The Running Man (1987)

The Running Man (1987)

6/10

Starring

Arnold Schwarzenegger

María Conchita Alonso

Yaphet Kotto

Richard Dawson

Directed by Paul Michael Glaser

The Running Man was to me a movie with too many one liners, not so great setting and yet the movie did pull it off with its futuristic tone.

Set in a time when the world was in turmoil and the only time people came together was when they were watching Running Man on TV, this film tries not to digress from the apocalyptic tone which many stories have adopted as the future of the human race.

Set in the year 2017 (which happens to be the year I’m seeing this movie for the first time). It plays on the 80s Arnold who had cemented his name as the one-man army action hero. The film is based on a novel of the same name by Richard Bachman, the script writers need to be applauded including the director for watering my eyes in anticipation.

The style of delivery used was one that will keep you waiting and yet not bore you as you await the start of the Running Man event. When the event does start the movie moves at a fast pace until it ends.

Starting with Arnold calling in a protest of unarmed civilians, he was ordered to kill all the protesters. Noticing that the protest was peaceful, he declined the order. His co-pilot and the men with him were ordered to detain him and carryout the order.

The result of these actions led to him being imprisoned and the death of the civilians were blamed on him, with the story changed to Arnold wanting to kill the civilians and refused to stop and had to be detained.

He broke out of jail with some revolutionist who want to broadcast a message to the world of what is going on and how TV was enslaving the people from true reality.

Unfortunately, Arnold and his friends were caught and placed in the Running Man game show. The game show has these men running and being stalked by some men called Stalkers whose job was to kill the running men.

Arnold and his team mates showed the viewers that he was not going to be easy to be taken down and the whole movie is about how he and his team mate tries to get to freedom when the odds are against them and the game can be easily rigged to end his life.

Well, this is 2017 and the apocalypse that will lead to the world tuning against itself and ending is not near yet, but we can admit that we are witnessing the TV taking control of how people think.

Running Man for the lack of great lines and settings, was a good movie and the ending was similar to the cut scenes in our superhero movies, here the announcer gives us the sponsors credit rundown of The Running Man Tv Game Show.