TheRetroCritic

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in The Running Man , a loose 1987 movie adaptation of Stephen King's novel in which a man is wrongfully arrested and thrown into a sadistic game show taking place in the dystopian future society of 2017. Here's yet another film which'll make The Hunger Games seem even less original than it already is as poor old Arnie is forced to battle enemies to the death in a modern arena. He plays Ben Richards, a helicopter pilot who, upon refusing to kill innocent civilians, is ruthlessly thrown in jail: the US has become a totalitarian police state and the media single-handedly controls what people think. Richards escapes and attempts to flee to Hawaii using a random woman's ID but the misinformed Maria Conchita Alonso turns on Richards and blows the whistle on him to the police who soon catch him again. He is soon blackmailed into taking part in the biggest game show on TV "The Running Man" hosted by a cruel (and brilliant) Richard Daw