Action Movie Anatomy hosts Ben Bateman and Andrew Ghai break down 1987's The Running Man! The Running Man is a 1987 American science fiction Technicolor action film in Panavision directed by Paul Michael Glaser and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Jesse Ventura, Jim Brown and Richard Dawson. It is very loosely based on the 1982 novel The Running Man, written by Stephen King and published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The story, set in a dystopian United States between 2017 and 2019, is about a television show called "The Running Man", where convicted criminal "runners" must escape death at the hands of professional killers. Original director Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices