Four years following the release of Last Night in Soho, executive producer and filmmaker Edgar Wright (the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, “Don’t”, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho) is back with another passion project. As his first adapted work in years since Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and The Adventures of Tintin, The Running Man is produced as if it were a cinematic blockbuster. This dystopian action-adventure dark comedy science fiction thriller is a bag of cross-genre mayhem. That isn’t to say that I expect it to reach some sort of major milestone. Yet, it does appear to be the biggest title that Wright has been attached to after Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho.
The Running Man also serves as the second film adaptation of a novel by Stephen King—specifically, as his early-career pseudonym Richard Bachman—to be released in 2025, following Francis Lawrence and J.T. Mollner’s The Long Walk. I am beyond awed and pleased at what the filmmaker achieves here. To put it into perspective, the novel’s 1987 adaptation, which starred action star Arnold Schwarzenegger, felt like being given a paper with dotted lines to connect together, only to color the walls in the room and connect the first dot to the last dot. By comparison, this second adaptation connects the dots and creates a purposeful image that deserves to be hung in Heaven’s museum.
The Running Man is written by Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Project X, 21 Jump Street, 22 Jump Street) and Michael Bacall and Edgar Wright and is directed by Wright.
In this review, I will discuss The Running Man. As this article’s title suggests, spoilers will be present.
The Running Man Synopsis
According to the official The Running Man website, here is the synopsis of the film.
In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television—a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins, with every move broadcast to a bloodthirsty public and each day bringing a greater cash reward. Desperate to save his sick daughter, working-class Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is convinced by the show’s charming but ruthless producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), to enter the game as a last resort. But Ben’s defiance, instincts, and grit turn him into an unexpected fan favorite—and a threat to the entire system. As ratings skyrocket, so does the danger, and Ben must outwit not just the Hunters, but a nation addicted to watching him fall.
‘The Running Man’ film website
Discussion
Oddly enough, I see Wright and Bacall’s decision to adapt their interpretation of King’s novel in an interesting juxtaposition with Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17. Bong, who has previously been named in the special thanks of Last Night in Soho‘s end credits, viewed his film as a satire of a political entity and the people who run it, rather than a focus on resource management, which its source material—i.e., Edward Ashton’s Mickey7—dealt with. Mickey 17 and The Running Man are both film adaptations that center on dispensable albeit vital protagonists. The difference is that Wright and Bacall hit the nail on the head when it comes to King’s three major themes in The Running Man: the effects of high pollution; television (in this case, Free-Vee) replacing “printed word”; and the Games Network’s corruption and silencing of the lesser.
Seeing that the Bachman novel underwent the writing process from 1973 to 1982, King pretty much hit the nail with these points, too. The dystopian, futuristic North American setting that he establishes is utterly brilliant, and Wright translates everything meticulously. Save for minor changes, such as removing racial slurs and potential fatphobia here and there, The Running Man is almost an epic at two hours and thirteen minutes. Its brisk pace fits the titular description, and the screenwriters divide the novel’s four-hundred-and-twelve-page story—I own the 40th anniversary edition—into four equal acts. I was worried about that aspect, given that the hostage subplot at the end took up nearly forty percent of the novel.
Such is the magic of Wright and Bacall’s The Running Man. With its visual language and style, the film’s superficial appearance is intended as melodramatic to the point that it requires a darkly comic element to balance the genres to avoid a totally bleak nature.
Adapting the Games
“Fate” and “destiny” are two words that shockingly do not appear in any of Bachman/King’s one hundred and one chapters. I rooted for the protagonist to last a whole thirty days on foot, only for him to 9/11 the Games Network building. To my surprise, the narrative beats in The Running Man were executed so well. I eventually coped with the fact that Ben Richards (Glen Powell) just might perish in this adaptation. The word association and the hologrammed Rorschach blot tests illustrate the futuristic world in which he lives. In fact, the opening act perfectly demonstrates what is written in the novel’s initial twenty-one pages. That alone provided promise that the production was placed in all the right palms.
The Running Cam tape machine concept—in which contestants must video-record ten minutes of their day twice daily—excited me. However, I do appreciate the addition of Rovers—floating spherical cameras—following contestants almost as if pulled from the pages of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. This contributes to the challenge of Runners evading recognition and escaping capture. The succeeding subplots were adapted just as perfectly, from brothers Stacey (Angelo Gray) and Bradley Throckmorton (Daniel Ezra) living under similar circumstances to Richards and his family, to Richards taking bourgeois woman Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones) hostage and on board an aircraft.
