The Running Man 1987
Directed by Paul Michael Glaser · 101 mins · 1,157 views
Synopsis
Trailers
Reviews (102)
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W
This is top 5 Arnold for me. My favorite part is always the how horny the old biddies in the studio audience are for giant muscle men shedding blood.
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J
I understand the upcoming Edgar Wright adaptation is supposed to be more faithful to the source material yadda yadda yadda, but how good can it really be if there’s no Dynamo?
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M
Deepfakes were invented 30 years ago in a movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger enters a Murder Game Show and strangles a hockey-themed American Gladiator of Death and then quips “He was a real pain in the neck.” Movies are just the best, guys.
2,705 7 -
D
“I’LL BE BACK.” “HE HAD TO SPLIT.” “YOU ARE ONE UGLY MOTHERFUCKER.” “HELLO, CHRISTMAS TREE!” “HASTA LA VISTA, BABY.” “LET OFF SOME STEAM, BENNET!” “WELL, CONSIDER THIS A DIVORCE.” “HAVE A LIGHT!” “HERE IS SUBZERO! NOW… PLAIN ZERO!” “STICK AROUND.” “Only on a rerun!” Arnie Trivia: While Billy Wilder’s final official film was Buddy Buddy in 1981, he ghost-wrote all of the I’m-about-to-kill-you quips in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 80s action films. A late career highlight, to be sure! Arnold Schwarzenegger Ranked Stephen King Adaptations Ranked
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T
Omg the futuristic 80s aesthetic, the cheesy one liners, Arnold’s “acting” and this movie apparently predicted deep fakes. It’s too much!
868 2 -
P
There’s a character named Dynamo who’s a big guy in a Tron costume with a centurion helmet who sings opera and has electric powers and I don’t understand why he isn’t in every movie
3,268 17 -
P
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T
The Running Man is equal parts social political commentary and laugh-out-loud action silliness. The future, which ironically starts in 2017, is grim as hell, and the government controls all. The citizens are sucked into a “bread and circus” type gameshow, The Running Man. Most, also believe everything the government tells them, and they’ve forgotten how to think for themselves. I guess we don’t have it so rough after all in Real World, 2017. Arnie runs around in the tackiest of tacky, yellow jumpsuits. How much more can a target stick out? He’s pursued by a fella who looks like an opera singing live-action Light-Bright, a chainsaw wielding steroid laced maniac, a Cocaine fueled Gizmo haircut lookin’ Jim Brown, a professor…
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D
Did you know that when you eat cheese it releases an opiate called ‘casomorphin’ into your stomach, making you feel all good and giddy? I guess eighties cheese is no different, because for some reason I really, really like this cheese fest based on source material a gazillion times better.
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I
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𝐒
“She cheated on College exams!” “She had sexual relationships with TWO… sometimes THREE men… IN A YEAR!” 🤣🤣🤣 OMG this future was so conservative!! No wonder they needed Arnie to run around bitch-slapping middle aged fatties and save humanity with cheesy one-liners🚀 “HERE IS SUB ZERO!.. NOW PLAIN ZERO” Suck it Shakespeare!
728 22 -
L
Crazy how things that seemed like absurdities in this movie now seem plausible. “Department of Justice: Entertainment Division.” “The President’s Agent.”
1,334 8 -
B
A classic action movie. But never saw until it was time for the remake. Watched it right before honestly this was more satisfying watch.
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P
Pas mal mais ont voit comme même avec les effets spéciaux que sa date
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H
One liner delivery 10/10
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R
Big fan of the fat opera singer who has electric powers and dresses like the OG tron movie
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T
Un petit bijou. Et, déjà, “I’ll be back”.
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R
Mano pqp a critica tava la, a historia boa, mas nossa muito mal adaptado e atuado pela mor de deus
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D
more like the running men
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J
Sometimes, I wonder how Schwarzenegger ever got popular in Hollywood. The man just can’t act (my theory is that his face is so muscular that it can’t show any emotion). But then I remember that Dwayne Johnson also has a carreer. I guess you just don’t need talent if your arms are big enough. That said, movie was fun and I liked the futuristic view of the 80’s as always. But I have difficulties looking past how awful an adaptation this is to Stephen King’s novel.
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A
Anyone who rated this lower than three stars simply doesnt know how to look camp in the eye. Every line Arnie says is fucking hilarious and by the way he’s delivering each one like hes pausing for laughs, he clearly thinks so to. He also may have learnt all this lines phonetically, because he just… doesnt emote. Like at all. But despite how camp ans silly this movie is, and clearly trying to pack in as many one-liners as possible,…
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A
ah yes Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a stogie, jacked as fuck, and doing slapstick action. fuck give me more. bring back color in movies. i’m so sick of the depressing ass grey wash everything has lately. get that glen powell remake the FUCK away from me.
