The score by Harold Faltermeyer, in particular the main theme, is pure awesomeness. Really, what do you expect from the guy who also scored Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun?
"Restless Heart" by John Parr, the song that plays over the end credits, is a powerful AOR number that can best be described as complete triumph in music form.
Badass Decay: William Laughlin. In the opening prison break scene, he is shown as being more than capable of holding on his own, successfully fending off and even killing few of the prison guards. By the time he's dropped into the Running Man set, he's pretty much The Load for Richards to carry and dies rather quickly.
Catharsis Factor: More or less whenever Ben Richards makes progress in The Running Man show. Beyond all the expectations of the Big Bad Killian and the in-universe audience, he defeated four stalkers and killed three of them. It also helps that public opinion of him gradually transformed, from a villain in the first act to a hero in the third act. Only topped in the finale when the in-universe viewers gave their loudest cheers after Richards finally executed Killian himself.
Complete Monster: Damon Killian, host of The Running Man and head of the network in the dystopian future, runs a TV network where shows are aired that feature innocent people climbing ropes for dollars while vicious dogs lurk below; most of them fall. The star attraction, though, is The Running Man, where supposed criminals are released into a labyrinth to be hunted down by the vicious Stalkers and murdered. Blackmailing hero Ben Richards into playing the game, Damon then forces his friends to play despite his promises otherwise, and when a young woman digs into Richards's past, Killian manufactures a criminal history for her and throws her into the game as well. Even winning the game is no guarantee of safety, as the winners are disposed of while Killian lies about their survival. Sociopathic and indifferent to human suffering, Killian defends himself by claiming that people just love television, and as a TV star, he is giving them the violence they crave, no matter how many lives are ruined or ended.
Draco in Leather Pants: A rare in-universe example. Ben Richards is this from the perspective of the viewers of The Running Man show. He starts out being framed by the state media as a despicable mass-murderer. Overall public opinion of him gradually did a complete 180 as the movie goes on. The bloodsport-loving viewers began to perceive Richards as a likable badass villain after he unexpectedly killed two stalkers (Sub-Zero and Buzzsaw) and spared the incapacitated third (Dynamo) out of personal honor. This went so far that some began making unprecedented bets that he would make the next kill. After the rebels presented evidence on state media that Richards was framed, the public sees him as a victim and gave their biggest cheers when he publicly executed Killian.
Esoteric Happy Ending: Ben Richards has to endure much but eventually emerges with a personal victory. Killian's ruse has been undone, his name cleared on national TV and he got the girl. However it will take far more than that to solve the economic and social problems still plaguing America. At the least, the oppressive government's lost a lot of power due to its reliance an dependence on both Killian and the show being so handily botched and undone though.
Fanon: To make the poster's false date of 2019 (when the opening crawl only mentions the year 2017) work, some people believe that 2017 was the year the societal collapse mentioned in the crawl took place, while Richards escaping and being involved in The Running Man happens two years later in 2019, meaning that the Bakersfield Massacre must've happened somewhere in 2018.
Fountain of Memes: Being the archtypical 80s action hero, Ben Richards produces a plethora of memorable one-liners.
Killian has a video broadcast of Captain Freedom fighting and killing what appears to the in-universe audience to be Richards and Amber - it's actually stunt doubles with the two characters' faces digitally superimposed over the doubles. A radical notion in a late 1980s film, but common practice by film effects artists today. Even a few years after The Running Man was released, the effects team for Jurassic Park would use the same technique to cover up a stunt double's face.
The wrestling fight between leotard-wearing Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger is much funnier, knowing that they have each since become U.S. Governors.
There's one minor character named Sub-Zero. Good luck listening to Arnold say "Here is Sub-Zero... now plain Zero!" without thinking of the ice-manipulating Lin Kuei warriornote Arnold's character is even wearing yellow, the signature color of MK Sub-Zero's rival Scorpion, as he says that line. While on Sub-Zero, consider this: Arnold and a foe skating on ice. Or making a pun involving ice, for that matter.note One YouTube user even decided to drive the point home by creating this mashup.
At one point Arnold, a long time supporter of the Republican Party, jokes "I'm not into politics, I'm into survival." A little less than 20 years later he was Governor of California.
The premise of Climbing for Dollars is now a lot less ridiculous thanks to the existence of the ITV2 programme Release the Hounds.
The movie is set in 2019 and involves a deadly game show running away from the antagonists. In 2019, we now have Million Dollar Mile, which is essentially a real life version of The Running Man.
Killian's call to the "Entertainment Division" of the Justice Department before switching to the President's personal agent becomes both more hilarious and oddly prophetic considering there's a former reality show host elected president with an emphasis on PR. Bonus points for the fact that he was in office in 2019.
Richard Dawson appears in a Stephen King movie as the villain just one year after being mentioned in It.
The idea that no one in 2019 would get Star Trek references, especially since the movie's now owned by Paramount Global!
