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-->''Hello, cutie pie. One of us is in big trouble.''
to:
-->''Hello, cutie pie. One of us is in big deep trouble.''
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->'''Richards''': Killian -- [[CatchPhrase ''I'll be back'']].
to:
->'''Richards''': Killian -- [[CatchPhrase ''I'll I'll be back'']].back]].
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->'''Richards''': Killian! [[CatchPhrase I'll be back]]!
to:
->'''Richards''': Killian! Killian -- [[CatchPhrase I'll ''I'll be back]]!back'']].
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Doesn\'t go here.
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* CompleteMonster: Killian and the stalkers.
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* CompleteMonster: Killian and the stalkers.
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* GroinAttack: Multiple examples.
to:
* GroinAttack: Multiple examples. The most notorious being how Richards disposes of Buzzsaw with his own chainsaw.
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* NeckLift: Captain Freedom does this to Amber during the fake fight scene.
* NeckSnap: Captain Freedom does this to Amber while performing a NeckLift on her.
* NeckSnap: Captain Freedom does this to Amber while performing a NeckLift on her.
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* IntimidationDemonstration: Each of the Stalkers shows off the use of his weapon when he's introduced to the studio audience.
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* Zeerust: All over the place, particularly in the hairstyles and fashions (mullets and shoulder pads, for example, will apparently never go out of style). Lesser examples exist, such as the [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture horribly dated graphics]] seen on all the in-universe computer screens and the pseudo-computeresque font used in the "KILLIAN IS LYING TO YOU" clip.
to:
* Zeerust: {{Zeerust}}: All over the place, particularly in the hairstyles and fashions (mullets and shoulder pads, for example, will apparently never go out of style). Lesser examples exist, such as the [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture horribly dated graphics]] seen on all the in-universe computer screens and the pseudo-computeresque font used in the "KILLIAN IS LYING TO YOU" clip.
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* AllOrNothing
to:
* AllOrNothingAllOrNothing: First prize is a full pardon. Second prize is a gruesome death.
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* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: ''Dynamo''
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* AluminumChristmasTrees: In TheEighties, game show prizes were much more apt to be actual prizes (particularly the HomeGame) than cash. Of course, the expectation that this trend would still be around TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture places this film firmly into [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece another trope entirely.]]
to:
* AluminumChristmasTrees: In TheEighties, game show prizes were much more apt to be actual prizes (particularly the HomeGame) than cash. Of course, the expectation that this trend would still be around TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture places this film firmly into [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece [[{{Zeerust}} another trope entirely.]]
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* Zeerust: All over the place, particularly in the hairstyles and fashions (mullets and shoulder pads, for example, will apparently never go out of style). Lesser examples exist, such as the [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture horribly dated graphics]] seen on all the in-universe computer screens and the pseudo-computeresque font used in the "KILLIAN IS LYING TO YOU" clip.
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* AluminumChristmasTrees: In TheEighties, game show prizes were much more apt to be actual prizes (particularly the HomeGame) than cash. Of course, the expectation that this trend would still be around TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture places this film firmly into [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece another trope entirely.]]
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'''''The Running Man''''' is a sci-fi action film from the year 1987, which is set in a dystopian future.
to:
'''''The Running Man''''' is a sci-fi action film from the year 1987, which is set in a dystopian future.
future. It is a loose adaptation of [[Literature/TheRunningMan the book of the same name.]]
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Not to be confused with [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_Man_(TV_series) the South Korean variety show either.]]
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** He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]] partway through the film because he became bitter about what the game had become. Granted, it's very anticlimactic, but serves as possible {{foreshadowing}} for Sven doing the same thing later at a key moment.
to:
** He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]] partway through the film because [[EvenEvilHasStandards he became bitter about what the game had become.become]]. Granted, it's very anticlimactic, but serves as possible {{foreshadowing}} for Sven doing the same thing later at a key moment.
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** (''before throwing a flare'') "How 'bout a light?"
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* PreMortemOneLiner: Before he sets the guy on fire, "How 'bout a light?"
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** Probably a board game, which would be pretty cool.
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* RaceLift: Killian is black in the book.
