RUNNING MAN

Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a man pushed to the brink when he’s unable to afford medicine for his sick baby daughter. Desperate for some quick cash, he signs up for a brutal television show called ‘Running Man’ where he must survive for 30 days while being tracked by professional hunters, mercenaries, and the general public. The prize for winning is 1 billion dollars but the penalty for being captured is immediate execution, which is filmed live and broadcast to millions of bloodthirsty viewers. To quote the tag line from ‘Survivor’, Richards must “Outwit, outlast, and outplay” the relentless assassins on his tail, in a game of cat and mouse that’s rigged against him at every turn. Based on the 1982 novel by Richard Bachman (Stephen King’s pseudonym) the story is set in a dystopian 2025, where the gap between rich and poor is colossal and the television station is controlled by the government. Powell plays angry and resentful Richards well, but my favourite performance is Coleman Domingo’s charismatic, big-voiced show host Bobby Thompson. Other supporting cast include Joshua Brolin, William H Macy, Michael Cera and Sandra Dickinson, who has the funniest lines. Memorable moments are the plot twists that challenge fact from fiction, and the scary manipulation of reality through AI, an unsettling warning of what the future could hold. This film is a nonstop thrill ride that explores how we are influenced by the media, exposes the bottomless corruption of some global corporations, and highlights how the oppressed will eventually push back and rise up.