Episode 163 - The Running Man

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Kulap Vilaysack (Who Charted?, Bajillion Dollar Propertie$) joins Paul, June, and Jason to discuss the 1987 science fiction film The Running Man. They’ll talk about the modern dance tribute to the fallen combatants, Captain Freedom’s workout commercial, the worst pun ever uttered by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and how we’re living in The Running Man today. Plus, everyone has a very important discussion about Lactaid.

 

 

Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepublic.com/user/howdidthisgetmade

Where to Find Jason, June & Paul:

Paul’s new comedy Drive Share is available on Go90. You can see June and Paul on NTSF:SD:SUV:: on HULU. June stars in Grace and Frankie on Netflix, as well as Lady Dynamite alongside with Jason.

 

Jason can be seen in The Lego Batman Movie, How to Be Single, Sleeping with Other People, and is still indeed in The Dictator.

[Smigg 1488]

Jason asked which movies Arnold says "I'll be back", well, he's said it in the following:

 

The Terminator Franchise

Commando

Raw Deal

The Running Man

Twins

Total Recall

Last Action Hero

Jingle All The Way

The Expendables 2

 

He's said variations of it in other films, like "I might be back", or "I'm back" and things like that.

 

Last Action Hero actually pokes fun at it when Arnold says "I'll be back... HA! You didn't know I was going to say that, did you?!" To which the annoying little shit of a kid replies "That's what you always say. People wait for you to say it."

[LTL 154]

Loved this as a kid as an adult couldn't stay awake ..just a lot of running

[DirtyCircle 5]

A case for the Athletic Teddy, Michelle Bauer in HELLROLLER:

 

[Smigg 1488]

Damn, Kulap's fucking up all of my corrections & omissions for me.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

Loved this as a kid as an adult couldn't stay awake ..just a lot of running

[pscudese 701]

Besides re-watching this glorious movie, I also listened to Steven de Souza (the writer) talk about this masterpiece on another Earwolf podcast -- "I was there too." (FYI... Everyone should also check out episode #25 when Paul discusses his time on the set of Meet Dave.)

 

Anyway... there are some great stories de Souza brings up with a favorite being... Due to a tight schedule, the test screening needed some ADR from Arnold and rather then burning him out before final release, de Souza actually laid down some of Schwarzenegger's lines. Funny thing is... a few of them are still in the movie. Like after Arnold kills Buzzsaw, "He had to split" is de Souza!

 

#bonkers

#ThankGodThisWasMade

[Smigg 1488]

Arnold and Jesse Ventura aren't only former state governers, they also have the even more prestigious accomplishment... they're also WWE Hall of Famers.

[JammerLea 2070]

Listening to this is literally helping me get through this work day. Thank you for keeping me together, HDTGM.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

to the dude who made that "we didn't start the fire" theme ...

 

[pscudese 701]

One of the biggest questions I have after re-watching the movie, is what is the deeper outcome of this film. I get it that Ben Richards is now proven innocent, but what else has really changed? We find out that the three former winners were actually killed in the end and Killian is murdered. But does that mean anything in the long run? Killian was simply a pawn in the government's plan to keep the country under their control. Are we too assume that the upper class now is against the government and will simply revolt with the lower class? At least in the book, Ben takes out the entire corporation. Here he just kills the figurehead. The system is still in place.

 

Paul... Help! What are your thoughts!

[pscudese 701]

Besides walking away with some new electronics and a Running Man board game, audience members can also win a "year's supply of Ortho Pure Procreation pills."

 

I get it... Ortho Pure Procreation Pills are essentially fertility pills and we can assume that in this dystopian future... maybe it's either hard to have a kid or the government restricts the number of kids one can produce.

 

But the scariest thing is, that these pills are dolled out in both "adult and KIDDIE sizes."

 

WHAT... THE... FUCK?!?!?!

 

This government is seriously messed up! Babies having Babies y'all!

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

this movie is called running man so there is alot of running in it but arnie is so big that he really can't sprint which i guess is why they used a stunt man for alot of the runway chase scene. that's one of the things about seeing these movies in HD on todays amazing TVs, you can clearly see the stuntmen. which is cool cause they deserve to be seen and not have their face replaced using CGI.

