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The Running Man is a 2025 Dystopian Action Thriller film based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Stephen King^note Under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It is directed by Edgar Wright, who co-wrote the screenplay with his Scott Pilgrim vs. The World collaborator Michael Bacall. It is the second adaptation of King’s novel following the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

In the near future, the United States has become a corrupt, totalitarian regime where the average citizen struggles due to economic collapse and high crime rates. Ben Richards and his wife Sheila struggle to afford medical treatments for their ill daughter Cathy. With Ben unemployed and blacklisted from his trade, he decides to become a contestant on The Running Man, a televised competition where contestants become cross-country fugitives, pursued by shadowy lawmen known as Hunters. If Richards can elude capture for 30 days, he will receive a lucrative grand prize that can solve all his family's problems.

The film stars Glen Powell as Richards and Josh Brolin as the titular show's producer Dan Killian. The cast also features Jayme Lawson as Ben's wife, Sheila, Colman Domingo as the host Bobby Thompson, Lee Pace as hunting squad leader Hunter Evan McCone, Michael Cera as Resistance member Elton Parrakis, Daniel Ezra as resistance member Bradley Throckmorton, and Emilia Jones as Amelia Williams, a civilian Ben takes hostage. Rounding out the cast are Katy O'Brian as a rival Running Man contestant, Karl Glusman and Joey Ansah as fellow Hunters working with McCone, David Zayas as Richard Manuel, and William H. Macy as Molie Jernigan and Sean Hayes as Gary Greenbacks.

The film was released in the UK on November 12, 2025 and Italy on November 13, with the North American release following on November 14. Amusingly, it's the second of two of Stephen King's film adaptations released in the same year centered around a dystopian future and Deadly Game premise. The first is The Long Walk (2025), released in September.

Previews: Trailer | Trailer 2 | Final Trailer

The Running Man includes examples of the following:

• Action Survivor: Ben is athletic and has plenty of experience in high-stress work environments, but he lacks the formal combat training of the Hunters or even the NCG goons. During Ben's confrontations with the various Hunters, he's never quite good enough to beat them in a straight fight, but his ability to improvise and outside interference (say, when Elton slices the Achilles tendon of a Hunter who'd sworn to do the same to Ben) allows him to keep on surviving. During Ben's climactic confrontation with the Hunters and McCone, he uses the environment, namely the out-of-control plane they're all aboard which repeatedly tosses everyone everywhere, to defeat them. Against McCone, Ben edges a win by using the parachute McCone had planned to escape the plane with to trap him long enough for Ben to deliver the fatal blow.
• Actor Allusion: Lee Pace works for Josh Brolin again.
• Adapted Out:
  • Most of the selection process is shortened down from the book and streamlined to get to the meat of the story faster.
  • In the book, the real reason Killian wanted Ben on the show was because he recognized his potential to inspire others and lead a revolt. In fact, it was why many people were selected to be on the show in the first place: to stamp them out before this potential could be realized and become problematic for the corporations. In the movie, this is taken out, and Killian just picks people whom he thinks would make for good entertainment before killing them. However, he still offers Ben the chance to be a hunter. Ironically, it's this oversight that does lead to a revolt at the end, exactly as his book counterpart feared.
• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Unlike the book, where Ben crashes the plane he hijacked into the Games Network after learning his family died, the movie pulls a Bait-and-Switch with Ben being framed by Killian claiming he was going to do so before the plane is shot down. For a second, it looks like Ben died and Killian won until the film goes into the final act, where a very-much-alive Ben leads a revolt against the Network. His family also lives as well, having taken fake identities to protect themselves from the hunters, and the footage of them being murdered that was shown to Ben and aired on the show having been faked.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Michael Cera looks nothing like his book counterpart, who is described as immensely fat and having lackluster hair.
  • McCone is described as a average looking man with glasses and a pot belly. Lee Pace certainly does not fit that description.
• Adaptational Badass: In the novel, McCone is little more than hype and isn't too much trouble for Richards, even if he gets in some good hits. The film McCone lives up to his reputation as a dreaded and ruthless enforcer who kills a ton of people and regularly proves himself to be absurdly lethal. As the first season's Runner that got to day 29 before being captured, he's this twice over, since in the books, the record before Ben Richards' run was 197 hours (8 days and 5 hours).
• Adaptational Curves: A downplayed case. Glen Powell isn't as muscular as Arnold Schwarzenegger, but he is still substantially more athletic and fit than the "scrawny" and "pre-tubercular" Ben from the novel. It is also a variation of Pragmatic Adaptation for the character, since it is more plausible for an athletically fit person to perform the physical stunts required for a movie in the Action genre.
• Adaptational Job Change: Sheila in the film is a waitress who works long, difficult hours at a scuzzy nightclub to help provide for the family. It's implied many waitresses often moonlight as prostitutes, but Ben is furious at any implication Sheila does and she makes clear she does not despite the Network's salacious insinuations. In the book, Sheila was indeed a prostitute and even tells Ben she took several clients to provide for baby Cathy in between him going to the network but before any money came in.
• Adaptational Modesty: In the novel, a woman overseeing the written portion of Ben's game tryout wears some seriously revealing and inappropriate clothing, which irritates Ben and causes him to sexually harass her. Her movie counterpart (the woman recording his responses to a holographic Rorshach test) is dressed much more professionally.
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Ben's an angry man who responds to cruelty with violence, but unlike his novel counterpart, he isn't a Politically Incorrect Hero. He's deeply in love with his wife, who is Black, and adores their daughter, whereas the novel's Ben had to get over his anti-Black racism. He also does not sexually harass a woman who proctors one of his tests during the audition process.
  • He also makes a futile attempt to warn the Hunters trying to shoot their way inside the hotel basement about the leaking gas, and rather than deliberately flying the plane into the Network building (which wouldn't sit well with a post-9/11 audience), it's a frameup job by the Network.
  • The men who stop Ben's car after he takes Amelia hostage make it clear they're only after him, whereas in the novel he was pulled over by police who were fully prepared to kill them both to claim the bounty.
• Adaptational Villainy: In the novel, Elton's mother ratted Ben out because she was afraid that his presence would endanger her son; here, she gleefully tries to call the cops, laughs at the idea of him being killed, and complains that she wants to watch Ben die as Elton tries to get her out of the line of fire when the police start shooting up their house.
• Adaptation Expansion: Ben and McCone frequently clash in person. In the novel, they don't really meet face to face until the end of the book.
• All Bikers Are Hells Angels: A biker gang tries to claim the bounty on Ben once, but he manages to escape.
• All for Nothing:
  • Subverted. Killian reveals to Ben his family was murdered by the Hunters in retribution for killing one of their number, meaning everything Ben has done was pointless. Turns out Killian is lying just to ensure Ben and McCone have a more exciting final showdown with Ben properly motivated to try and kill him.
  • Played straight with Elton's plan, which was to have Ben hide out in his father's old bunker. But by the time Ben gets there, it's gone due to a land development.
  • This turns out to be McCone's backstory. Like Ben, he was a talented runner who was offered a deal when it became clear he could win. He took it, but it was, of course, a Deal with the Devil that cost him his family and his humanity.
• All Just a Dream: Not long into the contest, Ben uses his grace period to check into a swanky hotel, only for the hunters to track him to his contact, Molie, torture his location out of him, arrive at the hotel, find his room, and get set to kill him in his sleep... then Ben wakes up. The dream, combined with the report of Tim's death, spooks him enough to get out of dodge and try to find someplace more inconspicuous.
• Always Need What You Gave Up: In the climax, Ben engineers a hostage plot and manages to get Amelia to help him. As they head toward the airport, Ben tosses away the revolver Bradley gave him since he figures his bluff would be enough. It does, until Killian reveals he was faking his bomb threat thanks to the plane scanners, which leaves him unarmed. When he engages against the last of the hunters, he has to steal a gun off of one of them and then wrestle against the final two for it to take them out.
• Ambiguous Situation: Per Bradley, the Network likes to pick Runners based on three broad archetypes: the Hopeless Dude, the Negative Dude, and the Final Dude. During Ben's Run, Jansky winds up being a textbook Hopeless Dude, but it's not clear which roles Ben and Laughlin were expected to play, as both have aspects of both archetypes. Ben is an extremely angry man, like many of the past Negative Dudes seem to have been, and the Network plays up his rage and violent tendencies, but he's charismatic, clever, and resourceful, much like the archetypal Final Dude. Laughlin turns her Run into a running party, like the archetypal Negative Dude, but she's also playing to win, since she prioritizes escaping an ambush rather than trying to take her attackers with her. Notably, the Hunters make their first serious play at killing Ben on day five of the run, and the Negative Dude generally lasts about a week before being hunted down. Likewise, Laughlin's well into the second week of her Run before McCone comes for her. It may well be that Ben was cast as the Negative Dude, but his unexpected survival during the Boston ambush forced the Network to adapt to Ben being the dark horse hit of the Run.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: Amelia's phone conversation with a friend shortly before Richards takes her hostage shows that she — and by extension a good portion of the audience — believes The Running Man is faked and the violence and exploitation of the poor they are being shown isn't really happening.
• Anti-Hero: Ben Richards is incredibly bitter, self-centered, and borderline misanthropic, and his initial goals are strictly to care for his family.
• The Anti-Nihilist: Ben is a committed cynic whose time on The Running Man brings him face to face with the worst of humanity as he participates in a murderous game show that he knows he probably cannot win. He keeps running anyway, for the sake of his beloved family, is consistently pleasantly surprised by people willing to help him, shakes Amelia out of her apathy and ultimately, even when he thinks he's lost everything and that his death is imminent, encourages America to stand up against the Network and the culture of cruelty and paranoia that it enforces.
• Arc Words: Several, repeated throughout the picture with varying frequency:
  • "Stop filming me!": Ben shouts this at a Running Man drone while fleeing from a Hunter ambush. It becomes a meme in the film itself, embraced by Ben's fans due to their shared anger and frustration at the Network reducing their lives to content. During the climax, Amelia screams it at a drone that's following her escape from the plane, showing that her time with Ben has radicalized her against the Network.
  • "Richards lives!": Another in-film meme, which springs up due to Ben's continued survival against the odds and becomes a rallying cry as he inadvertently inspires people to begin standing up against the Network. It also overtly foreshadows the fact that, unlike in the novel, Ben survives the game.
  • "I'm still here, ya shit-eaters!": A phrase Ben says after narrowly avoiding a hunter ambush in Boston. Laughlin actually compliments Ben for this in one of her tapes. Like "Stop filming me!" and "Richards lives," it becomes an In-Universe meme. Bradley adopts it in the finale in his internet video, turning it into "We're still here, ya shit-eaters."
  • "Tune in and find out.": A recurring phrase in episodes and commercials for The Running Man, it's later adopted in real-life conversation by two characters: Bradley, when Ben asks how he's such an expert on The Running Man, and Ben in the climax, after leaving a private call with Killian in which he makes Ben believe that his family has been killed, when Amelia asks him what's happening.
• Audience Surrogate: In-Universe. Amelia's conversation with her friend spotlights that many viewers of The Running Man believe it's all special effects and the violence and nihilistic cruelty being showcased isn't really happening.
