running Man

In the future, America finds itself in a state of extreme social stratification (even the currency is divided into “old and new bucks ”) and the degradation of social interests. One of the main entertainment is the brutal TV game , broadcast in large numbers on public and free television . Participants in these games are forced to become slum dwellers who do not have money even for immediate needs.

The protagonist of the novel - a resident of a slum area, Ben Richards, is forced to become a party to the game shows in order to get money for treatment for his sick one and a half year old daughter. He is forced to take part in one of the most popular TV show called "Running Man". A participant must play for a month in any way from professional killers that are constantly pursuing him, while sending videos to the organizers of the show twice a day. For information on his location, any citizen is entitled to a solid reward . If within a month the player is still not killed , he gets a super prize.

At the time of the action of the novel winners of this show for all the time of its existence has not yet been. And according to the organizers, wealthy viewers are attracted by the fact that they hate the slum dweller to be caught and killed. But Ben Richards is forced to use even such an insignificant chance.

Running from the murderers across the country, Richards meets the inhabitants of the underground and learns many of the facts hidden by the government , but cannot bring them to the general public. Meanwhile, the ring of "hunters" is compressed. The novel ends, on the fact that Richards and a woman taken hostage by him at his request, under the pretext of blowing up a powerful bomb, are provided with a plane. On board the aircraft, Richards kills the pilots and the hunter, who was the "insurance", but he himself gets shot in the stomach. After that, directs the aircraft to the building where they make the show "Running Man"; Richards dies, the building explodes, the owner of the show dies. For the show "Running Man" comes the end. The Richards hostage woman was thrown from a plane, wearing a rescue parachute on her, her fate in the novel is not described.

In 1987, the film " Running Man " (in the main role - Arnold Schwarzenegger ) appeared on the screens. However, this film adaptation is very far from the plot of the novel and in fact is a “movie based on the work”, or even a remake of Yves Boisse’s film “The Price of Risk ”, shot in 1983 based on the novel by R. Sheckley. The idea of ​​a fake video of the death of the main character was taken from the film by Francois Truffaut after the novel by R. Bradbury " 451 degrees Fahrenheit (film, 1966) " .

In the original plot of the novel, US civil society is depicted not to be the most worthy, emphasizes acute social inequality , and most importantly, there is no traditional happy- Hollywood film ( happy ending of the plot). Therefore, the film merely borrows from the novel the idea of ​​a television show with a hunt for people and the name of the main character, and the rules of the show are also changed.

• Novel on horrorking.com
• information in the Fiction Lab