When The Running Man was first published in 1982 under Stephen King’s Richard Bachman pseudonym, the United States was just beginning to feel the impacts of then-president Ronald Reagan’s neoliberal economic policies. Under Reaganomics, massive tax breaks for the wealthy and deep cuts to social safety programs like food stamps and Medicaid drastically intensified income inequality. The rich got richer, poverty spiked amid a recession, and King used his novel to explore the ways that those kinds of changes could turn society into a dystopia.
Aside from its title, character names, and core premise, Tri-Star’s 1987 adaptation of The Running M …
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