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* FutureImperfect: A TV equivalent; it's implied that a lot of TV shows have been forgotten thanks to the totalitarian government's control of the entertainment networks, and on two occasions an older character makes a reference to an old TV show (''GilligansIsland'' and ''StarTrek'') that falls flat.
to:
* FutureImperfect: A TV equivalent; it's implied that a lot of TV shows have been forgotten thanks to the totalitarian government's control of the entertainment networks, and on two occasions an older character makes a reference to an old TV show (''GilligansIsland'' and ''StarTrek'') ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'') that falls flat.
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Namespace
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When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ends up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
to:
When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) (Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ends up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
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* BigBad: Killian.
to:
* BigBad: Killian.
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* ExplosiveLeash: Richards and his fellow prisoners wear them in the military prison.
to:
* ExplosiveLeash: Richards and his fellow prisoners wear them in the military prison.
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* LargeHam: Dynamo, a fat man with blinking lights all over him driving after you in a go-kart while singing opera.
to:
* LargeHam: Dynamo, a fat man with blinking lights all over him driving after you in a go-kart while singing opera.
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** (before throwing a flare) "How 'bout a light?"
to:
** (before (''before throwing a flare) flare'') "How 'bout a light?"light?"
** (''stabs a man in the back after signing a contract he was resting on the man's back'') "Don't forget to send me a copy".
** (''stabs a man in the back after signing a contract he was resting on the man's back'') "Don't forget to send me a copy".
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* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: The government uses edited footage to frame Richards. Later, the producers [[spoiler:edit footage of Richards being killed in an attempt to salvage his victory over the Stalkers.]]
to:
* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: The government uses edited footage to frame Richards. Later, the producers [[spoiler:edit footage of Richards being killed in an attempt to salvage his victory over the Stalkers. This winds up backfiring in the latter because they make Richards and Amber look weak compared to their actual selves in the game. When the rebellion manage to play the true tape of the massacre and Killian denies it being true. The crowd, particularly an old lady who rooted for Richards, turn against him cause they've seen Richards in action and know what he's like by now.]]
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** Sub Zero is inexplicably introduced as a professor, just like his actor.
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* AttemptedRape: Dynamo
to:
* AttemptedRape: DynamoDynamo attepts to force himself on Amber when he runs into her in the studio.
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relocation
Deleted line(s) 46,49 (click to see context) :
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[PeeWeesBigAdventure Frances]]' butler, [[StirCrazy Grossberger]], and [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Jim Brown]] all play Stalkers.
** [[Film/LiveAndLetDie Mister Big]] plays Laughlin.
** Plus [[FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]] as [[TheDanza rebel leader Mic]], and Dweezil Zappa as that one rebel guy.
** Let's not forget that the game show itself is hosted by [[HogansHeroes Newkirk]].
** [[Film/LiveAndLetDie Mister Big]] plays Laughlin.
** Plus [[FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]] as [[TheDanza rebel leader Mic]], and Dweezil Zappa as that one rebel guy.
** Let's not forget that the game show itself is hosted by [[HogansHeroes Newkirk]].
Deleted line(s) 93,94 (click to see context) :
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Dolph Lundgren and Christopher Reeve were both considered for the role of Ben Richards. Can you imagine Ivan Drago or Clark Kent taking a chainsaw to a guy's genitals?
** [[TheFugitive Andrew Davis]] was originally going to direct the film (after three previous directors pulled out) but was fired a week into production due to going overbudget and being four days behind schedule. Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky from ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'') finished the film.
** [[TheFugitive Andrew Davis]] was originally going to direct the film (after three previous directors pulled out) but was fired a week into production due to going overbudget and being four days behind schedule. Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky from ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'') finished the film.
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Changed line(s) 8,9 (click to see context) from:
When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ens up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
to:
When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ens ends up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
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[[quoteright:328:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/running_man_ver31_7588.jpg]]
->'''Richards''': Killian! [[CatchPhrase I'll be back]]!
->'''Killian''': Only in a rerun.
'''''The Running Man''''' is a sci-fi action film from the year 1987, which is set in a dystopian future.
When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ens up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
!!The film provides examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Ben Richards in the book is "scrawny" and "pre-tubercular". Schwarzenegger... isn't.
* ActorAllusion: Just before he's launched into the Zone, Richards promises that [[TheTerminator "I'll be back."]] To say nothing of Richard Dawson's role as a game show host.