Bradley’s “The Apostle” gimmick is a new development for this film. I really enjoy his meta-commentary on The Running Man as a game show, what it symbolizes, and what it demonstrates. His “Real Rules of The Running Man” felt like I was watching a Scream film, but for action flicks. The adaptation cites three types of Runners: the Hopeless Dude, the Negative Dude, and the Final Dude. These archetypes do apply to slasher horror scenarios, so that isn’t too far off.
Minus 133 and Counting
Wright and Bacall’s shooting script lays down the groundwork for what is essentially King’s narrative, topped with the building blocks that comprise a more modern taste of The Running Man as a whole. Its prolonged inclusion of Richards’s wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) and their infant daughter Cathy (Alyssa Benn, Sienna Benn) is an interesting detail. Instead of utilizing them as a fleeting memory in Richards’s story, his return to them is the end goal of his trek away from danger. This venture traverses a different emotional path, removing the tragedy of losing a single mother and a brother at a young age. The additional detail regarding Cathy’s missing baby sock adds to the sentimentality of Richards’s ethos as a husband and father figure.
The Hunters also have a larger presence in the film. Led by a masked Evan McCone (Lee Pace), this hitman posse actually fulfills their roles in tracking down the Runners. That’s more entertaining than merely displaying Richards as an overly suspicious man on the run throughout the United States. Unfortunately, the co-writers develop two of several Hunters. Although I believe that’s a fair trade if they also have other lead and supporting characters to concentrate on.
To add, in place of Otto—the autopilot system in the final chapters of the novel—is a small instance of Williams behind the wheel of a self-driving car. This detail lends realistic credence to the evolution in our digital technology. At an epoché wherein our public and private personal information is fabricated through artificial intelligence, falsifying Richards’s words should impress as eerie, disheartening, and repugnant. One day, the entire world will realize this.
The Network at Large
The inclusion of Free-Vee’s television programs highlights the narrative’s theme on the media’s exploitation and control of people. Speed the Wheel, changed from Treadmill to Bucks, is a game show about contestants jogging on human-sized hamster wheels while attempting to answer trivia questions. Americano is a parody of Keeping Up with the Kardashians—or whatever the heck their show is currently titled—that I felt was a jab at reality television programming and how asinine its existence is.
Yet, the cherry on top lies in the product placement used in occasional scenes. The Liquid Death commercial featuring The Running Man host Bobby T. (Colman Domingo) got a chuckle out of me. Moreover, Richards being offered a Monster energy drink in the middle of a serious conversation is absolutely hilarious timing. Greed via capitalist labor isn’t necessarily spotlighted in the novel. To be precise, it’s the laboring of human bodies itself that drives people to behave as they behave. What is “the grind”, and what exactly is “real” about it?
Ultimately, this theme of the media ruling over the world is incredibly relevant to current events. Corporate heads and executives—ironic that Paramount Pictures is distributing this film—pulling the news and the government’s strings hits close to home. It’s easy to lie and twist words as a form of sinister rhetoric when you know what consumers want. The Games Network covering up for radioactivity giving children cancer parallels the fact that politicians and billionaires deny ongoing climate change and even ongoing genocides.
The Easter Eggs
As I have noted with Osgood “Oz” Perkins’s The Monkey earlier this year, The Running Man features connections to Stephen King and his Dark Tower multiverse. For instance, having Arnold Schwarzenegger on the front of a $100 bill is worth a chuckle solely for its reference to the first adaptation by Paul Michael Glaser and Steven E. de Souza. I doubt that version exists in the same reality as the current The Running Man. Regardless, it is a neat nod. Richards’s line, “Have a good night, day…you know what? Have both”, sounds inspired by comedian Jim Carrey’s famous quote in The Truman Show. I think it’s fitting. Like Truman Burbank, the character often dips in and out of rooms and buildings away from the audience’s eyes.
Derry, Maine, has a role in the film. However, instead of being the location setting for Voigt airfield and jetport, it serves as the home for Bradley’s activist friend, Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), and his mother, Victoria Parrakis (Sandra Dickinson). With The Running Man‘s futuristic time setting, Pennywise the Dancing Clown is long dead in this reality. On the other hand, perhaps the film takes place in a different reality within the multiverse.
