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The Running Man.
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November 13, 1987 - 2022: 35 years of: The Running Man.

Television's most exciting hour of fantastic prizes !

Mindless entertainment, glorification of violence and mass-media control ...sounds eerily 2022. Carved out of the 70s and 80s visceral obsession with TV game-shows, this one's killing the ratings so ...come on down !

In dystopian 2017, the dire economy and extreme poverty created a huge gap between, the lower-class and the high-class, sounds familiar. Convicted criminals are given a chance at freedom, but they have to play the game. Excitement and death, televised nationwide on a unique mainstream-channel, owned by a conglomerate of vertical integrated medias, sounds familiar. In this unilateral societal madness, the totalitarian voice of this mega-media, rules above all and feeds the rich and wealthy with quality daily entertainment, sounds familiar.

Honest cop turned inmate via some fake news tricks, sounds familiar, Ben Richards would eventually play this sick game to try to clear his name. Schwarzenegger would be the only participant to fight and kill his way to the top, all the way to the CEO of this corrupt complex.

Arnold meets Jesse. 1987 was blessed with raw muscle-action, Round One with Predator, Round Two with The Running Man, were Jesse "The Body" Ventura squares off with "Mr. Universe" for one final battle.

Prime-time and prime-meat, The Running Man was so eons ahead in naïve 1987, yet feels dangerously close to home in 2022. During the last decade, a plethora of actual TV-shows fulfilled this twisted masochist fantasy to the mainstream market ...reality challenges like American Gladiators, Survivor, Big Brother, Fear Factor and The Contender to name a few.

From an action-movie about futuristic realities, to current realities, it is safe to say that The Running Man's modus-operandi is now somewhat deeply imbedded in many parts of our culture and society.

"Killian, I'll be back !"
"......only in a rerun."

RIP Erland Van Lidth De Jeude AKA Dynamo (1953-1987)
RIP Charles J. Kalani Jr AKA Subzero (1930-2000)
RIP Richard Dawson AKA Killian (1932-2012)
RIP Yaphet Kotto AKA William (1939-2021)

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The Running Man = movie-trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n74ibtuN9I4
Everything wrong with...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYoBrhlTX1Q
Captain Freedom's workout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LazUZz3K6IY

more The Running Man:

Predator