• Avenging the Villain: A rare heroic example that isn't directly remarked on. Ben uses McCone's pistol FATE to execute Killian. While Ben despised McCone in life and had cause to do so, he had also learned that McCone was broken by Killian and the Network into becoming their star killer. Given Ben and McCone's many similarities, Ben's using FATE to kill Killian is revenge for McCone as much as it is for what Killian's put Ben and the world through.
• Bad Boss: Killian thinks nothing of killing people helping the Network or greenlighting the deaths of his own Hunters if they'll lead to better ratings.
• Becoming the Mask:
  • Amelia sees enough during her time with Richards to ditch her affluent lifestyle and join La Résistance.
  • This is also the case with Ben himself. Initially, he's insistent that the only reason he's in the game is to provide for his family; he isn't interested in any kind of revolution. By the end of the movie, he has embraced his position as a figurehead of the movement against the Network, and personally executes Killian.
• Big Bad: Like the previous versions, Killian functions as this, being the producer of the titular Deadly Game to keep the downtrodden distracted from their hellish prospects.
• Big Brother Is Watching: The Network has eyes and ears everywhere thanks to camera drones, surveillance cameras, and even FreeVee TVs, not to mention advanced tracking tech. In fact, the tapes that are required to be sent in are used to track where the runners are, making it virtually impossible to evade the hunters for the full 30-day requirement. McCone only got as far as he did because it was the first season, none of the techniques were made yet, and he wasn't a hunter yet.
• Bond One-Liner:
  • "That's game." McCone's phrase of choice for taking out the final Runner of a game. It's adopted by Ben for when he kills McCone in the climax.
  • After taking out a group of Network agents via Hydro-Electro Combo, Elton shouts, "I like my bacon extra crispy!"
• Boom, Headshot!: All over the place. Tim is taken out this way early on, as is Elton during the escape in Maine via a sniper bullet from McCone. Ben manages to take out two of the hunters like this in the climax once he gets his hand on a pistol. And it's implied Killan dies at the end via Ben shooting him in the head.
• Break the Badass: Per Bradley, the Hunters try to shatter the Final Dude's spirit before slaying them, usually by subjecting them to a drawn-out, sadistic demise. During the climax, Killian attempts this on Ben by claiming that the Hunters murdered his family to avenge their fallen partner. This ends up backfiring on Killian. Still, he had legitimate reason to think he could succeed, since he recruited McCone the same way, and successfully got himself one of the most lethal men in the world for an agent by doing so.
• Brick Joke: Realising the Network will censor anything that doesn't make him look bad, Ben jokingly threatens to eat some puppies in his next tape. Later when the police are kicking down Elton's door, his mother says that Ben won't be eating any more puppies.
• …But He Sounds Handsome:
  • When Tim buys a breakfast burrito from a store, his last act before he's killed, he tries pulling this on the female clerk who rings him up, claiming that one of the current Runners is a guy that "kind of looks like me, and he's really hot or something."
  • While heading for Maine, Ben stops over in a town disguised as a blind priest, and passes by some men watching the show and discussing Ben's chances. When one of them ironically asks Ben if he's seen him, Ben claims he hasn't, but has "heard he's quite the character".
• Bland-Name Product: In the book, the place Ben hides out in Boston was the YMCA. This was changed to "YVA" in the movie.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Elton's mother has been so brainwashed with hate by watching FreeVee 24/7 that even in the midst of gunfire, all she cares about is getting to see someone she's been told to hate gunned down, with no regard to her own safety or the safety of her son. Elton even says at one point that "she used to be a kind, clever woman".
• Brandishment Bluff: When Ben confronts the hunters to demand a plane, he claims that he has explosives in his pocket, when in reality he's just carrying Amelia's handbag (Killian reveals they knew the truth from the moment he got on the plane due to internal scanners, but he admires Ben's bluff).
• Broken Smile: How Killian meets his end. As the Resistance lay waste to the Network's goons and Ben flips his habit of counting down to incredible violence like he was cueing a non-murderous episode of television back on him, all Killian can do is give a mirthless, baffled grin.
• Calling Your Attack: The Hunter who corners Ben and Elton in the tunnel brandishes his knife and says he's going to cut Ben's Achilles tendons and drag him outside for the benefit of the cameras. Guess what Elton does with the Hunter's knife when he drops it in the struggle with Richards?
• Camera Abuse: Ben shouts at an in-universe camera to stop filming him before stomping on it. He later shoots one, and uses another as a bludgeoning weapon.
• Capitalism Is Bad: The film features a future dystopian US ruled by a MegaCorp known as The Network that literally owns the police and also tacitly controls the government in general. As a result, the rich connected with it enjoy incredible luxury while millions are stuck in slums barely surviving, with anyone daring even to mildly push back blacklisted from working at best. The masses are distracted by various popular deadly games with high potential rewards though a low chance of actually winning. There is an underground resistance, but at first they do little but distribute literature and graffiti which protests this.
• Cassette Futurism: A hybrid case. There are drones, self-driving cars, and sleek private jets, but the runners are required to film their daily messages on literal cassettes and send them in to the network via flying postboxes, and there's a definite 80s vibe to a lot of the set-dressing and especially the fashion.
• Cast Calculus: Bradley reveals that he has broken down the formula The Running Man uses for each group, which is carefully curated by Killian for optimal ratings. The first is "The Hopeless Dude," the one who is Too Dumb to Live and will get knocked out early because of a lack of awareness. The second is "The Negative Dude," who will use the limited resources given to them at the start of the chase to become The Hedonist knowing they are about to die, and may last a week before getting pounced on by the Hunters. The last is "The Final Dude," someone with intelligence and survival skills to last a few weeks, giving the show more time to build a particular narrative of how the Hunters locate them. In the group we follow, Tim is the Hopeless Dude, Jenni is the Negative Dude and Ben is the Final Dude, but it's implied the Network was hoping Ben would be the Negative Dude before he proved more resilient than expected (their first attack on him was day 5, and their falsified footage portrays him as a complete psychopath). While Tim fulfills his role to a T, being killed first after a short period of time, Jenni survives well into week two, when most Negative Dudes flame out within a week.
• Casting Gag: The Japanese dub delivers a strange, almost meta example of the trope, despite the actor in question not actually appearing in the film’s dub. One of the main Japanese theater chains released a promotional short featuring both comedian Kenji Riwaki and voice actress Yuko Miyamura. While Miyamura does not participate in the official Japanese dub, the role she plays in the promo makes the whole thing feel very deliberate. In the short, she appears as the perky-yet-unsettling “training video” presenter who explains the rules of the film’s deadly televised contest to Japanese audiences. Sound familiar? It should, because Miyamura previously played a similarly positioned instructional figure in Battle Royale, another story built around a government-sanctioned Deadly Game where participants are forced to fight to the death under strict rules.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Literally. Ben "inherits" McCone's custom pistol "FATE" and uses it in the climax to execute Killian.
  • Played with in regards to "Black Irish", the high-power explosive compound that Mollie keeps in his shop. Ben never ends up using any, but he cooks up the threat that he has some in his pocket wired to a dead man's switch in order to bluff his way onto a plane. Also, while in Mollie's shop, he sees a video movie playing in which a hijacker is using a grenade as a Dead Man Switch.
  • The question that the contestant in Speed the Wheel fails is "How many lavatories does a Netair flying-V luxury jetliner have?" That becomes important when Ben finds himself on exactly that type of plane. First, the "pilots" get the answer wrong as well, letting Ben know they're actually Hunters, and secondly, Ben knows how many lavatories he has to search when he thinks McCone is hiding in one.
  • There's a shot of rats under the floor of the YVA hotel that Ben stays in. Later, he follows the rats to find a way out of the basement he's trapped in.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Promotional ads for The Running Man spotlight the show's most successful contestant, who made it twenty-nine days before being run down. Turns out he's alive and well, and was recruited by the Network to be their top Hunter.
• Chekhov's Lecture: Early on, Ben is watching a trivia quiz show. One of the questions is about the number of lavatories in a specific type of luxury jet. In the finale, he ends up hijacking the very model of airplane, and uses the trivia knowledge to determine that his flight crew are actually hunters, as they give the wrong answer to the same question.
• Chekhov's Skill: During his audition, we are given cuts between Ben's workplace experiences and the obstacle course he has to overcome, explaining on the fly how the hell a random average Joe is so physically capable and can handle himself. This also sets up his later bluff with the explosives, too, as he had actual experience with demolitions.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: A whole nation of people don't seem to have a problem with watching people brutally hunted down and murdered just for their entertainment (with people in the audience even wearing signs saying "Die!"). As host, Bobby embraces this without a drop of shame and uses it to hype up the crowd during airings. Richards soon learns why this is: Bobby and the Network lie through their teeth about who the Runners are, claiming they are hardened criminals, psychopaths, and remorseless killers, to whip up the audience's anger against them.
  Bobby Thompson: Bloodlust is our birthright! Set it free!
• Consummate Liar: Killian, as easily as he breathes. He even seems aware of it, noting that even if he told Richards the truth, there's no way Richards would believe him.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • In Boston, Ben has the good luck to meet the Throckmorton family, whose eldest son Bradley who knows a ton about the ways The Running Man works, gives Ben precious shelter for a few days, and puts him in contact with another key ally, Elton.
  • The plane that Ben is seemingly trapped on has a safety measure of a crew escape module which allows Ben to eject at the last minute.
• Conveniently Empty Roads: Zig-Zagged realistically. The roads are appropriately full or empty based on the time of day and other factors.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Killian is the smarmy head of the Network and corrupt to the bone. Even discounting the fact that he runs death games for televised entertainment, Killian doesn't play fair and rigs the game depending on ratings.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Done very early in the movie when Ben hits up his friend Molie for supplies. Just as he's about to leave, Molie mentions that he was planning to hire Ben as an assistant to work in his workshop, which could've, you know, stopped him from going on a deadly game show. Upon learning that his entire plan to enter the show may have been negated had he waited a few more days, Ben can't help but facepalm at the irony.
• Crapsack World: To the max. Poverty is rampant, healthcare is nigh-unaffordable, people can be blacklisted from employment, and America is entertained by humans being hunted down and killed for sport on live TV.
• Creative Closing Credits: The credits are posted within Elton's self-made magazine.
• Creator Cameo: The first trailer features an appearance from film co-writer Michael Bacall as the man informing Ben that he's on "Free-Vee".
• Creepy Child: The two boys who burnt Laughlin alive with homemade flamethrowers show virtually no emotion when Bobby T. reveals what they did and presents them their awards.
• Crowd Chant: Several.
  • "Let them run!": When Ben, Laughlin and Tim are finally allowed to head off on their grace period.
  • "Hunt him down!": After the fiasco in Maine and the death of a hunter. Bobby T whips the crowd into a fury over it and implores the nation to find and kill Ben.
  • "Richards lives!": One that gains steam over the movie, started by Bradley's brother and taken on by the destitute due to Ben's continued survival on the show. It later becomes the mantra of the revolution — expanded into "Richards lives! Turn it off!" since no one could confirm if Ben died (he didn't, thanks to the ejector pods on the plane he was on) — as well as a rallying cry against the Network, even among the audience that was once loyal to the show.
• Darker and Edgier: Although the movie is actually Lighter and Softer than the original novel, it is more gritty and grounded than the 1987 film due to that iteration being more cartoonishly over-the-top in its depiction of violence and having more humorous moments and action hero one-liners.
