Episode 163 - The Running Man

[Cameron H. 23786]

never heard of these but looking at youtube this could be a weird couple of episodes

 

 

Holy Crap! They're finally doing The Last Dragon! I am so excited! I legit love that movie.

[Smigg 1488]

I thought it was fucked up that they changed Amber's Running Man uniform because she's a woman. They gave her a scoop neck since it's sexier, I assume?

 

 

More importantly, where did they find a jumpsuit in her size, with her name on it? She wasn't supposed to be in the show, she was just shoved out there with a "Go get 'em".

 

Maybe they had to make alterations, and in their haste, fucked it up. It's live TV, time is money.

[RyanSz 3140]

CORRECTION:

 

Paul was kinda right in how The Running Man story ended with the airplane crashing into the Games Network building, but there are missing parts or things that were different from everything else he said. In the book, Richards leaves his rundown home on the wrecked side of the city to sign up for a gameshow in the hopes of earning enough money to buy food and money for his sick kid and to help his wife not have to keep prostituting herself in order to make ends meet. He is given a physical and psychological test that has him picked to be on The Running Man. In the book, he doesn't fight costumed Stalkers, but is let out onto the streets with 12 hr. head start to run and hide from Hunters who are essentially bounty hunters. For every hour is isn't captured he gets $100, $100 for each cop or Hunter he kills, and the grand prize of $1 billion if he survives 30 days, which no one ever has. The public is also against him as they earn cash for calling in tips to the authorities about his whereabouts and they get more if it leads to his capture, and if he's killed the money he earned to that point is given to his family. He also has to send in video recordings giving updates of his condition or his mindset twice a day, otherwise he forfeits the money and is still hunted.

 

After a long battle for survival, he eventually takes a woman hostage after carjacking her to get to the airport. He then bluffs his way onto a plane and takes the lead Hunter hostage as well. He then calls Killian who explains that the viewers love him and he offers him a job as lead hunter, but is informed that his family was murdered in a home invasion while he was still taking the tests to determine what show he would be on. From there he decides to let the woman go and kills the lead hunter, and flies the plane into the Network building, killing Killian countless more.

 

As for Captain Freedom being a 10 time champion, the only thing I can think of is that over the course of the season on The Running Man, they keep a tally of how many kills each Stalker got, with the most kills making a certain Stalker the champion.

 

If you have never read the Bachman stories I can't recommend them enough because not only did Stephen King write in a different genre, as the Bachman books are more action/thriller oriented, but he did really well at it.

[JammerLea 2070]

Man, I'm so annoyed, I sorta remember yeeears back when I lived in Michigan my parents and I had gone to this restaurant that had a framed piece of clothing that Arnold Schwarzenegger had worn that I thiiiink was from The Running Man, and my dad thinks it was from that movie too, but we can't remember what restaurant it was. It's driving me craaaazy!

[ChunkStyle 1160]

Man, I'm so annoyed, I sorta remember yeeears back when I lived in Michigan my parents and I had gone to this restaurant that had a framed piece of clothing that Arnold Schwarzenegger had worn that I thiiiink was from The Running Man, and my dad thinks it was from that movie too, but we can't remember what restaurant it was. It's driving me craaaazy!

 

Hopefully a tiny hard hat.

[Cam Bert 8145]

Man, I'm so annoyed, I sorta remember yeeears back when I lived in Michigan my parents and I had gone to this restaurant that had a framed piece of clothing that Arnold Schwarzenegger had worn that I thiiiink was from The Running Man, and my dad thinks it was from that movie too, but we can't remember what restaurant it was. It's driving me craaaazy!

Not Planet Hollywood right?

[joel_rosenbaum 1269]

Anyone else wondering how much the bookies lost at the end of that night?

 

I mean these poor guys!

 

Right after the cute lil old lady says Richards will make the next kill, we see a brave bettor yell out to place $200 on Richards. Then the bookies make Richards' odds at 100-1. That guy alone just won $20,000 and there were a ton more people placing bets on Ben.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

The only way this works out is if bettors have already lost tons of money -- millions perhaps -- on their Stalker bets.

 

Even so, these are shitty bookies. When a lot of people are putting money down on a guy BEFORE you even set the odds, you should make the odds a little closer to even.

