The Running Man

Ben walks toward the uptown neighborhood through decaying streets, which are now mostly run by biker gangs. He has already used his weekly stipend of unemployment money, so he can’t buy medicine for Cathy. He eventually reaches the Games Building and joins a long line of desperate men leading to the qualifying examinations.

A woman inside the Games Building gives Ben a cursory interview, in which he confirms that he left manual trades school at age 16 when he married. She hands him a plastic card. He is surprised when she clips off the card’s right-hand corner; she says he’ll learn what that means soon. Ben watches cops escort a tearful man out of the building, who has learned that he is ineligible for the Games.

Ben is defiant every chance he gets. He accuses a cop managing the lines of enjoying his ability to reject desperate people. As Ben continues the examination process, he antagonizes several other cops, who then mock him and say they can’t wait to watch him on the Games. Another potential contestant tells Ben to leave the cops alone because they have a grapevine and can make things harder for him. Ben takes a crowded elevator to the second floor and buys a cigarette from a machine. It’s his first in six months.

Ben watches the news while he waits for his next exam. The news is a depressing mixture of sports and riots. The other members in his group watch a game show called Fun Guns. Ben is suddenly homesick as a game called Dig Your Grave begins. He talks with a man who worries that the physicals will disqualify him, which would destroy his last hope of helping his family.

Ben enters a large examination room, where he strips with the others before presenting his card. He submits to various exams and gives a urine sample. After another interview, he rides an elevator to the third floor, where he is given a cot.

At six in the morning, Ben visits the bathroom with 50 other men, where he shaves and showers before eating in the cafeteria. As he eats, he worries about Cathy and Sheila.

On the fourth floor, a gaunt man wearing the Games emblem—a human head overlaid on a torch—tells the men to undress before receiving Games coveralls. The coveralls are dark blue, embossed with the Games insignia. As Ben waits in a holding room, he thinks again about Sheila.

The gaunt man sends Ben to Booth 6, where a beautiful woman named Rinda Ward tests his mental faculties. He mockingly compliments her nearly exposed breasts and refuses to act grateful for his opportunity to join the Games. He asks her why they assume everyone from his area is mentally challenged and can’t control their own sexual urges.

Ben finishes his exam with 15 minutes to spare. He ogles Rinda and enjoys her discomfort. After the math portion, he spanks Rinda lightly and tells her to shower. She is almost crying with anger and can’t disguise her desire to watch him get hurt in the Games. He tells her to treat herself to a large dinner that night and think about his dying child. Ben is now in a group of six.

A doctor gives Ben an inkblot test. The doctor’s final question is whether Ben has entered the Games to die by suicide. Ben denies it and says he wants the pride of working for his family again. The doctor bristles when Ben asks him if he has any pride.

Ben is now in a group of four. They reach their quarters on the fifth floor, and Ben sees a payphone. A cop named Charlie Grady refuses to give him money for a call until Ben tells him about his wife and child.

The operator who answers the phone says Sheila is out and condescendingly implies that Sheila is performing sex work in his absence. Sheila arrives before the operator can disconnect the call. She says Cathy is worse before admitting to having sex with two men that day to buy medicine. Ben makes her promise not to do it again because he thinks he’s going to be accepted on a big show. The operator disconnects the call while Ben is telling Sheila that he loves her. On the way back to his group, he is furious. He thinks, “Somebody has to pay […] Somebody has to” (51).

The next day, Ben rides an elevator to the sixth floor with 300 men. After they divide into groups of 50, he smokes in a nice chair in an auditorium. A man on the stage introduces Arthur M. Burns, the assistant director of Games. Burns congratulates them on their acceptance and calls them brave heroes for refusing to live on welfare. Ushers in red tunics enter and call their names before giving them envelopes containing their assignments.

Ben’s envelope contains a card that only says “ELEVATOR SIX.” There are four other men with him. One man excitedly says they are getting the big-money assignments on prime-time programming. These shows usually result in death, not merely maiming or heart attacks.

In a luxurious waiting room on the eighth floor, Ben meets a man named Jimmy Laughlin. Jimmy is sterile and has a withered arm, and he and Ben realize that they only live three blocks away from each other in their Development. Jimmy tells Ben they might have qualified for The Running Man. A receptionist sends Ben into the office.

Ben meets a man named Dan Killian, who confirms that Ben has been selected for The Running Man. Killian is the executive producer. He has a full dossier on Ben, which mentions that he was suspended from trades school twice for his failure to respect authority. The file says that Ben is 28 and is married as part of an “[o]ld-style lifetime contract” (64). He and the doctor are disturbed by Ben’s violent responses to the word associations and other exams.

He tells Ben that there have been no survivors in six years because the Hunters and their leader, McCone, never lose. While briefing Ben on the rules, Killian says that Ben’s family will receive $100 for each hour that he survives. If he survives for 30 days after a 12-hour head start, Ben will receive one billion New Dollars. Ben laughs when Killian offers him a woman. Instead, he requests two bottles of bourbon for his room after being told that he can’t have a telephone.

A receptionist gives Ben an envelope that contains a letter from Killian and a 10% personal loan against his potential winnings for his daughter’s medication. It contains 48 coupons, each worth 10 New Dollars. The letter urges Ben to stay close to his own people during the contest. Ben is irrationally grateful to Killian, even though his anger is mounting.

In his suite, Ben drinks bourbon and asks a cop to give the coupons to his family. He also tells him to give a coupon to Charlie Grady, the cop who let him use the phone. He asks for receipts proving that the coupons were delivered to his family. Then he asks for books and a huge meal.

Ben is reading a mediocre novel when the cop returns with the receipts and a baby picture from Sheila. There is also a sarcastic thank you note from Grady. Ben decides to see if he can drink the second bottle of bourbon before he passes out.

Ben is hungover on Saturday but orders two more bottles of bourbon that night. After finishing them, he stops drinking to recover for the show. He reads, sleeps badly each night, and has frequent nightmares. There are less than 24 hours before the game begins when Burns visits Ben for his final briefing.

The 10th floor contains the broadcasting infrastructure. When reaching The Running Man’s studio, Ben surrenders his card, which he won’t need again. Killian introduces him to Fred Victor, the show’s director, and Bobby Thompson, the host. Victor explains how he will be brought on stage with armed guards, after which Bobby will interview him.

Laughlin will debut 15 minutes later. As part of the rules, Ben has to record and deposit two 10-minute cassette clips per day. Killian also tells him that he’ll receive an extra $100 for every Hunter he kills. Ben can’t leave the building armed, but he can arm himself afterward. Killian reminds Ben that the Network also offers rewards to any civilians that report a verified sighting. Ben doesn’t shake their hands as he leaves.

Ben watches himself on the studio monitor as the crowd boos. They have made him look threatening and primitive compared to Bobby Thompson. Then they show an altered image of Sheila that makes her look lascivious, drugged, and overweight. During the interview, Ben tells Thompson that someone will pay for the picture of his wife. Then he asks the audience why they don’t kill each other if they’re so desperate to see death. He answers every question with a protest that Sheila’s picture wasn’t accurate. Then he says he’ll last the whole 30 days. He flips the crowd off with both hands, and they rush the stage as he is escorted off. They truly hate him and want to see him dead.