The Running Man 2025 review – Glen Powell’s lethal game-show reboot puts reality TV on trial
- Edgar Wright updates Stephen King’s The Running Man into a near-future where a rigged game show hunts Glen Powell for ratings and repression.
- Ben Richards runs for his life through a collapsing America while viewers vote, deepfakes rewrite reality and billion-dollar prize money dangles like a cruel joke.
- Powell, Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo power a cast that treats this dystopia like prestige drama, not just an excuse for exploding extras.
- Industrial Light & Magic stacks the film with grimy cityscapes, drones and carnage that still feel disturbingly plausible in 2025.
- Box office may be modest, but this is the November release that sticks in your head whenever you scroll past yet another “unscripted” talent show.
A dystopian reboot in a crowded November
Box office reality versus cultural interest
The Running Man opened in the UK on 12 November and hit US cinemas on 14 November, wedged between Zootopia 2 and Wicked: For Good. Against those family-friendly heavyweights, its box office has been comparatively small, hovering around the $60 million mark on a $110 million budget.
On paper that sounds like a stumble, but the film has quickly become one of last month’s most talked-about releases. Mixed reviews still praise its energy, and Stephen King himself calling it a “bipartisan thrill ride” has done more for its credibility than any marketing featurette ever could.
Why this version exists at all
Wright’s film doesn’t remake the 1987 Schwarzenegger movie so much as shove it aside and go back to King’s novel. The result is nastier, more political and less interested in punchlines about steroids.
Instead of camp one-liners and colourful stalkers, this adaptation leans into media manipulation, labour rights and the way poverty turns survival into entertainment. It is still a thriller, but one that seems uncomfortably aware of what your algorithm recommended this morning.
Story without spoiling every twist
The rules of the game
The film is set in a near-future United States run by Network, an authoritarian media conglomerate that uses violent game shows to keep people docile. Its flagship series, The Running Man, offers one billion dollars to any “runner” who can survive thirty days on the run.
Contestants get a twelve-hour head start and must upload daily video diaries to prove they’re still alive. Hunters, led by the masked Evan McCone, chase them across the country while ordinary citizens are encouraged to report or kill them for cash and clout.
Ben Richards and why he signs up
Glen Powell’s Ben Richards is a blue-collar worker in Co-Op City, barely scraping by after being blacklisted for union activism. His infant daughter Cathy needs flu medicine he cannot afford, his wife Sheila is exhausted, and the future looks like an endless loop of poverty and adverts.
Desperate, Ben auditions for Network and is selected for The Running Man alongside two other contestants. Executive producer Dan Killian, played with oily charm by Josh Brolin, offers an advance for the medicine and a supposed safe house for Ben’s family if he agrees to play.
The hunt begins – and the fix is obvious
Once the game starts, it becomes clear that the deck is stacked well beyond normal reality TV rigging. Ben’s first fellow runner dies quickly, the other doesn’t last much longer, and the show edits the footage to make their deaths look heroic but meaningless.
As Ben tries to survive and expose the truth about Network, producers weaponise deepfakes, editing his broadcasts into foul-mouthed rants that turn the public against him. People aren’t just watching him run; they’re watching a version of him that was never real in the first place.
Allies, uprisings and how spoiler-light we can be
Along the way Ben crosses paths with underground activist Bradley Throckmorton, unreliable rebels and Amelia Williams, a wealthy civilian who starts as a hostage and becomes an uneasy ally. Their journeys drag the story out of cramped slums and into a wider look at how different classes experience the same nightmare.
Without detailing the ending, it involves plane hijinks, an increasingly rattled host played by Colman Domingo, and a live broadcast that finally stops playing by Network’s rules. The question the film leaves you with isn’t just “did Ben win the game?” but “what does winning even look like when you’re playing inside someone else’s script?”
Performances: charm, venom and quiet fury
Glen Powell as a working-class action lead
Powell has spent the last few years charming his way through romcoms and fighter jets; here he strips off the gloss without losing the charisma. His Ben Richards is angry, funny and visibly terrified, a man who keeps cracking jokes because the alternative is breaking down on live television.
He sells both the physical ordeal and the emotional exhaustion of a character who never wanted to be a symbol. When Ben finally starts talking back to the camera rather than just running from it, Powell finds a convincing mix of desperation and reluctant leadership.
Josh Brolin and Colman Domingo – the faces of Network
Brolin’s Dan Killian is the kind of executive who smiles with his teeth and calculates with his eyes. He plays the producer as a man who believes he is simply giving people what they want, even as he orders deaths like scheduling ad breaks.
