Movie Review: The Running Man (2025)

There is a brief, shining moment in The Running Man where it appears that this could be a perfect movie for this moment. Ben had just signed away his life to appear on the show, and the audience is shown how the show is introduced in-universe. It's a propaganda piece, specifically designed to hone in on some of the worst instincts of humanity and drive a wedge between people so the wealthy can rob them blind.

Unfortunately, this is kind of the deepest that this movie engages with the broader ideas at play in the dystopian world presented. The Running Man is a world where the Network has taken over all aspects of American life, controls public opinion, and even calls the shots for what the President does, yet for something that feels so perfectly in tune with what media companies (like Paramount) are working towards right now, the movie is oddly shallow.

If The Running Man was designed to be purely a satirization of what American society could end up as, the movie would be slightly better but this is less Idiocracy and closer to (ironically enough since it doesn't exist without The Running Man) The Hunger Games. This is more dystopian science fiction designed to be a cautionary tale, which falls flat.

This film is another one like The Eternals that definitely would have been better served as a miniseries. Having not read the book, the movie does seem to coast through introducing new characters, having them exposit information about the world to Ben, and then moving on to the next one. It leads to clunky dialogue as each time the character is introduced, they almost immediately need to explain who they are and why they're willing to help Ben out.

Probably the most glaring example of this is Bradley, who is introduced as an anti-Network YouTuber type, despite the fact that there doesn't appear to be infrastructure in the world for someone to be able to release the videos he is to reach audiences. Either way, he's in the movie for a bit, shows Ben some videos about how the show works (which you'd think Ben would know since early in the movie he's exploring options about how much money he could win on the various shows), and then ships him off to Derry for the next encounter.

In a similar vein, is Emilia Jones' character just a random person who is upper-middle class, or is she one of the cast members of that Real Housewives-style show that they kept showing? Based on the fact that she's credited with a last name that's not Americano, I'd lean towards not but hopefully I wasn't the only one confused by that. Either way, she's kind of wasted in a third act that is just a cacophony of nonsense. Too often in the last 20 minutes to half hour of the movie, information is revealed, revealed to be not real, then other information is revealed, and there is just too much going on. Nothing feels satisfying, nothing feels earned, and the ultimate moment that ends the movie feels hollow.

The experience isn't entirely unenjoyable as Edgar Wright knows how to shoot entertaining action sequences. The production design is great and the futuristic aesthetic of the world that is simultaneously sleek and industrial is unique. Colman Domingo gives a great and memorable performance, as do Michael Cera, Josh Brolin, and Glen Powell.

The Running Man is worth a watch, even if it could have been better. Moment to moment, it is still an above-average cinematic experience, even if as a cohesive narrative it does not click as well as it should have.

★★★★