The 3 Guys Podcast Recorded on 7/21/2022 Hello cutie pie, one of us is in deep trouble. In this podcast, we review the 80s action classic The Running Man, directed by Paul Michael Glaser, based on characters by Stephen King and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Dawson. WARNING: There will be SPOILERS! The 3 Guys Rating 3/5
Notes From The Show * Quick Synopsis * Released: November 13, 1987
Directed By: Paul Michael Glaser
Screenplay By: Steven E. de Souza
Based On The Book: The Running Man by Stephen King (under the pen name Richard Bachman)
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson and a bunch of other actors.
Plot: In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.
Tag Line: The year is 2019. The finest men in America don’t run for President. They run for their lives.
How did this movie do? Budget: $27 Million Box Office: $38 Million * 80s Action Cuts * + Body count: 32 confirmed, 14 by Richards, 2 by Amber. There is also an unidentified number killed in the massacre, and three former contestants who were claimed as survivors of the show but killed before the film’s events. + Top One-Liners - Ben Richards: Killian, here’s your Subzero, now plain zero. - Ben Richards: [after strangling Sub-Zero with barbed wire] Yeah, he was a real pain in the neck. - Ben Richards: I had the shirt for it, but you fucked it up. - Ben Richards: [to Killian] Hello cutie pie, one of us is in deep trouble. - Ben Richards: I don’t do requests - Ben Richards: Killian! I’ll be back! - William Laughlin: [his last words] Don’t let us down. I don’t want to be the only asshole in heaven, Ben. - Ben Richards: Well, that hit the spot. - Ben Richards: What a hothead. - Ben Richards: [after a brief struggle Richards successfully positions the saw between Buzzsaw’s legs] That’s alright. Keep it! - Ben Richards: Women. Can’t live with ’em, can’t live… with ’em. - Damon Killian: [chuckles] You’re a brilliant conversationalist, Ben. A trifle limited, but brilliant. - Richards: See you guys at the 10-year prison reunion. - Ben Richards: It’s showtime. * Book Differences * + The year is 2025…the world’s economy is in shambles and America has become a totalitarian dystopia. + Richards is 28 years old, an impoverished resident of the fictional Co-Op City, is unable to find work, having been blacklisted from his trade. + Richards in the book, was very scrawny with no muscles. Compared to the movie version, King stated Richards is “as far away from the Arnold Schwarzenegger character in the movie as you can get.” + Richards has a family. His gravely ill daughter Cathy needs medicine, and his wife Sheila has resorted to prostitution to bring in money for the family. + Richards signs up for The Running ManIn out of desperation to get money for his family. + Dan Killian, the executive producer of the program. Fred Victor is the director of the show. Bobby Thompson is the MC and host. + In the show contract The contestant earns $100 per hour that he stays alive and avoids capture, an additional $100 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter he kills, and a grand prize of $1 billion if he survives for 30 day. + The show makes contestants an enemy of the state, rewarding anyone who turns in info on the contestant, and allows the contestant to run to anywhere in the world. + The contestant must videotape two messages and mail them back to the studio for broadcasting, or they lose the prize money, stop accumulating money and will be hunted indefinitely. + Stalkers are called Hunters. + The movie ends VERY differently than the movie…no spoilers here. * Trivia * + Paul Michael Glaser, the director, is an American actor and director best known for his role as Detective Dave Starsky on the 1970s television series, Starsky & Hutch. + When Rob Cohen purchased the rights to the Richard Bachman novel “The Running Man”, he had no idea that Bachman was actually a pseudonym for Stephen King. + Many people who worked with Richard Dawson on the game show Family Feud (1976) say that in real life Dawson was more like his character Damon Killian in his handling of underlings. + When Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor, he rode around in a campaign bus and named it after this film. + Although credited as simply Subzero, the character is introduced as Professor Subzero by announcer Phil Hilton. Professor Subzero is played by Professor Toru Tanaka. It is worth noting that Tanaka’s title of Professor is not from a post-doctorate academic rank, but rather from the wrestling name the actor went under in his wrestling career from the 1960’s through the 1980’s (sometimes shortened to Professor Tanaka). + Erland van Lidth (“Dynamo”) was a classically trained Helden baritone opera singer, so in his introduction when Dynamo is singing an aria from “The Marriage of Figaro”, it actually is van Lidth singing. + The film inspired TV’s American Gladiators (1989) as