• Dark Is Evil: Evan McCone is a Malevolent Masked Man Hunter whose attire includes Sinister Shades, a Badass Longcoat and Martial Beret all in black, brown and dark green.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Ben wears predominantly black as the leader of the resistance.
• Deadly Game:
  • Indeed, The Running Man is essentially a game show where contestants allow themselves to be hunted and risk being executed on television just for the sake of cash prizes. Ben's wife in the pretty much states no one who has gone on the show has came back from it.
  • What we see of other game shows implies that while none are as full-on lethal as The Running Man, they all have a degree of deadly violence involved. The other show we see is Spin the Wheel (initially Treadmill for Bucks in the book), where contestants with heart problems run on a giant wheel and have to answer questions; right answers earn money and maintain the normal speed while wrong answers have the wheel speed up. The wheel likewise is elevated above the ground, so falling off, as we see with the unfortunate contestant, leads to harm or death.
• Death Seeker: It's not heavily remarked on, but McCone, upon being trapped and having his own knife turned on him by Ben, dares the vengeful, wrath-powered Runner to finish him off, and softly smiles when Ben strikes the final blow. Given that he's a hollow, broken man who lives only for killing and considered finishing Ben before he could take the same deal with Killian that McCone did a mercy, death seems to be a relief for him.
• Defiant to the End: McCone knows he's beaten, but he goes down daring Richards to kill him and striking out at him until the final blow.
  McCone: Do it, tough guy. See if I twitch.
• Dehumanization: Part of the way Killian and company sell The Running Man to its audience is by slandering the Runners as lazy, murderous wretches who are trying to cheat the system (by participating in the system) with the prize money and thus deserve to be hunted by an elite kill team, a private army, and any informers looking to make a quick buck. Conversely, McCone uses his mask and shades to strip away his identity and play the embodiment of the system, both so that the audience can imagine themselves as the unstoppable badass behind the mask and so that he can lose himself in violence to dull the pain of whatever happened that led him to sign on with Killian.
• Determinator: One of the three Runner archetypes, according to Running Man expert Bradley. The so-called "Final Dude" fights to go the distance despite the overwhelming odds stacked against them. They'll be creative, ruthless, and usually charismatic enough to capture the audience's attention. They're reliably the last Runner in the game. The Network, once they've figured out who the Final Dude is, will wait for them to get overconfident before setting an inescapable trap for them once the ratings have peaked. Ben is, of course, his run's member of the archetype. McCone was the archetype's originator, and made it 29 days before the Network offered him a chance to join their ranks.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Elton concocts a plan to have Ben hide out in his father's bunker to wait out the remaining two weeks of the contest. But he hasn't been to the bunker in years and only assumes it's still there. What's more, he purposefully calls in the local cops just for some "fun" (read: revenge for the death of his father at their hand), figuring they'll have enough time to get out before the hunters reach them. Not only does he underestimate how efficient and ruthless the hunters are, leading to his death, but the bunker is now the spot of a land development and just an dug up outline where it once stood, leaving Ben out in the open.
  • Killian cares only for ratings and nothing else, figuring he's untouchable. He also has a massive love for deepfakes, which he uses to hide what the Runners are truly saying and present them as foul-mouthed criminals to whip the public into hating the Runners and wanting them dead. But the man is in no way a fighter, and his cruelty either costs him people who could help him or alienates those he works with. Likewise, he never seems to consider what would happen if he really pushed the buttons of one of his victims, and that they could possibly survive what he throws at them, or what could happen if someone actually did find out what the runners were really saying. All this comes to pass in the climax when, thanks to Ben saving her, Amelia sees for herself that Ben isn't the hardened killer he was presented as and helps the resistance. Since Killian didn't think to silence her, or consider that the plane even had a black box (which Killian provided, by the way), this allowed her to have the box decoded and get the truth out, quickly turning the public against the show. Bobby T., knowing an unwinnable crowd when he sees it and the lengths Killian would go to (including threatening him), leaves him to fend for himself. And, considering Killian faked that McCone killed his family and threw him under the bus in the name of entertainment, on top of trying to bury the truth with deepfakes, he has no one to help him once things hit the fan and Ben meets him for final time, with fatal results.
• Dissonant Serenity: We see a family in a trailer happily watching the show while an unlucky contestant is thrown from a balcony onto a car.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?:
  • The Network's logo has a shape integrated into the N that's more than a little reminiscent of a swastika.
  • After Ben gets to Boston and attempts to speak the truth about the Network's actions, he finds that the Network is capable of seamlessly editing the tapes to distort his words. While it's never elaborated upon how they did this, this is a common fear among those who oppose A.I.-Generated Artwork out of concerns about the prominence of deepfakes allowing people to fabricate misinformation whole cloth.
• Dramatic Unmask: Invoked. McCone doesn't want to unmask for the cameras, but Richards pushes him to, saying the ratings will love it. Killian instantly agrees and orders McCone to remove his mask for what's implied to be the first time ever on the show.
• The Dreaded: Runners are terrified of McCone for good reason. He's a relentless, unstoppable hunter with immense skill with both blades and firearms. He's incredibly intelligent, a very good fighter, and impossible to escape. He also doesn't care very much if he has to shoot through civilians.
• Eagleland: A very cutting Type 2 with wealth inequality up the woozah, and the most popular show in the country involving having people be hunted for sport for a chance at a life-altering (or in Ben's daughter's case, life-saving) sum of money. Ben and his allies, meanwhile, are a collection of tarnished but true Type 1s.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Surprisingly so. In a sharp departure from the novel, Richards not only survives the plane but reunites with his family. The audience of The Running Man also turns on Killian, and The Resistance marches in for the attack. The last scene is Richards putting a bullet between Killian's eyes.
• Easter Egg: A $100 bill is held up as part of the prizes, showing the former US President on the bill is former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Eat the Rich: Graffiti which says Kill The Execs is seen several times on walls, and people later start to shout this as a revolt erupts against their oppressive corporate overlords.
• Establishing Character Moment: Ben is introduced pleading with his former boss to rehire him, or failing that, at least remove him from the employment blacklist, while carrying and comforting his sick daughter Cathy. His boss refuses, castigates him for the reason he was blacklisted (having met with a union rep exactly once to warn them about a major health hazard) and mocks him for bringing his daughter along in an attempt at guilt-slinging. Ben, calm but visibly enraged, explains that he didn't bring his daughter with him because he wanted to guilt his boss, but so he wouldn't lose his temper and beat the man senseless. Ben's an angry, angry man, but he deeply loves and cares for his daughter, he wants to work with dignity, and he despises the world's cruelties.
• Even Evil Has Standards: McCone implies he'd never have killed Richards' family. While he doesn't care about collateral damage, he asks Richards if he really thinks he'd do such a thing or if it's likelier Killian is lying to make their final battle more exciting. It's the latter. Likewise, part of the reason Bobby T ditches Killian is implicitly disgust with how willing he was to frame Ben for an attempt to ram a plane into the Network's headquarters, which was filled with civilians.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Running Man's audience are bloodthirsty and happily swallow the Network's slander of the Runners so that they can enjoy their violent deaths. They are sincerely horrified when the Hunters apparently go rogue and butcher Ben's family. Following the leak of Ben's speech, the crowds grow disgusted with The Running Man, and Killian's goons cannot hold them back from charging the stage even before Ben and the resistance directly assault the studio.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Said as much, with the announcer stating anyone can kill the contestants.
• Evil Laugh: Elton's mother's pulls off an impressive one when Elton summons the police to their household, cackling to Ben "They're coming to get you!"
• Eye Scream: McCone takes a shard of glass to his left eye during his final battle with Ben. He nonchalantly pulls the shard from his ruined eye without so much as wincing.
• The Faceless: Lead Hunter Evan McCone is always seen wearing a grey tactical mask and sunglasses, showing nothing of his face, until the third act when Richards demands he remove it, revealing his deeply scarred visage.
• Faking the Dead:
  • Richards' family survives and goes into hiding. Killian makes do with a deepfake to "inspire" Richards to engage in a bloody final showdown with the Hunters. An unusual case as Killian doesn't care if they're alive or not and it's implied he would have hurt them horribly to turn Richards into a killer.
  • Ben does this himself in the finale. It looks like he was shot down in the plane, but he manages to survive thanks to using the plane's auto-eject feature right before it crashed. He then lays low until the next season of The Running Man to give Killian a false sense of security. Ben and his allies then proceed to discredit the Games Network and lead a massive revolution against the corporation that ends in Killian's death.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Despite Ben sparing one Hunter in battle, the man returns to try to murder him regardless.
• Fantastic Slur: "Welf" (presumably short for "welfare") is used liberally as a slur against the poor, following the Network's implications that the victims of poverty are lazy do-nothings who prefer to leech off of wealthier people than to actually work for a living.
• Fictional Currency: American currency is called N.D.'s for New Dollars. 100 ND notes have Arnold Schwarzenegger on it.
• Flipping the Bird: Richards does this frequently in his self-tapes to the network.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Ben is visiting Molie, he see he has some old CRT TVs, one of which is playing an old movie and the scene having one of the characters threatening others with a grenade on a plane. Ben decides re-enact this plot by claiming he has explosives that will level an airport to bluff his way into getting an aircraft to fly him to Canada. It works for a bit till Killian ruins the ruse.
  • A small one when Ben reaches Boston and rents out a flophouse; the man he does it from is implied to be a war veteran of an in-universe war back in the past. When Ben goes into the room, he looks over his belongings and finds an active grenade in his chest to his horror. He later takes it with him when the Hunters close in and tries to use it against McCone. Also there's a shot of rats under the floor of the flophouse; later Ben follows the rats fleeing into a manhole that he also uses to escape.
  • During the movie, Ben sends a video of himself trying to expose the Network for how they were giving children cancer, only for Killian to have it edited and make it look like Ben is mocking the people he's trying to help. The fact that the Network can edit and create fake footage of people that looks lifelike is the biggest hint that Sheila and Ben's daughter didn't really get killed and that their execution footage was faked.
  • McCone's fellow Hunters don't hesitate to hold him at gunpoint on Killian's orders, and neither they nor McCone himself mention Frank, the Hunter Ben previously killed, both of which contradict Killian's later claim that the Hunters are a tight-knit group that react vengefully enough at the loss of one of their own to murder Ben's innocent wife and daughter. McCone even brings up how unbelievable it is that he and his crew would do such a thing. Sure enough, it's all lies meant to create a compelling narrative, and the end of the movie shows that Sheila and Cathy are just fine.
• Framing the Guilty Party: Killian mocks up footage of McCone and the Hunters tracking down the safehouse where Sheila and Cathy Richards are staying, badging their way past security and murdering them to hurt Ben for killing one of their own. McCone and his crew are state-sanctioned killers with an ocean of blood on their hands, but they didn't murder Ben's family.
• Future Copter: A helicopter with four rotors is used by McCone to chase Ben.
• Get Out!: When Ben's video is played on "The Running Man" saying derogatory things while he's in Boston, Bradley's mother forces him to leave their home. This clues Ben and Bradley in that the Network is manipulating the videos to make the runners look bad, as Ben's real video was pointing out how bad things are for the poor and destitute.
• Gender Flip: In the book and previous film, Richards' fellow runner Laughlin is male. In this version, she's female (played by Katy O'Brian).
