The Running Man (2025)
Directed by: Edgar Wright
Premise: Adapted from the novel by Stephen King (as Richard Bachman). In a dystopian future, a family man (Glen Powell) desperate for money competes on a game show in which he is hunted by assassins.
What Works: 2025’s The Running Man was directed by Edgar Wright who previously helmed Hot Fuzz, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Baby Driver. Wright is adept at action filmmaking. He knows how to put together a set piece in ways that are surprising and kinetic. He brings that energy to The Running Man and the film is a lot of fun in the style of Wright’s other pictures. This is an impressively designed production. The sets have a credible look while retaining its futurism. The premise of The Running Man has a contemporary urgency. In the near future, a media corporation has taken control of society. Desperate citizens earn money on humiliating and dangerous television shows. A blue-collar laborer named Ben is unable to work because he’s been blacklisted. The setup dramatizes the way entertainment outlets and mass surveillance firms are merging together to create a nightmare scenario and Ben’s circumstances are desperate enough to make his choices convincing.
What Doesn’t: Actor Glen Powell doesn’t quite fit into the lead role. He’s effective as a desperate family man but as Ben becomes a political icon Powell is increasingly unsuited to the character. Part of the problem is the storytelling. The plotting of The Running Man comes across scattered. Once the contest begins, the film becomes a series of repetitious and disconnected episodes in which Ben finds a place to hide, is found, and then goes back on the run. The story lacks a sense of direction nor does Ben develop as a character. This version of The Running Man attempts to be subversive in the mold of Robocop and They Live but the film’s politics are incoherent. The filmmakers acknowledge how Ben’s image is controlled by the corporate narrative and he never breaks out of it. Ben accidentally becomes a political icon but the film doesn’t do anything interesting with that idea. He encounters an underground resistance movement but this doesn’t build toward anything. The ending comes across forced and tagged on as though it were a reshoot. The story entertains sinister implications but then veers away. The subversive elements come across hollow and the edge of the material has been dulled.
Bottom Line: 2025’s The Running Man is entertaining yet frustrating. The action sequences are done well but the storytelling is clumsy and the political ideas are incomplete.
Episode: #1075 (November 23, 2025)