The business of movie remakes is still booming in the year 2023. Nostalgia continues to win with remakes and sequels flooding theaters and streaming services. Wonka, the Japanese remake of Cube, House Party, and White Men Can’t Jump are due in the coming months. Meanwhile, Disney is also continuing their recent trend of remakes with the new announcement that Moana will be getting the live-action remake treatment.
While the constant string of remakes threatens to wear out audiences, there are some instances where a remake is warranted, or in this case, long overdue. Stephen King’s sci-fi thrillerRunning Man is a great example of a story that is prime for an updated movie adaptation.
What is The Running Man About?
The 1987 film The Running Man is based on a novel by Stephen King. The novel was originally published under King’s pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982. Directed by Paul Michael Glaser, the film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as police helicopter pilot Captain Ben Richards. In the distant future of 2017, the world has suffered a complete economic collapse, turning the United States into a tightly controlled dystopia.
In this new dystopia, extremely violent reality television shows are employed by the government to keep the population under control. The most beloved of these shows is The Running Man, where criminals are hunted by groups called stalkers. The runners can earn themselves a governmental pardon and a tropical vacation if they evade the stalkers and survive.
After Ben refuses to open fire on a group of unarmed rioters, he is framed for the shooting of 60 civilians, goes to prison, and escapes 18 months into his sentence with a group of resistance fighters who are planning to expose the lies of the government. Despite his situation, Ben decides against helping the freedom fighters. While trying to flee again, Ben is apprehended at the airport. From here, his dubious notoriety, coupled with his powerful physique, leads to him becoming a contestant on The Running Man.
As Richards' time on the show unfolds, those around him begin to discover the truth of his situation, and he uncovers a truth of his own: the game is a sham and there are no winners. Every contestant ends up dead. From here, Richards has to convince the public of the truth while bringing down the broadcasting corporation.
What Does The Running Man Movie Change From The Book?
As a movie adaptation of a novel, certain things must be changed for the narrative to work on screen. The Running Man is no exception. In fact, the film is a very loose adaptation of the book. The first difference is a small one. The film is set between 2017 and 2019, while the novel takes place in 2025. From here on out though, the changes become much more substantial.
In the novel, Ben Richards has nothing to do with the police force. Instead, he is an out-of-work family man who has been blacklisted from his trade. His wife Sheila has turned to sex work to bring in money, while his daughter Cathy is dying and needs medicine. In the novel, this is the impetus for him to seek a place on The Running Man television show. The contestants on the show aren’t already criminals; rather, they are desperate people in need of money.
The show itself is also wildly different from what is portrayed in the film version. Once in the game, contestants get a 12-hour head start against the hired Hitmen of the broadcasting network. For every hour they stay alive and uncaptured, they earn $100. They also get a bonus of $100 for every police officer or Hunter they kill. The grand prize is $1 billion, won after surviving for 30 days.
Richards has no illusion of winning; he only wants enough to keep his family safe in the future. The show’s record for survival is eight days and five hours. Another stipulation is that he must tape two video messages a day and send them back to the network to broadcast in the show. While he is on the run, he similarly finds out about the government conspiracy to subdue the population as he does in the film.
In the end, Richards discovers that his family was murdered, and he is offered the chance to become the lead hunter. Instead, he opts to crash a plane into the broadcast studio, killing himself but ending the show. While the overarching theme of government control remains the same, the main character’s motivations, background, and personality are wildly different between the novel and the film. The studio went for a more typical action-hero style movie that was popular at the time, over focusing on the issues presented.
Why A Running Man Remake Is Necessary
A remake of The Running Man is necessary for several reasons. Firstly, we are almost at 2025, the original year of the setting. Remaking the movie now, especially considering how frighteningly accurate some aspects of the story have become, only makes sense. It has the opportunity to not only be a more faithful adaptation to the original story, but also a mirror for the current world.
Lastly, The Running Man is currently scheduled for a remake. In 2021 the remake was announced with Edgar Wright attached to direct and a screenplay from Michael Bacall. The pair previously worked together on Wright’s film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, proving that the duo is well suited to adaptations from page to screen. While details are currently sparse, it looks like The Running Man’s dystopia will be hitting the silver screen sometime soon.