Of course The Running Man was going to have some kind of Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo. But how does the film pull it off?
In Edgar Wright’s new adaptation of Stephen King’s 1982 novel, Glen Powell leads the dystopian action thriller as Ben Richards, a desperate man who signs up for a deathly TV show in which he’s hunted for entertainment across America. It’s not the only film version of King’s novel, with Paul Michael Glaser’s 1987 film starring Schwarzenegger arguably the most famous.
So, how does Wright give a nod to Powell’s protagonist predecessor?
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While Schwarzenegger doesn’t make a personal appearance in The Running Man (2025), his face appears quite early on in the film. In fact, in a TV show run by the all-powerful, state-controlled Network, you’ll see Schwarzenegger’s visage printed on money, as if he’s a big deal in this totalitarian United States.
When Powell’s Richards is watching TV at home, he’s tuned into a game show called Speed the Wheel, in which contestants run for their lives in a giant hamster wheel while answering trivia questions like “who invented pepperoni” (or fall to their deaths). When prizes of $100 and $1,000 flash on screen, you can see Schwarzenegger’s face on the bills.
We’re not sure whether Schwarzenegger’s Ben Richards would be happy to see his face on the currency of the very police state he had to outrun in the ’80s, but it’s nonetheless on there.