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B
186th film of 2026. 32 new-to-me. He ran and he ran and there was a lot of running and like a flock of seagulls, he couldn’t get away. Until he did. And then Ben Richards and Captain Freedom went on to become Governors after they hunted a predator and they laughed and laughed and laughed.
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X
À revoir avant avis définitif
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MMaggdo 8 月 24, 2026
« Hello cutie pie. One of us is in deep trouble. » « You can use my back, victim »
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R
Ce bon vieux Arnold ne dégage qu’une seule émotion ceci dit c’est une très belle émotion
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PPandaKiwi 8 月 24, 2026
Such a time capsule of how the ’80s thought the 2010s were going to look. Is this the movie where we got the idea for deepfakes? Back to The Running Man. Intrigued by how futuristic ’80s this movie looks and feels, and staying for Arnold’s good and badly funny one-liners! And whoever got him to agree to be in that suit for most of the movie, I hope your life has been very blessed after this.
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P
Una película más de Schwarzenegger. Me parecieron interesantes los cambios que se hicieron en cuanto al libro original (más oscuro el backstory de Ben Richards). Lastimosamente, siento que el resultado final quedó demasiado superficial, centrándose en personajes con los que no sientes conexión alguna. No está mal para pasar el rato 👍.
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O
Much better than Wright’s version. It’s nastier, tackier and more brutal, which is a big part of elevating it above the new one. The rest of the difference is that, having been made in a world where TV actually mattered, the satire feels much sharper and immediate.
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V
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L
A plan weird adaptation where a cognitive of the machine is asked to do one wrong thing and decides to take the whole thing down
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C
Shockingly misogynistic, even by 20th century standards
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S
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U
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ㅅ
its funny that the synopsis here is schwarznegger has yet to play rather than his characters name
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_
Vi su remake y me encantó, y dije, voy a ver la original de Arnold. Me ha gustado la verdad, muy original, y algo diferente a la remake. Pero me parece de locos que una película de los 80 haya construido ese universo tan distópico y cruel, y con esos efectos especiales. Me ha gustado más el remake, pero tiene más mérito esta película por ser la original y darnos ese mundo tan surrealista en aquella época.
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M
“Guarda qua testa di lampada, albero di Natale, lardo luminoso” La tipa davvero una cagacazzi
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𑣲
It was interesting ig the newer one is better because this is really old
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S
Arnie on a film critiquing the 80s conservative leadership is a total surprise. Unfortunately for this film they didnt do well in portraying the running man games as compared to the 2025 film.
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N
I’ll be back must be Schwartz’s fav line
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F
jesse ventura should’ve been in this more
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A
Ben Richards: “I’ll live to see you eat that contract, but I hope you leave enough room for my fist, because I’m going to ram it into your stomach and break your goddamn spine!” Is it really a five-star movie, probably not, but I love it. It’s fun and colorful and goofy. Some classic Arnold one-liners and guttural noises.
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N
Arnie
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C
Plusieurs mois après avoir vu le remake au cinéma, je voulais enfin découvrir le film original avec Schwarzenegger. Au final, j’ai plutôt moyennement aimé. Schwarzenegger est vraiment bon dans le rôle principal et colle bien au personnage. J’ai bien aimé l’idée du jeu télévisé et la critique de la télévision, qui reste assez intéressante. Le côté satirique fonctionne plutôt bien, même si certaines situations sont vraiment très caricaturales. Par contre, le film a quand même pas mal vieilli, notamment visuellement.…
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E
let send arnold to the future again and might aswell put him in the squid games
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L
A decent action film, it’s very over the top filled with goofy characters and funny one liners from Arnold, however it makes it a very fun watch at times, what knocks down the rating for me is I found myself feeling a bit bored around the middle section, it starts to feel quite repetitive and i was starting to become disengaged because it felt like the novelty had wore off and i seen everything the film had to offer. Although…
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Kk2p2 8 月 23, 2026
Jesse Ventura and Richard Dawson (especially for audiences who already knew him) are the best used here. In contrast, Arnold and Maria Conchita Alonso are not so much fun to watch. “Chemistry” between leads can be a slippery thing, but it’s pretty plain where it is missing here, which particularly makes itself felt in an ending that lacks the intended satisfaction. Not an original observation, I know, but it’s interesting how well films around this time like Terminator and Total Recall make use of Arnold’s physique and his acting limitations, and the weaknesses of The Running Man make an interesting comparison to this.