Colman Domingo, as host Bobby “Bobby T” Thompson, is all glitter and grin at first, a showman riding the chaos for ratings. As the season rolls on and the crowd’s mood darkens, his performance quietly shifts into something haunted, hinting at a man slowly realising the joke might finally be on him.
Hunters, rebels and the supporting cast
Lee Pace’s McCone is a masked enforcer whose calm ruthlessness gives every scene with him a sharp edge. He moves like a man who knows he’s the most dangerous thing in the room and has stopped finding it interesting.
Emilia Jones as Amelia brings warmth and scepticism, evolving from frightened passenger to someone willing to risk comfort for truth. Michael Cera, William H. Macy and Daniel Ezra round out the supporting cast, each adding their own flavour of fear, cynicism or scrappy idealism.
Awards talk: long shot, but not impossible
With mixed critical scores, The Running Man is unlikely to dominate major awards shortlists. However, there is genuine appreciation for Powell’s star turn and Domingo’s layered hosting act, which could push them into conversation for genre-friendly awards and critics’ lists.
More realistically, the film’s editing, sound design and stunt work stand a better chance in technical categories. Wright’s longtime editor Paul Machliss keeps the pace relentless without losing geography, and the way live broadcasts, surveillance footage and cinematic cameras blend together is quietly intricate.
Special effects and world-building
Industrial Light & Magic versus reality TV
Visually, The Running Man feels expensive without becoming glossy. Industrial Light & Magic builds a world of decaying cityscapes, neon sponsorships and drones that look like they were built by the lowest bidder.
The show’s arenas are less gladiatorial colosseums and more abandoned malls, half-flooded subways and corporate rooftops. It feels like a future assembled from leftovers, which suits a story about a society that has spent everything on distraction.
Action sequences that stay readable
Wright’s signature kinetic style is present, but more controlled than in something like Baby Driver. Chases, shootouts and hand-to-hand fights are cut with clarity, letting you feel the geography rather than just the chaos.
A standout mid-film sequence sees Ben navigating a booby-trapped housing block while drones broadcast every misstep. The editing keeps the tension tight without turning the action into incomprehensible blur, and the sound mix uses crowd reactions and commentary as a cruel Greek chorus.
Violence level and rating
The film earns its rating with bursts of very bloody violence, but it rarely lingers purely for shock value. Instead it uses brutality to underline the stakes and the dehumanising nature of turning suffering into spectacle.
If you can handle other modern dystopian thrillers, you’ll be fine here, though a few execution-style moments push close to the line. The most disturbing cruelty often comes from what happens off-screen, in editing suites and boardrooms rather than alleyways.
Themes, satire and who this is for
Media manipulation that feels uncomfortably close
The Running Man’s most effective horror isn’t the hunters, but the deepfakes and spin. Watching Ben’s words twisted into something monstrous feels pointed in a year when people already doubt what they see online.
The film repeatedly shows how easy it is for Network to rewrite events with a few edits and a confident host. It’s a story about censorship by entertainment, where nobody needs to ban dissent if you can make everyone too busy betting on the next kill.
Class rage and small acts of rebellion
King’s anger at inequality survives the adaptation almost intact. Ben’s decision to sign up is framed as an act of desperation forced by a system that prices medicine like luxury goods.
The working class characters who support him are not naive; they know the game is rigged. Their small acts of shelter, sabotage or simply refusing to snitch give the film its glimmers of hope.
Who will appreciate this most?
This is very much for fans of dystopian sci-fi who like their commentary visible and their action inventive. If you enjoyed films like Snowpiercer, Squid Game’s social cruelty or Wright’s own Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver, this sits comfortably in that blend of style and anger.
Viewers who dislike violence, bleak futures or heavy-handed metaphors about media may find it exhausting. Families looking for a light night out after Zootopia 2 should also probably book something with fewer exploding contestants.
Verdict: is The Running Man worth the chase?
Final thoughts and recommendation
The Running Man is not the month’s biggest financial success, but it is one of November’s most interesting mainstream releases. Wright delivers a film that moves fast, looks sharp and actually has something on its mind besides body counts.
It isn’t perfect; some satire is on-the-nose, and the third act throws so many ideas at the screen that a few bounce off. Yet the combination of Powell’s star-making turn, Domingo’s uneasy charm and Wright’s control of spectacle makes this a genuinely gripping watch.
If you are picking one grown-up action thriller from last month to catch on the big screen, this deserves serious consideration. Just be prepared to look at your favourite game show a little differently afterwards.