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Set in 2019 in a dystopian future, where TV is essentially anything-goes. Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is framed for the murder of more than sixty women and children in a food riot. He gets sent to a prison to serve life with hard labor. There he meets up with two imprisoned under ground rebels trying to escape. Together, they break out and try to disap pear through the underground network they have. After removing his track ing device, things don’t go as planned when Ben goes to find his brother at his apartment. The brother has been taken away for “re-education” and in his home is Amber, played by Maria Conchita Alonso. That does not go well, and in a plan to disappear to Hawaii, Ben gets caught. This time, instead of being sent back to prison, he is given the opportuni ty to try his fate at “The Running Man” TV show where stalkers try to track him down and kill him. If he survives he essentially gets the full pardon, which seems odd for a guy that killed more than sixty women and children, but go with it; it’s the future. The host of the show is Richard Dawson, and he is by far so damn charismatic as Damon Killian, you realize why he was a master game show host. I am not going to spoil any more because the plot twists and action scenes are killer. Top of the line for an Arnold flick and still holds up to today. But here is the stuff magic is made from: the backstory and other elements. First, the story where this is from. Based on a short story by someone named Richard Bachman; who the hell is that? Well, that was Stephen King’s pen name, and King’s way of writing more than one book a year, which was kind of the rule back in the day. So it is based on a short story. But the movie is based off an old film in ‘83 called Le Prix du Danger which in turn is based off another short story by Robert Sheckley called “The Prize of Peril.” There is also another German made-for-TV flick in the ’70s that is also based off the Sheckley short story. Long story, this whole thing has had lawsuits and is essentially plagiarized. But crazy, right? Second, the director is kind of interesting. This is directed by Paul Michael Glaser. Yup, god damn Starsky from Starsky & Hutch . And this is only his second film he’d directed! He did a flick prior called Band of the Hand , which I should talk about in a future article, very solid ’80s campy action. Anyway, Paul essentially gets brought on after a week because Arnold wants the original director, Andrew Davis, fired. Andrew Davis leaves and goes on to make Above the Law and starts the career of Steven Seagal. But for a second-time director, Paul nails this flick. Third, is the cast of characters in this flick. I mentioned some above but let’s go through this cast. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto are the main players. Marvin J. Mcintyre is Weiss and is a face you will recognize only if you are deep into the 80s

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