Hi all! New member here but I've been listening to the show since episode 20 or so and have listened to every episode numerous times. Its one of my favorite things in life. Anywho, I did some homework and read the book and have a quick synopsis ...
*Ben Richards (6'2" 165lbs) is a poor man living in a ghetto. His wife is a prostitute out of necessity and his daughter is sick with flu.
*Ben volunteers to play a game for The Game's Network to earn money to take his daughter to a doctor.
*Through testing Ben is determined to be one of the few people healthy and smart enough to be on The Running Man. Most people in their dystopian society are illiterate and sick with disease.
*The Running Man isn't run by special hunters with gimmicks - rather its more like America's Most Wanted where regular citizens call in tips. Police and a special task force head by J. Edgar Hoover's grandson hunt down the contestant.
*Richards travels around the country as the task force gets closer and closer. He ends up in the Northeast (and makes a brief pit stop in Derry - the town Pennywise from It is located).
*Ben ends up getting caught but has a hostage. He manages to get himself on to a plane by tricking police into thinking he has a bomb.
*Killian is so impressed by Ben's cleverness he offers him a job as the new lead of the task force that's led by Hoover's grandson. Ben accepts the job and then finds out his wife and daughter were killed by police ten days prior. He then kills everyone on the plane (except for the hostage who he lets parachute to safety) and flies the plane into The Game's Network building.