There are also stores and establishments alluding to the novelist himself, such as Bachman’s [store?] whilst Richards travels away from the Games Network building via taxi; and Tabby’s Diner in reference to King’s hero, inspiration, and wife, Tabitha “Tabby”, during Richards’s third attempt to mail in his tape recordings.
Running the Production
Music composer Steven Price and music supervisor Kirsten Lane continue to curate a grand soundtrack. I admired what they brought to Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho. Because of this, I already knew The Running Man‘s score and song selections would be phenomenal. “Underdog” by Sly & The Family Stone got me in the proper mood. “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)” by The Rolling Stones is fun and energetic. Price’s action thriller instrumental is freaking good. Combined with the song selections, the audio keeps me on the edge of my seat. Of course, the soundtrack here is unlike those of the prior two films and needs time to sit with Wright fans and action movie fans.
Costume designer Julian Day and makeup and hair designer Sharon Martin’s outfitting lets colors pop. The Running Man jumpsuits for Richards and the other contestants are mesmerizing to look at. Likewise, Richards’s “disguises” serve their individual purposes enough, but don’t completely sell anyone on the mystery of his whereabouts. The John Springer look with the fake mustache, the blind priest with the cane. At some point, he has to laugh at himself and what he thinks he can get away with.
Karl Glusman almost looks unrecognizable to me as Frank the Hunter. For most of the film, I confused him for Dominic Fike with the blonde-dyed hair. Even better is McCone’s villainous appearance, akin to Watchmen‘s Rorschach, G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero‘s Cobra Commander, and Marvel Comics’ Baron Zemo. Treating the antagonist as a former The Running Man contestant weighs on the offer that the Network gives to Richards, just as they did in the novel.
An Emmy-Worthy Fake Show?
Production designer Marcus Rowland et al’s set pieces are an example of what I mean when I assert that The Running Man‘s aesthetics are “superficial”. I believe it speaks to the idea that what is seen on TV isn’t always real or true. The YVA cheap hotel building—altered from the novel’s YMCA location setting—is a puzzle-like labyrinth with its different floors, rooftop space, and wall façades embellished with neon sign lighting. Richards’s movement from the ground floor to the basement and into the underground sewers is outright cool to watch. I really love that Wright and Bacall have him light nudie mags and shelves of gas canisters on fire than simply setting stacks of newspapers aflame. Similarly, the Parrakis’ booby-trapped and hidden-roomed home is a trip. Both of these set pieces are astonishing for the action sequences in place.
To complement the set pieces, director of photography Chung-hoon Chung is masterful with the camera. He can capture Richards within an entire set piece or linger on him inside the trunk of a moving vehicle. Stunt coordinators Nikki Berwick and Darrin Prescott and fight coordinator Andrej Riabokon spearhead these sequences with Powell and his stunt doubles, Bogdan Kumshatsky and Ben Toyer, skillfully. The Voigt plane sequence is tougher due to its compact space, but I still liked it. The same could be said about The Running Man contestant Jenni Laughlin (Katy O’Brian) and her attempts to evade the Hunters. However, her action sequence in a Las Vegas “Holy Grail Casino” is overwhelmed by set decorations and spontaneous lighting. I would love to see a spin-off feature film or short film from her perspective.
The Crew Behind The Running Man
The Running Man is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Chung-hoon Chung (Oldboy, It: Chapter One, Last Night in Soho, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Heretic) serves as the director of photography.
Paul Machliss serves as the film’s editor. Jerry Ramsbottom and David Webb are the additional editors.
Steven Price (Attack the Block, The World’s End, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho) serves as the music composer.
Kirsten Lane (Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho, Saltburn, Upgraded) serves as the music supervisor.
Bradley Farmer (Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho) is the music editor. Charlie Curtis is the assistant music editor.
Julian Slater (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, In Bruges, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Paul, Attack the Block, The World’s End, The Purge: Anarchy, Baby Driver, Bad Times at the El Royale, Last Night in Soho) and Dan Morgan (Last Night in Soho, We Live in Time) serve as the supervising sound editors.
Jeremy Price (Attack the Block, Baby Driver, Last Night in Soho, Trap) serves as the sound designer.