• Genre Savvy: After getting a crash course on the In-Universe tropes that The Running Man runs on from his new allies in Boston and becoming familiar with some more through sheer experience, Richards starts being able to anticipate the Network's actions based on them.
• Gone Horribly Right: Killian convinces Ben to join The Running Man because he thinks he can be one big star and bring a lot of audience to the program. It sure does - to the point that Ben's continued survival ends up triggering a full-on revolution against the Network.
• Good Costume Switch: Amelia trades out her ritzy finery for a more practical and punky look when she joins up with the resistance.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: McCone is heavily scarred under his mask, lending him a villainous demeanor. It's heavily implied he got the scars as a former Runner himself, in addition to being heavily traumatized there.
• Go Out with a Smile: Two cases:
  • After Ben skewers McCone with his own knife, the Runner-turned-Hunter grins softly before dying.
  • A downplayed example for Killian. Despite smiling before Ben shoots him, it's clear the smile is one of disbelief and pleading while Killian is in the throes of a mental collapse as opposed to McCone's more dignified end.
• Grenade Hot Potato: Ben attempts to take out McCone with a grenade, only for McCone to catch it with his foot and kick it back into the elevator where Ben is hiding. Not helping is that Ben fumbles the grenade afterward and just barely throws it out of the elevator, taking out the cables and sending him crashing into the basement.
• Guile Hero: Ben's ability to think on his feet and improvise is a big part of the reason why he's able to survive. One of the first things he does during his 12 hour grace period is obtain a suitcase full of disguises, which he successfully uses to take public transit and rent hotels in comparative safety. When he flees from a hotel in New York, he extends his stay by several days rather than formally check out, creating a fake paper trail for the Hunters. Later, when the Hunters assault a flophouse where he's shacked up, Ben successfully throws them off his trail by calling out that "Ben Richards is downstairs" and then sneaking back into his room via a Bedsheet Ladder. After he learns about how the Network shapes The Running Man, Ben takes to using the show's conventions against it, and successfully forces his way onto a plane with McCone and the other Hunters because it will make for a thrilling climax to the show.
• Happily Married: While she's clearly furious and shellshocked with Ben for joining The Running Man, Sheila and her husband are everything to one another. He refuses to indulge in the Network-provided sex-workers because of his marriage and the two are each other's one-and-only.
• Healthcare Motivation: Ben's daughter Cathy is sick but proper medication is more expensive than the off-brand stuff they are getting off the black market. Sheila is employed but since he's blacklisted in the job market they are fighting for every dollar. He goes to the network hoping to get a minor game show appearance and a few hundred dollars, but is roped into The Running Man only with the knowledge even surviving a week would provide them with plenty of funds.
• The Hedonist: Per Bradley, Running Man contestants broadly fall into three archetypes. One of these, "Negative Dude," is a runner who knows they're doomed and just wants to enjoy the last few days of their lives as wildly as they can, usually by blowing their cash on drugs and fine company before the Hunters inevitably get them. When they're cornered they'll try to die as spectacularly as possible. One of the past contestants who fit this mold responded to being surrounded by detonating a suicide vest, ensuring that at least some of his killers would die with him. During Ben's run, Laughlin gets herself an entourage and spends her time on the run partying it up. She even successfully escapes McCone, only to be burned alive by two dead-eyed kids who barely react to her anguished screams.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Killian, oh, Killian. The smarmy bastard thinks he's clever but a lot of short sightedness cost him dearly.
    • For one, Ben initially was trying to be on any show except The Running Man since he just wanted money for his daughter's medical treatment. But Killian insisted he join on after seeing his performance in the tryouts. Leading into the whole events of the movie despite know and seeing how formidable Ben is and is proven he can't be brought. The only reason Ben even does the show is that the money goes directly to his family, nothing else. Something that Killian scoffs at but agrees to if he can get his "star player".
    • Killian gets the bright idea to have the Hunters murder Ben's family with video footage broadcast to billions. The murder is fake because Sheila went into hiding, but this is done solely to give Ben motivation to fight McCone for the season finale. Turns out this makes the audience turn on the Hunters and by extension the network when Ben doesn't take the deal and sign up with Killian. It ultimately helps the rebellion that topples the Network for good.
    • Heck, for all the mocking he does to Ben in the finale, Killian kinda forgot the jet he provided on Ben's demands has a black box which actually records what's really going on in the plane and a escape pod on the pilot cabin. A girl living in the Co-ops finds the black box, has her uncle decode it and then releases the footage to the net, where the resistance distributes it to the masses, while Ben survives his purported death. This, along with Bradley's help, is what turns the public against the show.
  • During the climax McCone tries to swipe Ben's parachute and escape the plane they've been traveling on. Ben finally checkmates McCone by pulling the chute while the two are near a blown-out window. The released parachute gets yanked out the window, trapping McCone against the plane's wall, which ultimately hinders him enough for Ben to kill him. For the cherry on top, Ben kills McCone with his own knife.
• "Home Alone" Antics: Quite a few cops are killed this way in Elton’s house, with booby traps such as a railing on a staircase rigged to knock some hunters off the stairs, a laser tripwire that throws chemicals on the cops before unleashing flamethrowers, and an electrified floor that is sprayed with water to shock those caught on it.
• Hookers and Blow: Laughlin figures she's doomed and chooses to spend her cash on potent narcotics, beautiful women, and a running party.
• Hope Bringer: In the second trailer, Elton states that Ben's continuing survival despite overwhelming odds is bringing hope to the downtrodden. Ben, however, doesn't care. He just wants to survive and get back to his family. He comes around by the end, and apparently becomes the resistance's leader.
• Hope Spot:
  • Laughlin manages to avoid a hunter ambush at a casino — one lead by McCone, even — and just barely escapes. However, while she's filming her tape for the show in a shed, two boys, who apparently were part of the family that owned it, take her by surprise with flamethrowers and burn her to death.
  • Ben meets with Elton, who lays out a plan to use his father's old bunker to hide out in for the remainder of the two weeks until the contest ends. Sounds solid, but not only is Elton killed in the escape by McCone, but the bunker's location is now a land development in construction, and the only thing Ben finds is the dug-up outline where it once was.
• The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: During the climax, McCone and the other Hunters find themselves Ben's prey after Killian frames them for the murders of Ben's family and ensures that they're trapped on a plane with him.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: McCone is a former Runner enlisted by the Network to be their top Hunter. Now he hunts Runners himself and is frightfully good at tracking and anticipating them. After all, he was the best of them and got closer to winning than any did before or since.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Contestants willingly allow themselves to be hunted down by professional hunters in a nationwide manhunt, made all the more difficult as their faces are plastered on screens and buildings constantly, citizens often help out said hunters via app scans, and camera drones instantly zero in on them if they're spotted alerting hunters to their position. This means nowhere is safe for very long.
• Hydro-Electro Combo: Elton takes out some of Ben’s pursuers with an electrified floor and a bland name version of a Super-Soaker.
• Imagine Spot: Ben has a subtle one after Killian suggests his wife works as a prostitute. We see him smash Killian's head into the desk, but when it cuts to Killian, he's sitting up and just fine.
• Improperly Paranoid: Society at large. The Network keeps the American people under its thumb in part by using The Running Man to encourage its audience to hate and fear one another, and to direct their anger against each other. Ben's call to arms is dedicated in part to cutting through this and encouraging people to find community with each other and ask why the Network wants them angry and at each other's throats.
• Indulgent Fantasy Segue: When Ben formally signs up to compete on The Running Man, Killian offers him a glass of champagne and a beautiful female Network staffer. Unlike Jansky and Laughlin, Ben refuses the implicit offer, because he's married. Killian is surprised, since he figured that Sheila waitressing at a nightclub must mean she's a sex worker and that she and Ben have an "understanding." Ben briefly imagines himself slamming Killian's smug face into his fancy table.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: Amelia is introduced chatting with a friend about how The Running Man is clearly faked and couldn't possibly actually be happening. Ben takes her hostage seconds later.
• Internal Homage: Yet again, Edgar Wright directs a film where the main antagonist is called "The Network." This time around though, rather than a decidedly dickish alien intelligence whose goals were arguably well-meant, the Network is made up entirely of humans intent on perpetuating their despotic rule no matter what.
• Irish Priest: One of the disguises Ben acquires is that of a Catholic priest. He adds a thick, Irish accent on his own for good measure.
• Ironic Echo:
  • McCone's catchphrase of "That's game" which he says after finishing off the final runner. Ben says it to him when he kills him.
  • "In 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...and action!" This is heard at the beginning when the new season of The Running Man starts. Later, Killian says this to Ben when trying to convince him to kill one of the Hunters he and Elton managed to defeat, though Ben refuses. And again during the aircraft climax. Ben finally says it to Killian right before he shoots him at the end of the film.
• Irony:
  • Once Ben finally makes it to Maine and meets with Elton, he spots Elton's mother watching "The Running Man" and yelling for him to be hunted down unaware he's right behind her.
  • In the original story, Ben Richards is dying on the plane and goes for a suicidal crash after his family are tortured and killed. [McCone, the head runner, did have his family tortured and killed... and ends up being trapped on board the plane, dying, while Ben Richards has out-thought The Network and both him and his family survive the entire ordeal.
• It's All About Me: The Network, and by extension, society, try to encourage people to behave this way. The Running Man's advertisements frame a hypothetical victorious runner as able to flip off the world because they've got theirs. Ben's wretch of a former boss tells him to be grateful that he wasn't affected by the radiation leak he reported rather than worrying about the workers who were sterilized by the leak. The stars of The Americanos are breathtakingly selfish and self-centered, and Killian repeatedly tries to get Ben to prioritize his wants and needs first and foremost. During his climactic speech to the audience, Ben notes that the Network wants people to be angry, selfish and perpetually at each other's throats. After all, it's easier to repress people who do most of the work for you.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Ben holds Killian in contempt for his cheerfully profiting off death and his general aura of smarm, but over the course of the Running Man he comes to hate McCone for his ruthlessness, casual sadism, and apparent role in masterminding the murder of Ben's family. While the last of those turns out to have been a lie on Killian's part, Ben still despises McCone for the first two reasons and the fact that he's a deeply unpleasant jackass. McCone for his part, comes to hate Ben for his continually surviving McCone and the Hunters' ambushes and attacks and for the possibility that Ben might outdo him as the greatest Running Man contestant in the show's history.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Molie gets his hand crushed in a vise by the Hunters to make him give up Ben's fake identities.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To most, Ben is standoffish at best. To those who get on his bad side, he's vicious. During the Running Man, when he's pushed far enough to retaliate against the Hunters, he proves capable of inflicting brutal, painful death. He adores his wife Sheila and daughter Cathy, is consistently gracious to the people who help him, and ultimately makes sure that Amelia gets out of the mess he got her into alive.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Killian is arrogant, condescending, and exudes a persistent smarm. He's also impressed by Ben and offers him a cash advance to do the show that will pay for Cathy's desperately needed medical treatment. Any affability Killian demonstrates is an act. He's a manipulative, casually murderous despot who cheerfully confesses to having no principles beyond doing whatever it takes to get good ratings.
• Join or Die: At the start of the climax, Ben is given the choice of joining the Network as a new star after a "redemption arc" or being disposed of. Soon afterwards, it turns out that McCone is the legendary season one Runner who made it to 29 days before he was caught and given the same offer. Unlike Ben, he signed up with the Network. Though from dialogue, it's implied he was coerced into it after the Network tortured and murdered his family.
