The Running Man (1987)

The 1987 version, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as a framed police officer forced onto a deadly TV game show in a collapsed 2017 America. It is only loosely based on the novel King published as Richard Bachman, but it is a gloriously cheesy action movie with one-liners, themed gladiator hunters such as the chainsaw-wielding Buzzsaw, and Family Feud host Richard Dawson as the smirking emcee. Watch it as eighties fun rather than as King. Its jab at TV that feeds on cruelty looks sharper now than it did then, and it makes a good double bill with the 2025 film to see how differently the same book can be read.