10 Endings Stephen King Actually Got Right
8. The Running Man
This is another of the Richard Bachman novels, which King describes as being something of the dark half of himself - and yes, that is where the inspiration for The Dark Half novel came from!
The Running Man is another dystopian story following a game show with lethal consequences. Entrants are picked with only one possible fate - to die at the hands of the hunters. For every hour they remain alive, they earn $100, with an additional $100 for every hunter they kill. If an entrant can stay alive for 30 days, they can win the grand prize of $1Billion.
Ben Richards is the protagonist here, taking part in the games to find the money for his daughter's medication. Despite his every effort and beating the record for the amount of time a man has survived the game, he is finally cornered, though he manages to take a hostage and hijack a plane. It is on this plane, however, that he discovers the wife and child he was running to protect died before he had even begun the game, killed by mob violence in their neighbourhood.
With nothing left to lose, he releases his hostage (via parachute!) and kills the crew of the plane. He aims it for the main headquarters of the Network that runs the game, exploding in an inferno that lights up the sky.
It is a dramatic ending, a push back against the futility of his contemporary world.