2025 • Paramount Pictures
Rated: R
Length: 2 hr 13min
Action ~ Adventure ~ Sci-Fi ~ Thriller
Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Screenplay by Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall.
Actors: Glen Powell, William H. Macy, Lee Pace, Michael Cera, Emilia Jones, Daniel Ezra, Jayme Lawson, Sean Hayes, Colman Domingo and Josh Brolin.
Hunt Him Down!
Official Trailer
The Book
The Running Man (2025) is based on The Dystopian Thriller Novel The Running Man by Stephen King, first published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982.
Ben Richards has no job, no money, and a young daughter who urgently needs medical attention. Desperate, out of options, he signs up for The Running Man, “the biggest show in the country.” It’s an ultraviolent competition where the stakes could not be higher. Ben must stay alive for thirty days while an elite strike force, trained to kill, hunts for him. If he can survive for a month, he wins a billion dollars. No contestant has ever lasted longer than eight days. Can Ben Richards win this ultimate game of life and death?
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The Running Man (2025) – Review
The Running Man drops us into a near‑future where the gap between the rich and everyone else has turned into a full‑blown canyon, and reality TV has happily turned that misery into prime‑time entertainment. Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a blue‑collar guy in Co‑Op City just trying to keep his family afloat, but when he’s blacklisted and can’t afford medicine for his sick daughter Cathy, he’s pushed into an impossible corner. Desperate, and over his wife Sheila’s protests, Ben signs up for The Running Man, a hit show where “runners” are hunted down by heavily armed “stalkers” as amusement for a bloodthirsty audience.
Once it starts, Ben is thrown onto the streets with cameras watching his every move and a team of celebrity killers on his heels, each one designed to be a walking, talking ratings spike. The Network’s slick producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) pulls strings from the control room, twisting footage and pumping out propaganda to paint Ben as just another dangerous criminal that bloodthirsty audience should cheer against. As the hunt intensifies, Ben’s refusal to play the victim and his knack for staying alive make him an unexpected fan favorite, especially among the poor and working class who see their own struggle in him. The more that bloodthirsty audience starts to root for him, the more dangerous he becomes—not just to the stalkers, but to the entire system the Network is built on.
This new take on The Running Man is absolutely worth a watch if you like your Sci-Fi with teeth and a healthy hatred for media manipulation. Edgar Wright brings his usual energy and style this film, loading it with sharp visual gags, brutal action beats, and a rhythm that never really lets you catch your breath. Glen Powell is a great fit for Ben Richards; he’s charming enough to sell the showman side of things, but there’s a real anger and frustration under the surface that makes his pushback feel honest instead of preachy.
What really sells it is how uncomfortably close it all feels to where we already are—algorithm‑friendly violence, deepfake propaganda, and a public so numbed by spectacle they barely notice real people dying on screen. If you’re looking for subtlety, this isn’t that; it swings big and obvious, but that loudness fits this subject matter. Between dark humor and social commentary, and a very satisfying “stick it to the Network” energy, The Running Man is well worth a watch, especially if you want to see Stephen King’s original premise pushed closer to what he actually wrote.
The Running Man (2025) – Review by Bobby @ Streaming Movie Night.
Movie Stills
The Running Man (2025) – Review © 2026 Streaming Movie Night
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