 

anyway, the stuntman credited on this movie seems to be arnie's go-to-guy back in the day. his name is Joel Kramer. he works mainly as a stunt coordinator now (he's involved with the new blade runner) but if you look at his IMDB page you'll see he was either the stuntman or stunt coordinator for some amazing movies and tv shows.

 

there is a demo reel on IMDB too and after watching I just thought i'd give him a shout out cause it turns out i owe him alot if "WOWWWWW"s from my youth. He was actually involved with furious 7 so maybe blake has spoken to him already or has the contacts to. imagine the stories he has about working with the likes of arnie back in the day.

 

i have no idea how to embed a video here but here's the link to his demo reel http://www.imdb.com/video/user/vi1379641625

[ChunkStyle 1160]

Great episode. I am totally cool with Kulap showing up on every podcast I listen to from here on out.

 

Here is a question for Arnold historians. Is there another example of the villain coming back with a better one liner than Arnold like happens in this movie? When Arnold tells Dawson that he'll be back Dawson is taken aback for a second but then comes right back with "Only in a rerun." Dawson was the clear winner in that exchange.

 

I appreciated that this world is suffering a food shortage but Arnold is still getting 10,000 calories a day in prison to stay gigantic.

 

Maria Conchita Alonso is definitely more cavalier with her security deposit than I ever was. She bolted her Solo Flex right into those hardwood floors.

 

I am guessing that whatever Runner success happened in the game prior to Arnold showing up is when Sub Zero got called in when the runners happened to be in the other 399 blocks that didn't have an ice rink.

 

It was very bold of the rebels to put their base in the Running Man arena. A place that is absolutely covered in cameras.

 

MCA never got a chance to watch the unedited Butcher of Bakersfield footage before she hands it over to Mick Fleetwood. She is grabbed as soon as she pulls it out of the drawer. What if the unedited footage showed Arnold murdering innocents it just had more swearing in it?

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

this is the second HDTGM movie set in 2017. the other being Barbwire. I looked it up on wikipedia and film makers must have had a really bad feeling about 2017 or something cause here's some more dystopian movies set in 2017:

 

The Running Man

Barbwire

Cerry 2000

Fortress

Terminator Genisis

and Click ... ok .. thats not a dystopian future sci-fi but by the end of it i was wishing the world would end

 

[pscudese 701]

What is so crazy, is that in this universe, everyone appears to be totally cool if mass murders are released back into society.

 

When we are introduced to Whitman, Price and Haddad, they are treated as heroes via a video tribute.

 

However, these mass murders are released back into society after outlasting stalkers.... who are in essence experienced mass murderers. These former convicts are now more elusive and stronger due to winning The Running Man.

 

I don't know. Maybe in this world, "basking under the maui sun" turns anyone into a decent human being.

[pscudese 701]

Totally agree, but I'm just assuming that since she saw the fake airport video footage (saying there were deaths when in fact there weren't), that she simply assumed Ben was too framed for the Bakersfield incident.

 

 

 

 

MCA never got a chance to watch the unedited Butcher of Bakersfield footage before she hands it over to Mick Fleetwood. She is grabbed as soon as she pulls it out of the drawer. What if the unedited footage showed Arnold murdering innocents it just had more swearing in it?

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

I still don't understand what the hell happened in the Jesse Ventura death scene.

[Smigg 1488]

One of the biggest questions I have after re-watching the movie, is what is the deeper outcome of this film. I get it that Ben Richards is now proven innocent, but what else has really changed? We find out that the three former winners were actually killed in the end and Killian is murdered. But does that mean anything in the long run? Killian was simply a pawn in the government's plan to keep the country under their control. Are we too assume that the upper class now is against the government and will simply revolt with the lower class? At least in the book, Ben takes out the entire corporation. Here he just kills the figurehead. The system is still in place.

 

Paul... Help! What are your thoughts!