* AllOrNothing
* AltumVidetur: The gratuitous use of Latin in Richards' contract. All of it is real legal Latin, but wildly out of place.
* AssShove: Amber Mendez and the tape of the Bakersfield Massacre. Or possibly [[TrouserSpace another nearby location]].
* AttemptedRape: Dynamo
* BadBoss: Killian isn't a particularly nice man to his employees, his bodyguard Sven in particular. [[TheDogBitesBack This comes back to bite him.]]
* BigBad: Killian.
* BloodKnight: Captain Freedom.
* BloodSport
* BondOneLiner: Some of the best in film history.
** (''cuts a man in half'') "He had to split."
** (''strangles a man with barbed wire'') "He was a pain in the neck."
** (''hurls road-flare at a flamethrower-armed Hunter with a loose gas-line'') "What a hothead."
** (before throwing a flare) "How 'bout a light?"
* BrickJoke: Killian's bodyguard Sven and steroids.
* TheButcher: Ben Richards, "The Butcher of Bakersfield". Played with, in that Richards himself is innocent of the crime, framed by his corrupt superiors when he objected to massacring hordes of innocent people.
* CarnivalOfKillers
* TheCastShowoff: When Dynamo (Erland van Lidth) sings the aria from Act III of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'', he's actually singing in that scene. Presumably after he got cast, someone found out he could sing opera and decided they ''had'' to throw that in somewhere.
* ChainsawGood: Buzzsaw.
* CondemnedContestant
* DeadlyGame
* {{Defictionalization}}: The technology used to frame Richards by digitally swapping his face with that of the real killer is now completely real.
* DigitalHeadSwap: In-universe.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet
* ExplosiveLeash: Richards and his fellow prisoners wear them in the military prison.
* FashionDissonance: The Running Man's "It's Showtime!" dancers, who are a riot of spandex and big hair, firmly placing them in the 80's fashion era.
** EightiesHair
* FutureImperfect: A TV equivalent; it's implied that a lot of TV shows have been forgotten thanks to the totalitarian government's control of the entertainment networks, and on two occasions an older character makes a reference to an old TV show (''GilligansIsland'' and ''StarTrek'') that falls flat.
* GaiasLament: Earth's resources are severely drained.
* GameShowHost: Killian. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] to a certain degree by being played by [[FamilyFeud Richard Dawson]], who has been characterized at times as a bit of an egotist behind the scenes.
* GroinAttack: Multiple examples.
* HeroicSacrifice: Laughlin shoves Richards out of the way and is mortally wounded by Buzzsaw's attack.
** Also, Richards agrees to be a contestant [[spoiler: because they threaten to use his friends as contestants instead... which of course they do anyways.]]
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[PeeWeesBigAdventure Frances]]' butler, [[StirCrazy Grossberger]], and [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Jim Brown]] all play Stalkers.
** [[Film/LiveAndLetDie Mister Big]] plays Laughlin.
** Plus [[FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]] as [[TheDanza rebel leader Mic]], and Dweezil Zappa as that one rebel guy.
** Let's not forget that the game show itself is hosted by [[HogansHeroes Newkirk]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Each Stalker is killed with his own weapon. Killian himself is doomed by being launched into the Zone, as he had done to so many before.
* HomeGame: Given to members of the ''Running Man'' studio audience. How it's supposed to work is anybody's guess.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame
* IdiotBall: Even though Richards was already throughly discredited as "The Butcher of Bakersfield," the Government still insists on making up murders at the airport in order to blame them on him. This is what convinces Amber that he was framed and ultimately causes her to discover the truth. Keeping the unedited footage around was pretty dumb too.
* IKnowMaddenKombat: The hockey-themed hunter "Sub-Zero".
* InNameOnly: All that's left is the name of the hero, the last name of the main villain, the name of the show involved and a couple of plot elements - the totalitarian [[{{Dystopia}} dystopic]] society and Richards kidnapping a woman and taking her to an airport.
* IronicEcho: Multiple examples involving Killian.
-->''Hello, cutie pie. One of us is in big trouble.''
* JetPack: Used by the stalker Fireball.
* KarmicDeath: All the Stalkers except Sub-Zero and Captain Freedom.
* LargeHam: Dynamo, a fat man with blinking lights all over him driving after you in a go-kart while singing opera.