• Jump Scare: A pigeon bangs on the window of the apartment Ben's hiding out in Boston much to his annoyance.
• Karma Houdini:
  • A number of people who encounter and try to sell Ben out, in addition to hunting him themselves, are never punished for their actions. Nor are the kids who roast Laughlin alive.
  • Bobby T cheers on the deaths of the Runners and whips the public up so they'll be ready and willing to report them and sell them out, but when the public turns against the show, he runs away (even asking his assistant to join him) and isn't caught up in the ending riot. An image shown during the credits confirms that nobody caught him or even knows where he is, meaning he likely got away clean.
• Kill It with Fire: Repeatedly, and one occasion played for laughs.
  • While running from the Hunters at the YVA, Ben accidentally sets a fire in a room filled with fuel canisters, boxes of magazines, and what appears to be a collection of oily rags. The subsequent explosion incinerates eight Network goons who had been assisting the Hunters.
  • Laughlin is killed by two dead-eyed kids with homemade flamethrowers, who set her ablaze and emotionlessly watch her burn to death.
  • Played for Laughs by The Americanos, on which one of the obnoxious, wealthy so-and-sos vows to burn her shoes after one of her family members borrows them without asking.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Part of what makes McCone so effective as a Hunter is that he knows when to break off pursuit and let his targets go for the time being. He has resources they don't, and can track them down at his leisure, and there's no sense in trying to burn himself out if he doesn't have the maximum advantage possible. It's likely a holdover from his days as a Runner, and it's a skill he uses to great effect against Ben and the others. Moreover, during the climax, McCone realizes that he likely cannot defeat an infurated Ben, and so instead tries to flee from him.
  • Bobby T. is better at reading his audience than Killian, and by the picture's end realizes that the Network cannot and will not recover from the damage they've done to their reputation in the wake of Ben's run.
• La Résistance: Some people in America know better than to trust the Network and fight back against it.
• Large Ham: Fitting as the show's host, Bobby is Chewing the Scenery like his life depends on it (which it probably does).
  Bobby: THIS IS AMERICA, GODDAMMIT! AND WE DON'T PUT UP WITH NO BULLSHIT!!
  • Bradley also engages in some of this as the Voice of the Resistance, "The Apostle", when he points out a bunch of inconsistencies in the final episode of Ben's run.
• Laser-Guided Karma: The Hunter who corners Ben and Elton in the tunnel brandishes his knife and says he's going to cut Ben's Achilles tendons and drag him outside for the benefit of the cameras. But he drops the knife in the struggle with Richards and makes the dumb mistake of exposing the back of his own heels to a wounded Elton.
• Late to the Realization: Ben ignores a man ranting insanely outside the apartment he's shown to make his hideaway, even when the man seems to stare up at his building. He realizes almost too late that the man is a Hunter he saw at the studio and he's been recognized and tracked down. Ben barely escapes with his life.
• Lighter and Softer: The movie is this compared to the book. While still showing poverty and death and is no less suspenseful, it carries a much more less oppressive tone and humor to it (largely thanks to Edgar Wright's cinematography), playing out more like a typical action movie and ends on a much happier note than the book, whereas the book was fairly bleak and oppressive and, while showcasing some moments of kind humanity, was cynical from start to finish.
• Little "No": Killian's last words before Ben shoots him.
• Lifesaving Misfortune: Ben realises that Hunters have tracked him to the hotel where he's staying. He makes for the communal bathroom and finds it locked. Just as a Hunter is coming up the stairs, the door opens and smacks him in the face as the resident who was using it comes out. The Hunter rushes up and points his gun at...the rather startled resident, as Ben is hidden behind the now open door. Realising it's not his man, the Hunter moves on and Ben then enters the empty bathroom.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Done for humor in the in-universe opening of "The Running Man" show which showcases a thief turned contestant blown up by McCone with a rocket launcher.
• Malicious Slander: Anyone in the Network's bad graces can be vilified across the airwaves. Contestants on the Running Man are framed as vicious killers and villains who deserve to be murdered by Hunters as opposed to the desperate people they mostly really are.
• Manipulative Editing:
  • Everything in the show is curated for maximum viewership, Ben is first clued into this with his profile at the start of the show that paints him losing his job leaking classified materials (it was complaining about safety compliance issues) and bringing up his wife working at an unsavory establishment (she's explicitly just a waitress). He finds out too that they have the ability to falsify his recordings, so any attempt to send a message will get warped into him as a maniacal monster.
  • When Ben refuses Killian's offer, video of Ben threatening to crash the plane with Bobby imploring him to stop is shown, with clear signs all of it is staged as one last way to destroy Richards. Unfortunately for Killian, the plane's black box is found by the Resistance instead of the Network and the information disseminated among them.
• Master of Disguise:
  • During his 12-hour grace period, Ben purchases a suitcase full of disguises from a friend, including a wealthy businessman, a military veteran, and a priest. They serve him well until shortly before he makes it to Derry, Maine, after which he switches tactics to using The Running Man's own tropes against it.
  • The Hunters, barring McCone, also regularly deploy elaborate disguises when ambushing Runners.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "That's game." McCone's preferred quip for executing the final runner of a game. He usually says it calmly, even boredly, reflecting how thoroughly The Running Man dehumanizes the Runners, the Hunters, and the audience, and how detached McCone has become from the death he deals. During the climax, Ben turns it around on him after killing him with his own knife, his fury making clear that he wants his hated foe to feel the consequences of his apparent actions.
  • "You think you're the guy that keeps me from seeing my family again?" Ben says this twice, first to a random informant and then to McCone, who ultimately turns it back on Ben by pointing out the man keeping Ben from seeing his family again is Ben himself.
• Mundane Luxury: Ben's fondest memory is of the day that he and Sheila's number came up for a visit to a park where they introduced Cathy to ice cream for the first time. They apparently had been waiting for their spot for a while.
• My Girl Is Not a Slut: Ben is enraged if someone brings up the idea of Sheila sleeping around. It's implied many of her fellow waitresses are prostitutes on the side, but Ben hates anyone deriding Sheila that way.
• Mythology Gag:
  • One of the former presidents who is now immortalised on US currency... is former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (or someone resembling him). Schwarzenegger played Ben Richards in the 1987 film.
  • Richards and his fellow contestants are shown preparing to enter the game via pneumatic jet tubes as in the earlier film. In this case though, it's just an elevator, then a sled.
  • As Ben starts his run by hopping in a taxi, he passes by a department store named "Bachman's", after Richard Bachman, Stephen King's old pen name for his non-horror work, including Running Man.
  • The two boys who kill Laughlin could likely be a reference to Fireball and Dynamo (the flamethrowers for the former and their looks for the latter).
  • At the end of the movie, Dan tries to host the show himself when Bobby quits, a reference to the '87 movie where Killian was both the host and producer.
  • Just as in the 80s version, the film ends with La Résistance attacking the Network. The resistance even discredits their hated oppressors by using the real footage of Ben they tried to hide.
• Named Weapons: McCone carries an engraved pistol and knife as part of his kit. The pistol is "FATE" and the knife is "DESTINY." They're part of his shtick as The Running Man's most iconic Hunter. Ben takes the pistol as a weapon for when he storms the Running Man studios.
• Nerves of Steel: McCone is almost impossible to shake up. Richards throws a grenade at him, and he simply stops it with his foot and kicks it back without flinching.
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • The first trailer makes the film seem more light-hearted; while it has humorous moments, it plays very seriously for the most part.
  • The trailer makes it seems like citizens could use apps on their phones to detect if a runner was in disguise or not. In the movie, this is only seen in the in-universe opening of the show, and no one else is shown doing it during the run proper.
  • One scene in the trailer has Ben in the sewers outrunning a tidal wave of water and climbing a ladder, implying hunters were trying to flush him out. In the movie, this is just part of the training montage showcasing Ben's athleticism, having gotten his skills from dangerous jobs he used to perform, this being one of them.
  • In the trailer, when Ben goes to Molie, he sees the C4 and seems to ask for it, which Molie tells him isn't for sale. In the movie, Molie has him read what's on the package to test out his contacts. When Ben does, he's surprised Molie even has something like C4 and completely agrees with him that he wouldn't want to be carrying it, citing someone he knew who blew up a city block due to mishandling it. However, it does come into play later as Ben claims he has it to bluff his way into getting a plane.
  • Additionally, some trailers made it seem like Ben did buy the C4 and blow up a building using it. In the movie, the explosion was due to a gas leak and accidental fire started by Ben.
  • The trailer makes it look like Ben causes the explosion of the YVA with the grenade he tried to use against McCone. In the movie, Ben does accidentally cause the building to explode due to setting fire to the basement and a gas leak caused by one of the hunters shooting through the door and hitting a pipe.
  • A lot of the promotional material focused on Elton's "Home Alone" Antics. They actually make up a very brief sequence, and the targets aren't even the main hunters, but rather the local police that Elton summoned to get revenge for his father.
  • The third trailer depicts La Résistance as a seemingly more prominent part of the film and shows a few characters that seem to be a part of it, one of which is Ben's boss at the start of the movie. In the movie, said boss is an utter Jerkass who gets Ben blacklisted in the first place. Bradley and Elton are resistance members, though the former only helps him when it's clear he isn't a bad guy and leads him to the latter. Amelia is more forced into helping Ben, but does see for herself how corrupt the system is, which leads her to join his cause, but not until the very end.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!:
  • When the network broadcast faked footage of Amelia calling for help, this inspires Amelia to start acknowledging Ben's insistence that the network is lying to the public, as she knows she didn't say anything like that; if the network had just stuck to what footage they had available, Amelia might have remained at least cautiously skeptical about trusting Ben.
  • During their final duel, McCone cruelly mocks Ben for believing Killian's claim that McCone and the Hunters murdered his family. While Ben still kills McCone for everything he'd done during the game, his taunts cause Ben to pull back from his rage and consider the big picture, sabotaging Killian's attempts to seduce Ben into becoming the Network's new star.
  • Killian pretty much engineers his own downfall when he actually agrees to Ben's demands for a plane to escape on as the plane ended up having a black box on it and automatic escape pods in the cockpit in case of an emergency. The black box is recovered by resistance sympathizers and the recording on it reveals what really happened on the plane and Ben's speech to the public, turning the public against the show. And Ben was saved thanks to said pods ejecting him just before the plane exploded, allowing him to survive and take Killian by surprise in a revolution attack on the Network HQ.
• No Body Left Behind: The unfortunate example of Bradley's "Final dude" in his runner archetypes, where he ran into a construction factory, was shot and landed on an active wood chipper which mulched his body.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed:
  • In a combination with Mythology Gag, Bobby's suits and mustache are heavily styled to resemble Steve Harvey. This dips into Mythology Gag through the fact that his character in the original film actually was played by then Family Feud host Richard Dawson. Also dips into Ascended Meme as Steve Harvey has been a popular semi-ironic fancast for the role when fans would speculate about a remake.
  • The Americanos is a paper-thin mockery of Upper-Class Twit reality shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
• No Kill like Overkill: The Hunters and other network death squads come after Ben like they were performing a SWAT operation while Ben barely has anything other than his clothes and backpack. At one point, he gets chased by McCone in a helicopter and blasted with a rocket launcher, and another part has him being chased on a freeway with an unwilling driver as army trucks and gun drones barrel down at them. Needless to say, this indicates that the Network doesn't exactly play fair.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: Invoked in-universe. The Network gleefully makes Ben look as villainous as possible as that keeps the public tuning in more.
