On Screen: “The Running Man”

The Running Man

Imagining a dystopian future marked by economic inequality, Stephen King wrote “The Running Man” back in 1982 under the pseudonym Richard Bachman.

Set in futuristic America, its hero Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is so desperate for money to buy medicine for his sick two year-old daughter that he volunteers for the Games Network, a Free-Vee reality television channel in which despairing people compete for monetary prizes.

After a series of mental and physical aptitude tests, combative Richards is recruited for uber-dangerous Running Man game in which contestants race across the country pursued by resolute, gun-toting Hunters whose job is to execute them. If a Runner can survive for 30 days, he or she wins $1 billion. But no one ever has!

The show is hosted by smarmy Bobby T. (Colman Domingo), claiming “Bloodlust is our birthright,” but the real sinister force behind the scenes is malevolent producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) who is determined to see ratings soar.

The other two competitors in Richards’ group are Jenni (Katy O’Brian) and Tim (Martin Herlihy) — both of whom are quickly eliminated.

Director Edgar Wright, working with his “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” co-writer Michael Bacall, pushes the grim, non-stop action, burdening the cast with only a few snippets of banal dialogue.

There’s the underground anarchist Molie (William H. Macy) who supplies Richards with fake IDs and disguises, unreliable Elton (Michael Cera), a conflicted rebel who says he knows of a safe house, and carjacked Amelia (Emilia Jones) whom Richards holds hostage.

So it’s up to Glen Powell to propel the picture. Since the charming charisma he oozed in “Hit Man” is barely visible, Powell relies on the physicality he honed working with Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick.”

FYI: If the concept seems familiar, it was filmed once before — in 1987 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as its leading man … so, as if in homage, it you look closely, it’s Schwarzenegger’s face on that $100 bill.