“The Running Man” Entertains Without Innovation

The Running Man (Edgar Wright, 2025) 3½ out of 5 stars

Following successes such as The World’s End, Baby Driver, and Last Night in Soho, director Edgar Wright revives a classic Stephen King tale, previously brought to the big screen in 1987 by director Paul Michael Glaser in a version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Now, The Running Man returns to cinemas, thanks to Wright and starring Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick), Jayme Lawson (Sinners), Josh Brolin (Weapons), and Colman Domingo (Rustin). The story is very familiar—a bit too familiar—to make it all that fresh. Yet Wright still brings insightful storytelling, fun thrills, and a darkly entertaining dystopian world where The Running Man reigns supreme.

The overall tone of the film fits perfectly with Wright’s ability to combine soft drama with witty humor. Powell makes for a heroic protagonist, mustering the spirit of a father figure gone rogue in a world designed to try to end his life. Brolin fully embodies a lighthearted but sinister Dan Killian, the CEO and owner of “The Network,” which essentially runs the planet. Domingo makes for a fun Hunger Games-style show host, and Lawson initially creates the perfect character for the film’s catalyst, even if her role is pushed to the background after the first act.

Once the movie gets started, it becomes very clear that Wright is riffing off common themes of dystopian, rebellious storylines that have come before. The plot screams Hunger Games mythology, with an authoritarian government and media joining forces to enslave the rest of society (a tale as old as Orwell’s 1984). Powell’s journey as Ben Richards directly falls in line with Katniss Everdeen, Thomas from The Maze Runner, and Beatrice Prior from Divergent, as the hero tasked with surviving the impossible and rising up against a corrupt system. This makes for exhilarating action scenes and clever comedy, and I especially found provoking the use of AI-generated news manipulation, a topic widely pertinent to today’s universe.

Yet, as entertaining as The Running Man gets, it never truly becomes a unique vision of its own. Ending with a rushed and predictable finale, Wright does his best stylistically with an oversaturated concept. While Stephen King may have written this media-frenzied dystopia years ago, at this point I feel as if the narrative struggles to find a novel angle. While the overall ideas still have not lost their luster, and King’s novel may have been due for a modernized update, overall The Running Man merely echoes lore that has been there and done that.

Adam Vaughn

Adam Vaughn is a graduate of the Film & Moving Image program at Stevenson University, with a focus in Cinematography and Production. He also has a minor in Theater and Media Performance. Adam works as a freelance photographer and videographer, focusing his craft on creating compelling photographic and cinematic imagery. Adam is excited to join the Film Festival Today team and explore the world of cinema and visual arts.