The Running Man: Book vs. Movie
Paul Michael Glaser's 1987 film The Running Man adapts Stephen King's book, published under the name Richard Bachman. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a prisoner forced into a televised contest where staying alive is the entertainment.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Stephen King
- Year
- 1982
- Pages
- 352Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 7 hr 42 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Kevin Kenerly
Unable to afford treatment for his sick daughter, Ben Richards enters a televised contest that pays him to stay alive while professional hunters pursue him. He can flee across the country, but anyone who recognizes him can earn money by reporting his location. As the network turns him into public entertainment, survival depends on finding help among people with reasons to betray him.
- Director
- Paul Michael Glaser
- Writer
- Stephen King, Steven E. de Souza
- Year
- 1987
- Runtime
- 1 hr 41 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto
- Genre
- action, dystopian, science fiction
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Ben Richards is framed for a massacre after refusing an order to fire on civilians. Recaptured following a prison escape, he becomes a contestant on a televised killing game, where armed performers hunt prisoners for an audience. Richards fights to survive while trying to expose the manufactured story that made him the show's newest villain.
Other adaptations of this book
The Running ManMovie · 2025Details
- Director
- Edgar Wright
- Writer
- Michael Bacall, Edgar Wright
- Year
- 2025
- Runtime
- 2 hr 13 min
- Cast
- Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera
Ben Richards signs away his safety for a chance to pay for his daughter's treatment, becoming the newest contestant on a lethal television show. Winning requires thirty days on the run, with assassins in pursuit and the network deciding how the public sees him. The longer he survives, the more his defiance threatens the people selling his death as entertainment.
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