Edgar Wright's adaptation of the Stephen King novel The Running Man presents audiences with a grim future in which deadly game shows are seen by many as the only path out of poverty. Back in the 1970s, it was bleak satire; today, it's a less compelling version of The Amazing Race. Say what you like about the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger version (which gets a few nods here), but it did a bang-up job of predicting the future of television. Well, aside from the lengthy dance routines.
Working stiff Ben Richards (Glenn Powell) is the angriest man in the crapsack future USA. Whether he's angry because he keeps getting fired for trying to do the right thing, or he keeps getting fired because he's angry, who can tell; all he knows is, he needs money for medicine for his baby. Some things never change, at least not in Hollywood thrillers.
Even his attempt to audition for a low-risk game show makes him angry, which attracts the attention of The Running Man producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin). Angry is what his show needs, mostly because the whole thing is an exercise in riling the audience up; Richards gets fast-tracked into a jumpsuit and away we go.
Unlike the Schwarzenegger version, which took place in a confined stretch of trashed city blocks, here the whole USA is Richard's hiding place, with a ticking clock that runs for 30 days. It doesn't really make a lot of sense as a television show; much of the appeal seems to be for regular folks out on the street who can cash in by spotting the contestants. But it's implied the whole thing is just a barely coherent distraction where the real goal is to get people cheering the execution of various cliched undesirables.
Once Richards is on the run the film takes on an episodic feel, as he goes from city to city finding himself in new scenarios, from a flophouse attack to hiding out with various rebel factions who see his growing fame as a way to get the public on side. The hunters here are just generic military goons (no Sub Zero here) aside from their masked leader (Lee Pace) - no catchphrases or one-liners here, though they do seem to like giving their weapons names.
Richards himself is much more of a regular guy than in the previous film, so most of the action scenes are more about escaping than colourful kills. The pace is where Wright really succeeds here; the film moves fast enough to keep you leaning in, rushing past points where the story or setting feel just a little flimsy.
Powell himself seems to take a little time settling into the role - or it's just that all his big angry moments are early on, and once he's running he settles down and focuses on dealing with a string of tight situations. He gets enough good moments to come off well, but like everything else here he's a bit all over the place.
One problem is that Wright keeps dropping in moments designed to remind us that we can't trust what we're seeing. Richards has brief (violent) fantasies that are revealed to have never happened; at one point he has a lengthy stress dream which may or may not have taken place for real. Plus it's made clear from the start that the Network can fake any footage; how can we believe anything we see on a screen really happened?
So while this has effective scenes, the overall feeling is of a film that's a little too unstable to buy into. It's not about a world where we don't know what's real - Richards is definitely on the run - but the specifics remain a little too blurry, especially as his character's arc is more about staggering from one desperate scene to another rather than any kind of plan to succeed.
No spoilers, but the ending(s) take this to a whole new level, providing multiple scenarios that pummel any real tension or triumph out of proceedings. Whether studio meddling required a change from the novel's conclusion (which this seems firmly heading towards), or Wright wanted to reflect our current conspiracy-heavy culture, it doesn't really matter.
This isn't a failure, but it's not going to replace the original movie either. Fans of the novel will appreciate its largely faithful approach; fans of the earlier film will enjoy the occasional in-joke. As for fans of futuristic thrills, they'll find plenty to enjoy here - even if this Running Man sometimes runs out of breath.
- Anthony Morris
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