Killian was already a bastard-lying about the contestant's past, verbally abusing his employees, sending people off to die in a brutal death battle, but what sent him over the horizon was lying about the supposed winners of the Running Man, claiming that they had been given a pardon, when in reality they had been burned alive off camera. His audience turns against him after that.
Narm Charm: The Running Man has an inherent '80s action movie charm, deliberately over-the-top villains in the Stalkers and of course Arnie. The latter also happens to be be armed with an entire arsenal of glorious one-liners. However the film does actually have more depth beyond the surface-level thrills, being a good warning against the dangers of sensationalism and mass media.
MadWorld counts too, just with less dystopia and more deconstruction on violent reality shows and those who enjoy it.
While The Killing Game Show didn't really copy the movie wholesale, the backstory of that game was lifted from this movie (and as if to prove a point, its rework lifted its backstory from the novel instead).
It can be looked at as a Rated M for Manly version of The Hunger Games. Both of them are a satire on reality TV shows and how they exploit contestants for the sake of entertainment and ratings.
Strangled by the Red String: Ben and Amber share little to no romantic chemistry for the duration of the movie, save for Amber developing sympathy for Ben when she realizes he's not the mass-murdering psycho the world has painted him as and a few vague flirty lines. Yet the two managed to produce The Big Damn Kiss during the film's climax.
Squick: Before being sent into the game zone, Ben is subjected to a (likely on purpose) painful medical procedure to get antitoxins administered into his body, which consists in getting a bunch of nasty looking injections. The needle being shoved deep into the joint of his middle finger and ring finger can be particularly cringe-inducing.
Values Resonance: The film depicts a future dystopia with mass media glorifying violence, sensationalism, and choosing truth over lies. A concern that is more relevant in the 21st century.
Woolseyism: The Mexican Spanish dub has lots of them:
The Mexican Spanish subbed version has the He is Sub-Zero, Now, just plain Zero! line changed. In that translation, that line was changed to Aqui esta Sub-Zero, Ahora es un cero a la izquierda, Being cero a la izquierda a Spanish phrase meaning "worthless".note It literally means a zero to the left, after the mathematical term to use a zero before a decimal point, who normally doesn't mean anything, hence the phrase The Mexican Spanish dub left the original phrase translated literally from English.
In the Italian dub Richards' one-liner is changed into Guarda il tuo Sterminatorenote In the dub the Stalkers are called 'Exterminators', adesso vale di certo meno di zero! which translates into "Look at your Stalker, now he certainly is worth less than zero!".
Another odd change in the Mexican Spanish sub, and also overlap with Unusual Euphemism despite that subbed version used more profanity than the original English version replace Amber's insult to Dynamo Dickless moron to Eunuco (Spanish for Eunuch) While Eunuch has the same meaning as in English in Spanish, in the Mexican dialect it's also a antiquated synonym for baby, as she's basically calling him an immature asshole in his face.
When Richards sends Killian to his death the You Bastard! Drop Dead! line became ¡Hijo de puta! ¡Muérete! (You son of a bitch! Die!). On the other hand, the Mexican Spanish dub translate the phrase more or less literally.
While also overlaps with Not Even Bothering with the Accent, Amber in the original English version is played by Maria Conchita Alonso, and she speaks English with a notorious accent. In the dub, she speaks Spanish with a neutral accent. It should be noted that Alonso was very popular in her prime time in Mexico, since she did parts of her singing career there, but it's very likely that Rocío Garcel (Amber's voice actress in the dub) simply dubbed her with a regular accent, rather than trying to imitate her very thick (at the time) accent. Likewise, while Alonso has a very high-pitched voice, Garcel used a deeper tone while dubbing her.
The Italian dub changes the show Killian talks about in a phone call scene, Gilligan's Island, with Dallas. Later the "Who's Mr. Spock?" line is changed with Mic leaving the command to Einstein, which the technician doesn't know eithernote Though this change could be adaptational Fridge Brilliance that indicates that in this dystopian future, education has gotten really poor or that history has been censored too.
Harsher in Hindsight: The ending has Richards flying a plane straight into the Games Building, which brings up some unfortunate connotations for those reading the book post September 11th, 2001.
Richards' video camera and blank tapes together weigh about six pounds. And fit into a coat pocket without a bulge.
As of April 28, 2022, there is a streaming service called Amazon Freevee. But Treadmill to Bucks and Swim the Crocodiles are apparently not featured on it, thank the maker.
Moral Event Horizon: The book makes it clear throughout that the cops in Running Man's world are not exactly very nice people, but what sends them clean over this is when they try to take down both Richards and the innocent civilian woman in the car with him. One who was just begging them not to shoot
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: The book mocks reality television show like Hard Copy that demonize people to make the audience hate them (and keep in mind, this was written nearly 20 years before Survivor and Big Brother sparked a boom in just that type of reality game show).
, is pure awesomeness. Really, what do you expect from the guy who also scored Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun?