Published in 1982 but set in 2025, The Running Man feels disturbingly relevant. It’s somewhat unsettling to think that people today might actually sit down in front of their 75″ television to watch a show like it, and even compete for a shot at a billion dollars. Written by Stephen King, using the pen name Richard Bachman, The Running Man is a thrilling dystopian horror sci-fi that mixes gladiator style games with brutal consumerism.
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?
People will go to extremes to take care of those who they love, so it’s really no surprise that Ben Richards agrees to join these brutal competitions out of a sense of desperation. However, what is almost more disturbing are those people who are watching from home, or worse, helping with the hunt itself. Turning human lives into entertainment is twisted, just up Stephen King’s alley.
Having the protagonist outsmart the leaders of the games isn’t groundbreaking, but in The Running Man, it’s how much smarter Richards is than the game-runner made for an amazing tale. The lengths he goes to survive and protect his loved ones, all while calling out the horror of the games and fighting to possibly hurt them is truly fantastic.
The Running Man is a fast-paced and thrilling adventure using a dystopian future, which happens to be this year, and extreme consumerism to terrify us as the readers. Written using his pseudonym, Richard Bachman, Stephen King holds nothing back.
A new hardcover printing of The Running Man hits shelves on October 14, 2025 from Scribner. The audiobook, narrated by Kevin Kenerly, is available via Libro.fm!