* LightningGun: Dynamo's "Electrical Launcher".
* ManipulativeEditing
* MeaningfulName / NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: No one -- ''no one'' -- with a name like 'Damon Killian' is ever going to grow up to be anything but a villain.
* NotWorthKilling: "No, [[PetTheDog I won't kill a helpless human being...]][[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming not even sadistic scum...]][[CrowningMomentOfAwesome like you."]]
* OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture: Apparently, wireframe computer graphics are state-of-the-art in 2019.
* ThePenIsMightier
* PublicExecution: Criminals are executed by being hunted to their deaths on TV, with a promise of freedom if they survive.
* RedBaron: See TheButcher above.
* RedShirt
* ReleasedToElsewhere: Whitman, Price, and Haddad. Last season's winners. "No, last season's ''losers''."
** Could be an ''inversion'' of FridgeHorror, as it's unlikely that those three were innocent like Richards, who was an exception to the show's "no political prisoners" arrangement with the justice system. At least if they're ReleasedToElsewhere, they've ''not'' been set loose to resume whatever crimes got them the death penalty in the first place.
* RidiculousFutureInflation: A can of pop costs $6, and the vending machines [[TechnologyMarchesOn don't accept bills]].
* RunForTheBorder: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] when Richards tries to flee to Hawaii, instead of trying to escape the country entirely.
** Hawaii may be a different country in this setting. It may be a ShoutOut to Heinlein's ''If This Goes On...'' where someone PRETENDS to by trying to escape to Hawaii (which is a separate country) as part of a plan to make his pursuers think he's dead.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Richards, when he refuses to fire on the unarmed crowd.
* ShowWithinAShow: The TV show.
* TheScapegoat: Richards is blamed for the government-ordered massacre he tried to prevent.
* SmarmyHost: Damon Killian
* TheStinger: The show's announcer does a voice over at the end of the credits.
* Sven, Killian's bodyguard, exemplifies the following tropes:
** BodyguardBetrayal
** TheDanza
** TheDogBitesBack
** TheDragon: Parodied and averted, with an IronicEcho to boot.
** ScrewThisImOuttaHere
* ThrowABarrelAtIt: Ben Richards does it to Fireball.
** Ben ignites it but [[OutOfTheInferno Fireball just strolls through the flame]].
* TrashcanBonfire: The outdoor scenes with crowds betting on the game.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Another possible hiding place for that footage. (See AssShove.) In Amber's words, when asked about it:
-->'''Amber''' [Smirks]: "That's none of your business."
* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: The government uses edited footage to frame Richards. Later, the producers [[spoiler:edit footage of Richards being killed in an attempt to salvage his victory over the Stalkers.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Dolph Lundgren and Christopher Reeve were both considered for the role of Ben Richards. Can you imagine Ivan Drago or Clark Kent taking a chainsaw to a guy's genitals?
** [[TheFugitive Andrew Davis]] was originally going to direct the film (after three previous directors pulled out) but was fired a week into production due to going overbudget and being four days behind schedule. Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky from ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'') finished the film.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: ''Dynamo''
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Captain Freedom.
** He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]] partway through the film because he became bitter about what the game had become. Granted, it's very anticlimactic, but serves as possible {{foreshadowing}} for Sven doing the same thing later at a key moment.
* WhosLaughingNow: Awesomely thrown back in Dynamo's face by Amber, of all people.
--> '''Dynamo''':Thought it was pretty funny out in the zone, didn't you? What's the matter, bitch? Why aren't you laughing?
--> '''Amber''': Because there's nothing funny about a dickless moron with a battery up his ass.
* WinYourFreedom
* YourHeadASplode: If Chico had just waited 20 more seconds at the beginning of the movie...
----
->'''Richards''': Killian! [[CatchPhrase I'll be back]]!
->'''Killian''': Only in a rerun.
'''''The Running Man''''' is a sci-fi action film from the year 1987, which is set in a dystopian future.
When the cop Ben Richards (ArnoldSchwarzenegger) refuses to fire at innocent civilians, he is captured and sent to prison. He escapes, but is captured again, and ens up as a contestant in the nation's number one television show: ''The Running Man''. In the show, Ben and his fellow "contestants" must fight their way through the Stalkers, killers set to stop their advance, to win their freedom.
