1987, the year “The Running Man” came out, was a time when, for reasons no one will be able to explain to future generations, people took Arnold Schwarzenegger kind of seriously. He wasn’t exactly in line for Academy Awards or anything that came close to professional respect for his “craft;” but he wasn’t quite “ironic” yet.
More than anything, he did two things nearly better than anyone else: He was extremely muscular and he delivered great one-liners. He would drop a one-liner without the modern day camera look or eyebrow lift or any other post-hipster cues that let the audience know he was actually “cool.” Instead, he owned it! There were no inside jokes to miss, no veiled counter culture references. And no one would ever define these looks as “snarky.” This was a time when a one-liner was a verbal exclamation point, a conversation ender, and most basically something cool. And that time was Schwarzenegger!
The Running Man, as it is portrayed in the movie “The Running Man,” is a television show owned by the nefarious company ICS. The format of the show is to put criminals through a gauntlet in which they have to fight in various ways very macho men who are always more armed and prepared than them. The show combines game show theatrics (including former Family Feud host Richard Dawson as show host Damon Killian) with modern reality television. The U.S. is now a totalitarian police state and ICS seems to have control of a lot of it
Arnold Schwarzenegger, as protagonist (duh) Ben Richards, is a good guy who has been framed for the murder of thousands of people during a food riot. ICS, not messing around with the cliché limitations of killing a guy’s wife and planting fake evidence, goes all out. While in prison, Richards (Schwarzenegger) and friends break out of prison, but in the process someone takes a very professional video of Richards running in slow motion. Once free, Richards attempts to find his brother (oddly important detail here, remember the brother), fails, takes a woman hostage and with her tries to flee to Hawaii. And gets caught.
Killian sees a video of Richard’s prison break and just knows that this guy would be the perfect contestant on his show ‘The Running Man.’ But he doesn’t take into account just how amazing Richards, his friends, and the never ending steam of perfect one-liners truly is!
It would be rude to ruin any of the specific encounters Richards has while on the show, but a first time viewer definitely has murderous ice skating, murderous dirt biking, murderous opera singing (sort of), and murderous flame throwing (this one sounds a lot more dangerous, doesn’t it?) to look forward to. As well as Jesse Ventura. And Dweezil Zappa. Did I mention one-liners? Also, don’t forget that Richards has a brother.
In conclusion, “The Running Man” will keep you entertained. Just don’t watch it too ironically.
– by Lane Vespertine
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Lane VespertineThe first movie Lane Vespertine saw in a movie theater was Tim Burton’s “Batman.” Since that auspicious beginning, he has since grown up (or at least become older), gotten married, and developed mixed feelings about the directions Batman has gone since. Although he is stoically from the Midwestern part of the US, he now resides in Adelaide, Australia. His claim to fame is that he saw “The Matrix” over twenty times in the theater. [/blockquote]
