For now, at least we have Arnie in a Hawaiian shirt and a silly hat. But one man has yet to play... Former L.A. police officer Ben Richards, framed for the massacre of innocent people, when disobeyed orders is recaptured, after escaping from prison. [1] King created "Richard Bachman" to be his long-term alias, not just a temporary writing identity,[2] but the author's real identity was leaked to the media shortly after the publication of the fifth Bachman novel, Thinner (1984). In 2025, the world's economy is in shambles and America has become a totalitarian dystopia. The book has action, but it also has a point; it has pathos, where the film is all comic-action bluster. All movies like this need a Girl, whose function is to be pulled helplessly behind the hero as he attempts his escape. It's not as if Ben saves the day and the world and frees the people from the tyranny of the awful television state they now live in; instead he's driven (as in most of these early Bachman Books) by personal rage, deep inner pain, "his black eyes burning like the eyes of a demon". I hadn't seen it since I first watched it: like so many films of the time, it was eminently disposable; fun, but the sort of film you rented rather than owned. etc), terrible everything. Damon Killian, host of The Running Man and possessor of sharp suits, is played by Richard Dawson with scenery-chewing relish. I think this is a great example of what things had But Joseph has his own secrets, including the pain of his damaged relationship with his absent father and his childhood fear of the Running Man – a local character whose wild appearance and strange manner of moving everywhere at a frantic pace terrified him when he was a small boy. Unable to meet the needs of the general public, the U.S. government has likewise collapsed and given way to an iron-fisted police state divided into paramilitary zones. To say that The Running Man is a loose adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name, published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, is something of an understatement. Thereafter, he is hunted by professional bounty hunters. In the police state America has become, criminals have a choice. There, Ben’s decision to throw himself into something dangerous is an act of free will, albeit dictated by horrendous circumstances. Richards needs to stay alive for 30 days in order to win a million dollars. Recaptured after an escape attempt, he’s placed into a television gameshow called The Running Man, in which prison convicts attempt to stay alive in the Game Zone in order to achieve prizes such as a suspended sentence or even a pardon. Stephen King's The Running Man Was a Film Ahead of Its Time, What The Running Man Teaches Us About 2017. Maybe I'm more attuned to the sadness now; maybe I'm better with the weaker Ben Richards, the desperation that makes him enter the competition. It’s a much cleaner morality. It's decently written: not King's best, but not his worst. 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. There are villains named Fireball, Captain Freedom, Dynamo, Buzzsaw and Subzero, all thrown at Arnold like new chapters in a superhero comic book, and with true comic justice, each villain dies by his own weapon. The most popular and sadistic of these programs is "The Running Man," hosted by Damon Killian. In the film version, Richards is manipulated into it after his false conviction for taking part in a massacre, ensuring that he’s a much more reactive character than his book counterpart. It does so in a different way to the book, mostly through the use of a television studio as its location. Musicality: Harold Faltermeyer’s score utilises classical music effectively amongst his own synth stylings and the most impressive is Dynamo’s introduction. As the police and the Hunters close in on the safe house, Richards is wounded, but manages to escape and spends the night sleeping at an abandoned construction site. Nintendo Holiday Gift Guide: Best Consoles and Games to Buy, Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 Easter Eggs Explained, Give Comics Hope: Here's How You Can Help Save Comic Book Stores, Barbarians' True Story: the Battle of Teutoburg Forest, Arminius and Roman Defeat, Revisiting the film of Stephen King’s The Running Man. Click on a plot link to find similar books. The book, though … Where was the quipping? Ben Richards is an innocent man who is sentenced to the Running Man game show, a futuristic audience participation capital punishment television show. Meanwhile, life goes in in the society, which is numbed by a steady diet of fabricated news. He’s a worthy foil to Arnie and an unsubtle representation of capitalist American values, greedily pursuing his audience until they start to turn on him. While spending three days in Manchester, Richards learns that another contestant has been killed, and he dreams that Bradley has betrayed him after being tortured. For a start, Ben Richards (and, in hindsight, I should have seen what a terrible name for an Arnie character that is) has a dying child who needs medicine, and a wife who has had to take to prostitution in order to provide for the family. As a result, he’s the most fun element of the film and where it leans full tilt into its corporate media satire themes. He's a weak man, physically and emotionally, and desperate. 28-year-old Ben Richards, an impoverished resident of the fictional Co-Op City, is unable to find work, having been blacklisted from his trade. The year is 2017. Chapter Analysis of The Running Man Click on a plot link to find similar books! Ben is a mouthpiece for King's own views about where society could be heading; he's got something to say, and it's said through his pain. After discovering that his wife and child have been killed by the television company, Ben hijacks a plane and crashes it into their skyscraper. He quipped while killing the bad guys ("What a pain in the neck!" when beheading somebody; "He had to split!" when cutting somebody in half; "He was Subzero, now he's just plain zero!" He starts to gain confidence when he meets his mysterious neighbour IT WAS THE ULTIMATE DEATH GAME IN A NIGHMARE FUTURE AMERICA Each night all Americans, whether they live in the vast polluted slums or the fortress-like enclaves of the rich, tune in to the nation's favorite TV game show: The Running Man. The runner is given $4,800 and a pocket video camera before he leaves the studio.

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