!!The film provides examples of:
* AdaptationalAttractiveness: Ben Richards in the book is "scrawny" and "pre-tubercular". Schwarzenegger... isn't.
* ActorAllusion: Just before he's launched into the Zone, Richards promises that [[TheTerminator "I'll be back."]] To say nothing of Richard Dawson's role as a game show host.
* AllOrNothing
* AltumVidetur: The gratuitous use of Latin in Richards' contract. All of it is real legal Latin, but wildly out of place.
* AssShove: Amber Mendez and the tape of the Bakersfield Massacre. Or possibly [[TrouserSpace another nearby location]].
* AttemptedRape: Dynamo
* BadBoss: Killian isn't a particularly nice man to his employees, his bodyguard Sven in particular. [[TheDogBitesBack This comes back to bite him.]]
* BigBad: Killian.
* BloodKnight: Captain Freedom.
* BloodSport
* BondOneLiner: Some of the best in film history.
** (''cuts a man in half'') "He had to split."
** (''strangles a man with barbed wire'') "He was a pain in the neck."
** (''hurls road-flare at a flamethrower-armed Hunter with a loose gas-line'') "What a hothead."
** (before throwing a flare) "How 'bout a light?"
* BrickJoke: Killian's bodyguard Sven and steroids.
* TheButcher: Ben Richards, "The Butcher of Bakersfield". Played with, in that Richards himself is innocent of the crime, framed by his corrupt superiors when he objected to massacring hordes of innocent people.
* CarnivalOfKillers
* TheCastShowoff: When Dynamo (Erland van Lidth) sings the aria from Act III of ''Theatre/TheMarriageOfFigaro'', he's actually singing in that scene. Presumably after he got cast, someone found out he could sing opera and decided they ''had'' to throw that in somewhere.
* ChainsawGood: Buzzsaw.
* CondemnedContestant
* DeadlyGame
* {{Defictionalization}}: The technology used to frame Richards by digitally swapping his face with that of the real killer is now completely real.
* DigitalHeadSwap: In-universe.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet
* ExplosiveLeash: Richards and his fellow prisoners wear them in the military prison.
* FashionDissonance: The Running Man's "It's Showtime!" dancers, who are a riot of spandex and big hair, firmly placing them in the 80's fashion era.
** EightiesHair
* FutureImperfect: A TV equivalent; it's implied that a lot of TV shows have been forgotten thanks to the totalitarian government's control of the entertainment networks, and on two occasions an older character makes a reference to an old TV show (''GilligansIsland'' and ''StarTrek'') that falls flat.
* GaiasLament: Earth's resources are severely drained.
* GameShowHost: Killian. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] to a certain degree by being played by [[FamilyFeud Richard Dawson]], who has been characterized at times as a bit of an egotist behind the scenes.
* GroinAttack: Multiple examples.
* HeroicSacrifice: Laughlin shoves Richards out of the way and is mortally wounded by Buzzsaw's attack.
** Also, Richards agrees to be a contestant [[spoiler: because they threaten to use his friends as contestants instead... which of course they do anyways.]]
* HeyItsThatGuy: [[PeeWeesBigAdventure Frances]]' butler, [[StirCrazy Grossberger]], and [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball Jim Brown]] all play Stalkers.
** [[Film/LiveAndLetDie Mister Big]] plays Laughlin.
** Plus [[FleetwoodMac Mick Fleetwood]] as [[TheDanza rebel leader Mic]], and Dweezil Zappa as that one rebel guy.
** Let's not forget that the game show itself is hosted by [[HogansHeroes Newkirk]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Each Stalker is killed with his own weapon. Killian himself is doomed by being launched into the Zone, as he had done to so many before.
* HomeGame: Given to members of the ''Running Man'' studio audience. How it's supposed to work is anybody's guess.
* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame
* IdiotBall: Even though Richards was already throughly discredited as "The Butcher of Bakersfield," the Government still insists on making up murders at the airport in order to blame them on him. This is what convinces Amber that he was framed and ultimately causes her to discover the truth. Keeping the unedited footage around was pretty dumb too.
* IKnowMaddenKombat: The hockey-themed hunter "Sub-Zero".
* InNameOnly: All that's left is the name of the hero, the last name of the main villain, the name of the show involved and a couple of plot elements - the totalitarian [[{{Dystopia}} dystopic]] society and Richards kidnapping a woman and taking her to an airport.
