered sled contestants used to enter the Game Zone and activating it, sending Killian hurtling through twisting tunnels, eventually launching into the air and crashing into a billboard featuring Killian's image, exploding on impact.

Themes of dystopia such as authoritarianism and state propaganda feature heavily in the film.

Like many adaptations of King's works, this translation to film was not considered artistically successful by many critics. However it is considered a cult favorite by many of Schwarzenegger's fans. In the film, Schwarzenegger again uses the line "I'll be back", establishing it as his catchphrase. Although this time it was for the purpose of having Killian respond "Only in a rerun".

Video Game

A video game based on the movie was released for the ZX Spectrum Commodore 64 Amstrad CPC ^*," target="_blank" >Amiga Atari ST[http://www.atarilegend.com/games/games_detail.php?game_id=2962" target="_blank" >^*. The game was developed by Emerald Software Ltd and published by Grandslam Entertainment.

Quotes

Ben Richards: I've seen too much? All I've seen is a bunch of low foreheads who want to change the world with dreams and talk. Unless you're willing to act, gimme a break and shut up.

Ben Richards: Killian! Here is your Sub-Zero! Now... Plain zero!

examines the dogtags of several corpses

Amber: Price... Whitman... Haddad... But these are last year's winners...

Fireball: No. Last year's losers.

Ben Richards: Well, I haven't been in show business as long as you have, Killian. But I'm a quick learner. So I'm going to give the audience what I think they want.

Killian into a deathtrap device

Damien Killian: You bastard! Drop dead!

Ben Richards: I don't do requests.

Ben Richards: You Cold Blooded bastard, I'll tell you what I think, I'll live to see you eat that contract! But I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I'm going to ram it into your stomach! And break your god damn SPINE!! YAAAAAAAAAA(as he rips a television down and spikes it on the floor)

Agent: ...for cassettes, video tapes, bubble-chip, or all other methods of recording known or unknown. Sign here. Here, here. Here use my back victim. Ahh!

stabs Agent in the back with his pen

Ben Richards: Don't forget to send me a copy.

Damon:...the love of my life, my number one fan, Mrs McArdle. How are you doin'?

Mrs McArdle: Just fine.

Damon:I want a kiss now, a big kiss, but remember, no tongues.

Damon: Hi cutie-pie. You know one of us is in deep trouble. Do you know who I am?

Ben: Sure, I've seen you before. You're the ass-hole on TV.

Damon: That's funny, I was going to say the same thing about you. I saw the video of your prison break. Sensational.

Ben: Let's see. Now where should we go. Maybe some place warm. I need to work on my tan anyway. You see you get so pale in prison. Here you are. Good. Now, I'm going to untie you, and you're going to get dressed, and you're going to come with me.

Amber: Oh yeah? Well why should I?

Ben: Because I'm going to say 'please'.

lifts Amber and the bench she's tied to off the floor with one arm

Amber: Well why didn't you say so?

cleaning man accidentally bumps into Damon Killian

Cleaner: Oh, I'm sorry Mister...

Damon: That's okay, what's your name.

Cleaner: Stan.

Damon: Stan, you're doing good work, your work's beautiful. Don't worry.

Cleaner: Thank you.

Damon: Ok?

Cleaner: Thank you.

IN ELEVATOR

Damon: Brenda if that ass-hole is mopping the floor tomorrow you will be mopping it for the rest of the week. Sven Let's go!

ISBN numbers

ISBN 0606039074 (prebound, 1982)
ISBN 0451197968 (mass market paperback, 1999, reprint)
ISBN 2277226947 (paperback)

External links

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