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E
Slightly better than the new one
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C
Un paio di mesi fa è uscito il nuovo adattamento di The Running Man, il romanzo di Stephen King: dirige il nostro amicone Edgar Wright, Glen Powell convince nel ruolo del protagonista, bel film, fedeltà al romanzo rispettata, molto carino, bravo Wright, bravo Powell, bravi tutti, bene, ora quindi eccovi LA RECENSIONE DI QUELLO ORIGINALE L’IMPLACABILE (PAUL MICHAEL GLASER, 1987) ANZITUTTO DIO IMPALATO MI STRAPPO LA MAGLIA E GRUGNISCO DI SODDISFAZIONE PER L’IDEA ITALIANA DI NOMINARE STO FILM “L’IMPLACABILE”, CIOÈ…
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J
I love the character designs, especially the campy villains. It’s all so over the top, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Fun stuff.
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B
Genuinely felt like it was a competition to see how many ridiculous one liners they could write for Arnie in one movie. It *exudes* 80’s despite the dystopian future angle. Slap stick action with minimal plot – All gas no brakes. Oh and let’s add Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac playing a future rebel version of…himself!
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F
“what a hot head”
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B
Genuinely, absolutely and totally horrible. Boring actionless first half, and then a second with hugely boring action. Arnold schwarzenegger delivers the performance of his life in this one. Only time i found enjoyment in it is the puns arnold drops after killing a villain in gruesome ass ways, which are really funny enough to bump it from a 1/10 to a 3/10. I want 100 minutes of my life back 3/10
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M
Such ahead-of-its-time concepts and sharp satire, ruined by dated action and cringey dialogue.
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Z
Même Nolan n’a su déployé un dispositif d’une telle ampleur pour orchestrer chacune de ses représentations de bagarre. Maudit sois-tu Penny l’ornithorynque !
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B
Just not my thing
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G
it’s like a much more retarded total recall and then after it ended i wanted to put on total recall
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K
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D
“Get me the Justice Department… entertainment division… No! Get me the president’s agent!”
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L
Out and out macho action man film—stupid but fun
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N
The Running Man, Running Less.
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J
It was a fun watch at times. But other than all of the actors being hot there isn’t enough to draw me in. The characters are undeveloped. The fights are dull.
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C
So many dance numbers and rape jokes
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J
c’est pas si mauvais cependant ça à trop mal vieilli je préfère celui de 2025
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U
My tolerance for 80’s action hijinks is pretty high, but this failed to keep my attention. The combined budget for special effects seemed to amount to a few spandex suits and a flamethrower. Harold Faltermeyer’s score was a small bright spot.
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T
Dystopian psychological horror was butchered into a weird action movie. While the visuals and the coloring are on top, the other details border on total disrespect to the original novel. The main points about Stephen King’s “The running man” are that you are willing to participate in such games as you do not have any other opportunities to earn money so you’re really desperate (Ben Richards had a sick daughter), all alone, that you can not be sure where your…
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MMalte 8 月 21, 2026
80-tals filmer har sin charm. Men de är egenrligen oftast ganska dåliga. Detta gäller även The Running Man
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H
so cheesy so fun so Arnold i love the idea of someone watching this when it released and thinking they’d never fall for propaganda just to become a right wing nationalist
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C
Here’s a shocker… I’ve been trying to finish this movie for 30 years. Finally, laid up recovering from oral surgery, I did it. I like the 80s vibe, but it all just felt undercooked to me.
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C
I like the 2025 one better
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Ooctoojelly 8 月 21, 2026
I know for an absolute fact this will get better on multiple viewings after the one-liners sear into my brain and I watch it with the right people.
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A
this was ass i prefer new sorry!
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N
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G
Double feature with UHF felt like a masterful pairing to reveal some dark TV satire. #parenting
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B
Le beau gosse ultime je suis totalement fermée au débat
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F
One of the cheesiest and worst movies I’ve seen but is so funny and entertaining. Arnold’s ‘acting’ is fabulous and the one liners are out of control. The villains are hilarious and stupid. It all works so well as a complete 80s Arnold disaster piece. What is cool is that it predicted a lot of problems in the modern world so it aged horribly and amazingly at the same time. Awful film but such a fun experience
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T
I want the Running Man Home Version so bad. The Running Man gets 10 Well first off hes Chinese-Zero, not Japanese-Zeros out of 10 Those dancers have the hardest job on the shows
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T
For a dystopia film, it was very bland. I wanted the movie to end about 30-45 minutes in. It wasn’t all bad, there was some very fun characters like the stalkers/hunters such as a hockey player with a razor blade hockeystick, a Hulk Hogan on a motorcycle that weilds a chainsaw, or a opera singer in a techno suit that shoots lightning (You can tell what type of movie this is, lol). I just wish that the movie kind of…
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H
Schwarzenegger’s acting and dialogue in this is so bad and 90% of his lines are dumb one-liners. Love it.
