The Running Man (1987)

What an absolute 80s CLASSIC!!! I'm a massive SCHWARZENEGGER fan since i was very young & grew up watching his Awesome brutal action films. The Running Man along with Predator, Commando,Red Heat,Kindergarten Cop & Terminator was the main bunch of his BRILLIANT films i remember watching & loving so much way back on old video!!! NO ONE was better than SCHWARZENEGGER. Nostalgia overload every time i watch one these all CLASSIC movies of his.Any way Running Man is a fantastic Sci-fi Action Thriller that's brutal & exciting & so rewatchable with great music & a great performance by Arnie as Ben Richards!!! A great old school 80s Action movie. Easily one of Arnies Top 5 movies!!!

The Running Man was a troubled production, with original director Andrew Davis (Under Siege, The Fugitive) being replaced a week into filming by former Starsky and Hutch actor, Paul Michael Glaser (he's gone back to acting, but not before giving us the magic that is Kazaam). In his book, Total Recall, Arnold wrote that this was a horrible decision, as the director "shot the movie like it was a television show, losing all the deeper themes. In fairness, Glaser just didn't have time to research or think through what the movie had to say about where entertainment and government were heading and what it meant to get to the point where we actually kill people on screen. In TV they hire you and the next week you shoot and that's all he was able to do."Written by Steven E. de Souza (who had a hell of a run, writing Commando, 48 Hrs. and the first two Die Hard films, while also adapting Mark Schultz's Xenozoic Tales for TV as Cadillacs and Dinosaurs) from the Richard Bachman book (Bachman was and is, of course, Stephen King, who was using a pseudonym to see if his success was due to talent or luck. A Washinton, D.C. book clerk named Steve Brown discovered the truth before an answer could be found. In fact, Bachman's next book was to be Misery, which ended up becoming a King novel. The Dark Half, which became a George Romero movie, is based on this experience.). In the original book, hero Ben Richards is anything like the physical description of Arnold, who is near super-heroic.The film starts that in 2017 — a time that we're all sadly too familiar with — the U.S. has become a police state post worldwide economic collapse — perhaps not as close to home, but uncomfortably nearby. Actually, it's way too close to reality, as the opening text tells us that the "great freedoms of the United States are no longer, as the once great nation has sealed off its borders and become a militarized police state, censoring all film, art, literature, and communications."Within two years, the only thing that keeps the populace under control is The Running Man, a game show where convicted felons battle for their lives against the Stalkers, who are presented as pro wrestling/American Gladiators style stars. Damon Killian (Richard Dawson of TV's Family Feud and Hogan's Heroes, as well as one of the first people in the U.S. to own a VCR) hosts the proceedings and remains one of the enduring reasons to enjoy this film. One gets the idea that Dawson was keen to parody his years of hosting game shows and he cuts through this film, making his role so much better than it deserves to be, whether it's his ads for Cadre Cola or the way he shits on everyone in his path, even lowly custodians. IMDb states that plenty of folks who worked with Dawson on Family Feud claim that he was exactly like this character, but that seems like the sour grapes of hearsay. Anyways, worried that ratings may slip, Killian pushes for Ben Richards, the "Butcher of Bakersfield," (actually, it was all a setup and he was wrongly convicted of killing citizens during a food riot) to be the next runner.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/08/15/the-running-man-1987/

This is the most touching and meaningful love story movie from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Let me explain you why? Maria conchita alonso 's character brings something very rare in action movies. Her character is initially kidnapped by Arnold and she believes he is a murderer and releases herself from him by denouncing him to the police at the airport. But soon after, she realizes that he was innocent and he had not hurt anybody. . She feels guilty and by trying to prove his innocence she is arrested and sent to punishment with Arnold. But she had time to find the proof of his innocence just before being caught. Trapped with him, she then help him to free himself and prove his innocence. The last scene is a very beautiful scene when they find themselves at the sound of the song "Restless heart" and he kisses her and they go away together. When she look at him, we fully realize that, after denouncing him and being responsible for his wrongful sentence, she risked and lost her freedom for him and she came back to save him at the end.

Plot; In the future, the totalitarian government uses a barbaric TV game show to help sedate and satiate the population.This is Arnold at the absolute zenith of his Arnoldness, and though this is far from his best film, perhaps none of his other works better typify The Age of Arnold that was that 15 year or so run from the early 80s through the mid 90s. The funny thing is, Arnold isn't even the best thing about The Running Man. That distinction belongs to Richard Dawson, not exactly playing against type as a verbose and charming gameshow host, who steals the movie right from under the hero. Paired with a tailor made premise, it delivers those 80s Arnold staples; Quips, kills, a kiss (courtesy of the lovely Maria Conchita Alonso) and a fade to black as a power rock anthem plays us out.