[JammerLea 2070]

Not Planet Hollywood right?

I've never been to one.

[Even_Pete 6]

I don't want to argue against Jason here, but I can't agree that Arnold was the original Katniss Everdeen, because the purpose of The Running Man wasn't to fight with the stalkers, it was to run away from them, hence the title "The Running Man", otherwise it would be called "The Fighty, Killy, Fuck People Up Man".

 

The original Katniss Everdeen, is Jack Conrad in "The Condemned", Stone Cold Steve Austin is the original Katniss Everdeen. The Condemned was released in 2007, the first Hungee Games book was released in 2008, blatent rip off.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JOFS4A2leo

 

By that logic, then The Condemned is a rip off of Death Race 2000 (1975) (except without the cars) and The Running Man (1987) and Battle Royal (2000) and all of those are slight variations of the book (as others have mentioned) The Most Dangerous Game (1924,) of which there have been multiple film adaptations as well. So, Steve Austin is not the OG Catpuss Neverclean. Just an FYI.

[RyanSz 3140]

After hearing that both Christopher Reeve and Patrick Swayze were considered for the lead in the movie, I have to believe that the movie was first made to closely resemble the original story which was more of a suspenseful thriller rather than a bloody action flick. It seemed that Arnold was interested in doing the story as well. yet once Arnold was signed on they changed it to resemble is style of movies.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

 

Holy Crap! They're finally doing The Last Dragon! I am so excited! I legit love that movie.

Yesssssss! With the wide-eyed innocence and naivete of a puppy dog and the martial arts mastery of a Wu-Tang Clan song subject, Bruce Leroy is the hero we need right now. He is everything Iron Fist should have been.

[Smigg 1488]

 

By that logic, then The Condemned is a rip off of Death Race 2000 (1975) (except without the cars) and The Running Man (1987) and Battle Royal (2000) and all of those are slight variations of the book (as others have mentioned) The Most Dangerous Game (1924,) of which there have been multiple film adaptations as well. So, Steve Austin is not the OG Catpuss Neverclean. Just an FYI.

 

I was taking the piss.

[HoodlumDoodlum 13]

When Jason and Paul talked about how Maria identified the burned up corpses of thr previous "winners" I shouted "recognizable ashes!!"

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

according to HDTGM twitter 10 tickets were just released for tonights show

 

https://twitter.com/HDTGM/status/868583575599316992

[Kristos Samaras 2]

When the gang escape prison and go to the underground base to get their collars removed, The Running Man is playing on tv. There are shots of Fireball, Buzzsaw and others, all taken from the upcoming episode.

 

This future viewing tech explains how the rebels acquired Richards and "Umbah" so easily.

[AdrianFlynn 68]

As maria alonso is being put into the pod the announcer says "later she cheated on college exams then she had sexual relations with 3 sometimes even 4 men in a single year then came mad dog ben richards her lover" she says thats a lie

[nthurkettle 148]

Was hoping someone would have pointed out the moment where Arnold is in the prison work camp just carrying a giant girder:

 

 

Immediately made me think of his introduction in Commado, where he is carrying what looks like most of a tree:

 

 

I wonder if in that same 80's contract where Arnold got to smoke cigars and say "I'll be back", it was required that he get at least one shot where he carries something shaped like a massive dong.

[ilovebacon 8]

I was waiting for one of the gang to mention that Lynne Marie Stewart played one of the studio audience members who gets to pick a stalker. But nobody did.

 

 

You know, she's Miss Yvonne from Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and Charlie's mom from It's Always Sunny...

[Smigg 1488]

Was hoping someone would have pointed out the moment where Arnold is in the prison work camp just carrying a giant girder:

 

 

Immediately made me think of his introduction in Commado, where he is carrying what looks like most of a tree:

 

 

I wonder if in that same 80's contract where Arnold got to smoke cigars and say "I'll be back", it was required that he get at least one shot where he carries something shaped like a massive dong.

 

That's one of his trademarks. It's basically like Tom Cruise and running, Arnie shows feats of strength,

[maklershed 1]

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.