* IronicEcho: Multiple examples involving Killian.
-->''Hello, cutie pie. One of us is in big trouble.''
* JetPack: Used by the stalker Fireball.
* KarmicDeath: All the Stalkers except Sub-Zero and Captain Freedom.
* LargeHam: Dynamo, a fat man with blinking lights all over him driving after you in a go-kart while singing opera.
* LightningGun: Dynamo's "Electrical Launcher".
* ManipulativeEditing
* MeaningfulName / NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: No one -- ''no one'' -- with a name like 'Damon Killian' is ever going to grow up to be anything but a villain.
* NotWorthKilling: "No, [[PetTheDog I won't kill a helpless human being...]][[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming not even sadistic scum...]][[CrowningMomentOfAwesome like you."]]
* OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture: Apparently, wireframe computer graphics are state-of-the-art in 2019.
* ThePenIsMightier
* PublicExecution: Criminals are executed by being hunted to their deaths on TV, with a promise of freedom if they survive.
* RedBaron: See TheButcher above.
* RedShirt
* ReleasedToElsewhere: Whitman, Price, and Haddad. Last season's winners. "No, last season's ''losers''."
** Could be an ''inversion'' of FridgeHorror, as it's unlikely that those three were innocent like Richards, who was an exception to the show's "no political prisoners" arrangement with the justice system. At least if they're ReleasedToElsewhere, they've ''not'' been set loose to resume whatever crimes got them the death penalty in the first place.
* RidiculousFutureInflation: A can of pop costs $6, and the vending machines [[TechnologyMarchesOn don't accept bills]].
* RunForTheBorder: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] when Richards tries to flee to Hawaii, instead of trying to escape the country entirely.
** Hawaii may be a different country in this setting. It may be a ShoutOut to Heinlein's ''If This Goes On...'' where someone PRETENDS to by trying to escape to Hawaii (which is a separate country) as part of a plan to make his pursuers think he's dead.
* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Richards, when he refuses to fire on the unarmed crowd.
* ShowWithinAShow: The TV show.
* TheScapegoat: Richards is blamed for the government-ordered massacre he tried to prevent.
* SmarmyHost: Damon Killian
* TheStinger: The show's announcer does a voice over at the end of the credits.
* Sven, Killian's bodyguard, exemplifies the following tropes:
** BodyguardBetrayal
** TheDanza
** TheDogBitesBack
** TheDragon: Parodied and averted, with an IronicEcho to boot.
** ScrewThisImOuttaHere
* ThrowABarrelAtIt: Ben Richards does it to Fireball.
** Ben ignites it but [[OutOfTheInferno Fireball just strolls through the flame]].
* TrashcanBonfire: The outdoor scenes with crowds betting on the game.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Another possible hiding place for that footage. (See AssShove.) In Amber's words, when asked about it:
-->'''Amber''' [Smirks]: "That's none of your business."
* WeWillNotUsePhotoshopInTheFuture: The government uses edited footage to frame Richards. Later, the producers [[spoiler:edit footage of Richards being killed in an attempt to salvage his victory over the Stalkers.]]
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Dolph Lundgren and Christopher Reeve were both considered for the role of Ben Richards. Can you imagine Ivan Drago or Clark Kent taking a chainsaw to a guy's genitals?
** [[TheFugitive Andrew Davis]] was originally going to direct the film (after three previous directors pulled out) but was fired a week into production due to going overbudget and being four days behind schedule. Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky from ''Series/StarskyAndHutch'') finished the film.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: ''Dynamo''
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Captain Freedom.
** He [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere quit]] partway through the film because he became bitter about what the game had become. Granted, it's very anticlimactic, but serves as possible {{foreshadowing}} for Sven doing the same thing later at a key moment.
* WhosLaughingNow: Awesomely thrown back in Dynamo's face by Amber, of all people.
--> '''Dynamo''':Thought it was pretty funny out in the zone, didn't you? What's the matter, bitch? Why aren't you laughing?
--> '''Amber''': Because there's nothing funny about a dickless moron with a battery up his ass.
* WinYourFreedom
* YourHeadASplode: If Chico had just waited 20 more seconds at the beginning of the movie...
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