Even Arnold Schwarzeneggar, always said his lurid 1987 movie of The Running Man was ripe for a remake.
Loosely based on a Stephen King story and set in the dystopian future of 2017, Arnie’s star vehicle was mainly memorable for the awful, shiny yellow Babygro they somehow managed to squeeze him into and some truly excruciating one-liners – e.g. where Arnie cuts a baddie in two with a chainsaw, then quips ‘Aw, he had to split.’
This smart, fast-paced, action-packed 2025 reboot sticks closer to Stephen King’s book. Our hero is still Ben Richards, now played by Glen Powell.
A righteous, but angry everyman, Ben is continually fired from construction/mining jobs for sticking it to The Man. Desperate to pay for costly meds for his sick little girl, Ben takes a high-risk gamble. He signs up to ‘Running Man’, a popular TV game show where contestants must stay on the run for 30 days in the hopes of winning $1billion. If a contestant gets spotted and caught by one of the bloodthirsty ‘Hunters’, they will be executed, live, on air.
First up let’s just give a big up to Glen Powell. The Twisters and Top Gun: Maverick star here 100% confirms his status as Hollywood’s new go-to leading man.
Sure, he may not entirely convince as an underclass hero: handsomely buffed with gleaming white teeth, he looks less like a downtrodden everyjoe and more like a guy who’s spent a lot of time in an exclusive LA gym. However, we instantly like him, we care about him and we root for him.
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Also shout-outs to a scene-stealing Colman Domingo’s TV host (the equivalent of Stanley Tucci’s Caesar in The Hunger Games) and Josh Brolin as the slippery mogul behind the evil red ‘N’ media empire (not Netflix, but cheekily close).
I can’t quite forgive the under-using of Katy O’Brian – if you’ve got a brilliant stunt actor like that in the cast, wouldn’t you want her to do some more brilliant stunts?? But Michael Cena is, as ever, terrific value in a cameo role that sees him unleash a superb set piece in a booby-trapped house that film maker Edgar Wright perfectly describes as ‘Home Alone meets Straw Dogs.’
The British director who delighted audiences with the likes of Shaun Of the Dead and Baby Driver, Wright here ramps his Hollywood ambitions.
With a rumoured budget of $110million, this is his biggest and most straight-forward movie to date. And though it may not be his finest – the storytelling is kind of bumpy – it’s still got Wright’s fingerprints all over it.
What that means is a trademark combo of action and humour; a needle drop soundtrack; a clutch of fan-pleasing Easter eggs (watch out for the hilarious show-within-show Kardashians spoof , ‘The Americanos’); a satisfying amount of BFEs (Big F***ing Explosions); and a huge beating love of genre.
Originally penned by Stephen King in 1972, the central ‘faked news’ concept feels more relevant now than ever. Uncanny in predicting how TV would evolve, it is still, at heart, an old-school dystopian satire about an authoritarian state that’s cannily positioned not to upset the right or left (both of which will likely claim it as their own).
Yes, the third act gets a little convoluted, but you’re powered to the finish by Glen Powell’s absolutely unstoppable star charisma. And did I mention the memorable set piece where he’s nearly naked?
For many, happy, viewers this will go down in the annals of cinema as the ‘Glen Powell in a towel’ movie.
The Running Man is out in UK cinemas on Friday.
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