"The Running Man" Finds Humor and Excitement in All the Wrong Places

The state of the world feels so bad these days that a scenario found in “The Running Man” seems less and less far-fetched by the day. Based on an 80s book by Stephen King, the novel imagined a world where the government used a TV show to not only dig into people's sick desires to be “entertained,” but also as a way to control them with fear. Of course, this isn’t a new concept; stories like “Battle Royale” and “The Hunger Games” tackle a similar concept, so it's not surprising Stephen King would dip his toe in the concept. Heck, in terms of movies, this is the second film we’ve seen adapted from a King novel about a dystopian world where people watch others die for entertainment (the other being “The Long Walk”).

The difference here, I suppose, is that “The Running Man” has been directed by Edgar Wright, who is primarily known for his sense of humor and adrenaline-infused editing. His involvement this time around may have been a miscalculation because, unlike these other works of fiction, watching “The Running Man” is actually fun. You may be wondering why this is a problem. After all, don’t we pay to be entertained at the movies? Sometimes. I doubt people bought tickets to “The Passion of the Christ” or “Munich” because they were hoping to be entertained. Likewise, “The Hunger Games” series sold a lot of tickets despite the story being bleak at its core.

However, in “The Running Man,” we follow a man (Glen Powell) who enters a live game where he is hunted on TV and will win a life-changing amount of money if he survives for a month. During that game, buildings blow up, people die, and he is given bonus bucks if he manages to kill men from a group called ‘The Hunters,’ who are the ones primarily tasked with killing him during the game show. The action sequences are slick and polished, as we expect from Edgar Wright. There is even a lot of humorous one-liners and visual gags to go along with everything. Sadly, these scenes also include innocent people dying. It contains the destruction of buildings, blowing up with children inside.

By bringing the game to the streets, “The Running Man” is making innocent bystanders suffer, die, and get disemboweled, all while we cheer and laugh with the main protagonist. It was midway through that I started to wonder if I was any better than the blood-hungry viewers of the TV show in the movie. If the audience cheering on the bloodshed in the film is in the wrong, why are we any better for doing the same thing? Am I overthinking this? Maybe, but considering stories like this usually have something to say about our world and where society is going, it is bizarre to see a movie that seems to be encouraging us to laugh along with the chaos.

There are attempts to say something about our world. It is touched upon briefly that generative AI can alter videos of people, making it hard to know what's real and what isn’t. Considering how much of an issue this has become in real life, it is disappointing that the topic wasn’t explored more here. Morals aside, “The Running Man” also falls apart near the end for becoming too convoluted for its own good, to the point where how the final resolution comes about is still a bit of a mystery. Edgar Wright might be a great entertainer, but his ability to tackle social commentary leaves a lot to be desired.