Richards: Want some coffee?
Donahue: No.
Richards: Yes, you do. Richard then proceeds to break Donahue's head open with the coffee maker.
Ben Richards desperately requires money to get medicine for his
ill daughter Cathy. To stop his wife Sheila from continuing to prostitute herself to pay the bills, Richards turns to the Games Federation, which runs several
TV game shows. Contestants win money by surviving challenges such as
Treadmill to Bucks, where a person with a heart or respiratory condition runs on a treadmill, or the
self-explanatory Swim the Crocodiles. After a rather embarrassing screening process, Ben is selected for the most popular game:
The Running Man.
He is given $4,800, and his family will win $100 for every hour he stays alive. If he survives for 30 days, he will win $1 billion. He also gets 12 hours of advantage before the network throws The Hunters on him. He can travel anywhere in the world, and each day he must videotape two messages and courier them to the TV show. Without a videotaped message, he loses the prize money but the Hunters will continue their search.
Despite the producer's claims to the contrary, as soon as the Network receives a videotaped message, the Hunters immediately know from the postmark the runner's approximate location. When the runner is caught, he is killed live on TV.
The story, written by
Stephen King under his
Pen Name of "Richard Bachman", is better known for its
film version, with
Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Richard Dawson, which
turned the story into one of a
Blood Sport played by condemned criminals, and Richards's reason for entering the contest changes — he was framed for a massacre that the movie later shows that he tried to stop.
The original novel provides examples of:
- Aesoptinium
- Anti Hero: Richards isn't a paragon of morality; he is cynical and ready to kill if it will help him escape.
- Butt Monkey: A lot of King's characters have the worst luck, ever.
- Crowning Moment Of Awesome: Richards driving a plane into the Games Federation building, while having his intestines on the floor and while giving the Big Bad the finger.
- Deadly Game: Pretty much the premise of the book.
- The Dragon: McCone.
- Everything Trying To Kill You: Rare non-video game example. Everyone is trying to kill Richards.
- Government Conspiracy: Two, actually: the game is rigged, and the public and free TV is used to make people stay inside, not revolt and ignore the corporations polluting the air. Does This Remind You Of Anything?
- Roaring Rampage Of Revenge: Short lived but powerful, after Richards discovers his family is dead.
- Run For The Border: Averted; he could leave the country, but the Hunters could follow.
- Unfunny Aneurysm Moment: The novel's ending is eerily evocative of The 9/11 attacks, with a jet airplane being deliberately flown into a skyscraper. King even makes a point of noting that the plane's fuel tanks were full enough to create an explosion to destroy said bulding.
- Unusual Chapter Numbers
- Yank The Dogs Chain: At the end, Killian gives Richards the chance to become the new head of the Hunters. Then tells him his wife and daughter are dead. Not a good time, man.
- Your Money Is No Good Here
The film provides examples of:
- Adaptation Decay: All that's left is the name of the hero, the last name of the main villain, and the name of the show involved.
- All Or Nothing
- Altum Videtur: gratuitous use of Latin in Richards' contract.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger: the Hero.
- Blood Sport
- Bond One Liner: Some of the best in film. *Cuts a man in half* "He had to split."
- The Butcher: Ben Richards, "The Butcher of Bakersfield".
- Chainsaw Good: Buzzsaw.
- Condemned Contestant
- Crowning Music Of Awesome: CLAP IF YOU LOVE DYNAMO!!!
!!!!
- Do Not Adjust Your Set
- Game Show Host: Killian
- Groin Attack: Multiple examples
- Hilarious In Hindsight: The fistfight between leotard-wearing Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger is much funnier knowing that they have each since become US Governors.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: Each Stalker is killed with his own weapon.
- Home Game: Given to members of The Running Man studio audience.
- I Know Madden Kombat: The hockey-themed hunter "Sub-Zero".
- Ironic Echo: Killian says "Remember last year's winners? Here they are, basking in the Hawaii sunshine!" over doctored video of them doing just that. When the transmission is hijacked, the line is repeated, showing their real fate: dead and decayed in the game arena.
- Large Ham: Dynamo. A fat man with blinking lights all over him driving after you in a go-kart while singing opera does not inspire fear.
- Manipulative Editing
- The Pen Is Mightier
- Red Shirt
- Released To Elsewhere
- Ridiculous Future Inflation: A can of pop costs $5.
- Run For The Border: Played straight. Richards tries to flee to Hawaii, which apparently no longer part of the U.S.
- I'm pretty sure he punches up "Domestic" before he opts for Hawaii.
- Screw The Rules Im Doing Whats Right: Richards, when he refuses to fire on the unarmed crowd.
- Show Within A Show: The TV show
- So Bad Its Good
- Sven, Killian's bodyguard, exemplifies the following tropes:
- Victorias Secret Compartment
- We Will Not Use Photoshop In The Future: The government uses edited footage to frame Richards.
- Your Head A Splode: Richards and his fellow prisoners in the military prison.
Both the book and the film provide examples of:
