Tripwire Reviews Edgar Wright’s The Running Man

Running On Empty

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows reviews Edgar Wright’s The Running Man in cinemas now…

The Running Man
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Glen Powell, Alyssa Benn, Sienna Benn, Lee Pace, Josh Brolin, Colman Domingo

Eighties nostalgia is big business these days. It doesn’t always save a film from box office oblivion (Tron: Ares case in point). 1987’s Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as wrongly convicted policeman Ben Richards who is forced to join a lethal TV show to redeem himself. That version was rescued by Arnie’s onscreen charisma although it’s not even a great Schwarzenegger movie.

Fast forward 38 years and British director Edgar Wright has had a crack at Stephen King’s dystopian sci-fi tale. Arnie is replaced by Glen Powell, whose career has been boosted in recent years thanks to Top Gun: Maverick and Hit Man. Wright has apparently been working closely with King to make sure that his version is closer to the book. But it’s also rumoured to have been plagued by a series of recent reshoots. So in 2025, in an era where we basically live in that dystopian future that King predicted, how does Edgar Wright’s The Running Man fare?

It opens decently enough with Powell as working man Richards who has lost his job and he needs a quick injection of cash to keep him and his family afloat. So he signs up for the show as he is forced into a corner. Josh Brolin plays the malevolent head of the network that makes The Running Man, Dan Killian, a man who is prepared to go to any lengths to attract viewers while Lee Pace is Killian’s deadly hunter Evan McCone, who is sent out to dispatch the contestants. Oleaginous host Bobby Thompson (Domingo) doesn’t add much to the film.

The problems here are several: Powell is very bland and flat while the two hours and 13 mins running time does it no favours at all. It’s a satire without any real teeth possessed of a script that meanders until its unengaging conclusion. Its point that corporations are evil and bad, happy to use people as pawns, is not exactly a new concept and much of this feels really dated.

Wright is a very hit and miss director with ambition but a reach that often exceeds his grasp. One Night In Soho was inventive and decent but Baby Driver felt smug and self satisfied.

The Running Man is a bloated mess with an instantly forgettable central actor and a running time that feels protracted and poorly paced. It can be added to the growing list of misconceived Stephen King adaptations.

JOEL MEADOWS