Ben Meechan (The World’s End, The Ritual, Last Night in Soho, The Wheel of Time, Trap), Arthur Graley, and Luke Gentry (The Wheel of Time, Trap) serve as the sound effects designers.
Jacob Stripp (Last Night in Soho, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Trap) is the sound effects editor. Dominika Latusek is the assistant sound editor.
Soren Bendt Pedersen (Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Last Night in Soho, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Spider-Man: Brand New Day), John Greaves (Judge Dredd, The Bourne Supremacy, Children of Men, 1408, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Paddington, Paddington 2, Last Night in Soho, Paddington in Peru), and Stephen Forrest-Smith serve as the storyboard artists.
Casting, Stunt/Fight Coordination, and Visual Effects
Francine Maisler, Kharmel Cochrane, and Molly Rose serve as the casting directors.
Amber Wakefield (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Widows, Babylon, Civil War, Sinners) serves as the US casting associate. Sophie Burton and Rose Powell serve as the UK casting associates.
Madison Harris-Weiner is the US casting assistant. Ify Amaechi is the UK casting assistant.
Nikki Berwick serves as the supervising stunt coordinator. Darrin Prescott serves as the stunt coordinator.
Andrej Riabokon serves as the fight coordinator.
Bogdan Kumshatsky and Ben Toyer play the “Ben” stunt doubles.
Roberto Dias McCarthy plays the pre-visualization “Elton” stunt double.
Andrew Whitehurst and David Zaretti serve as the visual effects supervisors.
Sona Pak (The World’s End, Alien: Covenant, 1917) and Umar Adam Aziz Hussain are the VFX producers. Ralph Foster, Abbie Hawkins, and Mark S. Wright as the VFX editors.
Zak Cannarozzo and Charles “Charlie” Prince are the assistant VFX editors. Carlo Milillo is the additional VFX editor.
Aesthetics
Marcus Rowland (Spaced Series 2, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Attack the Block, The World’s End, Baby Driver, Rocketman, Last Night in Soho) serves as the production designer.
Grant Bailey serves as the supervising art director. Oliver Carroll, James Cross, Albert McCausland, Joe Withers, and Andy Young are the art directors.
Grace-Anna Hay and Jasmine Lean are the assistant art directors. Renate Nicolaisen is credited as the set decorator art director.
Kathryn Pyle is the set decorator.
Julian Day serves as the costume designer.
Sharon Martin (A Cure for Wellness, Okja, Mickey 17) is credited as the makeup and hair designer.
Pebbles Day is the key makeup artist. Francesco Alberico is the key hairstylist.
Charlie Hounslow is the hairstylist & makeup artist to Glen Powell.
Steve Warner serves as the special effects supervisor. Waldo Mason serves as the prosthetics designer.
The Cast of The Running Man
Glen Powell (Spy Kids 3: Game Over, Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man, Twisters) portrays Ben Richards, the protagonist of The Running Man.
Jayme Lawson (The Batman, The Woman King, Sinners) portrays Sheila Richards, Richards’s wife.
Josh Brolin (Planet Terror, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Weapons) portrays Dan Killian, the executive producer of The Running Man.
Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead, Zola, Candyman, HBO’s Euphoria, Sing Sing) portrays Bobby “Bobby T.” Thompson, the host of The Running Man.
Lee Pace (The Hobbit, Guardians of the Galaxy, Bodies Bodies Bodies) portrays Evan McCone, the leader of the Hunters.
Katy O’Brian (The Walking Dead Season 8, The Mandalorian, Love Lies Bleeding, Twisters, Queens of the Dead) portrays Jenni Laughlin, a contestant on The Running Man alongside Richards. Jenni Laughlin is a name changed from the novel’s Jimmy Laughlin.
Karl Glusman (Love, The Neon Demon, Nocturnal Animals, Devs, Watcher, Eenie Meanie) portrays Frank, a Hunter.
Emilia Jones portrays Amelia Williams, a woman whom Richards takes hostage.
Supporting Roles
Joey Ansah, James Frecheville, and Alex Hoeffler play Captain Holloway, Donahue, and Duninger, pilots on a plane, respectively.
Martin Herlihy portrays Timothy “Tim” Jansky, a contestant on The Running Man alongside Richards.