well as the plot and settings of the Williams arcade game Smash TV (1990). + The footage of the attacking helicopters is from King Kong (1976). + When Killian is sending Fireball into the game, he says, “There he goes, the leading rusher.” Fireball was played by Jim Brown, the NFL’s all-time leader in rushing yards until the mid-’80s. + Although Arnold Schwarzenegger hates Richard Dawson onscreen, in real life they were lifelong friends. + Originally scheduled for a July 1987 release, it was moved back four months by Tri-Star to avoid competition with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s other summer film, Predator (1987), which was released in June. + It’s hinted that Mic Fleetwood plays himself in the movie. In the film, the resistance leader’s name is Mick and he is British and when Mick meets Richards to remove his explosive collar from around his neck he says to him “You’re one of the cops who locked up all my friends, burned my songs.” + Producer George Linder sold his company, Quadra Wheelchairs of Westlake Village, California, to help finance The Running Man (1987). + John McTiernan intentionally kept Jesse Ventura out of any close up shots with Arnold Schwarzenegger in Predator (1987) because of Venturas immense size (6’5, and almost 300lb). The director didn’t want Schwarzenegger looking small in comparison, which is evident during the fight scene in The Running Man (1987) when Ventura almost dwarfs Schwarzenegger. + Paula Abdul was the film’s choreographer. Many of the dancers were friends of hers from the Laker Girls. + Richard Dawson only agreed to be in the film provided he was not expected to use any profanity in his dialogue. + The character “Mick,” the leader of the underground, is played by drummer Mick Fleetwood of the super group Fleetwood Mac. His compatriot in the movie, a character named “Stevie” and played by Dweezil Zappa (the son of legendary musician Frank Zappa) is an obvious homage to Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. + Four actors from the “Predator” film franchise appear in this film. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura and Sven-Ole Thorsen all appear in the original feature film Predator (1987), while Maria Conchita Alonso appears in the sequel Predator 2 (1990). + The film takes place from 2017 to 2019. + “The Running Man” suit that the contestants wear bears an Adidas logo at the hip and right arm. + Arnold Schwarzenegger (trademark): “I’ll be back!” + Prior to Paul Michael Glaser being hired as director, executive producer Rob Cohen had hired four other directors in his attempts to make the movie. The first was George P. Cosmatos, who had impressed Cohen with his work on Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985). However, when Cosmatos announced that he wanted to relocate the entire film to a shopping mall, Cohen let him go, feeling that Cosmatos was taking the script in an unacceptable direction. Cohen next offered the project to German director Carl Schenkel, having been impressed with Out of Order (1984), but Schenkel turned him down as he didn’t feel comfortable taking on such a large project. Next, Cohen hired Ferdinand Fairfax, based upon his work on Savage Islands (1983). Like Cosmatos, however, Fairfax began to take the screenplay in a direction which Cohen disliked, so once again, he let him go. Cohen then turned to Andrew Davis, having enjoyed Davis’ movie Code of Silence (1985). Davis actually got the project off the ground and into production, but only eight days into the shoot, he was already $8 million over budget and four days behind schedule. As such Cohen let Davis go, and ultimately hired Glaser, whom he had worked with on the first season of Miami Vice (1984). + The character of Mrs. McArdle, whom host Damon Killian states is the shows number one fan, is an homage to Mrs. Miller, a long-time fixture of many series’, including The Merv Griffin Show. Her entire claim to fame was that she showed up to the tapings almost every day. The real Mrs. Miller (who was not a young woman) actually parlayed her notoriety into several ventures, including recording an album entitled “Mrs. Miller Sings”. It’s an album which today is only heard on Dr. Demento-type shows. + 1hr 23 minutes into the film: As Killian is congratulating his production team he is standing next to a TV that is rolling credits for the show. The credits are quite easy to read on a large screen and are: THANK YOU: TIM GEORGE GARY PAUL ROB KEITH YOU ME US THEM ~ WHAT NEXT: I DON’T KNOW ~ TITLES: TYPE M WRONG ~ MAKE UP: PAINT YOUR FACE ~ PROPS: PROPERTY ~ LOCATIONS: BY TO LONG HERE ~ ART DIRECTOR: RED G. BLEU AND PRIMARY COLOURS ~ MUSIC: DO RAY ME ~ CATERING: [scene ends] + Features two actors who went on to be the governor of a US state: in November 1998 Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota; in October 2003 Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected