The Running Man (1987)

Two Geeks and a GIT Classic Movie Reviews

Sci-Fi films based on stories by famous writers? Arnold Schwarzenegger films? Last century's cheese science fiction movies? There's so many ways to describe this pairing, but however you label it, these are two films that were both predictive of the future and much deeper than a surface analysis would suggest! Directed by Paul Michael Glaser, 1987's "The Running Man" is a film based on a Richard Bachman (a.k.a. Stephen King) story. Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a former helicopter pilot who is arrested after refusing to fire on a group of unarmed civilians. After escaping from a prison work camp, he is seen on the news by showrunner Damon Killian (Richard Dawson), head of the most popular TV show in the country, "The Running Man!" After Ben is re-captured, Damon gets Ben assigned to be a contestant on the show, and pairs him with the two other prisoners who escaped with him, Harold Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre) and William Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto). Now the three, along with Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso), a woman Ben kidnapped while on the run, must survive both the physical race track and the various hunters, professional players each with their own gimmick, and reach the end of the course to earn their freedom! Also starring Jim Brown, Erland van Lidth, Gus Rethwisch, Professor Toru Tanaka, and Jesse Ventura!