Paramount’s The Running Man, directed by Edgar Wright, thrusts audiences into a brutal vision of a dystopian future consumed by spectacle and class disparity.
The movie reimagines Stephen King’s tale for a new age, set in 2019, and questions what happens when entertainment is built on human suffering and social barriers feel impossible to overcome. The film follows Ben Richards, portrayed by Glen Powell, a husband and father forced to participate in the deadly game show called The Running Man. He isn’t trying to test his heroics; he’s fighting against economic despair while trying to save his sick child and family, running for both his life and theirs.
“Ben Richards is the audience surrogate,” Powell told Blavity’s Shadow and Act during our cast interview, later, expressing, “We’re all Ben. We’re all ordinary people, and none of us has superpowers. We’re just a guy who’s trying to show up for his family. And we all have people we love and people we care about. You think about the lengths we would go to protect them. And that’s really what the story’s about….It’s in the DNA of all of us.”
Like Ben, most people in the film live in poverty under a corporate-controlled state where the government is merely a façade for media conglomerates. Their survival depends on ratings and the entertainment value they provide. The premise of the “games” is an evil cat-and-mouse chase in which contestants attempt to remain unnoticed in a society that encourages them to be killed or turned in for profit.
Their greed is fueled by the “network,” run under the sinister control of Josh Brolin’s character, Dan Killian. “I felt like Oz,” Brolin said when asked how it felt to control and manipulate the masses through the network’s programming.
Josh Brolin on working with Colman Domingo
With the help of Colman Domingo as Bobby Thompson, the master of ceremonies of the vulturistic game show, Killian’s grip tightens. “He’s so mellow,” Brolin says of Domingo. “We’re similar ages and we’ve been through a similar trajectory, and I’m a major fan of his.”
He continued, “Then to see what he was doing on this, which was so opposite of what he did in Sing Sing, it was fun. He’s just fun to watch. He’s an interesting guy and a really interesting actor.”
Killian’s plans for the bloody broadcast are carried out by the “Head Hunter,” Evan McCone, played by Lee Pace. Evan represents the final level of the fatal game that no contestant has ever reached until Ben. Pace’s brooding 6’5″ stature helps him embody the daunting character. “I love a mysterious character, and in this movie I had on a mask, sunglasses, and a hat, and I’m basically covered up to my knuckles. So nothing but mystery here,” he said.
Runners can meet their demise at any moment, whether they’re flirting in a coffee shop or blowing their earnings at a casino. Ben chooses to defy the odds, giving Evan and his hunters a fierce chase as he meets every checkpoint with a fight, a disguise, an explosion, or all of the above.
“It’s a first-person narrative, and you’re basically with Glen’s character all the way through, and that was very exciting to me,” Wright said of the film’s direction. He added, “The idea of making a very intense experience where you are with the main character the entire time was really exciting to me.” Wright cites the original 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a key inspiration.
How it holds a mirror to watching trauma for entertainment
The movie holds a mirror to modern culture’s obsession with watching trauma for entertainment. The network exploits survivor stories through manipulative editing and deepfakes, twisting Ben’s struggle into villainy and turning him into a target for the masses. Ironically, that manipulation transforms him into a vigilante. Powell considers Ben a “reluctant hero.”
“Sometimes you can be the one that sparks something,” Powell said, reflecting on what he hopes audiences take away from Ben’s resilience. He continued, “Ordinary people against extraordinary odds — a man who’s fighting against the system….they are fighting for their own, they end up fighting for everyone.”