 

But, they also show the "Raw footage" of the Bakersfield Massacre, as well as last year's winners, Whitman, Price, and Haddad burnt to a crisp, which shows it's all bullshit. If the show is fixed, then it loses the public trust, which then causes ratings to go down, leading to it's inevitable cancellation.

 

Which also goes into why Killian also said "The people like violence, they love wrestling!" as there are parallels here, you have a sports entertainment event that used to be built upon the audience believing it to be real, you have your babyface and heel characters (in the terms of the show, Ben Richards is the heel, he's the bad guy), flambouyant gimmicks, and a shit tonne of steroids.

[Smigg 1488]

I still don't understand what the hell happened in the Jesse Ventura death scene.

 

It was CGI.

 

"Captain Freedom" was called to wardrobe because Richards has killed a bunch of stalkers, and they needed him back. But then they tried saddling him with a stupid gimmick, and Ventura said "I ain't doing this stupid shit", and quit.

 

So they got an old episode of The Running Man, and superimposed Richards onto the guy who Captain Freedom killed, and ended the show then.

[Smigg 1488]

Great episode. I am totally cool with Kulap showing up on every podcast I listen to from here on out.

 

Here is a question for Arnold historians. Is there another example of the villain coming back with a better one liner than Arnold like happens in this movie? When Arnold tells Dawson that he'll be back Dawson is taken aback for a second but then comes right back with "Only in a rerun." Dawson was the clear winner in that exchange.

 

I appreciated that this world is suffering a food shortage but Arnold is still getting 10,000 calories a day in prison to stay gigantic.

 

Maria Conchita Alonso is definitely more cavalier with her security deposit than I ever was. She bolted her Solo Flex right into those hardwood floors.

 

I am guessing that whatever Runner success happened in the game prior to Arnold showing up is when Sub Zero got called in when the runners happened to be in the other 399 blocks that didn't have an ice rink.

 

It was very bold of the rebels to put their base in the Running Man arena. A place that is absolutely covered in cameras.

 

MCA never got a chance to watch the unedited Butcher of Bakersfield footage before she hands it over to Mick Fleetwood. She is grabbed as soon as she pulls it out of the drawer. What if the unedited footage showed Arnold murdering innocents it just had more swearing in it?

 

In Commando, when Arnold said "I'll be back, Bennett!", Bennett said "And I'll be waiting for you, John!"

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

There's something in this that bugs me about some movies about as much as the phone thing bugs Jason.

 

When we see the incident in the helicopter at the start of the movie we see if from all the standard movie camera positions, front, back, side, elevated, POV etc., because you know, it's a movie. But when we see the doctored and the raw footage we see exactly the same video we saw at the start of the movie. I mean some of the camera positions would be impossible to achieve in a real helicopter. The cameras would need to be outside the cabin.

 

But then if they were 8 million over budget in the first 8 days I guess they couldn't afford to do it properly and create some CCTV type footage

[pscudese 701]

I still don't understand what the hell happened in the Jesse Ventura death scene.

 

 

YES! Who did he end up killing?! I cold have sworn it was the make up artist but he's alive in the next shot. Thinking about it, it should have been the old man mopping the floors. That would have been an awesome call back.

 

Who is this guy!!

 

[Smigg 1488]

 

 

YES! Who did he end up killing?! I cold have sworn it was the make up artist but he's alive in the next shot. Thinking about it, it should have been the old man mopping the floors. That would have been an awesome call back.

 

Who is this guy!!

 

 

It was from an unaired episode.

[pscudese 701]

 

It was CGI.

 

"Captain Freedom" was called to wardrobe because Richards has killed a bunch of stalkers, and they needed him back. But then they tried saddling him with a stupid gimmick, and Ventura said "I ain't doing this stupid shit", and quit.

 

So they got an old episode of The Running Man, and superimposed Richards onto the guy who Captain Freedom killed, and ended the show then.

 

 

See I respectfully disagree, because after the action scene, the female producer goes... "Killian, you didn't have to kill him." I took that as you don't have to "kill" the guy pretending to be Ben. Also based on your analysis we are too assume that in this old footage, Capt Freedom killed a woman as well and I think that is too far of a stretch. Find footage of when both a man and a woman were killed at the same time by Capt.