• Not Me This Time: McCone taunts Ben with this while trying to escape. Yes, he's a murderous gun thug who really wants Ben dead, but he's telling the truth. He and the other Hunters really didn't murder Ben's family.
• No-Sell: During tryouts, Richards grips an electric baton by the charged end and holds it despite his obvious discomfort.
• Nothing Personal: When Bobby T broadcasts Ben's image along with Sheila and Cathy across the television screen when introducing Ben for the Running Man, he quietly tells him it's "just show biz" when Ben is furious.
• Not in My Contract: The exact opposite; when Killian tries to force Bobby to go out and try to placate the angry crowd at gun point, Bobby moves the guard's weapon's down, revealing he made sure there was a clause that allows him to quit whenever he wants for such an occasion, and proceeds to do so.
• Not So Above It All: While Ben does have a reason to keep an eye on Free-Vee in case the Network announces that they've caught up to him, he nevertheless spends a not insignificant amount of his downtime watching The Americanos. He's visibly exasperated and annoyed, but he keeps watching.
• Now You Tell Me?: Once the contest begins, Ben heads for a friend name Molie who hooks him up with weapons, Fake IDs and costumes. Molie, however, is a little pissed at him for participating in the show and mentions he was gonna bring Ben in to work with him. Ben's expression speaks volumes after the reveal though, in fairness, Molie mentions he should've told him sooner and he ultimately understands Ben's desperation.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Tim Jansky gets this when he sees a camera drone aimed right at his face. He's promptly shot from behind by a hunter not a second later.
  • Shortly after the above. Ben, in disguise, heads for a clerk's desk and claims he's gonna stay at the hotel he's in a few more days, only to be met with his profile on the screen behind her as she's typing in the information. He loses his composure for a second before managing to catch himself when the clerk asks if he's fine.
  • While in Boston, Ben hides out in a scummy apartment, thinking he's managed to shake his pursuers. As he's getting ready for a shower, he notices the junkie whom he was observing has stopped rambling outside and is suddenly looking up at the floor he's on. Ben then realizes it's one of the hunters he recognized back in the Games Network studio and, combined with hearing Bobby T on the TVs of the adjacent apartments, realizes he's been found.
  • Laughlin gets this as she's coming down some stairs at a casino only to see McCone coming up an escalator and poised to shoot her. She jumps off the second floor to land painfully on a card table, though it does allow her to escape for a little while.
  • When Ben sees the report of Lauglin's death, he knows that with her out of the way, that makes him the final target and the hunters will begin closing in on him soon.
  • After Elton's mother discovers Ben in their home, she's set to call the police. Ben talks her down, but then noticed Elton eying the police switch on the wall and, remembering his grudge with the police, instantly knows what he's thinking and pleads for him not to. Elton pushes it.
  • While they don't openly panic, McCone and the other Hunters put two and two together and realize that Killian has framed them for the murder of Richards' family. The Hunters share an alarmed look before Ben attacks them and McCone immediately goes for one of the plane's two parachutes while Ben obliterates the Hunters.
  • Killian gets this in the finale when he finds himself face to face with a very much not dead Ben leading the revolt on the building.
• The Oner: One sequence has Ben get caught in a viewer’s apartment by a floating camera, resulting in a long POV shot from the camera following Ben fleeing through the hallway.
• One Nation Under Copyright: It appears that most of America is handled by a corporation called GCN, often just called The Network. The game shows they produce are seen as the only way to get out of poverty, and "The Running Man" produces flagrant violence anywhere at anytime. Other dialogue indicates they privatized the entire nation's police force.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: The Hunters (and by extension the Network) really don't like when civilians are the ones to kill the Runners, presumably as it massively screws with they ability to control the narrative and robs them of the chance to milk the kill for ratings. The Network will go as far as killing any poor fool who tries while their forces are in range, as a couple of rednecks who intercept Amelia's car to get Richards find out the hard way when a Network drone riddles them with bullets.
• Outrun the Fireball: During the YVA section, Ben lands in the basement of the building and accidentally sets fire to the room (he was trying to light up a magazine to see here where he was) and causes a gas leak as he tries to bar the door to keep the hunters from getting in. He spots a sewer pipe and jumps down it. He briefly gets stuck just as the room and the lower section of the building blow and send a fireball down the pipe. Luckily, he manages to drop the remaining way into the sewer water.
• Patriotic Fervor: The Network invokes and exploits this. The intro for the show uses American flag imagery and praises as the United States as "the best country in the fuckin' universe", while also equating itself to the country as a whole, frames its armed thugs as valiant servicemen who must be honored as heroes, and slanders people by painting them as traitors to both the country and the company.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Ben has anger issues and often seems just shy of physical violence for any reason, but he will take a moment to help someone who needs assistance even at his own expense. It's also said repeatedly that he lost previous jobs and became blacklisted because he was standing up for his coworkers.
  • After Ben is picked for the show, he's forced to stay at the Network HQ until its airing and can't see his family. His handler at, the least, lets him call Shelia to tell her what's going on and he takes Ben's request to deliver the advance payment Killian gave him to Shelia to get care for their daughter. The handler likewise delivers an envelope from Sheila back to him with a picture of her and their daughter, and the lucky sock. When Ben heads off to do the show, he gives the handler a bottle of scotch as thanks and shakes his hand, with the handler genuinely wishing Ben good luck.
  • When Bobby T. decides to dip after the masses turn on "The Running Man", he calls for his assistant to join him. This allows her to avoid the wrath of the resistance, who attack the Network's headquarters minutes later.
  • During Laughlin's escape from the casino, she makes a point of shouting at the girls at the door to run, keeping the Hunters from simply mowing them down as collateral damage.
• Picture-Perfect Pose: At one point, a Paper Thin Disguised Ben stands in front of Running Man video ads displaying his mugshot, which switches to profile shots of him at the exact same moments he turns his head.
• Plot Armor: An In-Universe example, as there are several points during Richards' run where by rights he should’ve been killed, but the Network spares him for the sake of the storyline they're crafting for this Running Man season, which has sent ratings through the roof.
• Point-and-Laugh Show: One of the Network's bigger hits aside from The Running Man is The Americanos, a reality show following the lives of a family of extremely inane wealthy people. It's simultaneously an opportunity for the underclass to laugh at the wealthy without actually threatening them, and also a chance to showcase the sort of wealth that someone could command were they to triumph in any of the Network's many violent game shows.
• Poor Communication Kills: Ben only joins the Running Man out of desperation to acquire cash to medicate his sick daughter. When his run starts, he heads to a friend named Mollie who runs a black market shop - the same one Sheila had visited off-screen attempting to get those same meds. Mollie admits he wanted to cut Ben in on the shop, but that he wanted to tell Ben directly instead of asking Sheila to relay the message. If he'd just told her while she was there, it would have avoided the entire plot.
• Precision F-Strike: The second trailer ends on one of these, followed by a Title Drop.
  Amelia: What the fuck is happening?!
  Ben: Welcome to The Running Man!
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Several, mostly from Ben and McCone:
  Ben (preparing to ram a Hunter's car with a dune buggy full of dynamite): Fuck it. I am the initiator.
  McCone (with his pistol FATE to Ben's head): That's game. (Killian forces McCone to stand down before he can kill Ben)
  Ben (who has just been duped into believing the Hunters murdered his family and pointed towards a gun hidden by the coffee maker in the plane's galley, upon being asked by a Hunter if he's making coffee): Yeah, I am. How do you take it?! (he hurls the coffee pot at the Hunter and opens fire)
  McCone (making reference to Ben having stolen his custom pistol but now being at the mercy of his knife, both of which he's named): You outran fate, but you can't escape destiny! (Before McCone can strike Ben down, Ben pulls the ripcord on the very parachute McCone had planned to use to escape, trapping him and giving Ben an opening he uses to kill McCone.)
  Ben (having broken into Network HQ at the head of the resistance, cornered Killian and put FATE to his head): In five, four, three, two, one... And action. (Ben fires, blowing Killian away and ushering in the end credits.)
• Product Placement:
  • One of the sponsors of the in-universe show is Liquid Death, a brand of canned water.
  • Big Red chewing gum gets a large amount of screentime during the YVA sequence, with Ben using it as an adhseive for a device that allows allows him to peek around corners with a mirror.
  • Elton offers Ben a can of Monster.
  • There is a lingering shot of Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the convenience store near the end.
• Professional Killer: The Hunters are state-sanctioned assassins whose one job is to hunt down and kill Runners. They're much more professional and dangerous than the police or civilians and often (if not always) perform the first and final kills.
• Properly Paranoid: Ben is extremely cautious and slow to trust, and listens to his gut when it tells him to run, even if he isn't in any immediate danger. Given that he's the target of a nationwide manhunt, this is entirely sensible.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Bobby Thompson isn't really evil. He's just a network employee and it's his job to whip up the crowds against the runners. He refers to it as just show business to Ben and has no real malice to anyone involved, in addition to moral lines he won't cross. By the end, he's disgusted with Killian and deserts the network.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Bobby say this in regards to Ben. Which becomes a full on Crowd Chant by the audience. It also happens to be the tagline of the movie.
  Bobby: HUNT! HIM! DOWN!
• Race Lift: Dan Killian was African-American in the novel but played by Josh Brolin here, as seen in the trailer. Additionally, Bobby Thompson and Sheila Richards were white in the novel, but are both shown in the trailer played by African-American actors in this film.
• Railroading: The rules of "The Running Man" states the contestant has to make a 10 minute video every day and mail it back to headquarters via delivery drone boxes that are ubiquitous around any town, and failure to do so forfeits any prize money for yourself or family. This ensures that someone doesn't just buy all the supplies they need and find a hole to live in for 30 days. It's revealed that The Network has innumerous ways of tracking the contestants via Big Brother Is Watching methods, which Hunters may or may not be clued in on, but some of the camera drones are also extremely well-armed and could kill a contestant just about any time they wanted.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Ben takes an affluent young woman named Amelia hostage, he gives her a scathing dressing down for judging him, noting her scarf costs more than medicine that would save his daughter's life.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: The main aesthetic of The Running Man-the-In-Universe-show: the jumpsuits given to its participants, the digital wanted posters alerting civilians to their appearances are all black and red and McCone's black uniform also features some red highlights. Outside of The Running Man, red and black seem to be the most frequently used colors at the Network: its logo is red, and a clerk whose window Ben punches wears a red and black uniform.
• Redeeming Replacement: As the leader of the Resistance, Ben becomes the photo-negative of McCone: He's a scary smart, hyper-lethal fighter, masked and clad in black who leads a team of badasses to hunt down targets who hate and fear him and wields the custom handgun named "FATE".
• Reforged into a Minion: The Network turned successful Runner Evan McCone into their fiercest Hunter by torturing his family to death in front of him, which hollowed him out and left him with nothing but death for solace.
• Removed from the Picture: Ben, Laughlin, and Tim have their profiles taken by the studio before heading out into the field and are flashed constantly on screen. When Ben is making his way through Maine, he spots the broadcast of Laughin's death (Tim having been taken out earlier). With a big "X' on their profiles, with Ben the last runner standing.
