The Running Man (2025) Movie Review

Smart narrative choices, tense action scenes, the right dose of humor, and a committed cast make The Running Man (2025) a fun, gripping and timely adaptation.

If you’re expecting The Running Man (2025) to be like the first film in content and tone, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re ready to embrace Wright’s vision and pay attention to the details, you’ll be surprised by how much you’ll like the movie.

The Running Man takes place in a near-future society where the gap between the wealthy and the poor couldn’t be more evident: in this dystopian United States, the rich have everything and the poor can’t even afford to cure themselves from the flu. It’s a totalitarian regime that manipulates citizens by controlling the media, and spreading lies to turn people against each other. But they also provide them with heroes to root for and enemies to despise, as a means to direct their violence and rage toward a carefully selected target that will keep them distracted and obedient, preventing them from asking too many questions.

All of this is achieved by having the entire nation engage in a series of televised games that might just give them the chance to turn their luck around. The most dangerous game of all, the titular “Running Man,” is also the most profitable: all a contestant has to do is manage to survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins. But the entire nation is watching, and viewers can win big, too: all they have to do is send the ‘Runners’‘s location to the ‘Network’, the megacorporation behind the show, who’ll direct their ‘Hunters’ their way – that is, unless they’d rather kill them themselves for an even bigger reward.

In this, the two adaptations are similar. But if Glaser’s film introduced its protagonist as a cop who’s wrongly arrested, escapes prison, and is blackmailed into participating in the game, the 2025 movie keeps things simpler, in line with Stephen King’s book. When we meet Ben Richards (Glen Powell, of Hit Man), he’s just an ordinary man, and he’s desperate for a job. His former employer has just fired him for “insubordination,” and he’s been blacklisted, which means nobody will ever hire him again.

But his daughter is sick, and he desperately needs money; that’s why, when we first meet him, he’s begging a former colleague to give him a chance. Inevitably, the answer is no. “They don’t want to let us win,” Ben’s wife Sheila (Jayme Lawson, of Sinners) tells him, resigned, later that day. But there is a way to “win,” and they both know it. As the Network’s commercials like to remind them, “We’ve got the cash, if you’ve got the balls.”

And so, Ben heads to the corporation, looking to enter a minor, less dangerous game. But the Network’s producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin, of No Country for Old Men), notices his anger. Before he knows it, he’s in the Running Man, and the games begin.

What you’ll notice immediately about Edgar Wright’s adaptation is that it’s not as campy as the 1987 film. If the previous movie saw Arnold Schwarzenegger play the only contestant in a gladiatorial, arena-style showdown that had him confront costumed “Stalkers” with eccentric names and quirks, here, Ben isn’t the only runner. The confident Laughlin (Katy O’Brian, of Love Lies Bleeding) and the well-meaning Tim (Martin Herlihy, of Happy Gilmore 2) have been selected too, and each has their own individual, yet televised, journey to take. When Powell’s Ben enters the game in the 2025 movie, it’s a much lonelier journey than what Schwarzenegger’s character faced in the previous adaptation, and though presenter Bobby T (a superb Colman Domingo, of Sing Sing) brings in the spectacle from the start, the worldbuilding here is much bleaker – and rightly so.

Storytelling-wise, The Running Man (2025) isn’t revolutionary. You’re not going to get any major plot twists here; this is a survival story that revolves around a likable protagonist whose motivation simply consists of wanting to provide for his family. You won’t get sparkly WWE-like suits and non-stop spectacle, here, but that’s the point. Wright’s message rings true in a clip of Bobby T cheerily congratulating two flamethrower-wielding kids for burning a contestant to death while promoting ‘Fun Twinks’ breakfast cereals, or in the delirious screams of an elderly lady who’s eating ice cream while shouting “kill him!” to the TV whenever she sees Ben’s face, while her heroic but not entirely sane son brandishes a “Psycho Hydro” Water Gun and prepares to “have fun” with some Hunters.

It’s in these contradictions that The Running Man shines, depicting a society where charisma and glee are more horrific than overt hostility. The film shows us a world that celebrates violence, encourages anger, and deprives you of an identity, taking complete control over your actions by either dictating them before you’ve made them, or erasing them after. All citizens are forced to take sides, to the point that even the good guys might have a hidden political agenda you’re already playing a role in. Yet, at the same time, it’s always clear who the real villain is, and even though the film’s attempts to modernize the book don’t always lead to insightful commentary, the movie still manages to raise some questions on our current lack of empathy and cohesion as a society.

Though the ending won’t be spoiled here, screenwriters Wright and Bacall do something very clever with the material, particularly with the evolution of Hunter leader Evan McCone (Lee Pace, of Bodies Bodies Bodies) and a final scene that feels just as grim and hopeless as it should but that’s also surprisingly empowering, retaining the book’s message and tone while, at the same time, subverting it with a subtle but powerful message.

The Running Man (2025) is also a highly enjoyable film, and one that feels like an Edgar Wright movie in the best possible way. With an irresistible soundtrack, gripping and tense action scenes, and strategic moments of humor and absurdity, this survival story manages to be just as fun and entertaining as it needed to be. Glen Powell shines as Ben Richards, making the character sympathetic from the moment he enters the frame; it’s in no small part thanks to him that we are so invested in this tale.

But the entire cast excels here. Lee Pace and Michael Cera are particularly impressive, the former surprising us in more than one way and the latter responsible, together with the editing and sound design, for the film’s most wonderfully insane scenes. Colman Domingo is also a standout, starting out as a Hunger Games/’Caesar Flickerman’-like figure but soon evolving into a completely different kind of presenter that retains the cruelty of Stephen King’s character while also embodying other traits.

Daniel Ezra (A Discovery of Witches) plays a character named Bradley who helps Ben in a time of need, and though the character was also in the novel, Wright’s film turns him into a completely different kind of figure with a very interesting arc. Bradley, his son (Angelo Gray, who’s fantastic in his debut role) and his wife (Olunike Adeliyi, of The Fire Inside) are the most hopeful characters in the movie. Bradley in particular was adapted for modern audiences in a very effective way, providing the film with timely commentary made even more memorable by Ezra’s portrayal.

Though Katy O’Brian and Martin Herlihy are underused, they still deliver memorable turns that feel essential to the film’s success; it’s best if you don’t know too much about Emilia Jones‘s (Coda) character, but she, too, plays her part very well.

Edgar Wright’s The Running Man isn’t perfect. It drags a little bit in the second half, the commentary could have been more in-depth, particularly when it comes to the use of AI and deepfakes, and there’s a lot of exposition that could have been avoided. The great William H. Macy is underused as a black market merchant named Molie that feels more like a plot device than an actual person. It’s a shame as not only does Molie make a choice that leads to a gratuitously cruel scene that doesn’t really fit with the tone of the film, but since Molie is supposed to have been part of Ben’s life before the game, Ben’s own backstory feels underdeveloped too.

2025’s The Running Man is a different beast than its predecessor, which is why fans of the 1987 movie may not be won over by it. But if you’re able to take it as a completely different kind of story, you’ll see it for what it is: an adaptation that’s both subversive and true to the book, and that, despite some flaws, manages to be not only action-packed, fun, and entertaining, but also grim, introspective and thought-provoking. With a likable protagonist, smart narrative choices, and the kind of flawless technical execution we’ve come to expect from Wright and his team, The Running Man is a gripping and timely adaptation that you should definitely seek out.

The Running Man is now available to watch in US theaters, in UK cinemas, and globally in theatres.