Stephen King: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best
12. The Running Man
Surprisingly, not many of Stephen King's novels produced under the pen name Richard Bachman have been adapted into films. King took the Bachman name both so he could publish multiple books in a year without readers wearying of him, and so that he could write in different genres than his mainstream horror work. The sci-fi dystopia of The Running Man is one such example. The Arnold Schwarzengger-starring film takes some liberties with the specifics of the plot, but the basic set up from King's novel is all there, with a future where civilians are routinely drafted (by lottery) into a lethal TV show where participants run through a series of death traps, facing off against insane murderers. The Running Man movie adds an extra wrinkle, with Arnie being a cop who cottons on to some corruption and is tossed into the game to keep him quiet. It's one of the more superior eighties Arnie films: there's plenty of violence and stupid one-liners, but King's premise gives it some surprising resonance.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
