Changes are bound to be made when adapting an author’s work for the big screen, but 1987’s “The Running Man” is an entirely different beast. The 1982 novel from Stephen King, published under his pseudonym Richard Bachman, is a bleak piece of dystopian science fiction in which a desperate man named Ben Richards signs up for the demented game show to pay for his daughter’s medicine. It’s an ongoing game of survival that spills out into the totalitarian world at large. In the ’87 film, however, Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a former police officer who’s incarcerated after refusing to fire on civilians, with the rigged “Running Man” game show serving as his only escape. The “American Gladiators”-inspired hunt is largely relegated to an underground Los Angeles arena known as the Game Zone, where a whole bunch of crazy costumed hunters named Stalkers are dispatched to fight him. Plot differences aside, the film is an overblown ’80s action film first and a dystopian satire second.
Paul Michael Glaser’s “The Running Man” will never be remembered among Schwarzenegger’s best, but it’s still a goofy good time with corny one-liners, dynamic colors, and an operatic Tron-jan man named Dynamo (Erland van Lidth) who can shoot lightning bolts out of his hands. I’m also enamored with the bloodthirsty old ladies in the studio audience, whom /Film’s Danielle Ryan also agrees are one of the best parts of the film. There’s always something going on in the background, whether it be some really rowdy extras or a faux television show called “Climbing for Dollars,” where a contestant is tasked with evading a bunch of ruthless dogs for cash. But the best easter egg features a whole bunch of joke credits for the in-universe “Running Man” show that’s hidden in plain sight.
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The in-universe Running Man television credits are a whole bunch of jokes in plain sight
Damon Killian next to a television with joke credits on screen in The Running Man – Tri-Star Pictures
About an hour and 23 minutes into “The Running Man,” there’s a television to the right of game show host Damon Killian (“Family Feud’s” Richard Dawson) within the control room that displays the following credits:
. Thank You – Tim / George / Gary / Paul / Rob / Keith / You / Me / Us / Them
. What Next – I Don’t Know
. Titles – Type M Wrong
. Make Up – Paint Your Face
. Props – Property
. Locations – By To Long Here
. Art Director – Red G. Bleu and Primary Colors
. Music – Do Ray Me
The “Running Man” show comes to an end after Killian and co. make it look like Richards was killed by the appropriately-named Captain Freedom (Jesse Ventura) by way of a digital deepfake grafted onto another guy they knocked off in his place. Even Diet Paul Verhoeven has its place, especially since Glaser’s “Running Man” tackles the notion of deepfake technology back when it was a futuristic component of a cheesy ’80s action movie instead of the very real threat it poses in a contemporary context. But how about those credits, huh?
The television gags are akin to something you would see in the actual end credits scroll of the “Naked Gun” movies, even though “The Running Man” technically came out a year before the first film. Red G. Bleu, as the show’s Art Director, is definitely my favorite among the bunch. The rest of them are made even funnier, considering this is what’s being broadcast out to the in-universe television public.
“The Running Man” is currently streaming on Paramount+.
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