In 2017, following worldwide economic collapse, the United States has become a totalitarian police state, with censoring of art, music, and communications. The most popular show on Tv is The Running Man, where incarcerated criminals can obtain freedom by running and avoiding lethal stalkers.
Captain Ben Richards (Arnold Schwartzeneggar) is arrested for refusing to open fire on food rioters in Bakersfield, California. The rioters are massacred by other officers, and he is framed for the incident and called the Butcher of Bakersfield. Eighteen months later, he escapes with two resistance fighters, Harold Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre) and William Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto). They offer him a chance to join the resistance, but he merely wants to survive. He goes to his brother’s apartment, but his brother is being re-educated, and Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso) is living there.
He forces her to help him bypass airport security, but she alerts the police. Only after he is arrested and she sees the government lies on TV does she realize his innocence. The ruthless and narcissistic TV host Damon Killian (Richard Dawson) puts him on the Running Man show. Despite his promises, Killian sends Richards, Weiss, and Laughlin in rocket sleds into the lawless Game Zone. Richards kills an assassin named Subzero (Toru Tanaka, the first time a contestant has killed an assassin.
On the show, Amber is caught accessing the TV footage and is sent into the game as well. Killian sends two more stalkers, Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch) and Dynamo (Erland van Lidth). Richards kills the former with his own chainsaw and then he incapacitates Dynamo but spares his life—also unprecedented. Amber discovers the mouldering carcasses of former winners, supposedly living in luxury, and Weiss discovers the satellite link controlling government broadcasts, but he is killed. With him is Stevie (Dweezil Zappa)who is operating computers. Richards kills the flame-throwing killer Fireball (Jim Brown)and the public begins rooting for and betting on Richards.
Richards and Amber are found by the resistance and taken to their command centre. Killian orders retired stalker Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) to fight Richards, but he refuses unless he can fight him honourably. But Killan edits film showing Freedom killing both Richards and Amber. The resistance comm whiz, Mic (Mick Fleetwood) airs an exposé of the government’s lies and treachery. Richards leads the resistance in a takeover of the ICS network. Dynamo attacks Amber but she triggers the sprinkling system, electrocuting him as the audience flees the building. Richards puts Killian in a rocket sled and sends him to his destruction. Richard and Amber kiss as the network goes offline.
The film was directed by Paul Michael Glazer based on the 1982 Stephen King (pseudonym Richard Bachman) novel. Schwarzenegger complained that Glazer shot it like a TV show and lost the deeper meaning, whatever that was. Screenwriter Steven E. de Souza wrote fifteen drafts of the script. The pre-show dance sequences were choreographed by Paula Abdul.
It received moderately positive reviews. The soundtrack used music by Mozart, Wagner, Jackie Jackson, Glen Barber, and John Parr, who wrote the main theme. A lawsuit claimed that it was plagiarized from a 1983 French film Le Prit du Danger, directed by Yves Boisset, based on a Robert Sheckley story called “The Prize of Peril.”
It was called a mean, cruel, nasty, funny send-up of television, but it was also called prescient of TV in the future. One of the producers of American Gladiator sold his show with clips from The Running Man, saying, “We’re doing this except for the killing part.” A remake starring Josh Brolin is supposed to be released in November of 2025, but we’ll see. Arnold, every time he kills someone, makes a cruel joke that would make James Bond proud, or ashamed. When Killiam sends him into the kill zone, Arnie tells him, “I’ll be back.” And he is.