THE RUNNING MAN (1987) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

the running man (1987) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   101 minutes

Released         |   13 November 1987

cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger ... Ben Richards
Maria Conchita Alonso ... Amber Mendez
Yaphet Kotto ... William Laughlin
Jim Brown ... Fireball
Jesse Ventura ... Captain Freedom
Erland van Lidth ... Dynamo (as Erland Van Lidth)
Marvin J. McIntyre ... Harold Weiss
Gus Rethwisch ... Buzzsaw
Professor Toru Tanaka ... Subzero
Mick Fleetwood ... Mic
Dweezil Zappa ... Stevie
Richard Dawson ... Damon Killian
​Sven-Ole Thorsen ... Sven (as Sven Thorsen)

director

​Paul Michael Glaser

writer

Stephen King ... (novel) (as Richard Bachman)
 
Steven E. de Souza ... (screenplay)

cinematographer

​Thomas Del Ruth ... director of photography

music

Harold Faltermeyer
Vassal Benford ... co-composer (uncredited)

film editor

Mark Warner ... (as Mark Roy Warner)
Edward A. Warschilka
John Wright

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box office result

Worldwide             $​​​​​​​​38,122,105

Australia                 $​​​​​​ not available

North America       $​​​​​​​​38,122,105

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movie minutiae

Arnold Schwarzenegger thought Paul Michael Glaser was a terrible choice to direct, what with Glaser coming from a TV background, and having no film experience as a director at all. He thought Glaser shot this film like a TV show, losing all of the script's deeper themes; Schwarzenegger suspected that because Glaser was a last-minute replacement, he didn't have time to research this future he was depicting, unlike James Cameron had with THE TERMINATOR (1984); also in television, they hire you and the very next week you shoot, so he didn't place all of the blame at Glaser's feet.

Thomas Del Ruth was also the cinematographer on STAND BY ME (1986), released the previous year, which was also a Stephen King adaptation of "The Body". However King wrote "The Running Man" under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

​Erland van Lidth ("Dynamo") was a classically trained Helden baritone opera singer, so in his introduction when Dynamo is singing an aria from "The Marriage of Figaro", it actually is van Lidth singing. This was also his final movie, as well as that of Richard Dawson (Damon Killian).

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related movies

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THE RUNNING MAN (1987) MOVIE IMAGES

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THE RUNNING MAN (1987) STORY SYNOPSIS

The Running Man was released in 1987, capitalising upon the success Arnold Schwarzenegger had had with THE TERMINATOR, COMMANDO, RAW DEAL and PREDATOR.

The film was adapted from a Stephen King short story and was set in the year 2019. Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, a Police helicopter pilot who is sent to prison for disobeying his superiors when he fails to carry-over an aerial assault on a crowd of food rioters.

The film was released on November 13, 1987 and runs for 101 minutes. It was reported to have a production budget of approximately $27 million and earned $38 million in its US domestic cinema release. The film also stars Richard Dawson, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland Van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Gus Rethwisch and Toru Tanaka. The film was rated R in the United States.

THE RUNNING MAN (1987) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 13 November 2016

​​Pop Movee Rating

THE RUNNING MAN is a bad film. There is no other way to describe it.

Based on Stephen King's short story, originally published under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, the film became a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger at the height of his popularity in the second half of the 1980s. It is doubtful that THE RUNNING MAN would have ever been produced had it not been for the Austrian Oak's involvement. Without the physical performance of Schwarzenegger and the scenery-chewing antics of former HOGAN'S HERO Richard Dawson, this film would have laboured in development hell for an eternity.

Steven E. DeSouza’s screenplay opens with Arnold being sent to prison after his helicopter-flying law enforcement character Ben Richards is framed for a crime he didn't commit. The kicker is that it's his own bosses that framed him and have manipulated the now government-controlled media to sell the story.

Connoisseurs of 1980s action films will know that Steven E. DeSouza was responsible for a string of highly successful, often violent screenplays throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. COMMANDO, DIE HARD, DIE HARD 2, HUDSON HAWK, BEVERLY HILLS COP III and JUDGE DREDD were all written by DeSouza.

In an effort to maintain some resemblance to King’s source material, DeSouza stuck with the idea that America is not a great place in THE RUNNING MAN's version of the future. It's a totalitarian state where the innocent are punished, widespread starvation exists among the population and the gap between the haves and have-nots is as wide as can be.

This piece of social commentary about America is not handled badly, but the movie's obvious budget limitations impacts the visual statement director Paul Michael Glaser is able to make on this subject. This attempt to have some connection to the short story is very much at odds with Schwarzenegger's straight-forward action antics and does seem an oddity among all the muscle-flexing and mayhem. It’s one of the few times in one of Arnie’s movies that anyone has even tried to say something that even remotely looks like there are broader problems confronting the society that one of his characters inhabits.