Governor of California. + The red car that drives Killian (Richard Dawson) in front of the TV studio is a Maserati Quattroporte III stretch limo. + Kurt Fuller provided the voice of the Dispatcher who orders Richards to kill the unarmed civilians in the Bakersfield riot. + Dweezil Zappa, son of legendary American composer/singer Frank Zappa, has only two lines in the movie: “Don’t touch that dial!”, being one of his father’s most famous lyrics from the song “I Am the Slime” (from the album “Over-nite Sensation”, 1973); and “Psst . . . you guys wanna buy a hot stereo? . . . Laughlin!, glad you guys made it” at the beginning of the film. + Mic’s Star Trek reference gag was Mick Fleetwood’s idea, as he was a huge fan of the original 1960s series (this film was in production a year before The Next Generation television series started filming). However two years after this film was released Fleetwood got to achieve a lifetime ambition by having a cameo in Star Trek: The Next Generation season two episode ‘Manhunt’. + “The Running Man” game show seen in the film was based upon an early 1980s Japanese game show called “Trans American Ultra Quiz”, in which contestants were tortured in various ways. The prize went to whichever contestant could stand the pain/humiliation the longest. + The exterior view of the resistance HQ is the same as the one used by the resistance in V: The Final Battle (1984) (note the tunnel and the building on the right). + Final film of Richard Dawson & Erland van Lidth. + Dolph Lundgren and Christopher Reeve expressed interest in starring in the movie, and Patrick Swayze had also been considered. + In Killian’s office there is a poster for a fake TV show called “Hate Boat.” In real life, Richard Dawson appeared as a guest star in an episode of the TV series The Love Boat (1977). + Yves Boisset, writer and director of The Prize of Peril (1983) sued Twentieth Century Fox for copycat because The Running Man (1987)’s screenplay was exactly the same as his own film. Some documents of the case were lost in a plane crash in the New York bay. + A. Times called the movie “The best Schwarzenegger movie since The Terminator”. + 1:35 The coordinates shown on the helicopter’s monitor ranges from N30°35′ W119°29′ to N34°12′ W119°11′ (which corresponds to Santa Clara Elementary School at 324 South E Street in Oxnard, California). The total distance flown comes out to 245 miles (390Km) in only 5 seconds. The helicopter hovers and begins the massacre at N45°04′ W119°04′ + Kurt Fuller later starred in Wayne’s World (1992), in which he played a similar role to his character in The Running Man (1987). In Wayne’s World (1992), Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) hacks a satellite so he can transmit a live broadcast of the Wayne’s World TV show into the TV of Frankie Sharp’s limo. + The satellite up-link code is 18-24-61-B 17-17-4. + The code to get into Ben Richards’ brother/Amber’s apartment is 4-4-5-5-6-6. + The main plot about people being forced to compete in a fight to the death game show would later be reused for the novel series The Hunger Games and would become a hit film series 25 years later. + Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) says to Killian, “to hell with you!” He says the same while praying to Krom in Conan the Barbarian (1982). + The code to deactivate the Sonic Deadline (the explosive neck collars) is “653-9X”. + Actor Erland van Lidth, who plays ‘Dynamo’ in this film, died of a heart attack two months before this film was theatrically released. He was only 34 years old. + In the scene after the prisoners remove their neck collars, Schwarzenegger says that “he is not interested in politics, he’s interested in survival.” Schwarzenegger later became a politician when we was elected Governor of California.
Released: November 13, 1987
Directed By: Paul Michael Glaser
Screenplay By: Steven E. de Souza
Based On The Book: The Running Man by Stephen King (under the pen name Richard Bachman)
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson and a bunch of other actors.
Plot: In a dystopian America, a falsely convicted policeman gets his shot at freedom when he must forcibly participate in a TV game show where convicts, runners, must battle killers for their freedom.
Tag Line: The year is 2019. The finest men in America don’t run for President. They run for their lives.
How did this movie do? Budget: $27 Million Box Office: $38 Million
Top One-Liners
The year is 2025…the world’s economy is in shambles and America has become a totalitarian dystopia.
The movie ends VERY differently than the movie…no spoilers here.
Paul Michael Glaser, the director, is an American actor and director best known for his role as Detective Dave Starsky on the 1970s television series, Starsky & Hutch.
About The Movie From IMDB
Previous Next
Note: All images are property of their respected owners and used for editorial purposes.