The Running Man is Edgar Wright's kinetic new adaptation of Stephen King's 1982 dystopian novel, written under his Richard Bachman pseudonym, and a far more faithful rendering of the book than the campy 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film. Glen Powell stars as Ben Richards, a desperate working-class man in a near-future America who, unable to afford care for his sick child, signs up for the deadliest game show on television. The premise is brutally simple: survive thirty days while professional Hunters and an incentivized public try to kill him, with the prize growing for every hour he stays alive.

Wright surrounds Powell with a rich supporting cast, including Josh Brolin as the show's ruthless producer and Colman Domingo as its flamboyant, all-powerful host, turning the story into a savage satire of media spectacle, wealth inequality, and manufactured consent. The film restores the novel's cross-country chase structure and its bleak, uncompromising vision, trading the original adaptation's neon arena for a sprawling nation that has turned human suffering into entertainment.

Marrying Wright's signature visual energy to King's furious social commentary, The Running Man arrived as one of the most anticipated genre films of the year. Powell's everyman charisma anchors the escalating chaos, and the movie's prescient themes gave it a sharp contemporary edge. It streams on Paramount+.