The Running Man (15)
Cast: Colman Domingo, Emilia Jones, Glen Powell, Josh BrolinGenre: Action
Author(s): Edgar Wright, Michael Bacall
Director: Edgar Wright
Release Date: 12/11/2025
Running Time: 133mins
Country: UK/US
Year: 2025
Ben Richards is a working-class father and husband, who is desperate to raise the urgent funds to save his sick daughter. Unable to make money through legitimate means, Ben is persuaded by ruthless television producer Dan Killian to take part in the most popular programme on the planet, The Running Man. Ben agrees to be one of the runners and must evade professional assassins for 30 days to claim a hefty cash prize. Cameras track his every move and give away his location.
LondonNet Film Review
The Running Man (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Take your pick of the athletic turns of phrase that suggest or explicitly describe a disappointing outcome: run out of steam, run aground, run on empty, run dry, run out of luck. Any of them could apply to director Edgar Wright’s high-octane adaptation of Stephen King’s 1985 dystopian thriller, which coincidentally imagined the bleak authoritarian future of… 2025 replete with a government-controlled television network that broadcasts a bloodthirsty survival game show with one inevitable outcome…
Working-class father Ben Richards (Powell) has been blacklisted for exposing corporate negligence and he struggles to find work to pay for the medicine that could save his gravely ill baby daughter Cathy, and prevent his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) from working long hours as a club waitress. In desperation, Ben auditions for a suite of TV game shows broadcast by the Network, but he is adamant that he will not take part in the most popular and brutal programme on the planet, The Running Man hosted by Bobby T Thompson (Colman Domingo), which has a prize of one billion new dollars for any player who can avoid termination for 30 days. “Don’t worry, daddy’s not that crazy,” Ben whispers to his daughter.
Television producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) masterminds the ratings-grabbing show with the help of his merciless hunters, who stalk runners under the leadership of Evan McCone (Lee Pace). Killian manipulates Ben into signing the contract and the father runs for his life alongside fellow contestants Jansky (Martin Herlihy) and Laughlin (Katy O’Brian). Cameras track Ben’s every move and as he narrowly avoids bullets and blades, ratings skyrocket and the penniless underdog risks upsetting the show’s predetermined outcome.
The Running Man is a very different beast to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 rough and tumble with King’s source material, which deviated wildly from the page. Wright’s script, co-written by Michael Bacall, is slavishly faithful to the book to the remake’s detriment, delivering delirious thrills and spills for the opening hour before the wheels come off this runaway train. Only at the very end does Wright afford himself some welcome artistic licence. The reboot is on a sure footing when it focuses on the stricken hero’s spirited attempts to evade termination, including one vertiginous set piece that convinces Powell to abseil down the side of an apartment building with just a single white bath towel sparing his blushes.
Once Wright flits between Ben’s would-be accomplices, including William H Macy’s fake ID supplier and Michael Cera’s vengeance-seeking misfit, the destination (and getting there quickly) becomes more interesting than the journey ahead. Parallels to present-day political strife are heavy-handed. “This country’s ready to blow and you’re the initiator,” Cera’s oddball coos excitedly to Powell. Wright lights a slow-burning fuse and forgets to attach a killer payload.
– Jo Planter
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