• Remake Cameo: The currency of this dystopian future bears the likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Glen Powell's predecessor as Richards.
• Retro Universe: The film's dystopian future has a ton of very '80s and '90s elements as an homage to the original. While the rich live in a sleek, modern city of the future, the slums resemble Cyberpunk 2077 with their old-fashioned tower blocks, computers, and cars. La Résistance also uses print media, particularly a very '90s-looking zine, to get their message out thanks to the Network controlling all digital media.
• Revenge Before Reason: Elton, a Derry-based resistance member who provides crucial aid to Ben, opts to sic the local Network-owned police force on himself and Ben so that he can kill them all and avenge his father, who they murdered. He indulges just long enough for the Hunters to arrive, and while Elton wiped the floor with the goons, he's no match for the Hunters, and ultimately gets sniped by McCone.
• Rigged Spectacle Fight: There's really no true way to "win" The Running Man and no Runner ever has. The Network has access to unlimited resources and just about everyone in civilization is a potential agent. They also don't play fair, having little advantages in tracking Runners they don't tell said Runners about at all, with the video logs being used as a way to narrow down the search parameters. Every Runner dies, and even the best of them only survive at the Network's indulgence until ratings trail off. The real record is held by McCone himself, who made it an astounding 29 days before he was caught and offered a chance to become a Hunter.
• Ripped from the Headlines: The show is able to doctor the footage sent in by the contestants not merely through Manipulative Editing but generative AI creations based on that footage that paint them in a much worse light, a very hot topic at the time the film was released. Ben comments that if they have that technology then they could manufacture the entire show that way, Killian responds that they tried but there was always something missing without the human element. That is what fuels Killian's motives in offering Ben to take a Spin-Off called Hunter 6.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Throughout most of the movie Ben Richards tries to avoid casualties, with his kills either accidental or when he was driven into a corner during his escape attempts. In the third act however, once Ben was told that his family was killed by the Hunters, he personally went after and massacred the remaining Hunters of his own accord.
• Rousseau Was Right: Shockingly, yes. The Network's got its talons in all of society, and successfully controls the populace with state repression, a rigidly enforced caste system, and violent game shows that keep people angry and turned against one another. But they've put too much faith in the notion that humanity is inherently venal. Small acts of resistance are present everywhere even from the start, and once Ben's run begins and he inadvertently becomes an icon of resistance to the state, more and more people start to stand up to the cruel status quo. The Network resorts to increasing brutality to keep people in line, but it's a band-aid on a gut shot. Their attempt to co-opt Ben's image and bring him on-side backfires badly, and Ben's speech urging people to take back the world from the cruel inspires a full-blown and successful revolution.
• Run or Die: Running Man contestants must survive survive a 30-day nationwide if they want to enjoy it, and have to survive the Hunters, law enforcement, and anyone who might want a reward for killing them gunning for them while their faces are plastered all over mass media.
• Safe Zone Hope Spot: Elton directs Ben to his father's refurbished fallout shelter. All Ben has to do is sneak there, lock up for the remaining time and simply wait till the 30th day. By the time Ben reaches the place, he finds out the area has recently been turned into a land development and a new, gated community is in the middle of construction.
• The Scapegoat: Killian shows footage of the Hunters slaughtering Ben's family. Turns out this is something McCone is completely innocent of and he implies he wouldn't ever target a Runner's innocent family. But when the show needs ratings for a flashy final showdown, Killian has no compunction framing him for an atrocity to inspire Richards to kill him.
• Schizo Tech: The world has autonomous cars, drones that fly without obvious means, AI that can generate perfect deepfakes almost instantly, and a massive network of DNA scanners that can find someone in seconds, but the Runners must still produce and send 10 minute recordings on physical videotapes.
• Screwed by the Network: In-Universe example. Similar to the original story, The Network screws the contestant by rigging the game as much as possible. One of the most notable requirements is for Runners to rat themselves out by sending postmarked tapes to the Network, so they know exactly where they are. They just hold off on sending in the Hunters just for ratings spikes.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When Bobby T realizes the public has permanently turned on the Network, he tells Killian "fuck you" and leaves for good.
• Secretly Selfish: Ben's primary motivations for auditioning for the Network and agreeing to compete on The Running Man are to get his daughter Cathy desperately needed medical treatment and hopefully earn enough that his wife Sheila will be able to quit her job waitressing at a sleazy nightclub and move out of the slums. But, as Molie accuses and Ben himself later admits part of the reason he agreed to take on The Running Man was that it was also an opportunity to reclaim some agency and act for himself after years spent trying to go along to get along, and to indulge his violent streak. McCone even accurately calls him out for this during their final battle.
  McCone: You want to know why you're never going to see your daughter again?! (he slams Ben's face into a mirror) ALL YOU!
• Shadow Archetype: McCone represents the worst side of what Richards could become. They establish one another as nemeses early on and It turns out McCone is a former Runner who survived longer than Richards and took the same deal Richards refuses. He also implies the network hurt his family, which left him with nothing but a bitter desire to drown his own pain by killing others.
• Showy Invincible Hero: McCone plays the part on The Running Man itself. He's the fiercest fighter among the Hunters and the single most successful Runner in the show's history. He wears a unique, stylish uniform, brandishes a custom-made pistol and knife engraved with "FATE" and "DESTINY" that he uses to give snarky quips after executing Runners. He's enormously popular, and the Running Man audience cheers for him right up until Killian decides to set up his death with a fake, in-universe Face–Heel Turn whose cruelty so appalls the audience that they begin loudly rooting for his violent death.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Killian confides to Ben that his predecessor at the Network actually tried to incorporate some kind of moral teaching into his programming instead of being willing to do anything for the sake of ratings. Killian says there's a reason why he's lasted in the job and the other guy didn't.
• Simple Solution Won't Work: Invoked when Ben asks Killian why, if they're staging so much of the show anyway, they don't just hire actors for the whole "story" rather than genuinely kill people. Killian notes that they did try that at one point, but real life offers a human element that no staged drama can replicate.
• Slain in Their Sleep: While Ben sleeps in a fancy hotel room, he opens his eyes just in time to see a Hunter pointing a gun at his head to attempt this... which proves to be Just A Dream driven by his paranoia.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The world is a horrific dystopia, but while the story presents a cynical view of people loving death sports and many participating in the hunts for Runners, it's ultimately a way more optimistic story than the book. The people have goodness to them after all and realize how they've been lied to. Ben sparks a successful revolution and the end of the film implies the Network will fall before the people.
• Smart Ball: Upon seeing an angry crowd chanting "Richards lives", Bobby can see which way the wind is blowing and quits, so he can get a head start on the riot. The end credits states nobody could find him, so he's either on the run or in hiding.
• The Smart Guy: Ben's ally Bradley, who releases videos analyzing and breaking down the structure of The Running Man show with a mask to hide his identity. He helps Ben because he knows he is just as likely to be killed by the network to skip on a payout, so he tries to arm Ben with better options. The apparent climax is interrupted by Bradley doing another breakdown, providing exposition on how Ben survived a plane crash, how the plane black box was recovered and the growing resistance sentiment under the rallying cry "Richards Lives!", leading into the beginning of the next season where it just collapses.
• Smug Snake: Killian is competent and dangerous, but thinks too highly of his own plans and too little of both Ben and the people of America as a whole. His plan to seduce Ben into becoming the Network's next star by engineering his wrath-fueled obliteration of the Hunters for murdering his family misreads Ben's motivation and moral character. Later, when the truth of the games leaks through media that Killian cannot control, he panics and desperately tries to brute force the world back to the status quo. He fails utterly and closes the film at Ben's mercy. Ben has no mercy.
• Soft Water: When Elton gets killed by the Hunters, Ben is blown off the bridge into the water. He survives, and is able to walk into Canada with no visible physical issues.
• Spanner in the Works: There are spanners aplenty that end up screwing with Killian's plans.
  • Bradley is a friendly Bostonian that takes Ben in, shows him the research he's done on The Running Man, and puts him in contact with the anti-Network resistance. This gives Ben a few days of rest in a safe place and the knowledge he needs to turn the tropes the show runs on against them, knowing that Killian will fall for them for the sake of greater audiences, as well as the contact needed to meet up with Elton.
  • Amelia is a socialite that believes The Running Man is all made up, only to realize otherwise when Ben jumps on her car and kidnaps her. While initially unwilling to believe him, she starts to turn to his side when she sees several militiamen being killed by a Network drone and the show doing a fake video of her begging for help, to the point that she works with him in a ploy to hijack a plane, and after the plane is destroyed she actively joins the resistance.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the book, Ben ends the story by crashing the plane he hijacked into the Games Network after learning that his wife and daughter were killed in an home invasion via burglars. In the movie, not only does he survive his plane hijack ploy but his family likewise live, their deaths having been faked by Killian to try and take him out.
• Spreading the Misery:
  • The Network does this intentionally as a way to keep the populace under control, creating propaganda to make people paranoid and hate each other so that they'll attack each other or keep another down so that they don't rebel against them.
  • McCone kills Runners largely because he lost his family after Killian killed them to give him incentive to take the deal to become a hunter after he nearly beat the show by making it to the 29 days. He feels he has nothing left to live for after that and figures he might as well bring misery to others to dull his own pain.
• Suppressed Rage: Ben's an angry, wrathful man thanks to the dire state of the world, but he's also a deeply compassionate guy who'd prefer to get along, and so keeps his fury bottled up. Part of the reason he brings Cathy along to his meeting with his wretched former boss is that she'll keep him from snapping and indulging in his rage when his boss inevitably gives him a callous brush-off.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: It's an adaptation of one of King's famously bleak Bachman books, which ended with the protagonist ramming a plane into the villain's headquarters. On top of that, Ben is competing on a show that no one has ever won and that he knows will probably kill him. He survives and reunites with Sheila and Cathy, the latter of whom has safely recovered from her flu, and goes on to lead a successful revolution against the Network.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Ben hooks up with Elton, the latter offers him his father's bunker to hide out in to run out the the show's deadline. Unfortunately, Elton didn't keep tabs on the place when he was still alive. So when Ben finally reaches the location, it's not there anymore due to a land development, to his chagrin.
• Sympathy for the Hero: A downplayed case. During their final battle, McCone tells Ben that he's doing him a favor by trying killing him. On its own, it's just one more taunt, but with the newly revealed context that McCone took the deal that Killian's just offered Ben and lost everything that mattered to him in the process, including his humanity, it's coming from a place of sincere, if condescending and warped, sympathy.
• Sympathetic Villain, Despicable Villain: A late film revelation paints McCone as the Sympathetic to Killian's Despicable. McCone is a vicious sadist who's willingly murdered dozens, if not hundreds of Runners, but during his final rant to Ben he strongly implies that the reason he took Killian's deal to become a Hunter after he made it to 29 days during his run is that Killian tortured and murdered his family to get him to agree. It's left him fundamentally hollow, and killing is the only thing that gives him any purpose anymore. Killian is a slimy, manipulative schemer who'll do anything to get good ratings and preserve the world's wretched status quo. During his rant to Ben, Killian reveals that unlike McCone, who had to be broken and warped to become the death machine he is in the present, Killian willingly threw away any ideals he once held in favor of power and success. McCone fights to the last, dying on his feet and daring Ben to finish him off. Killian dies on his belly, reduced to simpering, disbelieving terror by Ben's revolution. Ben even uses McCone's pistol FATE to slay Killian, thereby quietly taking revenge on the Runner-turned-Hunter's behalf.
