THE RUNNING MAN is America
“Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” is a well-known phrase from the Declaration of Independence but for our purposes, I think the emphasis in this phrase should have been on the word “pursuit”.
By the year 2017, action classic The Running Man has taught us that civilization and culture as we now know it is a total shit-show. The economy is in the crapper, the people refuse to listen to anyone with differing opinions, the “network” brainwashes us and our children to believe whatever fattens their pockets the most, and the government feeds us lies and bullshit on a daily basis to retain its control over us. What a sad state, huh?
“Are you ready for pain? Are you ready for suffering?” Captain Freedom knows what’s up when it comes to working out and he apparently had some sort of magic looking glass to see that the world of the future was bound to be a mess. Ben Richards knows that because they frame him, throw him in the slammer, and turn him into Enemy Numero Uno to the American people. The problem, however, is that the government can only try to hide their evil ways for so long. Like putting AXE Body Spray over a giant pile of shit. Sooner or later, them turds are gonna stink up the room.
Court Appointed Theatrical Agents might seem like some ridiculously 80’s vision of the future legal system but anyone who watched that nutty Johnny Depp/Amber Heard business might see why it isn’t as crazy as it appears.
The bloodthirsty nature of The Running Man is also very familiar while still being great 80’s cheese. Watching its Stalkers die on screen and then cutting to commercials from Cadre Cola and Castrol GTX to keep that precious money coming in is exactly what you would expect from a network show today. There’s even a moment in the film when Richards starts getting the momentum and the ICS Network tries to pay him off and get him on their team. BIG MISTAKE!
When all else fails, the Network uses digital mapping and their “high tech” program to make a video of Ben Richards fighting against the great Captain Freedom. It’s all a bunch of lies, of course, and Ben and his new buddy Amber need the help of the underground hacker-rebels to take down the big, bad government. The best part is that not only did they take down “The Man” with all of their computers and such, but Amber snuck in the video of the real massacre that Ben was framed for in her “prison wallet”. Thank goodness for all those kegel exercises!
