‘The Running Man’: Reality doesn’t hit

Much like the recent spate of YA novels-turned-films, ‘The Running Man’, Edgar Wright’s remake of the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is about a game show where contestants are hunted by assassins on Live TV. This adaptation of a Stephen King novel is much more unpleasant than the earlier film, making nihilism and cruelty the calling card for gaining eyeballs.

Frequently unemployed Ben Richards (Glen Powell) lives in a matchbox apartment with his wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson) and their chronically ill baby. Sheila works long hours at a shady joint but her earnings alone are not enough to pay for their daughter’s medical care. Uptight, frustrated and angry at his own failures, Ben decides to join a popular game show that asks contestants to risk humiliation and injury for cash prizes.

In the ultra-violent top-rated contest, trios of runners have to cheat death for 30 days while hiding within the general population for a $1 billion payout. Drone cameras track their every movement while hired assassins try to kill them, and citizens are paid for ratting them out. The show hasn’t had a winner yet and is obviously rigged. Ben is persuaded to join by the show’s creator, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin), who makes Ben believe that his anger at the establishment and desperate need for money are twin pivots that will egg him on to a win.

Like in the 1987 film, the show slanders him — this time as a lazy layabout who’d rather take handouts than earn an honest living — and the audience laps it all up, going into a blood-thirsty frenzy. Ben taps into a secret network of helpers, including a gun dealer (William H Macy), a podcaster (Daniel Ezra), and a gadgeteer (Michael Cera).

Wright makes it pacey. The action is swift and has high impact. The soundtrack is sharp and strikes discord at appropriate moments. The script and treatment though don’t allow for time and space to flesh out characters.

The novel imagined an authoritarian America in 2025, ruled by a giant corporation that controls the flow of information while keeping the masses in the perennial struggle mode. To King’s credit, the reality today is not too distant from that. Wright and Michael Bacall’s script sets the contest in a technologically advanced America of today.

People are voyeurs of fake news, have a mob mentality and are easily distracted from the true nature of events. The futuristic dystopia of the novel feels like the reality of today, but the problem is that all this flits through with the velocity of a bullet train and nothing deep registers.

Powell does his best to fill Arnold’s shoes but his personality is more suited to mirror Tom Cruise’s showmanship than Schwarzenegger’s.

The climax doesn’t land smoothly either. Wright’s technical wizardry fails to make this an exciting experience. The shock value associated with a dystopian setup is missing. Everything feels dark and furiously nihilistic.

The adaptation feels more like a desperate attempt to cash in on the prevalent divisive political climate. Definitely not thought-provoking entertainment.