The Running Man (2025): A Review (Review #2070)

THE RUNNING MAN (2025)

Whatever the merits of The Running Man, it faces a very tough challenge separate from the lead character's race to survive. The makers of the 2025 adaptation insist that this Running Man is closer to the Stephen King novel than the 1987 adaptation. That, however, does not mean that it is better. Far from it. Excessively long, increasingly nonsensical, The Running Man is a sorry step down, with only its star's physique to recommend it.

In a dystopian world, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is struggling for employment. He was terminated from his last position due to being pro-union and a whistleblower to the company's negligence. With a sick infant to care for, Ben opts to make quick cash by volunteering for one of the many deadly game shows that pay great amounts, if one survives. While he promised his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) that he would not go into The Running Man, that's where his skills and intense anger get him assigned. The various game shows are overseen by network/government executive Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), who sees in Richards a strong contender for ratings gold. The Running Man's flamboyant host Bobby T (Coleman Domingo) loves the theatricality of the show and plays along with everything.

The Running Man show is simple. Three contestants are given $1000 and a 12-hour head start. Once those hours are up, anyone who spots them can record, report and reward themselves after a successful execution. The contestants have to record themselves every day and send the tapes for proof of life. Ben has a leg up in that he has friends who can aid him with disguises and fake IDs. One of the contestants, Tim Jansky (Martin Herlihy) is soon eliminated on television. Ben faces many close calls, one of them in the nude. His antagonists are The Hunters, a group of elite assassins tasked with eliminating the contestants. The deadliest is McCone, who is permanently masked.

It is one daring escape after another, with various people helping the increasingly popular Richards evade the Hunters. One group is Bradley Throckmorton (Daniel Ezra), who hosts an underground video channel exposing the lies of the government television network. Another is Elton Parrakis (Michael Cera), this world's Antifa equivalent, the anarchist Che Guevara-loving revolutionary bent on avenging his father. As Ben keeps surviving, he becomes an inspiration for the population, with many viewers now cheering on the "Richards Lives" movement. 

The other contestant, Jenni Laughlin (Katy O'Brien) has been exterminated by a couple of tweens. It is no surprise given how Laughlin has been openly flaunting her excesses for all the world to see.

With Richards gathering steady payments owing to his continued survival, it becomes clear that he is a formidable opponent. He is also a ratings boon against the goons. Time, however, is running short. Circumstances force him to take a random citizen hostage. This hostage, Amelia Williams (Emilia Jones) at first believes everything that she has seen about the murderous psychopath Ben Richards. She soon sees the error of her ways. However, will she be able to help Ben Richards? Things come to a head when McCone (Lee Pace) is forced to reveal himself. Their faceoff is the brilliant season finale. However, it is also the start of the revolution.

As The Running Man kept going, I kept wondering why director and cowriter Edgar Wright (with Michael Bacall as cowriter) bothered with any of this. A good action film, a strong action film should also be a fun action film. There is little fun to be had in The Running Man. I think the problems are set up and execution.

The first maybe twenty to thirty minutes of the film are spent in showing the miserable conditions of Ben Richards' world. He lost his job because he was some kind of Karen Silkwood. He has a very sick infant daughter. His wife is I think a waitress or hostess who faces the possibility of having to sell her virtue to fund their daughter's treatment. Richards already goes into the television network complex

already angry. As such, he never changes or evolves as a character.

I imagine that Ben Richards would or should transform from someone doing The Running Man television show out of desperation into a hero to lead an uprising. Instead, he already looked like a member of the resistance. As such, there was no real character development.

We did, however, see a lot of physical development from Glen Powell. I think Powell's personal trainer ought to get a special Academy Award for turning him into this immensely muscular figure. We got a lengthy scene of him wearing nothing but a skimpy towel. As the Hunters come close to killing him, at one point he is forced to take the towel off to break a window. I do not see a logical reason for taking so much time to showcase Powell's physical beauty. I also do not see how he managed all his various escapes with such great ease. 

What are the odds that his shabby hotel room would have a grenade? 

I think Glen Powell did his best with the material that he was given. However, try as he did, and he did try, a small part of me wanted Ben Richards to be defeated. He was pretty much one-note, growly and angry from the get-go. Much better was Josh Brolin as the evil television producer. He had a slightly easier job in that he did a lot of his acting from a screen. He did not have to share the screen with many people. As such, he could snarl to his heart's content.

I sadly confess that I did a little applause at Michael Cera's first end. He was just there to spout how killing "goons" (aka cops) was a good thing. As he electrocutes the men sent to kill Richards, Cera's Elton shouted, "I like my bacon crispy!". To The Running Man, this is subtle messaging. 

Regretfully, Lee Pace is wasted here. For most of the film, he is fully masked. Once he unmasks himself, it does not provide any shock or even interest. McCone as a character is not that interesting to start with. He is, I figure, meant to be menacing. However, McCone is personality free and never seems much of a threat. Ezra too is not that interesting as his character Throckmorton. The clips of his videos (essentially info dumps) look unintentionally hilarious.

It was, I think, a great mistake to bring in Emilia Jones' Amelia so late into the film. It almost looked as if she was from a whole other draft that was just put in there. She could not be a romantic interest. She was not that interesting to begin with. She was just there. Coleman Domingo, like Glen Powell, did his best to sell his outrageous television impresario. It is unfortunate that The Running Man opted to let him have a last-minute change of heart and side with the growing revolution. 

William H. Macy is on screen probably no more than seven to ten minutes. He has two scenes, one of them where he is being tortured for information. Who exactly is he? How do he and Ben know each other? Why did the curiously named Molie (pronounced "Molly") not offer Ben the job that he said that he planned to earlier? The Running Man plants these story threads but never really starts or finishes them.

As a side note, Ben Richards never struck me as interesting enough to lead a rebellion. While the source material was published long before it, The Running Man came across as hitting some of the same notes as The Hunger Games. I half expected Richards to look into the screen and give the Katniss salute.   

There were other problems in the film. At least twice, maybe more, we had scenes that ended up being dream sequences or fake-outs. It was not strictly deceiving the audience, but they were unnecessary. In what is meant as a crucial twist, Killian informs Ben that his wife and child have been killed. Having repeatedly seen Killian fake footage of Ben, why would Ben believe that particular footage was real? Is he an idiot? I never believed that so many people would be happy to help Richards in his various dodges from the Hunters. It seemed far too convenient. 

The film also has some absolutely ghastly editing. Some of the fight scenes are almost maddeningly impossible to follow. The cutting is so frantic as to be cinematic gibberish. 

I do not compare two versions of the same film when reviewing one or the other. That is for another time. The only real nod to the original is when we see the new money featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger's face on them. For the moment, I think it is safe to say that the 1987 The Running Man will continue to be enjoyed. The 2025 version, flashy as it may be, will probably be forgotten. It helps that the 1987 version is a good half hour shorter. I never felt that version's runtime. I felt every minute of this one's though.

2025's The Running Man will not survive to see another season. It can't get cancelled fast enough.

DECISION: D+