Plot
In the near future, the United States is a dystopian police state ruled by corporate media networks, where most people live in poverty with little access to healthcare. People are kept pacified by FreeVee, which bombards the population with trashy reality shows and violent game shows.
Ben Richards is a blacklisted blue-collar worker living in the slums of Co-Op City with his wife Sheila, a hostess at a gentleman's club, and their infant daughter Cathy. Unable to afford medicine for Cathy's influenza, Ben attends tryouts for the network's game shows, where his anger, misanthropy and physical fitness see him selected for The Running Man, their most popular and dangerous show. Contestants of The Running Man – or “runners” – can win $1 billion if they survive for thirty days while the network's Hunters, led by the mysterious Evan McCone, and ordinary civilians try to hunt and kill them. Executive producer Dan Killian offers Ben an advance for Cathy's medication and a safehouse for his family if he agrees to take part.
When the show begins, Ben and his fellow runners Laughlin and Jansky are given $1,000 and a twelve-hour head start. They are required to send in a tape of themselves every day to be screened on the show, and civilians can earn rewards for reporting a runner or killing one themselves. To Ben's disgust, The Running Man host Bobby Thompson manipulates the audience by portraying the runners as hardened, psychopathic killers, and demeans both Sheila and Cathy. Ben acquires false IDs and disguises to travel to New York and then Boston, but suffers paranoid dreams, which get worse when Jansky is found and killed by the Hunters within two days.
Network soldiers track Ben to a hostel in Boston, where a firefight sets off an explosion in the chemical-filled basement; Ben escapes into the sewers, while eight network soldiers are killed in the blast. Ben is found and sheltered by Bradley Throckmorton, an anti-network activist who posts anonymous videos trying to expose how The Running Man is rigged. Bradley is also caring for his sick baby sister, and educates Ben on how the network covers up dystopic conditions using its control of news and government. Ben tries to relay this information in his next tape, but the network replaces him with a foul-mouthed deepfake.
Bradley directs Ben to a fellow activist in Maine. During his journey, he learns that Laughlin has been killed, and that many poor, working class people are supporting him, putting up posters and graffiti saying “Richards Lives”. After two weeks on the run, Ben arrives at the home of Elton Parrakis, an underground left-wing organizer who believes that Ben's continued survival can spark true resistance against the network. Soldiers storm Elton's house, followed quickly by Hunters; the pair try to escape in an all-terrain buggy, but Elton is killed by McCone and Ben escapes by leaping off a bridge and causing an accident that kills a Hunter.
Travelling north, Ben is caught on surveillance and escapes by taking a hostage named Amelia Williams. Amelia initially believes the propaganda about runners until she witnesses how the show's content deviates from reality. They travel to an airfield guarded by McCone and network soldiers where Ben bluffs that he has a powerful explosive, convincing Killian to send a jet to take him and Amelia to Canada. He quickly deduces that the flight crew are McCone's remaining Hunters. Killian calls Ben and offers him a contract for his own network show. When Ben refuses, Killian goes on to show footage of McCone and the Hunters murdering Sheila and Cathy as revenge for the death of their teammate, with the same footage being screened on The Running Man to reposition Ben as an audience hero.
Ben kills the Hunters and battles McCone, who is revealed to be a former runner that took a network deal. After a violent fight, Ben kills McCone and gives the last parachute to Amelia so she can escape. Killian again offers Ben his own show and a chance to speak on live TV, but when Ben tries to convince viewers to turn off their FreeVee, the network runs a deepfake of Ben saying he will crash the plane into the network's headquarters. The plane is redirected to Co-Op City by remote control and shot down by a missile before it hits the building.
Some time later, Bradley posts a video disputing the network's story that Ben was killed trying to crash the plane, and further reveals that the black box was recovered with an uncensored recording of Ben's conversations with Killian, inciting rebellion against the network. Sheila and Cathy are revealed to be alive and living under false identities. When the next season of The Running Man begins, the studio audience is full of people holding “Richards Lives” banners, prompting Bobby to quit and leave. Killian tries to host the show himself, only for the crowd to start throwing Molotov cocktails and storming past security. Ben, revealed to be alive as well, emerges from the crowd and counts Killian down from five before declaring “action” and shooting him.
Marketing
The first footage from the film was screened during Paramount's CinemaCon presentation on 3 April 2025. It was introduced by Domingo who was on stage with Wright, Powell and Brolin. [34] The film's first trailer released on 1 July 2025, featuring a remix of "Underdog" by Sly and the Family Stone. To promote the trailer's release, Glen Powell collaborated with social media influencer Ashton Hall, by appearing in one of his "morning routine" videos, with the video ending with Hall watching the trailer in a private theatre. [35]
On 10 October 2025, a panel for the film was held at New York Comic Con, which was attended by Wright, Powell and Lee Pace. 12 minutes of footage was shown to attendees, alongside a new trailer, which was released online three days later, featuring a remix of "Don't Bring Me Down" by Electric Light Orchestra. On 28 October 2025, an advance screening was held at the Paramount lot, which was attended by filmmakers like Joe Dante, Walter Hill, Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards, Joseph Kosinski, Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, The Daniels and Phil Lord & Christopher Miller. [36] [37] Powell appeared via video message on the twelfth episode of The Challenge: Vets & New Threats to introduce the daily challenge inspired by the movie. [38]
