Dystopian movies have had their day and then some on the big screen, but The Running Man is the perfect action-packed and inspiring film for today’s moment. Directed by Edgar Wright with a screenplay from Wright and Michael Bacall, the film is an adaptation of the 1982 Stephen King novel.
The story follows Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a working-class man living in the fictional Co-Op City in an undetermined distant future with a somewhat 80s retro vibe. Blacklisted from companies around town for speaking out against working conditions, he is desperate to make money to save his sick daughter.
He’s convinced by Network exec Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) to sign up for The Running Man, a deadly competition where contestants, known as Runners, must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins. What starts as a simple manhunt turns into an odyssey for Ben as he travels the country, encounters deadly situations, and makes new allies.
The film is carried by Powell, who gives a star turn with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears proving he’s Tom Cruise’s successor when it comes to practical stunts.
The Running Man still features Wright’s signature needle drops, but with bigger, louder and more flammable action. A chase scene through a motel where Powell dons nothing but a towel (and then not even that) finds him scaling a building and escaping an explosion down a manhole.
An explosion on a bridge and final confrontation on an airplane where it’s four versus one are just as insane as they sound and require Powell to take a serious beating in the name of art. By the end of the film, Ben is a bloody, dirty, crazed mess ready to risk it all and the action is all the better for it.
Powell also manages to make Ben, a man with anger problems and a hostile sense of righteousness, empathetic although the character is initially reluctant to become a symbol of resistance and just wants to get back to his family.
The film’s messaging may seem too obvious, but that’s not a bad thing when it will resonate so much with modern audiences. Oppressed by the Network, which controls everything including the government behind its shiny TV output, the working class are turned against each other by The Running Man‘s promise to report the players and get cash.
Colman Domingo’s Bobby T. brings a sense of glitz and glamour as the host of The Running Man, but still the sinister nature seeps through. Brolin is shark-like, with a set of gleaming fake teeth to boot, as Killian manipulates each step of the way.
The only one scarier is Lee Pace as lead hunter Evan McCone, who hides behind a sinister mask and his large stature until he gets to unmask literally and metaphorically at the end of the film.
What the resistance asks, and what the movie asks of its audience, is to turn your gaze to the real villains in society: billionaires, corrupt politicians, and law enforcement targeting the people it’s meant to protect.
By adapting the book more faithfully, the story includes a cadre of supporting characters and locations (including a trip to Derry, Maine for King fans). Each actor gets their moment, even Jayme Lawson in the somewhat thankless wife role of Sheila, but the ones having the most fun are the members of the resistance.
Daniel Ezra is a revelation as the resistance member Bradley who is their truth-bringing version of Bobby T. And you’ve never quite seen Michael Cera like this as the unhinged Elton who also features a moving, tragicomic backstory.
At a runtime of 133 minutes, the movie does drag a little long particularly in the beginning before the game starts and at the end (the film has two “endings,” one happy and one a big f*** you to The Man). There is some fat to trim (time spent on the stand-in Kardashian reality show, the drawn out hostage scenes) that could tighten up the story.
The Running Man is still propulsive and crowd-pleasing, and worth running to theaters for. You will find yourself cheering for Ben’s success every step of the way and on the edge of your seat waiting to see if he can win this rigged game.