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A
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G
Man, 2017 was a crazy year. The Running Man had some really good elements to it, but it also had some not so good elements. I’ll start with what I liked about it. The colors throughout the movie were very 80s. Even though this movie claimed to be set in the 2010’s it was very obviously made in the 80’s, and that’s fine by me. I love how colorful the movies from that era are and how even though it…
3 1 -
R
Cool
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H
I’m a sucker for this one, mainly because I love Richard Dawson’s villainous turn and seeing Mick Fleetwood as a rebel freedom fighter. Plus the stalkers are awesome; the opera singing Dynamo is the standout, but even Jesse Ventura delivers. Easy to have on while doing other stuff – an enjoyable romp!
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M
Bring back one-liners to modern cinema! (But not this many it’s a bit over the top) We never got to see the end of climbing for dollars either which I’m gutted about.
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D
Like the hunger games but way better
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R
Arnies one liners are actually painful sometimes. Some of the social commentary is so freaky, like they just predicted deepfakes.
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B
Better than the new one. The ending is better too
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L
Comme quoi, être terroriste n’empêche pas d’être sponsorisé par adidas
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B
Entertaining movie !!
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C
Captain Freedom vs Soldier Boy from The Boys
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Z
I can’t believe some exec thought Glen Powell could pull off lines like “what a hothead”
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D
They may be cheering that the running man is over and Ben won but they still have a heavily corrupt government
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B
The running man? More like running men
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K
this movie is violently 80s. also why is arnold shwarznegger kinda hot?
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J
not as bad as i expected, great set design and costuming, not much else to write about
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L
What an absolute blast !!! Nothing quite like 80s sci fi hokum, though this time with the pleasant surprise of them actually swearing for once. The constant quippy one liners, the lycra bodysuits, the plastic scenery, the clip art cgi, cassettes and phone operators still in use, the ridiculous logic throughout, and my favourite “set in the year 2017”. Gotta say though the central villain was scarily believable, perfectly acted and an apt commentary on the apathy of reality TV and capitalism.
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E
Not for me this, preferred the remake
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D
Alors ça a salement vieilli, et on oublie quasi tout le lore du bouquin pour en faire un véhicule à Schwarzi mais justement : c’est fun, vulgaire et gratuitement violent comme un Schwarzi des années 80 😁
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N
¿Envejeció mal? Pues depende de a quién le preguntes. Vi todas estas películas de Schwarzenegger cuando era muy pequeño, así que volver a ellas después de tantos años a veces sirve para confirmar lo épicas que siempre fueron, pero también para notar cuánto desenfocaba la nostalgia. Sinceramente, me dio bastante risa ver los trajes del inicio. Ojalá solo fuera un momento pasajero del vestuario, pero resulta que es posiblemente la parte más emblemática de toda la cinta. JSJAJAJ. ¿Me gustó?…
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M
Weird, aber irgendwie auf eine gute Art.
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J
This humdrum satire of infotainment propaganda treads familiar thematic territory that would become even more familiar with such subsequent series as Battle Royale and The Hunger Games and the ensuing debate about which predecessor the latter ripped off more. In the fast-paced, action-focused, high-spirited dystopian vein as its contemporaries RoboCop and Total Recall, and with the same penchant for self-consciously stupid Schwarzenegger one-liners, it is more narratively and visually claustrophobic, less biting in its broad caricaturizations, and predictable to the…
- Synopsis
- By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and U.S. society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where “runners” attempt to evade “stalkers” and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free.
- Director
- Paul Michael Glaser
- Writer
- Steven E. de Souza
- Studio
- Braveworld Productions, Keith Barish Productions, TAFT Entertainment Pictures
- Country
- USA
- Language
- English, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
- Year
- 1987
- Runtime
- 101 mins
- USA13 Nov 1987
- USSR16 Nov 1987
- India10 Dec 1987
- Japan12 Dec 1987
- Egypt25 Dec 1987
- Thailand10 Jan 1988
- Australia28 Jan 1988
- Italy05 Feb 1988
- Hong Kong06 Feb 1988
- France16 Mar 1988
- Brazil24 Mar 1988
- Portugal08 Apr 1988
- Colombia21 Apr 1988
- Spain29 Apr 1988
- Netherlands11 May 1988
- Argentina12 May 1988
- Mexico23 Jun 1988
- Denmark27 Jun 1988
- Germany30 Jun 1988
- Sweden15 Jul 1988
- UK23 Sep 1988
- Norway13 Apr 1989
- Finland26 May 1989
- Hungary26 Jul 1990
- Netherlands06 Aug 2002
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