The Running Man (novel)
Manhunt ( the original The Running Man ) is a novel by American author Stephen King, which was issued as a fourth novel at Kings pseudonym " Richard Bachman ". He was released by the NAL -Verlag in 1982. The German translation of Nora Jensen published the Heyne publishing in the same year. In 1987, the book entitled Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was filmed in the lead role.
Content
The novel is set in a near future - the year 2025 - and is about an unemployed father of Benjamin Stuart Richards, who, with his wife Sheila, Catherine and his seriously ill daughter Catherine Sarah in the so-called Co -op City, a slum -like housing development lives. The government and the public broadcasters have come together to great alliances, democracy no longer takes place in fact, and the cities are totally contaminated as a result of years of mismanagement.
On television, the year 2025 macabre game shows. With games like " rat race for wealth" to which only chronic heart, liver, or lung disease can participate, viewers are entertained. Most popular show of the year 2025 is the game show " Manhunt ", in the audience and the television station belonging hunters chasing a relevant candidate and media attention as possible to try to kill. This often involved people come to harm.
To be able to buy the needed medication for his daughter Cathy, Ben Richards decides to go to the skyscrapers of Television and apply for one of the game shows the transmitter, eventually with a participation in "Running Man" also works. For each hour survived him and his wife are reproduced him beer promised $ 100. Should he be able to survive an entire month, Ben would win the jackpot and his life. To prove his life, Richards must twice a day ten minute a camera to film yourself and send the films to the game show. Should he fail to do so, his wife does not get any more money. Using a few tricks, the right touch of luck and a friend and passport forger in the Co -op City succeeds Ben to escape the hunters repeatedly; However, usually only just.
Finally, the hunters feel the severely injured Ben Richards yet to even before the time. This manages However, with the help of a hostage to hijack a plane. On board the machine makes him the head of the TV station via video conference an offer: Ben should henceforth even " Man Running " work as hunters in the game. At the same time Ben learns that his wife and child died in an ambush. Senselessness and physically and mentally at the end, Ben controls the machine in the skyscraper from the television station.
Filming
The novel was 1987 Man by Paul Michael Glaser filmed under the title Running with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Ben Richards. However, the film differs significantly from the novel, which was often criticized by Stephen King fans. The novel served despite the acquisition of the basic idea and the names of the protagonists rather than loose template for the film version, in which also the socio-critical attitude of the novel did not matter.
The plot of the movie takes place in 2017, Ben Richards is a helicopter pilot. An economic crisis took place, and to the extent the depressive mood of the novel is taken in the film. Instead of the manhunt of all citizens of the country, the competitions are held in specially constructed arenas.