[Smigg 1488]

 

More importantly, where did they find a jumpsuit in her size, with her name on it? She wasn't supposed to be in the show, she was just shoved out there with a "Go get 'em".

 

Maybe they had to make alterations, and in their haste, fucked it up. It's live TV, time is money.

 

I hate to be the guy who quotes his own post, but fuck it, I've had a theory about it now.

 

Perhaps the reason why there's a jumpsuit in her size, with her name on it was because there's a higher up at ICS (maybe even Killian) saw her at the snack machine, and just said to whoever he was near, "See her over there at the snack machine? I hate the fucking bitch! If it were up to me, I'd put her in The Running Man!"

 

In an effort to schmooz the higher ups, the person he said it to decided to commission a jumpsuit for her just in case there's the unlikely event that they shove her on the show. Considering their propencity to make shit up, like they did with Ben Richards, they probably could do that to get her out of the company without the legal wranglings and severence packages. Then, when they actually do just that, here's the schmoozing, backstabbing colleague, jumpsuit in hand, ready to give it to them, and be given a promotion in return.

 

I bet it was Amber's supposed "friend". You can't trust anyone in a corporate environment, especially those that go into way too much detail about how the man who kidnapped you, and has just walked passed and looked you dead in the eye, could have done whatever reprehensible and depraved thing that she could fantasize about.

[hornacek 43]

1. This film doesn't take place in 2017. The crawl at the beginning says it's 2017, and then we have the scene where Arnold is on the mission and refuses to kill the rioters. Then we get the "18 months later" title, meaning that the initial scene took place in 2017 and the rest of the movie takes place in 2019. In fact if you look at the movie poster it says "It is the year 2019". So why do they specify 2017 in the opening crawl?

 

2. After Arnold breaks out of prison, when the rebels ask him to stay and fight with them to overthrow the current political system, he says "I'm not interested in politics". Ironic foreshadowing!

 

3. As has been mentioned, Paul got the summary of the book wrong. Richards' wife and daughter are killed, but not by Killian or the Stalkers (called Hunters in the book) - it was a random home invasion that happened after he applied but before he got on the show. And Killian was not on the plane at the end - it was Alonso's character and the lead Hunter. Richards is mortally wounded and crashes the plane into the TV studio's headquarters; he is able to see Killian from the cockpit just before the crash and he gives him the finger. Because of the imagery (someone deliberately flying a plane into a building), I think King has said he would not longer publish this story (along with Rage, another Bachman book where the sympathetic protagonist shoots up a school).

 

4. Wikipedia says that this movie inspired the show American Gladiators, but the future is now. This past year, 2017, CBS aired a reality show called Hunted (based on a British reality show), where pairs of contestants went on the run and had to evade capture from trained professionals for 28 days to win $250,000. No deaths are involved, but it has more in common with The Running Man book instead of the movie.

[firsttimecallerlongtimelistenr 3590]

4. Wikipedia says that this movie inspired the show American Gladiators, but the future is now. This past year, 2017, CBS aired a reality show called Hunted (based on a British reality show), where pairs of contestants went on the run and had to evade capture from trained professionals for 28 days to win $250,000. No deaths are involved, but it has more in common with The Running Man book instead of the movie.

 

i was reminded of a different british tv show called "release the hounds". this is what happens at the end ... this guy lost i guess

 

[Smigg 1488]

Hunted was great, if you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough.

 

However, this show was also real, and it was GLORIOUS, it's a shame they only made 8 episodes.

 

[Cameron H. 23786]

Great episode, guys! It was great to hear Kulap with you all again!

 

What I found really strange about this movie was how easily Arnold Schwarzenegger's character just seemed to accept his fate with almost joyful abandon. For instance, the reason he is a contestant in the first place is because he was falsely accused of massacring a crowd of protesters, but instead of ever trying to convince people he's innocent, he goes on a brutal killing spree. Granted, he and his compadres are being hunted by bloodthirsty Stalkers, but it's hard to believe it's all in "self-defense" when he takes such pains to deliver a pithy one-liner after each kill. I mean, I'm glad he's showing resourcefulness and the crowd is coming over to his side, but he really isn't doing a whole lot to convince people that he's not the "Butcher of Bakersfield." If anything, he looks even more guilty.