Honest Trailers | The Running Man (1987)

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Honest Trailers | The Running Man (1987) presents a fast-paced, sarcastic breakdown of the Schwarzenegger-starring dystopian action flick, framing it as a prime example of 1980s excess: musclebound heroics, synth music, and a televised death-game spectacle. The episode uses clipped film footage and a deadpan narrator to lampoon the movie’s premise—Ben Richards, a framed former cop forced to fight for his life on a ratings-obsessed game show hosted by the smirking Damon Killian—and to highlight how the film trades Stephen King’s bleak social satire for Arnold’s trademark one-liners and blockbuster set pieces.

The trailer skewers key characters and performances (from Arnold’s stoic lead to Richard Dawson’s gleefully sinister host and supporting turns by Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto and Jesse Ventura), pointing out the movie’s cartoonish villains, predictable gladiator tropes, and cliched action beats. It emphasizes how studio choices turned King’s novel about media brutality into an action vehicle full of improbable escapes, staged violence, and crowd-pleasing spectacle rather than a tighter critique of authoritarian entertainment culture.

Honest Trailers also calls out plot holes, convenient coincidences, and the film’s tonal contradictions: attempts at political commentary get lost beneath explosions and quippy dialogue. The episode jokes about everything from the film’s moral logic and editing choices to its period-specific aesthetics—big hair, neon, and a relentlessly overblown soundtrack—while still acknowledging the movie’s guilty-pleasure appeal for fans of campy, high-concept 80s cinema.

Ultimately the Honest Trailers segment reads as affectionate ridicule: it mocks The Running Man (1987) for what it is—a glossy, action-driven reinterpretation of a darker source—while celebrating its entertainment value. The episode is useful for viewers who want a humorous, no-nonsense take on the film’s strengths and shortcomings before (or after) revisiting this cult-era blockbuster.

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