1987’s The Running Man is definitely a cult hit among Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movies, but it tends to get overlooked among some of the other classics he made. After all, it came out the same year as Predator, and let’s face facts—it’s no Predator. Perhaps that’s why Schwarzenegger himself once said it was the perfect movie of his to be remade. Everyone involved with the new version—especially Edgar Wright—would probably say it’s less a remake and more a fresh adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, which he wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.
Based on the trailer alone, it does seem to be a somewhat more faithful adaptation, retaining an element that was ditched from the Schwarzenegger movie: Ben Richards is more impoverished, blacklisted from his profession, and trying to raise money to treat his ill daughter. The movie also keeps the fact that he has to periodically record messages and can travel anywhere in the world. That said, I can’t see this version ending with Richards’ family being murdered and him becoming a suicide bomber. Just an inkling…
So why did the 1987 movie make so many changes? There are a few reasons. For one thing, back in 1987, they didn’t have the money to make this a globe-trotting thriller. It actually wasn’t a particularly expensive movie, costing $27 million—not all that much for the era. Let’s not forget that Schwarzenegger, while a star in 1987, wasn’t the behemoth he later became. Twins was arguably his first mega hit, followed by Total Recall, T2, and True Lies.
Arnie’s movies prioritized fun, so the decision was made to bring in his Commando screenwriter, Steven E. de Souza, and ramp up the comic aspects. Instead of an unemployed father, Richards would be a single cop framed for a massacre by a repressive government, who escapes jail, is recaptured, and forced to participate. It would be an upbeat film that bore next to no resemblance to King’s novel.
Oddly, though, the fact that it ditched the King material might have been what made it great. Reality TV shows weren’t really a thing back then, and the movie’s grotesque spoof of TV game shows was prescient—that’s essentially what the reality genre became. Perhaps the smartest piece of casting was hiring Family Feud host Richard Dawson to play the movie’s host, Killian, as a satire of his own persona—right down to him kissing all the women in his audience. He was so infamous for this that his nickname was “The Kissing Bandit.”
Given Arnie’s size, the hunters were a colorful bunch, with him taking on former wrestlers like Professor Toru Tanaka and Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Schwarzenegger essentially plays the character he always played in his eighties action movies: wisecracking and a “normal guy,” despite looking anything but. The whole movie was designed to be a lark, so you have him getting a sexy Latina love interest played by Maria Conchita Alonso and some rock ’n’ roll buddies, including a resistance group run by Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and Dweezil Zappa—who, that same year, played guitar on the video for Don Johnson’s “Heartbeat,” a hell of a song. But I digress.
Surprisingly, Schwarzenegger was never happy with The Running Man. He hated that the original director, Andrew Davis, was replaced (they’d work together later on Collateral Damage) with Paul Michael Glaser—best known for playing Starsky on Starsky and Hutch—as director. Arnold has a point: Glaser wasn’t on the level of other action directors he worked with. Although Glaser had directed a few good Miami Vice episodes and did a decent job making the movie hip with off-kilter casting, some of the cringier ’80s stuff—like the Harold Faltermeyer score, long dance numbers choreographed by Paula Abdul, and the cheesy love theme by John Parr—hasn’t exactly stood the test of time. Still, the ’80s camp factor is part of the appeal. I get it though—Arnie’s not really a camp kind of guy, which is why many of his movies feel more timeless. I imagine a director like Paul Verhoeven might have been needed to make The Running Man truly live up to its potential.
The movie was only a modest box office hit, earning $38 million in the U.S., paling in comparison to what Predatormade. But it was a smash on video and cable, which is where a generation of ravenous action fans discovered it—including yours truly.
While The Running Man isn’t a total classic, it’s also a ton of fun. And Arnold has a point: a remake could actually outdo the original. One can see why he’s so gung-ho about the new version—especially since it appears to be set in a world where he was once president?