Trivia: Of all the different Stephen King adaptations, this one bears the least resemblance to its source material (not counting The Lawnmower Man which King demanded his name be taken off).
The Running Man (1987)
1 trivia entry since 5 Nov '24, 12:52
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Maria Conchita Alonso
Visible crew/equipment: In one of the scenes where Arnold is running through piles of debris an explosion behind him causes him to fly through the air. The mechanism that launches him in the air can clearly be seen flipped up from the ground.
Damon Killian: Hi, cutie-pie. You know, one of us is in deep trouble. You know who I am?
Ben Richards: I've seen you before. You're the asshole on TV.
Damon Killian: That's funny. I was gonna say the same thing about you.
Question: At the very beginning of the movie, Ben refuses to fire on anyone even though he was under orders to do so. I can understand him being court-martialed for this but, why would they alter the video to show him killing innocent people with orders not to? And why send him to prison for allegedly killing innocent civilians?
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Answer: They needed a scapegoat, someone to blame. The government controlled the people through violence, but at the same time tried to convince the people the government was fair (i.e. Runners who made it through were given their freedom when in fact they never left the arena alive). The people at Bakersfield were still massacred (that part wasn't made up) by the government in order to control the riot, but just not by Ben. But people would just riot more if they knew the government ordered their killing, so the footage was faked to make people think Ben acted alone and against orders. And to continue the ruse, they convicted him to appease the people and prevent them from rioting.
Bishop73