Before this film started, I was already introduced to Glen Powell on the big screen in a trailer for How to Make a Killing (Ford, 2026). It signified Powell as playing a character who uses his commonality with every day folk to challenge those in power. I wouldn’t necessarily put down Powell for his acting skills but one thing I wouldn’t class him as is your every day Joe Bloggs. I was then even more surprised to see that the action film I went to see in The Running Man (Wright, 2025) gives Powell the same style story arch where he represents the working class in their battle against the higher powers. Maybe more than anything else it highlights how Edgar Wright, the director, career has shifted over the last 15 years. With the cornetto trilogy, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s appeal was that they could have action plot lines akin to a Hollywood blockbuster but could ground them in the every-day surroundings that they find themselves in. These days, Simon Pegg has progressed into the blockbusters like the Mission Impossible franchise but finds a place within it that doesn’t compromise on his roots. Yet you do feel that with Edgar Wright, what made him successful was that he could do the thrills of an action film but find the humanity within it.
Thats exactly what this film needed and all battle royale films need at the heart of them, humanity. You only need to go back a few months to find another battle royale film that achieves the humanity it needs for this sub-genre, and this in itself is another Stephen King adaptation. Or one of my personal favourites would be a film called Series 7: The Contenders (Minahan, 2001) that has many characteristics very similar to this film; a reality tv show, we follow a contestant who has to make it to the end and a corrupt dystopian world where if not fighting for survival in the game they are doing so because of inequality and greed. The big difference between the two is that the latter was made for just over 100,000 dollars compared to The Running Man which was 110 million dollars. Wright could’ve done alot better with the film on a much cheaper budget with more unknown actors. Also, with a lot of it being film in Glasgow as well why not set it closer to home.
I wouldn’t even say that his other recent mainstream US movies have been overall disaster, I would also go as far as to say at times this film was witty and had a certain edge to it. But what this film and every battle royale film needs at the heart of it is humanity and when you cant believe in the main character and also not feel any grittiness the film tries to deliver on, then how are you meant to believe in the character arc of the main protagonist. Without this belief from the audience, it brings down the film to its hand and knees with no redemption from any of the periphery characters within it.