'The Running Man' (2025) Review: Edgar Wright Revamps a Stephen King Classic
- Seb Jenkins
- 1 minute ago
- 4 min read
By Seb Jenkins - November 11, 2025
Glen Powell channels his inner Tom Cruise as an all-action tough guy forced to take part in a reality TV show with a deadly twist.
If I had a nickel for every time we got a 2025 film adaptation of a Stephen King novel written between 1979 and 1982 based around the speed at which the main character moves… I would only have two nickels, but it’s weird that it happened twice. After the immense success of The Long Walk, we pick up the pace a little in November with Edgar Wright’s take on The Running Man. Far from a bar-for-bar remake of the 1987 film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, the 2025 iteration is designed to be a more faithful retelling of the book – published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in 1982 – with Hollywood’s go-to action star of the moment, Glen Powell, at the helm. Fetch your Sketchers, charge your Fitbit, and load up on your electrolytes; this is a life-or-death marathon, not a sprint.
Set in a near-future society that eerily accentuates the pitfalls of our own, The Running Man reigns supreme as the number one reality show on TV. The premise is simple – contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by assassins and members of the general public in order to claim a life-changing cash prize. There is just one problem: no one has even actually survived the full month. Desperate to earn enough money to save his dying daughter, Ben Richards (Glen Powell) enters the game at the behest of his partner Sheila (Jayme Lawson). Up against a system designed to corrupt and destroy, hunters trained to kill, and a population fed on a diet of desperate sadism, Ben soon discovers that there is far more to The Running Man than meets the eye.
Edgar Wright is famed for his fast-paced, heavily stylised, satirical style of filmmaking. From the comic capers of Scott Pilgrim vs the World to the neon lights of Last Night in Soho, Wright is a master of the immersive experience. That reputation becomes apparent within just a matter of minutes in The Running Man, as Wright shines his satirical spotlight on the stereotypes of the action genre. While Glen Powell is clearly sculpting himself as ‘the next Tom Cruise’, Ben Richards also serves as a spirited parody of some of Mr Action’s most iconic tough-guy characters. Of course, this is something we have seen plenty of times before from Edgar Wright, and with great success. Whether it be poking fun at zombie cliches in Shaun of the Dead, playing around with action tropes in Hot Fuzz, or romanticising crime in Baby Driver, Wight loves to use fast cuts, whip pans, and meta commentary to bring his stories to life. The Running Man continues this trend beautifully in the first two acts.
Powell pairs his action chops with bare-ass comic timing as he embarks upon the most sensationally grotesque reality TV show on the planet – although The Running Man is always keen to point out how close our modern society is to such barbarism. The film retains all the camp thrills of the 1980s original, while staying true to Stephen King’s source material, and also having fun by leaning into the tropes of the genre. Cool guy one-liners in the face of bowel-emptying danger, check. Trained assassins firing guns will all the precision of a drunken stormtrooper, check. One man with little combat experience against the world,
check. This is a glorious example of how to entertain the masses while carving your own slapstick spot within the genre.
Unfortunately, while the final act delivers on its explosion and excitement quota, it does run the risk of being consumed by its own stereotype. The Running Man cuts back on the satire as it edges toward its climax, losing a little of what made it so special in the opening two acts. That being said, it remains a rip-roaring action spectacular with a mesmerising core of standout performances. While Glen Powell gives a career-best performance as our determined runner, as is often the case with Edgar Wright films, it is the ensemble cast that makes this so memorable. Colman Domingo as the extravagant host, Josh Brolin as the silver-tongued producer, and Michael Cera as the eccentric rebel are all sheer and utter scene stealers with their limited time on screen.
Run, don’t walk, to see the latest Stephen King adaptation on the big screen. While it may fall ever so slightly short of Wright’s sharp, satirical best, The Running Man remains one of the action highlights of 2025, with plenty to say about modern society and the dark hole we risk tumbling down. Much like Squid Game, The Hunger Games, and even The Long Walk, the concept of entertainment-as-control should serve as a stark warning to us all.
'The Running Man' releases in cinemas Friday November 12.
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