Richards manages to escape from prison, but doesn't stay out of trouble for long. He and fellow escapees learn from freedom fighter Mick, played by Rock Star Mick Fleetwood, that the only way to beat the government is to get control of the TV network's transmission control tower so the resistance movement's message can be broadcast.

There's only one problem: no one knows where it is!

Richards tells them that they're on their own in their effort to locate the tower and heads for his brother's apartment. He's shocked to discover that a new tenant has moved in and that his brother was taken away in the aftermath of his supposed massacre of innocent people. Arnold's character tries to convince Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso) that he's innocent, but she is a reluctant participant in his effort to escape.

Richards is caught at the airport after Amber alerts the authorities to his presence. He soon comes to the attention of game show host Killian (Richard Dawson) who sees Richards as an opportunity to send the ratings of The Running Man kill-or-be-killed game show into the stratosphere.

In another dig at the direction of American society, THE RUNNING MAN goes to great effort to show that society in the near-future has become so morally bankrupt that people are prepared to cheer on live-action TV murder.

Richard Dawson provides a unique authenticity to the role of Killian as he had been involved in a number of American game shows over the years. Dawson’s longest and most well-known association was with Family Feud which he hosted between 1978 and 1985. In a case of life imitating art, Dawson’s portrayal of Killian is probably not that far removed from reality and his performance has the most conviction of any throughout the film.

Richards becomes an unwilling participant in the show and is joined by his prison escapees from earlier in the film, ALIEN's Yaphet Kotto as Laughlin and Marvin J. McIntyre as Weiss. The three of them are literally blasted into the field of combat with the show's "hero" stalkers hot on their tails. As the hunt unfolds, it becomes clear that the stalkers are no match for Richard's superior strength and police training. Weiss and Laughlin are not as lucky as they are killed, but not before they discover the network transmission tower and get the secret code to hack into the network's signal. It's a very convenient piece of plotting that makes events later in the film contrived the viewer feeling as if their intelligence has been monumentally insulted.

Faced with an audience revolt and government pressure to get the situation in hand, Killian offers Richards the chance to become a network stalker but he refuses. By this stage, Amber has also been sent into the game zone after she is caught looking for information to determine whether Richards was telling the truth about the Bakersfield Massacre that he’s accused of perpetrating.

In an extremely sloppy piece of screen writing, Richards and Amber are rescued by Mick and his band of freedom fighters and brought to their secret transmission centre in the middle of the game zone. Viewers will recall that earlier in the movie, Mick's group had no idea where this was but now – conveniently - have a base of operations within proximity to the location of the transmission tower.

It stretches the realms of credibility that their base was so close to the tower and they had not a single clue it was under their noses… Most of the time, I can accept a far-fetched movie premise is accepted if it's believable within its own context. In this case, it's just poor plotting that lacks any serious thought for the sake of pushing-on to the climactic gun battle!

As for the finale, it's standard mid-1980s Arnold.

He shoots a lot of bad guys; they never seem to get close to him.

After a few minutes of backward & forward, Arnold and his team of freedom fighters vanquish the state-controlled security forces; striking a blow for freedom everywhere.

There’s one massive problem with this ending: it’s simply unbelievable...

Not for one moment is it credible to believe that a small band of mercenaries has been able to influence mainstream opinion to the extent that an entire country’s population has been convinced of their revolutionary message and that the government of the day will simply step aside and allow these rebels to take control.

Unfortunately, movie making is littered with this type of crap, as the creative people within the production are placed under pressure from the film’s financiers to deliver a product that will have the broadest appeal in order to maximise the financial returns.

The people who control money tend to have limited imaginations and they always like to see the best financial return stated, so it makes sense that their movie viewing habits would be limited to always wanting to see the good guys win; despite logic to suggest otherwise.

If you saw THE RUNNING MAN back in 1987 and enjoyed it, whatever you do, don’t revisit this film. It will simply spoil the vague recollections that you have of one of Arnold’s lesser efforts when he was in his heyday.

If you’re an Arnold fan you will already have this film on either DVD or Blu-ray, but you’re never going to wear your player out with the number of times you view this particular disc. Fortunately, Schwarzenegger’s choice of material improved dramatically in the period immediately after starring in THE RUNNING MAN.

​The same cannot be said of many of the others associated with the film...

THE RUNNING MAN (1987) USEFUL LINKS

The Running Man (1987 film) - Wikipedia
​The Running Man (1987) - IMDb​
​The Running Man (1987) - Rotten Tomatoes

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