From The Monkey, to The Life of Chuck, to The Long Walk, and the HBO series Welcome to Derry, this has been a pretty big year for Stephen King adaptations. Now to close out the year of King, we get perhaps the most anticipated adaptation of his work with acclaimed director Edgar Wright's take on The Running Man.
This is the second adaptation of King's 1982 novel (written under the pseudonym Richard Bachman), following the Arnold Schwarzenegger led 1987 film. That being said, the 1987 film is almost entirely its own thing, essentially just taking the name and the tiniest of plot points from the source material. Thus Edgar Wright's latest is the first true adaptation of the over forty year old novel, and while it doesn't quite live up to its potential all the way it's still a very strong film.
The Running Man is set in a dystopian version of 2025 and follows Ben Richards (Glen Powell), an unemployed man desperate to save his sick daughter. He auditions for one of this society's many game shows and is offered a spot on The Running Man, where he will have to survive 30 days while being hunted by a team of assassins. Initially against the idea, Richards is convinced by showrunner Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) to join the show as a means of not only saving his daughter but sending them enough money to get them out of the slums. Despite the network painting Richards as a villain, his anger filled chaos makes him a fan favourite as he fights for his life.
There are two main points here that disappointed me. The first is this as an Edgar Wright movie. This is a very solid dystopian action movie, but it just lacks a bit of that Edgar Wright flair. From a filmmaker with hits like Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, I went into this expecting a more frenetic energy and that just isn't here. The original novel is pretty bleak, but the story lends itself to some zaniness, and while we do get a good amount of over the top action scenes they just don't have that Edgar Wright energy. Part of this may be the story's emphasis on social commentary, but I do think Wright bringing some more flair to the project would have been a plus. The second major flaw to me is in the ending. The ending of the novel is my favourite part, and it looked for a while like that's where Wright was taking this. Sadly despite so much of the film being a faithful adaptation I just found the changes in the ending to be a pretty big letdown. Despite these issues though, I still had a great time with the film.
To start, Glen Powell is perfect as Ben Richards. Richards is a character that is frankly easy to hate but you need to still attach to him as the protagonist. Powell's natural charm does a lot to endear you to him, but he still does a great job of bringing the brash edge that Richards has in the book. Wright consciously chose to have the entirety of the film come from Richards' point of view to align with the way that he is blind to the goings on outside of his control, and Powell's ability to command the screen for the whole of the runtime is crucial in making that choice work.
The ensemble is great, although much of it is a bit underused. Brolin as Dan Killian does a fantastic job as the conceited businessman posing as a friend to Richards. He presents a very kind persona but you can see his greed beneath the cracks in a brilliant way. The other real standout is Colman Domingo as Bobby T, the show's host. He brings his grandeur to this perfectly, commanding the screen every moment he is on it. Another big name is Lee Pace who plays the lead hunter, a performance largely physical as he wears a mask for most of the film. His voice and physicality work great together in creating a fun villain despite not getting to know much about him. One disappointment in the cast for me was Emilia Jones. She plays a woman Richards kidnaps as a means of protection, but where her character is crucial in the novel I found she was introduced too late here to allow Jones to fully flesh her out. I think the casting was strong and Jones is doing solid work, I just don't think we got enough of her.
Despite lacking the Edgar Wright flair, this is still a very well made movie. The editing and writing are a bit disjointed, but I found myself constantly wowed by the production design. The way the divide between those who have and have not is depicted works really well, essentially crafting a fence with a utopian vision on one side and a sci-fi slum on the other. The attention to detail in the worldbuilding is simply amazing, especially when it comes to the fictional shows. The story is deeply tied to reality tv and game shows, and you can tell Wright and co. had a great time creating the fictional shows that made up this fictionalized world's programming. If the only show we knew of in this world was The Running Man it may not have felt as genuine, but the snippets of others shows is both fun and crucial to fleshing out the world. The action is also pretty damn great, delivering on the fun even if the energy is a bit lower than you'd expect.
While there are elements that disappointed me, I would by no means call the film as a whole a disappointment. Despite the flaws I found Wright's adaptation to really get the heart of the story and I found the way he brought King's fictional 2025 to life was very impressive. Glen Powell cements himself as a great action star and the ride he takes us on is a lot of fun. 3.5/5
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