Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, The Running Man is one of King's adaptations that changed its source material too drastically and left everyone confused when it was released in 1987. The novel, actually credited to King's pseudonym Richard Bachman, told the story of Ben Richards, a poor man having to make ends meet.
His last resort is to participate in a reality show called The Running Man. All the contestants are chased by basically everybody, and those who get to kill them, win a lot of money. But the film took the concept and changed it completely in order to make the film less dramatic, and more commercial.
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger during his prime, the film tells the story of Ben Richards. Only now he's not a poor guy. He's a pilot convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Then the film takes a bit too long to enter its main premise. The point is in the future criminals are forced to participate in a competition show where violent killers attempt to kill contestants.
The result was a generic film that most people quickly forgot and had none of the spirit that King's novel had. The dystopian tale of survival simply felt like a fake statement using a big Hollywood star, sans a compelling story with a believable premise about the future.
While we wait for more news about a supposed remake being made by Edgar Wright, here's a list of films that will get you in the mood for The Running Man. Most of them are infinitely better than the film starring Arnie in spandex.
10 Snowpiercer
Based on the graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob, Benjamin Legrand, and Jean-Marc Rochette, Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer is a dystopian sci-fi thriller about the remnants of human civilization living aboard a perpetually moving train that travels all around the world, after Earth has entered an ice age. Each wagon of course resembles social class, with everything that implies.
It stars Song Kang-ho, Chris Evans, John Hurt, and Tilda Swinton. A TV show inspired by the film and graphic novel was released in 2020.
9 The Hunger Games
Based on the series of young adult books by Suzanne Collins, the franchise started with The Hunger Games in 2012. It tells the story of teenagers who are recruited to fight themselves to death in a televised event.
Sound familiar? Yes, the story isn't very original, but the film featured Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth, making the film a teen sensation that blew up the box office. A grand total of four films were made, with a fifth one to be released in late 2023.
8 Battle Royale
Battle Royale, the 2000 film directed by Kinji Fukasaku, was so important that it was responsible for creating a whole genre: battle royale. You've probably seen in the past films and TV shows (or read books or manga, or played video games) where contestants must kill each other for the pleasure of others.
Well, Fukasaku's film was the first of its kind, and it featured students fighting themselves to death after a totalitarian government forces them to do so. Oh, and if you believe it's too similar to The Running Man, remember that in that film, it was Ben Richards against everybody. In Battle Royale, it's everybody against everybody.
7 Gamer
The premise for 2009's Gamer is actually very interesting. It tells the story of a future society where technology allows wealthy people to play video games, and control real-life humans as avatars. Their genre of choice? Of course, first-person shooters. Featuring a great cast including Gerard Butler, Logan Lerman, Terry Crews, and Michael C. Hall, producers were astounded when it flopped at the box office and didn't gross enough money to cover the production budget.
6 Doomsday
Neil Marshall's Doomsday is the best film you never saw. It features a team of soldiers traveling to another country to try to find to a cure for a deadly virus that has put their operations on hold. The thing is whatever's left of the country has been ravaged and pillaged by survivors you wouldn't want to meet on your path.
Doomsday took all the good things of films with similar plots and included them in this dystopian action thriller that's heavily underrated. Most critics hated it because of its violence, and box-office sales weren't very good. Regardless, it is one of the best-produced genre films in recent decades.
5 Mad Max: Fury Road
The winner of many Academy Awards, Mad Max: Fury Road is director George Miller's return to the wasteland of Max Rockatansky, Immortan Joe, and now Imperator Furiosa. Petrol and water are still considered gold in a post-apocalyptic future, and survivors of Joe's totalitarian government actually rebel against his will. Fury Road is one of the best action films ever made, and obviously the best in the Mad Max franchise.
4 The Maze Runner
The Maze Runner is based on another young adult book series that features teenagers in peril. This time the story's about Thomas, a 16-year-old who wakes up in the middle of a huge maze and with no memory at all. Joining other kids, he will form an alliance to try to figure out why they're trapped in the weird structure that keeps shifting and features creatures set on killing the kids. The franchise consists of three films and they all had huge results at the box office.
3 The Purge
The Purge was the movie that spawned James DeMonaco's franchise about a dystopian society indulging in their darkest desires one day every year, where there aren't any laws to follow. The films that followed weren't as good because they weren't as restrained as the first one that told the story of a single-family dealing with the monstrous criminals that lurked outside their safe home.
It was a huge box-office success, grossing over $90 million from a $3 million production budget. The legacy of DeMonaco's approach is still alive, with fifth released films, one being planned, and a successful TV show.
2 Death Race
Another battle royale film, only this time the weapons are big metal monstrous vehicles driven by insane convicts. In Death Race, Jensen Ames is a man accused of a murder he didn't commit, so in pure "Running Man" he gets put in a race for his life.
The film was directed by the other Paul Anderson, the one who mostly directs science fiction films and video game adaptations, and it's actually a thrilling film with enough practical effects to make you feel part of its world. Death Race is a remake of a Roger Corman production from the '70s called Death Race 2000.
1 Ready Player One
In the Steven Spielberg science fiction adventure, Ready Player One, the world is addicted to an online world where they can be whoever they want to be. The Oasis is actually a virtual reality platform created by an '80s pop culture fan, where people who know their '80s stuff will be successful.
The film tells the story of Wade Watts, a teenage boy set on winning the challenge to become the owner of the Oasis. Ready Player One is a celebration of pop culture that has an insane amount of Easter eggs. The sequence inside Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is mind-blowing.
You can stream The Running Man on Prime Video.
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