Angelo Gray portrays Stacey Throckmorton, a teenage boy who assists Richards. Daniel Ezra portrays Bradley Throckmorton, Stacey’s older brother.
Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Youth in Revolt, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Dream Scenario, The Phoenician Scheme) portrays Elton Parrakis, an associate of Bradley’s.
Sandra Dickinson (The Batman) plays Victoria Parrakis, Elton’s mother.
William H. Macy (Pleasantville, Jurassic Park III, Shameless, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes) portrays Molie.
George Carroll portrays Agent Dugg, a man assigned to look over Richards’s family.
On the Free-Vee’s fictitious Americano television program, Catherine Cohen, Debi Mazar (Goodfellas, So I Married an Axe Murderer, Batman Forever, The Pentaverate, Kaos), Noah Ritter, Emma Sidi, and Malcolm Atobrah portray Ariané Americano, Amoré Americano, Antoné Americano, Adriané Americano, and Bruce Americano, respectively.
Minor Roles
Olunike Adeliyi portrays Ma Throckmorton, Bradley and Tracey’s mother. Jaya Griffith plays June Throckmorton, Bradley and Tracey’s younger sister, who is dying of lung cancer.
David Zayas (Oz, Gotham Season 1, The Bear) portrays Richard Manuel, Richards’s manager.
Bill O’Neill portrays a “hopeless dude”. Chi Lewis-Parry portrays a “negative dude” named Stone. Charley Palmer Rothwell portrays the “final dude” named Holbrook.
Chris Rogers plays Bud, a contestant on the Speed the Wheel game show.
Michael Mears (Last Night in Soho) plays an old man named Henry standing behind Richards in line to sign up for the Games Network.
Corey Johnson plays a motel owner.
Michael Bacall makes a cameo appearance as a “stoned dude”.
Performances and Character Developments
Powell isn’t the first actor I had in mind for someone like Ben Richards, but man, does he make the character his! Richards is a dishevelled husband and father who doesn’t hurt people who don’t deserve it. At the same time, he cares for those who have no reason to hurt a fly. The actor pairs excellently with so many of his scene partners that I cannot say who has the best dynamic. Richards and Sheila make a sweet couple; he and Parrakis are an intriguing action duo; he and Williams represent class disparity and have great back-and-forth dialogue; and he and McCone are formidable adversaries. Richards still has his issues with authority and still has a wit about him. Powell proves that he is the actor of our time, and I believe being under Tom Cruise’s wing helped that.
Alongside Powell, Domingo has fantastic line-readings as Bobby T., the host of The Running Man. While he’s more of a puppet speaking for the Games Network, the character is the face of antagonism worn by executive producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin). Domingo is a no-brainer name to place into this role, seeing his love for theatrics as previously showcased in Sing Sing. His “THIS IS AMERICA, GODDAMNIT” monologue is well-written and only makes me like the actor more.
Cera’s role as Parrakis is more developed in the film than in Bachman/ King’s novel. The supporting character isn’t just some fat guy with, say, one friend. Rather, Cera breathes a soul into an otherwise tragic role. The actor portrays a different personality from his role as high schoolers Evan and Scott Pilgrim or Ken the doll’s friend Allan Sherwoord, which is a positive note. His action sequence with stunt double Roberto Dias McCarthy is all over the place.
Final Thoughts on The Running Man
Rule One: Take care of your mom. She’s your best friend. Rule Two: Bullies are cowards. Hit back. Rule Three: You can be kind and strong at the same time. Rule Four: Don’t trust the Network. Ever.
Ben Richards (Glen Powell)
Reading The Running Man is a memorable experience. Watching Glaser and de Souza’s The Running Man left me with doubts and regrets. However, watching the second adaptation of Stephen King’s novel is a blessing in disguise, one better than Richards’s. With the right demographic, there is rewatch value. In turn, I have hope that this film will become a cult classic in the years to come. As a production, it understands what is at stake and what concerns need to be raised.
Richards’s survival in the epilogue marks a change of scenery for what is otherwise a bleak story. It suggests that revolution is inevitable, and the people’s voices will be heard. Families do not deserve to be broken apart. Nobody deserves to have their lives put at risk. Actions do not always speak louder than words. The Running Man is easily one of the better films of the year, noting what it commits to.
Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall’s The Running Man is now playing in theaters!
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