• Taking You with Me: Bradley shows Ben an example of this while going over his examples of the runner archetypes. A previous runner used his time to just live it up until the hunters came for him. Rather than run or be killed, he strapped a bomb to his body and blew himself and the hunters up.
• Tempting Fate:
  • At the start of the movie Ben sees an advertisement calling for contestants for the Running Man, and scoffs at the idea that he'd be stupid enough to apply for it.
  • When Amelia enters the story, she's riding in her car watching "The Americanos" which gets interrupted by "The Running Man" spotting Ben. She scoffs at it and claims it's fake...right until Ben forces his way into her car and takes her hostage.
• The World's Expert (on Getting Killed): Two of Ben's allies are experts on The Running Man, its In-Universe tropes, and the way the Hunters act while on the game. One plays this straight, the other subverts it.
  • It's played straight by Elton, who knows the Hunter's behavioral patterns down to the second and accurately times their arrival at his home. While Elton is able to single-handedly obliterate the local police to avenge his father's murder, those are killings he had spent years planning, to the point that he turned his home into a series of elaborate booby traps for the day the cops would come calling. By contrast, he badly underestimates the Hunters' lethality and ability to think outside the box, and is unceremoniously sniped by McCone shortly after explaining to Ben how he'll lure the Hunters off his trail.
  • It's subverted by Bradley, who has spent years studying The Running Man and the full extent of the Network's police state. He gives Ben substantial aid, and his teaching proves critical to Ben's learning how to turn the game against itself, but outside of a brief car chase with some local goons, Bradley keeps himself and his family out of the line of fire. He survives the film, and becomes the voice of the successful rebellion against the Network.
• Tom the Dark Lord: There is one man Runners fear above all others. He is a peerless killer, and immediately identifiable by his all-concealing mask and sunglasses. Fighting him is certain death, and escape the only slim hope for survival. His name? Evan.
• Too Clever by Half: Killian is a legitimately intelligent and ruthless Network executive who knows how to play a crowd and buffer out a season with dramatic flourishes. His offers to Ben, coupled with his attempts to create "drama" end up alienating his audience and make Ben more dedicated to topple the government. Ultimately it gets Killian killed.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • One of The Running Man's three archetypal contestants, per Bradley, is an overconfident buffoon who will get himself killed within 48 hours of the run starting in order to whet the audience's appetite for blood. During Ben's run, this proves to be Tim Jansky, who tries to flirt with a convenience store clerk by announcing to her that he's competing on The Running Man. She immediately reports him, and the Hunters promptly put a bullet in his head. Bradley's example pretty much did the exact same thing: he went into a local restaurant, was instantly spotted, reported and shot as soon as he walked outside.
  • Elton purposely calls the police to his house, not to turn Ben in but wanting some "fun" with the local police in revenge for his father whom they had killed. While he does take out a squad that comes after them. He likewise tipped off the Hunters to their location and it gets him killed. Ironically, this was after Ben had talked down his mother from calling the police herself.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The trailers kinda give away a lot of the movie, especially if one has read the book and notices the familiar beats to it.
  • The final trailer showcases the aftermath of Laughlin's death, with a shot of her car being consumed by fire that her preteen murderers used to kill her.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Laughlin is killed by two dead-eyed preteen boys who burn her alive with homemade flamethrowers. Neither boy even reacts much to their rewards — a pile of cash and a lifetime supply of Fun Twinks cereal.
• Truer to the Text: Stated as such by Edgar Wright, and many who've read the book confirm that it's going more off of what was originally written in the book than the Broad Strokes Schwarzenegger version. In this film, the central show is more of a cross-country reality show where anyone can take out the runners rather than a straightforward game show where only specific hunters do the deed. However, it does incorporate some things from its predecessor, such as the tubes and the initial tracksuit Ben wears before he's sent out into the field. That said, it's not one-for-one with the novel and, like its predecessor, takes a few liberties of its own. It also takes the previous movie's ending of having Richards become a figurehead and eventually leader of a resistance movement who eventually inspires a mass uprising that storms the studio.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Ben repeatedly tries to avoid harming the Network's non-Hunter goon squads and explicitly spares a Hunter Killian had given him carte blanche to kill. The goons continually try to kill Ben anyway, and the Hunter goes after Ben again without a second thought.
• Unpredictable Results: After seeing how powerful the networks deepfake technology is, Ben demands to know why people have to die as they could fake the entire thing with actors; it likely would even be more cost effective. Killian admits they tried that in previous attempts, but people were less invested and the ratings much lower without the human element of unpredictablity.
• Unstoppable Rage: One of Ben's few advantages against the Network is that he's an angry, angry man. He's as driven as much by his rage at the hands the world has dealt him and his loved ones and the cruelty of the world as he is his devotion to his wife and daughter and his desire to see them again. He overcomes multiple ambushes and death traps in part because he's too enraged and stubborn to consider giving up. Killian and the Network exploit this by faking Sheila and Cathy's murders at the hands of McCone and the other Hunters, which drives Ben to embark on a murderous rampage that ends with him single-handedly wiping out the entire crew, McCone included.
• Unwinnable by Design: It should be enough that Runners are at the centre of a 30-day nationwide manhunt, evading professional hunters and death squads coming for them with extreme prejudice and being snitched on by average citizens — but as far as the network's concerned, that's not enough of an advantage. The supposedly trace-proof tapes that Runners send in are easily tracked by the network, who don't send in the Hunters until it's time for a ratings spike. The final runner is almost always killed around two weeks in because that's when ratings and public interest starts to slump. When Richards starts performing better than expected, the network starts manipulating the Hunters and their other soldiers to give him "hero" moments, but have no intention of letting him go the distance. Ultimately exemplified by McCone, who was a contestant in the first season and made it to 29 days; the network offered him a deal to fake his death and lead the Hunters under a masked alias rather than let him win outright.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left:
  • Upon realizing that Killian's engineered his death at the hands of a vengeful, enraged Ben, McCone immediately secures a parachute and prepares to escape the plane he'd been ordered aboard.
  • Bobby literally does this when he sees that the Running Man crowd have been whipped up into a frenzy by Ben's run, giving Dan his job and fleeing Network HQ to disappear into relative obscurity.
• Villain Has a Point: During their final battle, McCone viciously mocks and taunts Ben. His words are as sharp as his blades, since most of his accusations about Ben (namely that the primary reason he might never see Sheila and Cathy again is that he partially agreed to go on The Running Man in the first place to let out the anger he'd been suppressing and that he was very easily baited into going on a murderous rampage by Killian.) are dead on, as Ben himself would freely admit.
• Villainous Exit Denied: After obliterating the other Hunters, Ben tracks down McCone and attacks him before he can make good his escape.
• Villainous Breakdown: As the rebellion hits a pitch, Killian breaks down with none of his charm, screaming at people nearby and clearly in the throes of mental collapse as his world falls down about him.
• Villainous Friendship: The Hunters don't just work well together, they seem to be full-on friends. Even the aloof McCone is more social with them than anybody else. Their bond is what makes the idea that they'd murder Ben's family in retaliation for his killing one of them plausible to Ben.
• Villainous Rescue: When Ben is menaced by a pair of Network-supporting militia members who want to kill him and rescue the captive Amelia. Because this would make for boring TV and doesn't fit with Killian's desire for a grandiose finale, he simply has the men gunned down. Ironically, they had Ben dead to rights and he had no way out.
• Villainous Valor: McCone is no coward and fights even against deadly odds. He retains his nerves in stressful moments and straight up dares Richards to try and kill him.
• Villain with Good Publicity: At first. McCone and the Hunters are state-sponsored thugs who murder people for money and entertainment. The masses love them because they're cool and charismatic. That love turns to hate after the Hunters apparently murder Ben's family, with their former fans appalled by their targeting innocent civilians.
• Visual Innuendo: Elton pumping up his Psycho Hydro looks a lot like he's masturbating.
• Visual Pun: Ben finds himself dangling from the YVA's giant neon sign. The sign begins to buckle under the strain. Aggrieved, Ben cries out "WHY?!" He looks up just in time to see the "Y" in "YVA" about to topple down on him. "Y" indeed.
• What You Are in the Dark: Amelia assists Ben to prove she's not a bad person after he points out her privilege compared to those caught up in The Running Man's cruel game. When he says she doesn't need to prove anything to him, she says she's not proving it to him, implying she intends to prove it to herself, even if nobody else is watching. Likewise, Ben refuses to do the immoral thing multiple times, even refusing to kill a helpless Hunter when Killian requests.
• We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: The various screens and LED walls on the Running Man set glitch out increasingly badly as the crowd revolt against Killian, with all they need at that point is Ben Richards to walk in and deal with him.
• We Can Rule Together: Late in the game, Killian praises Ben's tenacity and rage, and offers him a deal to become the Network's new star, "Hunter Number 6." He's even got a logo and a poster ready to go. Anticipating Ben's resistance, Killian frames McCone and the Hunters for murdering Ben's family, hoping that his wrath will both make for a thrilling climax to the season and make Ben more susceptible to his seduction.
• We Have Reserves: The Network has no compunction sending its police forces into deadly situations or seeing them killed. There's plenty more where those men came from and it makes for more exciting television.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Molie to Ben after Ben comes to him for supplies, pointing out how stupid it was for him to go on such a dangerous game show. He does soften up afterwards and aids him regardless.
  • Ben to Elton when he ''purposefully" calls the local police to their location just to enact Revenge Before Reason for his father.
• Within Arm's Reach: Played with. Ben and Elton get cornered by a Hunter in a tunnel in Elton's house, who drops a knife. Ben gets cornered and is being dragged out by the Hunter - when Elton notices the knife and stabs the Hunter in the ankle to save Ben's life.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: McCone's final rant to Ben reveals he's a man broken by the network who saw no other choice but to take the deal to become a Hunter. He implies they tortured his family in front of him until he had nothing left but "killing it all away," lending a very dark lens to him as nothing but a victim of the Network, as horrible as he's become.
• Workplace-Acquired Abilities: Ben worked construction in extreme conditions - rushing over scaffoldings, rapidly climbing and descending ladders, having industrial alpinism training or being a demolition man... This both helps him with his audition and later on allows him to escape and survive through encounters with the hunters.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The allies Ben meets during his run continually point out to him that he's pushing people to stand up against the Network by surviving and flouting the conventions of The Running Man. It takes a lot of hurt and terror, but Ben ultimately learns to believe them. He in turn tells all of America this in the aftermath of his battle with the Hunters on the plane he'd commandeered. He makes a Rousing Speech that urges them to ask who benefits from keeping them all angry, miserable, paranoid and prone to indulging in bloodlust and to see beyond Free-Vee's manufactured reality. While Killian blocks the original broadcast, someone salvages the speech from the plane's flight recorder, and it proves to be the spark that lights the match that burns the Network down.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Killian requests Ben kill a downed Hunter on camera with a promise he can flee after for a bit longer. The man has no more value except for a flashy, ratings-boosting death. Nobody is beyond this for Killian, not even McCone. Killian offers Ben his position if he kills the lead Hunter, with full intent to sacrifice him for better ratings.